{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_58766/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_58766","id":"gutenberg_58766","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58766","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Health & Medicine","Category: History - Other","Category: Law & Criminology","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Sociology","Suicide"],"text":"E-text prepared by Turgut Dincer, Les Galloway, and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made\navailable by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)\n\n\n\nNote: Images of the original pages are available through\n      Internet Archive. See\n      https://archive.org/details/suicideitshistor00west\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s note:\n\n      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).\n\n      A caret character is used to denote superscription.\n      Superscripted characters are enclosed by curly brackets\n      (example: (_a\u2032_\u2215_a_-1)^{1\u2215_n_}).\n\n\n\n\n\nA Social Science Treatise.\n\nSUICIDE\n\nIts History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and Prevention.\n\nby\n\nW. WYNN WESTCOTT, M.B. LOND.\n\nDeputy Coroner for Central Middlesex.\n\nJoint Author of the Extra Pharmacop\u0153ia.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLondon:\nH. K. Lewis, 136, Gower Street, W.C.\n1885.\n\n\n\n\n                                  TO\n\n                  GEORGE DANFORD THOMAS, ESQ., M.D.,\n\n                    CORONER FOR CENTRAL MIDDLESEX,\n\n                            THIS VOLUME IS\n\n                               DEDICATED\n\n                     WITH MUCH RESPECT AND ESTEEM\n\n                                  BY\n\n                              THE AUTHOR.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nIn preparing an Essay on Suicide, which I recently delivered before a\nSociety of medical men in London, I found it impossible in the limited\ntime at my disposal to do anything like justice to the gravity and\nimportance of the subject.\n\nThe question is one well worthy of the earnest consideration of the\ncommunity; indeed, it may be legitimately regarded as one of our\nSocial Problems, as it involves matters which are intimately connected\nwith our social organisation, and is with propriety embraced in our\nlegislative enactments.\n\nWhen we reflect, with satisfaction perhaps, that in England crime has\nbeen steadily decreasing, the fact that Suicide has been as steadily on\nthe increase in Great Britain, and in almost every country in Europe,\nwhile it awakens our sympathy on behalf of the unhappy victims, should\nstimulate our exertions towards promoting the diminution of this moral\nplague spot.\n\nThese considerations, added to the fact that there are but two books\nin the English language devoted entirely to this subject,\u2500one dated as\nfar back as 1840, and the other, a most valuable but almost entirely\nstatistical work, translated from the Italian,\u2500have induced me to\nre-arrange and extend my notes, and I now offer them to my professional\nbrethren and other students of Social Science in the following short\ntreatise on the History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and\nPrevention of Suicide.\n\nAs Deputy Coroner for Central Middlesex frequent opportunities are\nafforded me of investigating cases of Suicide, and I have added to this\nvolume original instances and estimates derived from those suicidal\ndeaths of London, upon which inquests have been held by Dr. Danford\nThomas, or myself.\n\nThe works of Legoyt, Morselli, and Wagner, contain an almost complete\nestimation of the statistical proportions in regard to the causes and\nmeans of suicide in France, Italy, Germany, &c., and to them I am\ngreatly indebted for such information.\n\nThe Bibliographical Index contains the titles of other works which have\nbeen consulted.\n\nLet me hope that my humble efforts may tend in some degree to the\nprevention of self-destruction, and the promotion of a more robust and\nhealthy public opinion on the subject: if this volume conduces to these\nends my object will have been achieved.\n\nIn conclusion, I must express my deep obligation to my friend Dr.\nDuncan MacLarty, for his many welcome suggestions, and for his care in\nrevising these sheets for the press.\n\n  WM. WYNN WESTCOTT, M.B.\n\n  4, Torriano Avenue,\n  London, N.W.\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF CONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  CHAPTER I. Introduction; the Ethics of the Subject                   1\n\n     \u201e   II. History: Ancient and Modern                               7\n\n     \u201e   III. Notable Suicides: Ancient, of the Middle\n               Ages, and Modern                                       17\n\n     \u201e   IV. Origin of the Name; Classic Authors,\n               examples of the Literature of Suicide,\n               English and Foreign                                    29\n\n     \u201e   V. Jurisprudence; Suicide as a Crime in\n               England, and abroad                                    43\n\n     \u201e   VI. Jurisprudence; Suicide and Life Assurance;\n               in respect to Marriage, and to\n               Wills                                                  51\n\n     \u201e   VII. Present Rate, and Increase, in Europe                   58\n\n     \u201e   VIII. Causation in general, Classification                   65\n\n     \u201e   IX. Effect of Race, Climate, &c.                             75\n\n     \u201e   X. Effect of Education, Religion, and\n               Morality                                               81\n\n     \u201e   XI. Effect of Urban and Rural Life, and\n               Employment; the effect of Military,\n               Naval, and Prison Life                                 93\n\n     \u201e   XII. Effect of Times and Seasons                            102\n\n     \u201e   XIII. Effect of Age, Sex, and Social State                  107\n\n     \u201e   XIV. Mental Diseases                                        116\n\n     \u201e   XV. Epidemic Suicide, and Suicide from\n               Imitation, and for Notoriety                          129\n\n     \u201e   XVI. Effect of Bodily Diseases, Alcoholism,\n               Want of Sleep; Hereditary influence,\n               and Spiritualism                                      135\n\n     \u201e   XVII. Effect of T\u00e6dium Vit\u00e6, the Passions,\n               Misery, and Despair                                   141\n\n     \u201e   XVIII. The Means of Suicide, their relative\n               frequency at home, and abroad                         144\n\n     \u201e   XIX. Suicide compared to Crime in\n               General; Attempted Suicide, its relative\n               amount                                                154\n\n     \u201e   XX. Suicide in British India                                161\n\n     \u201e   XXI. The Prevention, and Treatment of\n               the Suicidal tendency                                 166\n\n     \u201e   XXII. The Suicide of Animals                                174\n\n  Appendix, Rules of Assurance Companies                             180\n\n  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX                                              182\n\n  GENERAL INDEX                                                      187\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nIn every age of the world, and in the history of almost every country,\nwe find instances more or less numerous of men and women who,\npreferring the dim uncertainty of the future to the painful realities\nof the present, have sought relief from all their troubles by suddenly\nterminating their own existence.\n\nMisery and pain have been the lot of the human race ever since the\ndawn of history, and these causes have from the earliest times induced\npersons to destroy themselves, and even the fear of eternal punishment\nhas not sufficed to deter them.\n\nSorrow, suffering, and mental disease are practically the only causes\nof Modern Suicide; but in the ancient world, suicides from these causes\nwere either much more rare than they are at the present time, or else\nwere passed over as unworthy of record, in the presence of suicides\nof a more honourable nature. Hundreds of instances have come down to\nus in which death has been self-sought and inflicted from an idea or\nconviction that such self-destruction was to be of obvious advantage\nto the state, or to the sufferer\u2019s family; or again, the fatal act was\nfrequently committed as a point of honour to obviate the disgrace and\nignominy of falling into the hands of a conqueror; or, again, to avoid\npollution and shame at the hands of unscrupulous and debased tyrants.\n\nThe history of the Jews as narrated in the Old Testament probably shows\nfewer instances of Suicide than the records of any other nation (nine\nonly in 4,000 years); but whether or no there has been any special\ninterposition of Providence on their behalf, or whether the result has\nbeen due to the inherent virtues of the laws of Moses, this is not the\nproper place to discuss or decide.\n\nIt cannot be denied that the influence of religion has caused thousands\nto make a voluntary sacrifice of their lives, as offerings to their\ndeities; and thousands more have voluntarily courted death to prove the\nsincerity of their faith.\n\nMadame de Stael has, with questionable propriety, pointed out that\nall the \u201cmartyr throng\u201d were really instances of self-destruction\ninstigated by devotion to faith, and that all suicides to avoid the\nstain of guilt are deaths of duty.\n\nBut, among the numberless faiths of the world, extinct, and now\nexisting, many have had a direct tendency to invest the idea of\nself-destruction with a charm. Some because they taught the doctrine\nof total extinction at death; others because they inculcated a belief\nin metempsychosis; whilst others, again, have taught the certainty of\nbliss hereafter, if death occur, whether self-sought or otherwise,\nwhile fighting for the faith.\n\nPhilosophy also, which at different times supplanted or supplemented\nreligious ideas, has often notably encouraged Suicide. The far-famed\nsystem of the Stoics, founded by Zeno, directly approved of it; to\nthem it was the culminating point of self-abnegation, a flight from\ndegradation. The equally notable system of the Epicureans also found\nin Suicide a congenial theme for panegyric; they believed in no future\nstate, and proposed it as a means of escape from pain or annoyance here.\n\nIn recent times, accompanying periods of decline of religious\nfervour, new systems of mental and moral philosophy have sprung up\nand become popular; and these, if not openly advocating the cause and\npermissibility of self-murder, have never associated themselves with\nChristianity in condemning it. A perusal of the volumes of Voltaire, J.\nJ. Rousseau, and of David Hume, will make this obvious.\n\nBut it seems probable that in the minds of many suicides there\nhas been, below any religious faith, or philosophical dogma, the\ndeeply-rooted conviction that death was a sleep and permanent rest, an\neternal oblivion in the grave, and they consequently came to regard\nit as the grand solatium for present heart-breaking grief of mind, or\nintolerable pain of body.\n\nNo more powerful individual deterrent has been suggested than the\nfirm unwavering mental conviction (which has always been propounded\nby the Christian church) that a self-inflicted death is an evil to\nwhich nothing on this side of the grave can compare, and that to rush\nunsolicited into the presence of the Creator is an inexpiable crime.\n\nAs a general preventive, the force of a well directed system of\neducation, acting on the probably unlimited capacity for improvement\ninherent in the human race, is the lever to which modern civilization\nis disposed to trust.\n\nBut as I have already stated, several modern systems of philosophy\nand ethics, whilst they are the offshoots and result of a more highly\ndeveloped mind, yet have not assisted in the extinction of this blot,\nbut have rather tended to exculpate suicide, and remove the idea of its\nmoral sinfulness.\n\nThe line of argument with respect to our subject, which is followed by\nsome of those who lead modern philosophical thought, may perhaps be\nbriefly outlined as follows:\u2500\n\n It is an essential attribute of Humanity that it is progressive;\n systems of Morality arise which are each of a higher nature than the\n preceding; there is no finality even in Religious improvement.\n\n All Religions become improved in the course of time, by casting aside\n their harsher outlines and less delicate features; for example, the\n Christian\u2019s Hell, from being a fiery corporeal dungeon, is developed\n into a period of mental torture and remorse.\n\n Even Christianity then is exalting itself; it has of late tacitly\n consented to the removal of earthly penalties from the sin of\n Suicide, penalties which in a bygone age statute law borrowed from\n ecclesiastical law; this is one mark of its progressiveness.\n\n Nothing is practically gained by calling Suicide a _crime_; no one\n about to slay himself to be rid of brain-distracting trouble will be\n restrained by the thought that his proposed action is _criminal_; in\n some cases self-destruction is contemptible and cowardly; in some it\n is venial; in some cases death is distinctly the lesser evil, in a few\n it has been honourable, and as such should escape all condemnation,\n and merit the approval of men of development and refinement. In\n conclusion, says Philosophy, neither marks of contempt to the corpse,\n nor legal forfeitures, nor branding the suicide\u2019s memory,\u2500the three\n ecclesiastical penalties,\u2500have had any obvious effect in checking the\n act.\n\n Nothing but the increase of education will suffice to prevent those\n suicides which are prompted by immoral thoughts and feelings; as to\n the venial ones, such as we see in those who but anticipate the hour\n of release from the tortures of disease, why should we, who are not\n ill, grudge them this relief: and as to those inspired by the highest\n and most refined sentiments of honour, we are well content to live in\n a world in which such valour and self-sacrifice are exhibited.\n\nThe author hopes no individual will feel aggrieved at this _resum\u00e9_\nof the so-called _advanced_ views on Suicide of to-day; he does\nnot associate them with any person in particular. These maxims\nsimply represent the impressions remaining on his mind after several\nconversations with men who cultivate the modern developments of thought.\n\nWith this apology to the readers of these pages, the divergence between\nChristian and philosophic views is left behind; and the main object of\nthe work is pursued in an independent scientific vein, without straying\ninto the bye-ways of Ethical discussion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nTHE HISTORY OF SUICIDE.\n\n\nThe history of Greece extends back to such a remote period that it is\nnot clearly evident what the general opinion on Suicide was among its\nearly inhabitants. However, a few landmarks occur. In such a dim past\nas the time of the Trojan War, Ajax, one of the Grecian heroes, slew\nhimself, in a fit of passion, brought on by offended vanity. Lycurgus,\nthe legislator of Sparta, was one who killed himself for his country\u2019s\ngood.\n\nSTRABO, the historian, in his Tenth Book, tells us that at Ceos, the\ncountry of Simonides, B.C. 500, it was an established custom to allow\nthe act of self-destruction to persons who had attained the age of 60,\nor who had become incapacitated by their infirmities. Several suicides\ncan be directly traced to oracles; the great Oracle at Delphi has\nbecome especially notorious; Codrus, king of Athens, and Aristodemus,\nkilled themselves distinctly in consequence of these oracular\nutterances.\n\nThere is a _tradition_ mentioned by Plutarch, Pliny, and Virgil, that\non the coast of Epirus, on the peninsula called Neritos (Virgil,\n\u00c6neid, iii., 271), overlooking the Ionian Sea, was the hill then named\nLeucate, or Leucadia; here stood a Temple dedicated to Apollo, and\nfrom this rock a suicidal leap into the sea became the common sequence\nto disappointed love, for the Greeks of those times. Sappho, a poetess,\nwhose love for Phaon was unrequited, is said to have originated the\ncustom; an arm of the sea has, since then, cut off this promontory\nfrom the mainland, and the island is now called St. Maur. Tradition is\nevidence of the existence of a _custom_, even if it be objected to as\nproof of an individual fact.\n\nTimon of Athens, the Misanthrope, whose exact era is also uncertain, is\nnarrated to have been a suicide; he met with some curable accident, but\nfrom his intense dislike of his fellowmen he refused all assistance,\nand allowed himself to die unrelieved. This was the philosopher who is\nsaid to have kept in his garden a fig-tree specially convenient for\nhanging oneself on, and which he refrained from having cut down, so as\nto be able to accommodate his friends. Shakespeare\u2019s play \u201cTimon of\nAthens,\u201d refers to this odd character.\n\nThe Spartans, that brave and hardy race, are known to have disapproved\nof Suicide; it is narrated that an honourable burial was refused to\nArtemidorus, who sacrificed his life unnecessarily at the battle of\nPlat\u0153a, which was fought B. C. 479, between the united Greeks and the\nPersians. Among the suicides of Greece, however, occur the names of\nsome of her greatest men, lawgivers, orators, generals, philosophers,\nand statesmen; although we find in Greek custom more condemnation of\nthe practice than in Roman law.\n\nIn Thebes, it was a custom that no honours should be paid at the death\nof a suicide, and no funeral rites were allowed; the body was ordered\nto be burned in the absence of the relatives of the deceased.\n\nAt Athens, a suicide was not allowed to be burned and his ashes\npreserved, as was the custom for the rich and great, if such died in\nwar, or by a natural death. See Samuel Petit, \u201cDe Legibus Atticis.\u201d\n\nThe body was _buried_ instead, and the right hand struck off and buried\nin a separate place. See \u00c6schines, Ctesiphon, and in Plato, Laws, Book\nix., regulations are laid down for the burial of suicides.\n\nAristotle, in his Ethics, v., cap. xi., describes his views of the\ncrime, calling it a \u201csin against the state,\u201d and adds that the memory\nof the Suicide should be marked by infamy.\n\nA reference to the List of Notable Suicides which follows in Chapter\nIII., will show that persons of the highest intelligence have committed\nsuicide at each epoch of ancient history.\n\nIn a survey of the history of Rome we find mention of an Epidemic of\nSuicide among the soldiers of Tarquin the First; they were ordered to\nthe task of excavating sewers in Rome, and believing this work to be\nderogatory to their dignity, they killed themselves in large numbers:\nthe tendency was checked by an edict that the bodies of all suicides\nshould be exposed to public view nailed on crosses. See Pliny, Nat.\nHist., Book xxvi. cap. xv.\n\nBut in the very long period during which the Roman state was advancing\nto greatness, and throughout the times of the Republic, suicide was a\nvery rare occurrence.\n\nIn the later part of Rome\u2019s history, during the empire, it became a\nvery prominent crime; when luxury and sloth predominated, and the\ndoctrines of the philosophers Zeno and Epicurus became fashionable,\nsuicide became rampant. In the reigns of Claudius, A.D. 42, and Nero,\nA.D. 55, even Seneca, that cultured villain, acknowledged its practice\nto be _excessively_ frequent, although he ultimately committed the\nact himself. At this time the prevailing sentiment was thus tersely\nexpressed, \u201cMori licet cui vivere non placet,\u201d in the language of the\nStoic school.\n\nBut throughout the whole history of Rome there was no statute declaring\nit to be either a crime or a misdemeanour, and no punishment for\nthe attempt, among the people; but the soldiers of the state were\nrestrained by a Military Law, and the attempt punished by ignominy. One\nsuch statute was published by the Emperor Hadrian, A.D. 138. See Digest\nof Roman Law, \u201cDe re militari.\u201d\n\nVALERIUS MAXIMUS, Lib. 2, cap. 6, a Roman writer of the first century,\n_circa_ A.D. 31, tells us that at Massilia, a colony, the Senate\nkept a supply of poison, which was distributed to applicants for the\npurpose of suicide, if the Senate thought their reasons sufficient. See\nMontaigne, Essais, Liv. iv., chap. 3.\n\nPLINY the Elder, A.D. 79, says there are three diseases, to escape any\none of which a man has a good title to destroy himself, and the worst\nof these is stone in the bladder; and he adds, \u201cit is a privilege of\nman which Deity does not possess.\u201d\n\nTACITUS, d. A.D. 135, remarks that among the nobles, suicide was the\nfrequent result of misfortune, or the public disgrace of falling under\nthe displeasure of the Emperor.\n\nMARCUS AURELIUS, _circa_ A. D. 150, is said to have remarked that \u201ca\nman had as much right to leave the world as he had to leave a room full\nof smoke.\u201d\n\nDIOGENES LAERTIUS, _circa_ A. D. 220, tells us that the greatest\nleaders of men advised the wise to its commission. Lib. viii., i. 66.\n\nLIVY, C\u00c6SAR, and TACITUS mention that the warlike, semi-savage races\nwho peopled North and West Europe, the Iberians, Gauls, Cimri, and\nGermans, were all much addicted to self-slaughter, especially in order\nto avoid slavery, and the shame of defeat.\n\nLIVY also speaks of its prevalence among the people of Northern Africa,\nin the time of Scipio, a Roman general, who was engaged in the Punic\nwars, and who had ample opportunities of observation in those countries.\n\nPLUTARCH, in his Life of Alexander the Great, narrates the death of the\nBrahmin Calanus, who burned himself with much ceremony in the presence\nof the Macedonian army, and apparently without any particular reason.\n\nThe Brahmin Sages of the Hindoo races taught the virtues of suicide, as\na mode of escape from the pangs of disease and the weakness of old age.\n\nJOSEPHUS, in his \u201cHistory of the Wars of the Jews,\u201d Lib. vii., cap.\n34, gives a full description of the frightful suicidal slaughter among\nthem at the siege of Jerusalem, in which he himself was engaged, and\nin which self-destruction his faithful guard Simon begged him to\nparticipate, and after its capture, some thousands, under Eleazar,\nretired to the fortress of Massada, and there killed themselves to\navoid falling into the hands of the Romans.\n\nThe doctrines of Mohammed in respect to suicide are revealed in\nnumerous parts of the Koran; it is spoken of as a crime which rouses\nall the anger of Allah, and warns believers that its commission will\nbe punished in another life. See Koran, iv., v. 33. \u201cDo not kill\nyourselves, for God is merciful, and whosoever killeth himself through\nmalice and wickedness, shall assuredly be burned in hell fire.\u201d\n\nA celebrated Ottoman says, \u201cThis crime is of a more grave nature than\nhomicide.\u201d The Koran, Surah iii. v. 149, says, \u201cMan does not die but by\nthe will of God, and at the end of his appointed time.\u201d\n\nAnd the Mohammedan races have throughout history exhibited an\navoidance of suicide, which is markedly seen where these dwell in\napposition to the Brahmin races of India, who have always rejoiced\nin self-destruction; casting themselves into their sacred rivers,\nand leaving their old people on the banks to be drowned; throwing\nthemselves beneath the wheels of their idol statues, and insisting on\nthe self-sacrifice of the widows of their nation.\n\nLegoyt mentions that in Armenia, in ancient times, the house of a\nsuicide was cursed and then burnt.\n\nThe Tartar races of Central Asia avoid suicide.\n\nIn the ancient kingdom of Persia, it was a rare occurrence, no doubt\nbecause it was forbidden by the Magian religion.\n\nThe only Mohammedans who have approved of suicide have been dissenters\nfrom the pure faith of Islam; such sects as those of the Assassins\nunder the leadership of the Sheik Al Djebal, the \u201cOld Man of the\nMountain,\u201d and the disciples of Babek and Karmath, who massacred the\ninhabitants of Mecca in the tenth century.\n\nIn China and in Japan, even up to our own times, Suicide has been\nregarded as a virtue; life is held cheaply there, and if a mandarin\nor other official be superseded, he turns quite naturally to suicide\nas the proper end of his existence; but during the last few years in\nJapan, especially where there has been intercourse with Europeans,\nthere are regulations intended to prevent it; ten years imprisonment is\nthe punishment for the attempt in the case of lovers.\n\nUntil lately it was the custom for a man of honour who had been\ninsulted by another, to rip his body open with a sword, in presence\nof his opponent, calling on him to do likewise; the aggressor was\ndishonoured for ever if he failed to do so.\n\nThe Peruvians and Mexicans, at the time of the Spanish conquest, killed\nthemselves in large numbers rather than be slain or made captive by the\ninvaders.\u2500Falret.\n\nThe Priests of Ancient Egypt, who were the philosophers of the nation,\nby their doctrines of a universal soul and metempsychosis, contributed\nnot a little to popularise suicide.\u2500Bayle.\n\nSesostris, who had become blind, killed himself, with calmness and\nreflection.\n\nBut at a later date, following the death of Cleopatra, it became even\nmore usual; a society existed for the purpose of associating together\npersons desirous of self-inflicted death.\u2500Buonafede.\n\nAmong the Chaldeans, as among the Hebrews, suicide seems to have been\nrare.\n\nOn the coast of Malabar, it was the custom for wives to throw\nthemselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands.\u2500Voltaire. And among\nthe Negro races of Africa the same custom has been noted.\n\nAmong the aboriginal natives of the North American Continent, somewhat\nsimilar customs prevailed to those referred to in India among the\nBrahmins; wives and slaves had to sacrifice themselves at a chief\u2019s\nfuneral.\n\nThe ancient Scandinavian tribes, the worshippers of Odin, anticipated\ntheir entry after death into the Hall of Valhalla, otherwise \u201cthe hall\nof those dead by violence,\u201d and hence old persons and others who had\nfailed to die in battle, were led to seek death at their own hands.\n\nChristianity, the greatest Religion, founded upon and springing from\nthe decadent Jewish Faith, at once condemned suicide, thus following up\nthe traditions which the Jews had preserved from their earliest times.\n\nThe Fathers of the Christian Church denounced it; St. Augustine in his\n\u201cCity of God,\u201d St. Chrysostom, and Thomas Aquinas, are particularly\nprominent in inveighing against the enormity of the offence, and yet\neven these condoned the sin in certain instances.\n\nThe Councils of the Church repeatedly censured it.\n\nThe Council of Arles, A.D. 452, condemned it as a crime, which could\nonly be due to diabolical energy.\n\nThe Council of Braga, A.D. 563, repeated the condemnation.\n\nThe Council of Auxerre, A.D. 578, inflicted a penalty on its\ncommission, viz.: no commemoration was to be made in the Eucharist, and\nno Psalms were to be sung at the burial.\n\nThe Council of Troyes of the ninth century renewed these ecclesiastical\npenalties.\n\nPope Nicholas I. says, \u201ca suicide must be buried, but only lest the\nomission should be offensive to others.\u201d\n\nCharlemagne adopted the principle of refusing the Mass, but allowed\npsalms and charitable subscriptions for prayers for the dead to be\nused, because, he said, \u201cno one can sound the depths of God\u2019s designs.\u201d\n\nThe Roman Catholic canon law, section De P\u0153nitentia, assures us that\nJudas committed a greater sin in killing himself than in betraying his\nmaster Christ to a certain death.\n\nIn our own country we find the Anglo Saxon King Edgar assimilated the\ncrime of suicide to that of murder in general, and ordered that the\nsuicide was not to be buried in holy (_i.e._ consecrated) ground, and\nneither psalms nor masses were to be used.\n\nFor several centuries afterwards, the civil lawgivers of England\nremained content to allow suicide to fall under Ecclesiastical Law, but\nat the Reformation the Ecclesiastical Statutes were incorporated with\nthe Statute law of the realm, thus constituting it a civil offence as\nwell as a great moral crime.\n\nIn France, Louis IX., Saint, d. 1270, enforced the penalty of the\nconfiscation of the property of a suicide; and by the criminal law of\nLouis XIV., dated 1670, the statutes relating to suicide were revised,\nand the body was ordered to be dragged at the cart\u2019s tail.\n\nIt became the custom of Normandy to insist on forfeiture of estate if\nthe suicide was committed to avoid punishment, and not otherwise.\n\nThe Parliament of Toulouse also decided in this manner.\n\nIn the 14th century Charles V. imposed this law on all the country\nunder his dominion; and indeed it remained in force in France until\n1789, when it was repealed by the National Assembly, because it impeded\nhuman liberty of action. Suicide is not a crime in the Code Napoleon.\n\nYet in the early Christian centuries suicide lingered on as an\noccasional virtue, either for the purpose of preserving the faith, or\nto avoid apostacy, to procure the honour of martyrdom, or to retain the\ncrown of virginity: some eminent Christian teachers have considered\nsuch deaths desirable. The Roman Catholic Saints Pelagia and Sophronia\nwere examples of canonised suicides; and two widows, Berenice and\nProsdocea, are praised by St. Chrysostom for destroying themselves to\navoid pollution.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nNOTABLE SUICIDES.\n\n\nI.\u2500MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE.\n\nABIMELECH, 1206 B.C., King of the Shechemites. Judges, cap. ix.\n\nSAMSON, 1120 B.C., Judge of Israel. Judges, cap. xvi.\n\nSAUL, 1050 B.C., the first King of Israel. I. Samuel, cap. xxxi.\n\nSAUL\u2019S Armour Bearer, an Amalekite, loc. cit.\n\nAHITOPHEL, 1023 B.C., Counsellor of David. II. Samuel, cap. xvii.\n\nZIMRI, 929 B.C., King of Israel. II. Kings, cap. xvi.\n\nELEAZAR, 164 B.C., one of the Maccabees. I. Maccabees, cap. vi.\n\nRAZIS, 162 B.C., a Jewish Elder. II. Maccabees, cap. xiv.\n\nJUDAS ISCARIOT, A.D. 33, the Traitor. Acts, cap. i.\n\nPONTIUS PILATE, A.D. 36, Procurator of Judaea. Josephus. Antiquities,\nxviii., 4, 1, 2, and also Eusebius, History, cap. ii. 7.\n\n\nII.\u2500CLASSICAL.\n\nSESOSTRIS, or RAMESES the Great, King of Egypt, killed himself in\ndespair at having lost his sight.\n\nMENON, 2000 B.C., Governor of Nineveh, first husband of Semiramis,\nafterwards Queen of Assyria; he hung himself when Ninus the King became\nenamoured of his wife.\n\nAJAX, 1184 B.C., in the Trojan War, slew himself in a frenzy of anger\nagainst Ulysses, to whom instead of to himself the armour of the dead\nHector had been allotted.\n\nCODRUS, 1070 B.C., the last King of Athens; he was at war with the\nHeraclid\u00e6, an oracle had foretold that the victory would fall to the\nnation whose king died in battle. Codrus entered the enemy\u2019s camp in\ndisguise, provoked a quarrel with two of the soldiers, and was killed\nby them.\n\nDIDO, 1000 B.C., Princess of Tyre, widow of Sich\u00e6us, having founded\nCarthage, stabbed herself on her funeral pile, to avoid marriage with\nJarbos, she having vowed eternal fidelity to her husband\u2019s memory.\n\nLYCURGUS, 900 B.C., Lawgiver of Sparta, prepared a code of laws for the\npeople, bound them to observe these laws during his absence, then left\nthe State, and destroyed himself. These laws remained in force for 700\nyears.\n\nSARDANAPALUS, 759 B.C., King of Assyria, burned himself in his palace\nwith his wives.\n\nARISTODEMUS, 730 B. C. having killed his daughter to propitiate the\noracle at Delphi, slew himself on her tomb, from remorse.\n\nCHARONDAS, 560 B.C., the Lawgiver of Catana, a Greek colony in Sicily,\nmade it a law, with the penalty of death, that no man should enter the\nassembly armed: returning one day from pursuing some robbers beyond the\ncity, he entered the assembly to report, without having laid aside his\nweapons. Being taxed with breaking his own laws, he slew himself on the\nspot.\n\nLUCRETIA, 510 B.C., wife of Tarquinius Collatinus, stabbed herself\nin the presence of her husband and father as a protest against her\nattempted rape by Sextus, son of Tarquinius Superbus.\n\nARTEMIDORUS, 479 B.C., threw his life away in the battle of Plat\u00e6a.\n\nTHEMISTOCLES, 449 B.C., an Athenian General, was banished, and\nultimately poisoned himself.\n\nISOCRATES, 436 B.C., an Athenian orator, starved himself to death, on\naccount of the defeat of his countrymen in the battle of Cheron\u00e6a.\n\nEMPEDOCLES, 435 B.C., poet and philosopher, threw himself into the\ncrater of Mount Etna.\n\nAPPIUS, THE DECEMVIR, 400 B.C., killed himself in prison, where he\nwas cast by the Tribunes after the storm of popular indignation which\nfollowed his attempted seduction of Virginia.\n\nDECIUS MUS, 338 B.C., Roman Consul, threw away his life in battle\nagainst the Latins, as did his son, B.C. 296, and his grandson, B. C.\n280.\n\nDEMOSTHENES, 325 B.C., the most celebrated orator of antiquity,\npoisoned himself to escape from the pursuit of the soldiers of\nAntipater.\n\nNICOCLES, 310 B.C., King of Paphos, in Cyprus, intrigued against\nPtolemy, and destroyed himself, and his whole family did the same, to\navoid being disgraced.\n\nBRENNUS, 278 B.C., a Gallic general, invaded Greece, but his army being\ndefeated, he killed himself in a fit of intoxication.\n\nZENO, 264 B.C., founder of the Stoic sect of philosophers, in walking\nin his school one day, he fell and broke a finger; this so disgusted\nhim with life in this world, that he went straight home and strangled\nhimself.\n\nREGULUS, 251 B.C., a Roman consul during the First Punic War,\nwas defeated and taken prisoner to Carthage. Some years after he\nwas allowed to go to Rome to negotiate an exchange of prisoners,\nhaving first been compelled to bind himself by an oath to return if\nunsuccessful. On arriving in Rome he dissuaded his countrymen from the\nproposed terms and then promptly returned to certain death at Carthage.\n\nTHEOXENA AND HER HUSBAND threw themselves into the sea to escape\ncapture by the soldiers of Philip of Macedon.\n\nCLEANTHES, 240 B.C., a Stoic philosopher, starved himself because he\nwas seized with an illness, preferring death to lingering disease.\n\nHASDRUBAL, THE WIFE OF, 216 B.C., set fire to a temple and threw\nherself and her two children into the flames rather than fall into\nthe hands of Scipio the Roman general. Her husband was a Carthaginian\ngeneral who fought in the Second Punic war.\n\nSOPHONISBA, 203 B.C., was the daughter of Hasdrubal the Carthaginian\ngeneral, married to Syphax, Prince of Numidia; but she fell a captive\ninto the hands of Masinissa, who then took her to wife, but Scipio the\nRoman general having seen her, also fancied her as a wife, so she drank\npoison to avoid this second change.\n\nERATOSTHENES, 194 B.C., mathematician, starved himself to death because\nhe found his sight failing him.\n\nHANNIBAL, 183 B.C., a celebrated Carthaginian general, being defeated\nby Scipio at Zama, fled to Bithynia, but being pursued even there,\nkilled himself by means of poison, which he always carried about him\nconcealed in rings.\n\nCLEOMBROTUS, a young Greek philosopher, who after reading the Ph\u00e6don of\nPlato, threw himself off a wall into the sea. (Ovid.)\n\nARISTARCHUS, 157 B.C., grammarian and critic, starved himself to death,\nat Cyprus, after being banished from Alexandria.\n\nCAIUS GRACCHUS, 121 B.C., Tribune of Rome, was killed by a slave at his\nown request, after defeat by the consul Opimius.\n\nANTIOCHUS OF CYZICUS, 95 B.C., King of Syria, killed himself when\ndethroned by Seleucus.\n\nMITHRIDATES, KING OF PONTUS, 63 B.C., killed himself to avoid falling\ninto the hands of the Romans, after being defeated by Pompey.\n\nLUCRETIUS, 54 B.C., Roman poet and philosopher, destroyed himself in\nhis forty-fourth year.\n\nPTOLEMY, 50 B.C., King of Cyprus, killed himself by poison.\n\nCATO, MARCUS, 46 B.C., having opposed C\u00e6sar, unsuccessfully, retired to\nUtica, and feeling too proud to humiliate himself before a conqueror,\nstabbed himself, and died the same night, after spending his last hours\nin reading Plato\u2019s Ph\u00e6don, a dialogue on the Immortality of the Soul.\n\nBRUTUS, 42 B.C., Roman statesman, slew himself with his sword after\ndefeat at the battle of Philippi.\n\nPORTIA, his wife, killed herself by swallowing red-hot coals on hearing\nof her husband\u2019s death.\n\nCASSIUS, 42 B.C., Roman general, being defeated at the battle of\nPhilippi by Antony and Octavian, threw himself on his sword.\n\nPOMPONIUS ATTICUS, 33 B.C., man of letters, starved himself, because he\nbecame afflicted with some intestinal disease.\n\nMARK ANTONY, 30 B.C., Roman Consul, general, and statesman, being\ndefeated at the battle of Actium, and deserted as he thought by\nCleopatra, cut open his bowels and died in terrible agony.\n\nCLEOPATRA, 30 B.C., Queen of Egypt, the beloved of Antony, on hearing\nof his death, killed herself. The only mark of injury on her body was\na small puncture on the arm; it is doubtful whether this was caused by\nthe bite of an asp, or by a poisoned bodkin.\n\nCOCCEIUS NERVA, A.D. 20, an eminent lawyer and favourite of the Emperor\nTiberius, starved himself as a protest against the extravagance of the\nCourt.\n\nGALLUS, A.D. 26, Roman poet, killed himself when exiled for treason: he\nwas a friend of Virgil.\n\nARRIA and her husband P\u00c6TUS, A.D. 45. P\u00e6tus had revolted against\nthe Emperor Claudius, without success. Finding his condemnation\nunavoidable, Arria stabbed herself, calling on her husband to imitate\nher, which he did.\n\nBOADICEA, A.D. 60. Queen of the Iceni in Britain, in the time of Nero,\nbeing defeated by the Roman General Suetonius, she poisoned herself.\n\nAPICIUS, A.D. 64., the greatest glutton known to history, hanged\nhimself.\n\nSENECA, A.D. 65, Rhetorician, and tutor to Nero, opened his veins and\nbled himself to death, when under condemnation for conspiracy. Paulina,\nhis wife, opened her veins at the same time.\n\nLUCAN, A.D. 66, a Roman poet, being concerned in the same conspiracy as\nSeneca, killed himself in the same manner.\n\nNERO, A.D. 68, Emperor of Rome, was condemned for his villanies to be\nwhipped to death; to avoid this execution he destroyed himself.\n\nOTHO, A.D. 69, Roman Emperor, after a reign of three months, was\ndefeated by Vitellius, and then slew himself in disgust.\n\nJEWS, the, at the Siege of Jerusalem by Titus, A.D. 70. Josephus\nnarrates that the Jewish soldiers destroyed themselves in large\nnumbers, and endeavoured to prevail on him to do the same.\n\nSILIUS ITALICUS, A.D. 90, a Roman Consul and poet, being afflicted with\nan incurable disease at 75 years old, starved himself to death.\n\nPELAGIA, of Antioch, A.D. 310, cast herself off the house top to avoid\nthe persecutions of the Pagans, and was afterwards canonised as a Saint\nby the Roman Catholic Church; see St. Ambrose, De Virginibus.\n\nSOPHRONIA, A.D. 310, canonised as Saint Sophronia, destroyed herself to\navoid the snares set for her modesty by the Emperor Maxentius.\n\nCORELLIUS RUFUS, A.D. 110. Pliny the Younger speaks in terms of sincere\nregret that this friend should have taken his own life.\n\nSERVIUS, the Grammarian, A.D. 400, who wrote commentaries on Virgil,\nkilled himself in the reign of Honorius, rather than suffer the pains\nof the gout, to which he was very subject.\n\n\nIII.\u2500MIDDLE AGES AND MODERN TIMES.\n\nA very long interval occurs here, during which period I cannot discover\nany Notable Suicides: on passing to the next series a great change will\nbe noticed as to causation, the days of suicide for honour are passed:\nMisery has become the mainspring.\n\nRICHARD II., King of England, 1399. Some historians, as Walsingham,\nOtterbourne, and Peter of Blois, say that this king starved himself to\ndeath.\n\nCHARLES VII., King of France, 1461, starved himself, because he feared\nthe Dauphin would poison him.\n\nACOSTA, URIEL, 1647, a Jew who became a Christian, but becoming\ninvolved in the toils of the Inquisition, destroyed himself.\n\nBURTON, ROBERT, 1660, author of the \u201cAnatomy of Melancholy,\u201d committed\nsuicide to verify the prophecy he had made as to the date of his death.\n\nTEMPLE, JOHN, 1689, Secretary of State for War.\n\nCREECH, THOMAS, 1700, the learned translator of \u201cLucretius,\u201d killed\nhimself in imitation of the author whose works he translated.\n\nBUDGELL, EUSTACE, 1714, author, threw himself from a boat into the\nThames.\n\nSCARBOROUGH, LORD, 1727, killed himself in the dilemma which of two\nladies to associate with.\n\nGREEN, W., 1750, a weaver, jumped off the Monument, London.\n\nCHATTERTON, THOMAS, 1770, Poet, by poison, from poverty.\n\nCLIVE, LORD, 1774, shot himself; he had been ungratefully treated; he\nhad, however, made two attempts on his life in his youth.\n\nCARDAN, JEROME, 1575, Physician and Astrologer, having foretold his\ndeath for a certain date, and finding himself still well, killed\nhimself to verify his prophecy.\n\nROUSSEAU, J.\u202fJ., 1778. Some authorities say he poisoned himself by\narsenic.\n\nCRADDOCK, T., 1780, a baker, jumped off the top of the Monument,\nLondon.\n\nCLAVIERE, E., 1793, the Girondin, stabbed himself; and his wife killed\nherself after him.\n\nCONDORCET, M.\u202fJ.\u202fA., 1794, French Mathematician, killed himself in\nprison.\n\nROLAND, 1795, French Minister, by a sword thrust.\n\nROMME, 1795, French Statesman, by stabbing.\n\nPICHEGRU, C., 1804, French General, strangled himself with his scarf\nwhen in prison, accused of plotting against the government.\n\nVILLENEUVE, P., French Admiral, 1806, stabbed himself when suffering\nfrom melancholia.\n\nLEVY, LYON, 1810, a Jewish diamond merchant, jumped off the Monument,\nLondon.\n\nWILLIAMS, 1811, the murderer of the Marr family.\n\nKLEIST, H. VON., 1811, German author, shot himself after killing a lady\nto whom he was much attached, at her request.\n\nBERTHIER, L.\u202fA., 1815, French General.\n\nROMILLY, SIR S., 1818, Jurist and M.P., killed himself three days after\nthe death of his wife.\n\nCHRISTOPHE, 1820, King of Hayti.\n\nENGLISHMAN, an, 1820, threw himself into the crater of Vesuvius.\n\nCAMPBELL, SIR G., 1821, English Admiral.\n\nCASTLEREAGH, LORD, 1822, cut his throat.\n\nSAINT SIMON, C.\u202fH., 1822, a Frenchman, founder of a religious sect.\n\nBRACHMANN, LUISE, 1822, German poetess.\n\nMONTGOMERY, 1828, took prussic acid, when a prisoner for forgery, in\nNewgate.\n\nCOND\u00c9, PRINCE DE, 1830, hanged himself.\n\nROBERT LEOPOLD, 1835, painter, cut his throat, from jealousy.\n\nGROS, BARON, 1835, painter, drowned himself from disappointment.\n\nCOLTON, C.\u202fC., 1832, an eccentric clergyman, author of \u201cLacon.\u201d\n\nMOYES, MISS E., 1839, jumped off the Monument, London, because her\nfather, being reduced in circumstances, it was decided that she should\nearn her own living.\n\nBERESFORD, LORD JAMES, 1841.\n\nMUNSTER, EARL OF, 1842, son of William IV.\n\nBLANCHARD, LAMAN, 1845, journalist.\n\nHAYDON, B.\u202fR., 1846, painter, on account of money troubles, shot\nhimself.\n\nPRASLIN, DUC DE, 1847, his wife was found murdered; he was arrested on\nsuspicion, and was found self-slain in prison.\n\nWATTS, WALTER, 1850, Lessee of the Olympic Theatre.\n\nBOURG, ST. EDME, 1851, author; found strangled by his scarf.\n\nLAYARD, LIEUT.-COL., 1853, of \u201cNineveh\u201d fame.\n\nROBINSON, REV. T., 1854, threw himself off the cliffs at Dover.\n\nFRANKS, DR., 1855, editor of the _Allgemeine Zeitung_, after killing\nhis son.\n\nSADLEIR, JOHN, M.P., 1856, by prussic acid, when found guilty of Bank\nfrauds.\n\nSMART, A., 1856, a watchmaker, threw himself down from the Whispering\nGallery in St. Paul\u2019s.\n\nMILLER, HUGH, 1856, geologist, from overwork.\n\nRUSSELL, CHAS., 1856, Chairman of the Great Western Railway.\n\nMOSER, ISAAC, 1861, a millionaire Jew.\n\nFITZROY, ADMIRAL, 1865, meteorologist.\n\nGREEN, G.\u202fW., 1867, a merchant, jumped off Suspension Bridge at Clifton.\n\nWARDER, DR. A.\u202fW., 1867, at Brighton, after murdering his wife.\n\nTHEODORE, Emperor of Abyssinia, 1868.\n\nLEE, THOMAS, 1868, threw himself from the North Tower of the Crystal\nPalace.\n\nPREVOST-PARADOL, 1870, French Minister.\n\nBOWLEY, R.\u202fK., 1870, Manager of the Crystal Palace.\n\nMATTHIESSEN, DR., 1870, eminent chemist.\n\nWILLES, SIR JAMES S., 1872, eminent judge, from overwork.\n\nDELAWARR, EARL, 1873, when insane.\n\nABDUL AZIZ, 1876, Sultan of Turkey, veins of the bend of the arm opened\nby scissors.\n\nLYTTLETON, LORD GEORGE, 1876, eminent scholar, when insane.\n\nBUTCHER, DR. SAM., 1876, Bishop of Meath, when insane.\n\nBRANDON, RAPHAEL, 1877, architect.\n\nMAHOMED, ISMAIL KHAN, 1883, an Afghan surgeon, by prussic acid.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nLITERATURE.\n\n\nThe Literature of the subject is of very diverse character. France,\nItaly, and Germany have produced many works on suicide as a fact.\nEngland has been content with one work on suicide, that of Forbes\nWinslow, \u201cThe Anatomy of Suicide,\u201d dated 1840. \u201cIt is an interesting\ncollection of anecdotes, arranged without much regard to method or\nauthenticity.\u201d (Athen\u00e6um.)\n\nThe thoroughly scientific statistical work of H. Morselli, of Turin,\nhas been recently published in an English form, but it is hardly a\nreadable book, consisting almost entirely of statistics; and the\nsubject, moreover, is treated from an Italian standpoint, and for these\nreasons has not found many readers in this country.\n\nThere are, however, plenty of references to suicide in English\nliterature, and some essays, chiefly in its defence. Some of these I\ncatalogue here, and also several references from French literature. I\nalso add a few examples of authors of Greece and Rome who concerned\nthemselves with the subject. Of foreign works relating to suicide, a\nlist will be found in the Bibliographical Index.\n\nAmong the authors of Greek and Roman civilization, in favour of\nallowing suicide to be committed, were\u2500\n\nARISTIPPUS, _circa_ 360 B.C., founder of the Cyrenaic philosophy.\n\nHEGESIAS, a Cyrenaic philosopher, _circa_ 300 B.C.\n\nEPICURUS, d. 270 B.C., founder of the Epicurean philosophy.\n\nZENO, d. 264 B.C., founder of the Stoic philosophy.\n\nCLEANTHES, d. 240 B.C., a pupil of Zeno.\n\nCICERO, d. 43 B.C.\n\nSENECA, d. A.D. 65.\n\nPLINY THE ELDER, d. A.D. 79.\n\nEPICTETUS, d. _circa_ A.D. 100.\n\nPLUTARCH, d. A.D. 140.\n\nMARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, a Stoic, d. A.D. 180.\n\nDIOGENES LAERTIUS, _circa_ A.D. 200.\n\nThe following famous authors denied its permissibility, and condemned\nthose who practised it:\u2500\n\nPYTHAGORAS, d. 520 B.C.\n\nSOCRATES, d. 399 B.C.\n\nPLATO, d. 348 B.C.\n\nARISTOTLE, d. 321 B.C.\n\n\u00c6SCHINES, d. 314 B.C.\n\nVIRGIL, d. 19 B.C. (See \u00c6neid, vi. 434.)\n\nPLINY THE YOUNGER, A.D. 116.\n\nLUCIAN, d. A.D. 180.\n\nPLOTINUS, d. A.D. 270.\n\nAccording to Morselli of Turin, the word \u201c_suicide_\u201d originated in\nFrance, in the middle of the last century.\n\nIn this matter he apparently copied French authors who claim that it\nwas first used in the \u201cDictionnaire de Trevoux\u201d (the town of Trevoux),\nby Desfontaines, in 1752. It appears along with _Parricide_ in the\n\u201cDictionnaire de l\u2019Academie Fran\u00e7aise,\u201d of 1762.\n\nRichelet, in his famous French Dictionary of 1680, has, I find,\n_Parricide_, but not _Suicide_.\n\nSo much for France. With regard to England, Archbishop Trench says,\n\u201cUp to the middle of the seventeenth century our good writers use\n_self-homicide_, never _suicide_.\u201d Nathan Bailey, in his English\nDictionary, 2nd ed. 1736, gives the word \u201c_suicide_.\u201d\n\nBut the word is much older even than that; in the introduction to\nEdward Phillips\u2019 \u201cNew World of Words,\u201d dated 1662, these remarks are to\nbe found: \u201cOne barbarous word I shall produce, which is _suicide_, a\nword which I had rather should be derived from _sus_, a sow, than from\nthe pronoun _sui_, unless there be some mystery in it; as if it were\na swinish part for a man to kill himself.\u201d Some English Dictionaries,\nsuch as Wright\u2019s, give the obsolete word \u201c_suicism_.\u201d\n\n\u201cSuicidium\u201d looks like a Latin word, but is not so, although Nathan\nBailey in the 30th edition of his Dictionary says it is; the modern\nterm \u201cSuicide,\u201d is of course derived from the Latin words \u201csui,\u201d self,\nand \u201cc\u00e6do\u201d to kill; but the ancient Romans, although familiar with the\nfact, used a phrase to express it. They said, \u201csibi mortem consciscere\u201d\n(Cicero, Oratio pro Cluentio), \u201cto procure his own death\u201d; and \u201cveneno\nmortem sibi consciscere\u201d for \u201cto poison himself,\u201d or \u201cto procure death\nfor himself by poison.\u201d They also used as alternative phrases \u201cvim sibi\ninferre,\u201d \u201cto cause violence to himself,\u201d Velleius Paterculus; \u201csua\nmanu cadere,\u201d Tacitus, Annales; and \u201cmors voluntaria,\u201d Cicero, Epistol\u00e6\nad familiares.\n\nThe ancient Greek phrase for \u201csuicide,\u201d was \u03b1\u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b2\u03b9\u03bf\u03c5,\n\u00c6schylus; \u201ca suicide\u201d was \u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03c6\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, \u00c6schylus; for our phrase \u201cto\ncommit suicide\u201d they used a verb \u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03ba\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03c9, Sophocles.\n\nEuripides uses \u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03ba\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2: in Plato is found \u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03c7\u03b5\u03b9\u03c1\u03b9\u03b1, and also in\nEuripides; two other forms of speech were \u03b5\u03bc\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03c7\u03c1\u03b1\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9, \u00c6schines,\nand \u03b5\u03bc\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u03b2\u03b9\u03b1\u03b6\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9, Plato.\n\nThe Germans use the term \u201cSelbstmord,\u201d the Italians \u201cil suicidio.\u201d\n\nThe following English Authors have either written treatises on\nsuicide, or else have made mention of it in their works.\n\nThe list is of course not complete, but it represents the views of many\nwriters of eminence from the time of Henry the Eighth to a recent date.\n\nSIR THOMAS MORE, in his \u201cUtopia,\u201d dated 1516, Book II., writes: \u201cBut\nyf the disease be not onelye yncurable, but also full of contynuall\npayne and anguishe; ... and seinge his lyffe to him is but a tormente,\nthat he wyl not bee vnwillinge to dye, but rather take a good hope to\nhim, and either dispatche himselfe out of that payneful lyffe, as out\nof a prison, or racke of torment, or elles suffer hymselfe wyllinglye\nto be ridde oute of it by other.\u201d\n\nThese lines are from the English translation by Ralph Robinson, 1551.\n\nSHAKESPEARE (d. 1616) in \u201cJulius C\u00e6sar,\u201d Act V. Scene 1., makes Brutus\nsay:\u2500\n\n    \u201cEven by the rule of that philosophy,\n    By which I did blame Cato for the death\n    He gave himself:\u2500I know not how,\n    But I do find it cowardly and vile,\n    For fear of what might fall, so to prevent\n    The time of life:\u2500arming myself with patience,\n    To stay the providence of some high powers,\n    That govern us below.\u201d\n\nAnd in \u201cHamlet,\u201d Act I., Scene 2, writes:\u2500\n\n    \u201cO, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,\n    Thaw and resolve itself into a dew;\n    Or that the Everlasting had not fixed\n    His canon \u2019gainst self slaughter, O God! O God!\n    How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable\n    Seem to me all the uses of this world.\u201d\n\nAnd in Act III., Scene 1, is found the long passage commencing, \u201cTo be,\nor not to be; that is the question;\u2500\u201d in which the relative merits of\nlife and death are discussed.\n\nIn \u201cOthello,\u201d Act I., Scene 3, he makes Roderigo say, \u201cI will\nincontinently drown myself.\u201d \u201cIt is silliness to live when to live is\na torment;\u201d to which Iago replies, \u201ca pox on drowning thyself! it is\nclean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy\njoy, than to be drowned and go without her.\u201d\n\nDR. JOHN DONNE, d. 1631, wrote an essay on this subject, entitled\n\u2018\u03b2\u03b9\u03b1\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c3, or That self-slaying is not so naturally sin that it may\nnever be otherwise.\n\nMASSINGER, the Dramatist, d. 1640.\n\n    \u201cThis Roman resolution of self-murder\n    Will not hold water at the High Tribunal\n    When it comes to be argued; my good genius\n    Prompts me to this consideration. He\n    That kills himself t\u2019avoid misery, fears it;\n    And at the best shows a bastard valour.\u201d\n\nMILTON, d. 1674, says:\u2500\n\n    \u201cNor love thy life, nor hate: but what thou liv\u2019st\n    Live well; _how long or short permit to Heaven_.\u201d\n\nSIR THOMAS BROWNE, d. 1682, author of \u201cReligio Medici,\u201d wrote, \u201cSuicide\nis, not to fear death, but yet to be afraid of life.\u201d\n\nSIR WM. TEMPLE, d. 1699, said, \u201cA man should depart this life when he\nhas no further pleasure in remaining.\u201d\n\nHENRY DODWELL, the learned Non-juror, d. 1711, was the author of an\n\u201cApology for Suicide.\u201d\n\nROBERT FLEMING, d. 1716, Nonconformist Minister, wrote \u201cThe command\n\u2018thou shalt not kill\u2019 forbids suicide as well as homicide.\u201d\n\nGEORGE SEWELL, d. 1726, in a poem called \u201cThe Suicide,\u201d writes:\u2500\n\n    \u201cWhen all the blandishments of life are gone,\n    The coward shrinks to death, the brave live on.\u201d\n\nRICHARD SAVAGE, d. 1743. In his poem \u201cThe Wanderer\u201d are these lines:\u2500\n\n    \u201cFrom me (she cries), pale wretch, thy comfort claim,\n    Born of despair, and Suicide my name!\n    Why should thy life a moment\u2019s pain endure?\n    Here every object proffers grief a cure.\n    She points where leaves of hemlock blackening shoot!\n    Fear not, pluck! eat (said she) the sovereign root!\n    Or leap yon rock, possess a watery grave,\n    And leave thy sorrow to the wind and wave!\n    Or mark\u2500this poniard thus from misery frees!\n    She wounds her breast!...\u201d\n\nSAMUEL RICHARDSON, in \u201cClarissa Harlowe,\u201d 1749: \u201cTo be cut off by the\nsword of injured friendship is the most dreadful of all deaths, next to\nsuicide.\u201d\n\nEDWARD YOUNG, d. 1765, in his \u201cNight Thoughts,\u201d Night V., The Relapse:\n\n    \u201cThe bad on each punctilious pique of pride,\n    Or gloom of humour, would give rage the rein;\n    Bound o\u2019er the barrier, rush into the dark,\n    And mar the schemes of Providence below.\n\n           *       *       *       *       *\n\n    O Britain, infamous for suicide!\u201d\n\nDR. JOHNSON, in 1773, was asked: \u201cSuppose that a man is sure that,\nif he lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the\nconsequence of which will be utter disgrace and expulsion from society,\nshould he make away with himself?\u201d and he answered, \u201cThen, let him go\nabroad to a distant country, let him go to some place where he is _not_\nknown. Don\u2019t let him go to the Devil, where he _is_ known.\u201d\n\nHUME, DAVID, d. 1776, the historian, was unable to condemn the\npractice, and indeed wrote an \u201cEssay on Suicide,\u201d showing that it was\nconsistent with our duty.\n\nBLACKSTONE, d. 1780, \u201cCommentaries,\u201d Book IV., cap. 14: \u201cThe suicide is\nguilty of a double offence: one spiritual in evading the prerogative\nof the Almighty; the other temporal, against the king, who hath an\ninterest in the preservation of his subjects.\u201d\n\nDRYDEN, d. 1700, writes:\n\n    \u201cBrutus and Cato might discharge their souls,\n    And give them furloughs for another world;\n    But we like sentries, are obliged to stand\n    In starless nights, and wait th\u2019appointed hour.\u201d\n\nAnd in his Fables speaks of Suicide in terms of abhorrence:\n\n    \u201cThe slayer of himself too, saw I there:\n    The gore, congealed, was clotted in his hair.\n    With eyes half closed, and mouth wide ope, he lay,\n    And grim as when he breathed his sullen soul away.\u201d\n\nGIBBON, EDW., the historian, d. 1794, was in favour of its\npermissibility under certain circumstances.\n\nMASON, WILLIAM, d. 1797, writes:\n\n    \u201cUnlicensed to eternity! Think! think!\n    And let the thought restrain thy impious hand.\u201d\n\nPALEY, REV. WM., d. 1805, the great Biblical scholar, discusses the\nquestion of Suicide. He concludes that its commission argues against\nour reverence for the Deity, exhibits a want of religious fortitude,\nand a deficiency of regard for our future state.\n\nTOM PAINE, d. 1809, in his \u201cAge of Reason,\u201d approves of Suicide, and\nmore than one case has been traced directly to the mental and moral\neffect of reading this work.\n\nLORD BYRON, d. 1824, in his \u201cDon Juan,\u201d c. xiv., v. 4, writes:\n\n    \u201cA sleep without dreams after a rough day\n    Of toil, is what we covet most; and yet\n    How clay shrinks back from mere quiescent clay!\n    The very Suicide that pays his debt\n    At once without instalments (an old way\n    Of paying debts, which creditors regret),\n    Lets out impatiently his rushing breath,\n    Less from disgust of life, than dread of death.\u201d\n\nSIR CHAS. MORGAN writes: \u201cWhat poetical suicides and sublime despair\nmight have been prevented by a timely dose of blue pill, or the offer\nof a Loge aux Italiens!\u201d\n\nCOLTON, d. 1832, in his \u201cLacon,\u201d writes: \u201cSuicide sometimes proceeds\nfrom cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it:\nsince as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they\nare afraid to live.\u201d\n\nIt has been affirmed that the works of ROBERT OWEN, of Lanark, d. 1858,\nmanufacturer and social economist, who was author of several visionary\nschemes for the mutual advancement of men, have, like those of Tom\nPaine, led to the commission of self-destruction.\n\n     . . . . .?\n    \u201cWe are the fools of time and terror: Days\n    Steal on us, and steal from us, yet we live\n    Loathing our life, and dreading still to die\n    In all the days of this detested yoke\u2500\n    This vital weight upon the struggling heart,\n    Which sinks with sorrow, or beats quick with pain,\n    Or joy that ends in agony, or faintness\u2500\n    In all the days of past and future, for\n    In life there is no present, we can number\n    How few,\u2500how less than few, wherein the soul\n    Forbears to pant for death, and yet draws back\n    As from a stream in winter, though the chill\n    Be but a moment\u2019s....\u201d\n\nDR. HENRY MAUDSLEY writes: \u201cAny poor creature from the gutter can put\nan end to himself; there is no nobility in the act, and no great amount\nof courage required for it. It is a deed rather of cowardice shirking\nduty, generated in a monstrous feeling of self, and accomplished in\nthe most sinful, because wicked ignorance. Even if the act of Cato did\nnot speak for itself, he was far too self-conscious. Montaigne tells\nus that he was given to drinking, and the Catos, as a race, were noted\nfor rigid severity of character, which mostly signifies narrowness of\nvision, self-love, and conceit.\u201d\n\n\nFOREIGN LITERATURE.\n\nDESFONTAINES, in the Supplement du Dictionnaire de Trevoux, 1752, first\nuses the term \u201cSuicide\u201d in French Literature.\n\nDUVERGER DE HAURANE, Abbot of St. Cyran, the patriarch of the\nJansenists, wrote in 1608, a treatise on Suicide, speaking of it as\nequally permissible with the right of fellow men to execute judicially:\nhe adds, \u201cA man may kill himself for the good of his prince, for that\nof his country, or for that of his relations.\u201d\n\nMAUPERTUIS, PIERRE DE, approved of its commission when life becomes\nwearisome. See \u201c\u0152uvres,\u201d 1752.\n\nMONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE, \u201cEssays:\u201d these have much information of an\nhistorical character. See Lib. II. cap. iii., \u201cThe Custom of the Isle\nof Ceos,\u201d also many references to the death of Cato.\n\nMONTESQUIEU, who, in his \u201cLettres Persanes,\u201d written in the character\nof a Persian gentleman resident in Europe, speaks of Suicide with\nfavour, yet does not mention it by this title; in the 74th letter\nhe gives a complete apology for it. See also his \u201cEsprit des Lois\u201d\nfor other remarks on the crime. To this author is due the credit or\ndiscredit of the observation that England is the classic land of\nSuicide.\n\nVOLTAIRE, in his \u201cCommentaire sur L\u2019esprit des Lois,\u201d approves of\nsuicide, and does make use of this term; but in others of his works\nhe condemns it; in short, he appears to have been undecided in the\nmatter. It is narrated of him, that he and a friend contemplated and\ndecided one evening on committing the act, but Voltaire had altered his\nmind in the morning.\n\nMADAME DE STAEL, in her youth, wrote an Essay approving of Suicide;\nbut, later in her life, wrote \u201cReflexions sur le Suicide,\u201d 1813, in\nwhich she recanted many of her opinions. She remarks that some suicides\nare a matter of duty; such are the deaths in a forlorn hope on the\nbattle field; others were honourable as those of Cato, Decius, Codrus,\nand Regulus. Again, she says, \u201cto prefer death to guilt is a suicide of\nduty, and such were all martyrdoms.\u201d She discards the doctrine that the\nsuicide is a coward; he is a man who has conquered even \u201cthe fear of\ndeath.\u201d\n\nROUSSEAU, J.\u202fJ., wished that it were permissible; He called it,\nhowever, \u201cun vol fait au genre humain.\u201d See Nouvelle Heloise. He is\nsaid by some authorities to have caused his own death by taking arsenic.\n\nLAMARTINE condemns the practice (see his remarks on the death of Cato)\nin the \u201cCours de Litterature.\u201d\n\nELIAS REGNAULT says, \u201cIt is for man the highest expression of his\nliberty.\u201d\n\nFALRET, J.\u202fP., \u201cC\u2019est un acte de d\u00e9lire.\u201d\n\nRIVAROL, ANTOINE, \u201cL\u2019orgueil est toujours plus pr\u00e8s du suicide que du\nrepentir.\u201d\n\nCHATEAUBRIAND, FRAN\u00c7OIS A., \u201cLes suicides sont toujours communs chez\nles peuples corrompus.\u201d\n\nLA LUZERNE, C. GUILLAUME, \u201cLa religion enleve au suicide l\u2019excuse, le\npr\u00e9texte, la s\u00e9curit\u00e9, que lui donne l\u2019incredulit\u00e9.\u201d\n\nTAINE, H. \u201cQuand la douleur est extr\u00eame l\u2019homme se r\u00e9fugie, dans tous\nles asiles, jusque dans le suicide, jusque dans la folie.\u201d\n\nSAINTE BEUVE, the poet, wrote, under the pseudonym of Joseph Delorme,\nan apology for suicide, in verse.\n\nPRUDHOMME, \u201cLa communaut\u00e9 aboutit par toutes ses voies au Suicide;\u201d and\nagain, \u201cLe suicide est une banqueroute frauduleuse.\u201d\n\nL\u2019ABBE BAUTAIN, \u201cLe suicide est \u00e0 la fois une grande absurdit\u00e9, et un\ngrand crime.\u201d\n\nGIRARDIN, E. DE, \u201cBonaparte a declar\u00e9 que tout soldat qui se tue, est\nun soldat qui d\u00e9serte.\u201d\n\nI venture to add here three other French references to the word:\n\nPRUDHOMME, \u201cLa propriet\u00e9 est le _Suicide_ de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9.\u201d\n\nBALZAC, \u201cQu\u2019un homme batte sa ma\u00eetresse c\u2019est une blessure mais sa\nfemme c\u2019est un _Suicide_.\u201d\n\nMARTIN, A., \u201cLe celibat est en m\u00eame temps le v\u00e9hicule de la d\u00e9bauche,\nle scandale du monde, et le _suicide_ du genre humain.\u201d\n\nST. MARC GIRARDIN. \u201cLe suicide n\u2019est pas la maladie des simples de c\u0153ur\net d\u2019esprit, c\u2019est la maladie des raffin\u00e9s et des philosophes.\u201d\n\nGOETHE, JOHANN W. VON., in his novel \u201cThe Sorrows of Werter,\u201d exalts\nsuicide, as the end of one\u2019s existence. The suicide of a young man\nnamed Jerusalem suggested to the author the composition of this\nwork, which has been definitely the cause of suicides, among whom\nwas Fraulein von Lassberg, who drowned herself. The author himself\nattempted the act.\n\nFOSCOLO, UGO, d. 1827, the Italian poet, imitated Goethe\u2019s \u201cWerter\u201d in\nhis \u201cUltime lettre di Jacopo Ortis,\u201d and in a similar strain discourses\non the unpleasantness of life, and the advantages of ending it when\ndesirable.\n\nBECCARIA, C. BONESANA, in his \u201cCrimes and Punishments,\u201d written in\nItalian, but which has been translated into almost all European\nlanguages, decides in these words; \u201cSuicide is a crime which seems not\nto admit of punishment, for it cannot be inflicted but on the innocent,\nwhen it would be unjust, or upon an insensible body, when it would have\nno more effect than scourging a statue. Its only punishment is after\ndeath; it is in the hands of God alone; but it is no crime with regard\nto man.\u201d See Chapter XXXII.\n\nMORSELLI, ENRICO. \u201cIl Suicidio.\u201d Of this great statistical work, and\nthe opinions expressed therein, Legoyt, A., in his treatise, remarks,\n\u201che maintains a certain tolerance of Suicide, and is well content\nto look on it as a natural fact, governed by a law of human nature,\n_precisely_ similar to the laws of Marriages, Births, and Deaths.\u201d See\n\u201cLe Suicide,\u201d 1881, p. 98.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nCRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE.\n\n\nBy English law Suicide is of the Felony of Murder, inasmuch as it is\nthe murder of one of the subjects of the sovereign: it is a murder\ncommitted by a man on himself. There is authority for saying that there\nis no such offence as self-manslaughter. Regina _v._ Burgess, Leigh and\nCave, 258. It is suicide, or \u201cfelo-de-se,\u201d not only to kill oneself\nwith deliberation, when in right mind, and of years of discretion, but\nalso to kill oneself accidentally when performing a felonious act; such\nas attempting to kill another. But if a man is killed at his express\ndesire by another, it is not suicide, because in law the request is\nillegal and void, though the latter is a murderer. Yet if one persuade\nanother to kill himself, and he does so, it is suicide, and also murder\nin the adviser: see R. _v._ Dyson.\n\nSo also if two persons agree to commit suicide together, and one\nsucceed and one fail, the survivor is guilty of murder, for aiding and\nabetting a suicide. See R. _v._ Russell, and R. _v._ Alison.\n\nTo constitute felo-de-se, the deceased must die within a year and a day\nof his self-inflicted injury, and must have been in his right mind, yet\nin the interval he cannot in law purge his offence by repentance. See\n1 Hale, P.C., 412. Persons obviously insane frequently kill themselves,\nyet it cannot be denied that persons are frequently found self-slain,\nwho have never shown any sign of mental derangement.\n\nTo avoid a verdict of felo-de-se, it should be shown by the evidence\nthat the deceased had not arrived at years of discretion, or else was\nsuffering from unsoundness of mind; in the adult the consent of the\nwill to a self-inflicted action should not be denied until disproved.\n\nThe argument by which jurors are supposed to be influenced, viz., that\nno one in his senses would commit that which is the very negation of a\nlaw of nature is, in fact, an aggravation of the offence. If tenable\nit would excuse every criminal from blame, and would apply the more\npowerfully in proportion to the intensity of the crime.\n\nTo murder a mother, or a daughter, is as much repugnant to a sensible\nman, as to murder himself; but if none but lunatics could commit such\ncrimes, no one would be culpable at all.\n\nAnd, therefore, by the law of our land, if a lunatic even murder\nhimself in a lucid interval, he is felo-de-se, as much as any man, and\nif he murder another man in a lucid interval he is as much a murderer\nas any other man. See 1 Hawkins, P.C., cap. ix., ss. 2 and 3.\n\nAt the present time, the absence of a sound mind in cases of self\nmurder, is the constant presumption of jurymen, who by avoiding a\nverdict of felo-de-se, commit an amiable perjury, to save, as they\nsay, the reputation of the deceased among his survivors.\n\nNow at one time the English law prescribed for the suicide an\ninglorious burial in the highway, with a stake driven through the body;\nand the vicarious punishment of his friends by the forfeiture of his\ngoods and chattels to the Crown.\n\nNo definite legal authority can be given for this form of burial;\nBlackstone does not mention it.\n\nIt was abolished in 1823 by 4 George IV., c. 52; by this statute no\nCoroner should issue a warrant for the burial of a suicide in any\nhighway, but it was enacted that the corpse should be buried privately\nin any churchyard or burying ground between 9 and 12 at night without\nany religious rites.\n\nThis enactment has been further amended by Acts 43 and 44 Victoria c.\n41, and 45 and 46 Victoria, c. 19 (1882), which provide that the body\nof a suicide may be buried either silently, or with any such orderly,\nor Christian religious service at the grave, as the person in charge of\nthe body thinks fit, or I would add, can procure.\n\nThere is of course no clause compelling any minister of religion to\nperform any definite burial service.\n\nBut I have no doubt that in such cases there would be no difficulty\nin finding some clergyman to use forms of prayer at the grave, which\nwould be satisfactory to the relatives. The law was formerly evaded\nas follows: if it seemed likely that a verdict of felo-de-se would be\nfound, the inquiry was adjourned, and in the meantime the body was\nburied under a warrant from the Coroner.\n\nIn the time of the legal author Bracton (1260), a person committing\nsuicide to avoid conviction for a felony, forfeited his lands and\ngoods; other suicides forfeited their goods only.\n\nThis distinction was lost sight of in the time of Staundforde, who\nwrote in 1570.\n\nThe law of forfeitures in other respects remained the same until 1870,\nwhen forfeitures for felony were abolished by 33 and 34 Victoria, c. 23.\n\nWhilst such disabilities existed, it was perhaps a kindness of juries\nto misrepresent the manner of death, and to find that all suicides were\nof unsound mind; but now that these disabilities, both of forfeitures,\nand usages of contempt to the corpse, have been taken away, there\ndoes not seem to be any necessity to refrain from finding a verdict\n\u201caccording to the evidence,\u201d which a Coroner\u2019s jury is sworn to do; at\nleast, more accurately, a Coroner\u2019s jury is sworn to give a verdict\n\u201caccording to the evidence, and the best of their knowledge and\nbelief,\u201d thus giving a greater freedom in investigation than is given\nto jurymen in a criminal court.\n\nSTEVENSON, in Taylor\u2019s \u201cMedical Jurisprudence,\u201d remarks, \u201cIt is to be\nhoped that these recent enactments of the Burial Laws will do away with\nmany absurd verdicts of \u2018Temporary Insanity;\u2019\u201d and Chitty, J., 1834,\nadds, \u201cIf juries were more often to find verdicts subjecting parties\nto some ignominy, in cases where there is no pretence of insanity, the\napprehension of such a result would tend to prevent the frequency of\nthe act.\u201d (Med. Jurisprudence, cap. ix. sec. v.)\n\nThere are still some authorities who think that evidence of insanity\ncould be found in all cases, if only sufficiently investigated. See\n\u201cJournal of Mental Science,\u201d April 1861. I feel bound to say this is to\nme only an amiable fallacy.\n\nSeveral cases have come under my personal notice where deliberate\nsuicide has been committed by persons of the clearest intellect, who\nhave never shown any one symptom of mind failure, who were not even\neccentric, and yet who chose to sacrifice their life in this world and\nrisk their eternal future, just to avoid a passing annoyance. Such a\nchoice may show, if you like, a weakness of mind, but is not what our\nText Books teach us to understand by the expression Lunacy.\n\nGibbon, \u201cDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire,\u201d c. 14, remarks,\n\u201cWhenever an offence inspires less horror than the punishment awarded\nto it, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the _common_\nfeelings of mankind.\u201d Jeremy Bentham remarks that jurors do not\nhesitate to violate their oaths, and so meet the interference of law,\nby finding suicides to be \u201cnon compos.\u201d\n\nThe frequency with which Coroners\u2019 juries return a verdict of \u201cSuicide\nwhilst in a state of temporary insanity,\u201d is less a proof of the\nconnection between suicide and lunacy, than a sign of the futility of\nthe existing laws relating to the crime of felo-de-se.\n\nThe commission of suicide does, no doubt, raise the question of\ninsanity, but in such cases the issue should be tried, not decided\noffhand. The reports of the following criminal trials may be consulted\nfor further information on the subject of the association of suicide\nwith crime.\n\nIn Regina _v._ Gathercole, 1839, the prisoner attempted to drown\nhimself; another man jumped into the water to save him, but lost his\nown life in the attempt; G. was convicted of Murder.\n\nIn Regina _v._ Fisher, 1865, a man and wife agreed to die together;\nboth took opium; the wife died, the man by vomiting was saved; he was\nconvicted of murder, although he had once been in an asylum.\n\nIn Regina _v._ May, 1872, a young man who had aided a youth to kill\nhimself was tried for the crime, and the same ruling was laid down by\nthe judge, that to aid or abet is murder.\n\nIn Regina _v._ Dyson (Russell and Ryan, Criminal Cases), two persons\nagreed to kill themselves together; one survived, and was held to be\nguilty of murder.\n\nThe true doctrine of the English criminal law would be perhaps, as\nfollows: If suicide affords any presumption of insanity, it is of\ninsanity at the moment only, and even then, if not supported by other\nevidence, it is not enough to deprive the person of imputability. See\nMcAdam _v._ Walker, 1 Dow, Parly. Cases, 187. Felo-de-se is a crime,\nand a person is innocent until found guilty.\n\nSIR JAMES FITZJAMES STEPHEN writes: \u201cSuicide may be wicked, and is\ncertainly injurious to society, but it is so in a much less degree\nthan murder. The injury to the person killed we cannot estimate; the\ninjury to survivors is generally small. It is a crime which produces no\n(public) alarm, and which cannot be repeated.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt would therefore be better to cease to regard it as a crime, and to\nprovide that any one who attempted to kill himself, or who assisted any\nother person to do so, should be liable to secondary punishment.\u201d\n\nWhether it be true that the injury to survivors is generally small is,\nperhaps, open to question; especially in cases where the suicide is\nthe sole means for the maintenance of others, a wife and family, for\ninstance; in such a case, if suicide be not a crime, it is at least a\ncowardly neglect of duty.\n\nThe modern French view of the disabilities of suicide is shown by M.\u202fJ.\nTissot, in Le Droit Penal, 1860, vol. 2, p. 48; he discusses the aspect\nfrom which suicide should be viewed by law: \u201cthe penalties should be\nfixed with regard to justice, decency, and custom; they would not\nfulfil the first condition if they injured innocent survivors, nor the\nsecond if they tended to dishonour humanity by ill-treatment of the\nremains.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt should suffice to refuse an honourable funeral, the customary\nburial ceremonies; this punishment would be privative only. The citizen\nwho flees his country is not honoured in his departure.\u201d And in \u201cLa\nManie du Suicide,\u201d he says, \u201cthe funeral should be private, as if\nsociety, religion, and family, were blushing at the disgrace.\u201d\n\nFor ancient French laws on Suicide, see Laverdy, Code Penal, cxi., &c.\n\nIn the GERMAN Strafgesetzbuch, article 216, we find, \u201cIf a person\nis induced to kill another by the express and serious request of the\nperson killed, he shall be imprisoned for not less than three years,\nand not more than five years.\u201d\n\nNo mention is made of suicide proper, in old German codes.\n\nIn the BAVARIAN and SAXON Codes suicide is not mentioned: but up to\n1871, it was the Saxon law that the bodies of suicides should be sent\nto the schools of anatomy for dissection.\n\nIn the AUSTRIAN Code, there is a proviso that the suicide shall be\nburied by certain officials, but not in a churchyard.\n\nThe PRUSSIAN Code forbids any injury to the corpse; there are to be no\nmarks of respect at the funeral; if the suicide be committed to avoid\npunishment, the executioner is to bury the body.\n\nThe FRENCH Law is very remarkable; M. H\u00e9lie states it thus: \u201cLa loi n\u2019a\npoint incrimin\u00e9 le suicide. Le fait de complicit\u00e9 est il punissable? La\nnegative est evidente.\u201d\n\nIn the UNITED STATES suicide has never been a crime against statute\nlaw, nor have there ever been any burial barbarities in cases of\nsuicide; but any one accessory to a suicide is guilty of murder as a\nprincipal.\n\nThe ENGLISH DRAFT PENAL Code proposed to make the abetment of suicide\na special offence, subject to penal servitude for life, as a maximum\npunishment.\n\nThe attempt to commit suicide was to be punished by two years\u2019\nimprisonment with hard labour.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nCIVIL JURISPRUDENCE.\n\n\nThe civil branch of the jurisprudence of our subject is more complex\nthan the criminal. Life assurance companies naturally object to have to\npay sums of money for suicidal deaths, when these are proved to have\noccurred in persons who have never shown any mental derangement, and\nwho may have had reasons for providing a considerable sum of money for\ntheir families, even at the expense of forfeiting their own further\nconcern in this world. Such fraudulent suicides have taken place, just\nas some men have not hesitated to risk being judicially executed for\nmurder, committed to obtain sums of money and other valuables.\n\nOur English Judges have, unfortunately, not been unanimous in their\ndecisions respecting the forfeiture of insurances by voluntary death;\nand the assurance companies have further complicated the matter by\nthe insertion of peculiar clauses in their policies, and by using\nalternative phrases, meaning suicide, which the law courts have held to\ninfer different notions.\n\nIt has always been the custom to insert in policies of life assurance\nthe proviso that the death of the assured by suicide should render the\npolicy void. This was understood to mean that felo-de-se voided the\npolicy.\n\nBut it became the constant practice of Coroner\u2019s juries to find that\npersons who had been proved to have destroyed themselves were suffering\nfrom \u201ctemporary insanity\u201d: they thus avoided a verdict of felo-de-se;\nhence arose the necessity of an understanding whether or not \u201cSuicide\nwhilst insane\u201d did or did not vitiate a policy. In equity, of course,\nsuch a death should not do so, because the death occurs without the\nvoluntary determination of a healthy mind, and no one can contract\nhimself out of the possibility of some day losing his reason.\n\nThe difficulty might never have arisen, but for this unfortunate\nstraining of the word insanity to cover all cases of suicide.\n\nOn the Continent, in many States, this injudicious mode of regarding\nsuicides does not exist; when madmen kill themselves, their madness is\nregistered; and when persons whom no one has ever noticed to be unable\nto manage their affairs, and whose mental state has not been disturbed,\nuntil they have preferred death to life, on account of some loss or\nannoyance, their voluntary deaths are registered as such. In those\nstates unseemly squabbles between assurance companies and executors are\nquite rare.\n\nTo dispute and refuse payment, however, was found by the companies not\naltogether a profitable business, because such cases gave rise to much\ndiscussion and more misrepresentation, and the litigating company was\napt to be avoided by persons about to choose a company to insure with.\n\nSeveral cases which appeared to be attempts at fraud have been the\nsubject of investigation in courts of law. See reports of the suits of\nBorrodaile _v._ Hunter, 1841; Schwabe _v._ Clift, 1845; Isett _v._ The\nAmerican Insurance Company; and The St. Louis Insurance Company _v._\nGraves.\n\nIn the first case, a clergyman jumped off Vauxhall Bridge into the\nThames and was drowned; in his case the policy stated that it should\nbe avoided if the assured should \u201cdie by his own hands.\u201d At the trial,\nErskine, J., told the jury the policy must be void if the deceased\njumped into the water, intending to kill himself, and knowing that\nthis action would kill him; he also left it to them to say whether\nthe deceased could, at the time of his death, distinguish right from\nwrong. The jury became confused, for they found that the deceased threw\nhimself off with _intent_ to destroy himself, and also that he was\nnot capable of deciding right from wrong. The verdict was entered for\nthe defendants, that is, that deceased was felo-de-se. On Appeal, the\ncase was argued before four judges in 1843; they, however, differed in\nopinion; three judges held that it was felo-de-se, and one that the\nassured was temporarily insane, and that his death was due to an insane\nuncontrollable impulse.\n\nThis matter in dispute arose again in 1845 in the case of Schwabe\n_v._ Clift; the deceased drank sulphuric acid, and died, when clearly\ninsane. The jury returned a verdict of death during insanity, intending\nthereby to say that the policy should not be void. In this policy\nthe term used was \u201csuicide,\u201d and the judge, Cresswell, held that\nthis word meant felo-de-se. On appeal, this judgment was reversed,\nthe judges again differing; the majority held that the clause meant\n\u201cintentionally killing himself,\u201d whether in a reasonable state of mind\nor not; the minority were of opinion that disease of the senses, or\nthe reason, leading to suicide, was not intentional death, nor such as\nought to cause a forfeiture.\n\nThis decision of the judges was of great importance, and led the\ncompanies to alter the wording of their policies, for under the old\nsystem any one who in an attack of delirium during a fever, or after an\naccident, should jump out of a window and kill himself, would thereby\nforfeit his policy; the public could not put up with this dictum, which\nif law, is not the equity of the case.\n\nSome companies inserted clauses which provided for compromises of such\nclaims; others definitely stated that any voluntary death should avoid\na policy, but reserved to themselves the right to return a part of the\npolicy value, calculated up to the day of death.\n\nAt the present time, however, policies, which in theory are avoided by\nsuicide, are almost always practically paid by the companies, in full,\nor nearly so, unless there be any reason to suspect the existence of a\nfraudulent intention on the part of the assured.\n\nIt may be broadly stated that now, in 1885, the companies have almost\nall agreed to make assigned policies indisputable.\n\nThe following axioms will be found of great value:\u2500\n\n When the assured, being himself beneficially interested in the\n assurance, dies a felo-de-se, public policy requires that the contract\n be rendered void. And the same holds good of those who claim under\n the assured, should he have assigned it, whether for valuable\n consideration or not. Bunyon, p. 74.\n\n But when the assured is but the nominee of the assurer, and has no\n beneficial interest in the insurance, neither equity nor public policy\n require the insurance to be avoided; still, this point has not been\n judicially fixed. Pope, p. 351.\n\n When the suicide is insane, the policy is not avoided, unless by\n special condition of the policy. See Horn _v._ Anglo-Australian Ass.\n Co.\n\n A condition may be inserted that if the policy be assigned to a third\n person, and in favour of that assignee or those claiming under him,\n such shall not be void; and the Courts have decided that the insuring\n company may be the assignee. See White _v._ Brit. Emp. Ass. Co. 7\n L.\u202fR. Equity, 394.\n\n If a condition were inserted that the policy should not lapse, even if\n the assured killed himself when of sound mind, and when beneficially\n interested, it would be void in law from public policy.\n\n A condition supporting the insurance, in the event of suicide during\n insanity, whether the assured were beneficially interested or not,\n would not be void in law.\n\n A condition, avoiding the policy in case the assured should \u201ccommit\n suicide,\u201d \u201cdie by his own hand,\u201d or \u201cperish by his own hand,\u201d\n includes all cases of voluntary death, whether the person be sane or\n insane, and whether beneficially interested or not so. See Borrodaile\n _v._ Hunter; Clift _v._ Schwabe; Dufaur _v._ The Professional Ass. Co.\n\nFor more detailed information consult Bunyon, and Pope. (See\nBibliographical Index). See also the Appendix.\n\nI pass from life assurance to one or two other questions, which\nare sometimes raised by the occurrence of suicide. The records of\nEnglish Law will furnish numerous instances in which the existence\nof unsoundness of mind is not proved by the fact of subsequent\nself-destruction.\n\nThe point has mostly arisen for argument in cases where it is desired\nto set aside a marriage, on the ground that suicide quickly following\nmatrimony is evidence that there has been an absence of a sound mind,\nable to make a marriage contract; or when suicide has immediately\nfollowed the making of a will; in these cases also it has been argued\nthat the mere fact that suicide has taken place is proof of mental\ndisease, and conclusive reason for setting such a document aside.\n\nPersons desirous of full information on these topics should consult the\nreports of the cases here mentioned, viz.:\u2500\n\nMcAdam _v._ Walker, 1 Dow. P.C. 148; in this suit the marriage was\nupheld, although the bridegroom killed himself the same day.\n\nBurrows _v._ Burrows, 1 Hagg. Eccles. Rep. 109. In this case the will\nof the testator, who destroyed himself, was upheld, although the act\nwas committed only three days after signing the will.\n\nIn the suit of Chambers _v._ Queen\u2019s Proctor, 2 Curt. 415, the will\nwas held to be good, although suicide was committed the day after\nthe signature of the will, and notwithstanding that it was proved by\nevidence that the testator had suffered from delusions three days\nbefore death.\n\nSteed _v._ Calley, 1 Keen, 620, Regina _v._ Rumball, in 1843, and\nRegina _v._ Farley, in 1844, are other instances of the existence of\ninsanity not being held to be proved by subsequent suicide.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nPRESENT SUICIDE RATE AND INCREASE.\n\n\nIt is a matter of the greatest difficulty to obtain recent statistics\nof the actual numbers of suicides, either in our own country, or in the\nContinental States.\n\nEach nation has its own methods of obtaining these statistics, and its\nown modes of tabulation, and those variations render it very difficult\nto procure figures for comparison.\n\nBut beyond this hindrance to accuracy lies the deeper one, that\nwhatever may be the State under consideration, even when we have\nobtained the authentic numbers supplied by Government, we may rest\nassured that these numbers fall very far short of the actual totals.\nIn very many statistics in which scientific and medical men are\ninterested, they are only confronted by the difficulty of want of\naccuracy of observation, but in this matter to want of accuracy is\nadded intentional misrepresentation.\n\nRelations, friends, and I must add family doctors, will all frequently\ncombine to slur over the _self-done something_ which is the essence of\nthe death cause.\n\nBut, were it even possible to avoid this source of error, there are\nothers which also obscure our calculations; for example, of the total\nnumber of bodies found in our rivers, lakes, and ponds, and on the\nsea coast, a considerable number are never identified at all; and of\nthose which are identified, in a considerable number of cases more, no\nevidence will be forthcoming which will be sufficient to prove by what\nmeans the deceased got into the water.\n\nIt then becomes necessary either to provide a valueless column of\nfigures named \u201cFound Drowned,\u201d or else some official has to allot\nthe cases by sentiment to suicide, murder, or misadventure, at his\ndiscretion.\n\nAs a proof, if any be needed, of the necessary inaccuracy of estimates\nregarding suicide totals, and the proportion which drowning bears as\na means to the other means used, I add the numbers published in a\nParliamentary paper for 1882-83 of the dead bodies found in the Thames,\nin the Metropolitan district.\n\n  In 1882 there were found   284\n  In 1883   \u201e     \u201e    \u201e     260\n                             \u2500\u2500\u2500\n                  Together, 544 violent deaths.\n\nInquests were held on all these cases, and the best evidence obtainable\nwas produced.\n\n  The verdicts were\u2500\n\n  Accidental death in                           242 cases.\n  Wilful murder                                   2   \u201e\n  Suicide in                                     59   \u201e\n  Found drowned, _i.e._, no opinion offered in  241   \u201e\n\nAnd again, in a recent year, from a total of 40 corpses found in the\nRegent\u2019s Canal, in the London district, 22 were returned as \u201cCause of\ndeath not known\u201d; and of 46 corpses found in the River Lea, 19 were\nalso stated to have been \u201cFound Drowned.\u201d\n\nThe eminent authority, Brierre de Boismont, confesses, after a long\ninvestigation of some thousand suicides, purporting to be the total\nfor Paris for a certain number of years, as follows: \u201cOne may then,\nwithout any fear of being inaccurate, estimate the number of suicides\ncommitted, as almost double the number of suicides registered.\u201d\n\nThe following table will be found to give the latest calculations\nof the actual number of suicides per million of inhabitants in the\ndifferent European States; and will shew the estimated increase or\ndecrease during the stated number of preceding years.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n       \u2502                  \u2502 Number of  \u2502 Increase \u2502 Term\n  YEAR.\u2502     COUNTRY.     \u2502  Suicides  \u2502   per    \u2502  of\n       \u2502                  \u2502per Million.\u2502 Million. \u2502Years.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  1880 \u2502Portugal          \u2502     16     \u2502     3    \u2502   5\n  1880 \u2502Spain             \u2502     19     \u2502     2    \u2502   5\n  1883 \u2502Ireland           \u2502     24     \u2502     6    \u2502   5\n  1878 \u2502Russia and Finland\u2502     35     \u2502 Dec. 1\u00b72 \u2502   6\n  1881 \u2502Italy             \u2502     44     \u2502     7    \u2502   5\n  1881 \u2502Scotland          \u2502     48     \u2502    11    \u2502   5\n  1880 \u2502Holland           \u2502     51     \u2502Stationary\u2502  10\n  1882 \u2502England           \u2502     74     \u2502     7    \u2502  10\n  1875 \u2502Norway            \u2502     75     \u2502 Dec. 33  \u2502  13\n  1879 \u2502Belgium           \u2502     90     \u2502    22    \u2502   5\n  1877 \u2502Sweden            \u2502    101     \u2502    15    \u2502   5\n  1880 \u2502Bavaria           \u2502    102     \u2502    11    \u2502   5\n  1877 \u2502Austria           \u2502    144     \u2502    24    \u2502   3\n  1880 \u2502Hanover           \u2502    150     \u2502    10    \u2502   5\n  1877 \u2502Prussia           \u2502    168     \u2502    34    \u2502   4\n  1880 \u2502France            \u2502    216     \u2502    56    \u2502   5\n  1881 \u2502Switzerland       \u2502    240     \u2502    25    \u2502   5\n  1878 \u2502Denmark           \u2502    265     \u2502    32    \u2502   5\n  1878 \u2502Saxony            \u2502    469     \u2502   170    \u2502   5\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nIn an endeavour to make an accurate estimate of the suicide rate of\nthe various states, and the relative increase in the rates, we are met\nby the further difficulty that the periods of observation vary much\nin length; in Holland, for example, there was no formal collection of\nnumbers until 1869; on the other hand, in Sweden, the amount of suicide\nhas been estimated ever since 1750.\n\nAn enormous decrease may be observed in the figures relating to Norway;\nit may be due to the very stringent laws relating to intoxication, and\nto the regulations placed on the sale and consumption of alcoholic\ndrinks about twenty years ago.\n\nThe calculation of the averages of the various countries is\nperformed by the formula used by Professor Bodio: _x_ = 100 \u00d7\n(_a\u2032_\u2215_a_-1)^{1\u2215_n_}: in which _a\u00b4_ = the number of suicides in the\nlast year: _a_ = the number of suicides in the first year of the\nseries: and _n_ = the number of years of observation.\n\nThe following table from Legoyt is interesting, but the data are not so\nrecent as in the foregoing list, and hence do not coincide:\u2500\n\n TABLE showing the Difference in the Rates of Variation per cent.\n between Population and Suicide from 1865 to 1876.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n             \u2502           \u2502   Suicide.\n             \u2502Population.\u2502     \u2500\u2500\n   COUNTRY.  \u2502    \u2500\u2500     \u2502 Increase per\n             \u2502Variation. \u2502cent. on Total\n             \u2502           \u2502   Numbers.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  England    \u2502   14\u00b76    \u2502     27\u00b71\n  Austria    \u2502    9\u00b72    \u2502     66\u00b75\n  Bavaria    \u2502    5\u00b72    \u2502     18\u00b74\n  Belgium    \u2502    7\u00b70    \u2502     64\u00b74\n  Denmark    \u2502   12\u00b71    \u2502     12\u00b72\n  France     \u2502  A loss   \u2502     17\u00b73\n  Italy      \u2502   10\u00b75    \u2502     15\u00b71\n  Norway     \u2502    8\u00b71    \u2502     14\u00b73\n  Prussia    \u2502    6\u00b77    \u2502     49\u00b70\n  Russia     \u2502   11\u00b70    \u2502     47\u00b70\n  Saxony     \u2502   18\u00b78    \u2502     58\u00b74\n  Sweden     \u2502    7\u00b76    \u2502     24\u00b70\n  Switzerland\u2502    6\u00b75    \u2502     63\u00b76\n  Ireland    \u2502  A loss   \u2502 Stationary.\n  Finland    \u2502    5\u00b73    \u2502 Stationary.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nAs a general _r\u00e9sum\u00e9_ of the consideration of the amount of Suicide,\nit appears that the civilized States of Europe (with three exceptions)\nshow a gradual and uniform increase of Suicide rate; and that even\nsince the beginning of the century self-destruction has increased, and\nstill goes on increasing, more rapidly than the increase of population,\nand to a greater extent than the general death-rate.\n\nFrom a consideration of the general statistics of various countries\nestimated annually, with regard to actual numbers and percentage of\nSuicides, we conclude that like similar statistics applied to subjects\nof a totally unvolitional nature, they vary from year to year and from\ncountry to country. But the variations in the two classes, of voluntary\nand involuntary incidents, do not range together constantly; in fact,\nthe statistics of the continental observers seem to show that, if we\nclass together\n\n  Suicide             }\n  Homicide            } as VOLUNTARY ACTS,\n  Marriage            }\n                     and\n  Illegitimate Births }\n  Deaths              }  as INVOLUNTARY ACTS,\n  Accidental Deaths   }\n\nand compare a period of several years in several countries, the\ngreatest variations occur very rarely in suicide. Suicide, then,\nvaries less than Illegitimate Births, Deaths and Accidental Deaths.\nBirths have varied the least. It is a curious fact that illegitimate\nbirths, the general mortality, and accidental deaths, have often\noffered greater variations from the average, although the human will\nhas no power over them, than suicide, homicide, and marriages which are\nvoluntary actions.\n\nHence it has been argued, that social actions dependent on human\nvolition, varying as they do proportionally from year to year, do not\ndiffer from those observed in phenomena of a physiologic or organic\nnature. For a lengthened discussion on this subject, see Morselli,\nR\u00fcmelin, and Rhenisch: the former states, \u201cThe laws of social life are\nnot sufficiently known to enable us to attribute the variations in\nsuicide to one cause, such as human liberty, or free-will, different\nand opposite to those natural forces on which we make births and\ndeaths to depend; for we have no positive grounds for giving different\ninterpretations to similar phenomena, merely because variations appear\nin psychical facts.\u201d\u2500Il Suicidio.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nTHE CAUSATION OF SUICIDE.\n\n\nIn considering this portion of our subject we shall be assisted by\nanalogy, if we investigate the data of contributing causes, in a manner\nsimilar to that which is ordinarily pursued with regard to diseases, in\ntextbooks of medicine.\n\nI refer to the method of distributing these causes into two classes of\npredisposing influences, and exciting or determining causes.\n\nIt will be very necessary, however, to bear in mind that the onset of\na disease is generally of a nature quite removed from the influence of\nthe will; while, on the other hand, suicide is voluntary, the result\nof a distinct action, following a direct determination. It is the\ndetermination which is led up to by states of predisposition, whether\nthey be cosmic, racial, or mental.\n\nOne large class, perhaps one-third of all suicides, are of a different\nnature; these are the effect of an insane act; the predisposition is\nlunacy; the determining cause is a delusion, hallucination, mania, or\nepileptic nerve storm.\n\nThe group of influences which we shall consider as predisposing, must\nin the case of insane suicides be considered as the predisposing\ncauses of the unsoundness of mind.\n\nAnd, again, the causes denoted as exciting, in these pages, are also\nthe exciting causes of the insanity in most cases. From this point of\nview, the fact of Suicide is only an incident occurring in Lunacy.\n\nThe various forms of insanity, and their influence in promoting\nsuicide, their treatment, and the means of avoiding the fatal act, will\nbe referred to, later on.\n\nM. Casimir Broussais, in his work \u201cHygi\u00e8ne Morale,\u201d divides the causes\nthus:\u2500\n\nA. Circumstances independent of the will.\n\nB. Voluntary causes.\n\nIn Class A. he recounts: individual organisation, heredity, sex, age,\nstate of health, or disease, country, climate, seasons, historical\nepochs.\n\nIn Class B. he places employment, education, misery, loss of fortune,\ngambling, disappointed love, jealousy, domestic troubles, calumny,\nwounded self-love, failure of ambition, remorse, religious and\npolitical fanaticism, imitation.\n\nM. Tissot, in his treatise on our subject, proposes the following\narrangement of the causes of suicide:\n\n 1. Remote negative causes, such are want of religion and want of\n morality.\n\n 2. Remote positive causes; either physiological, moral, or physical.\n\n 3. Proximate physical causes.\n\n 4. Proximate moral causes, either public or personal.\n\nBut he adds, \u201cmany of these causes act concurrently; it is indeed rare\nnot to find this to be the case.\u201d\n\nIn Class 2 he places: Physiological, the power of reflection. Moral:\nidleness, bad company, gambling, debauchery, theatrical plays, evil\nimaginings, evil literature; and Physical: insanity, hypochondriasis,\nennui, nostalgia, alcoholism, celibacy, with such data as climate, age,\ntemperament, heredity.\n\nTo Class 3 he allots bodily diseases, pain, misery, privation, slavery,\nloss of fortune, fear of punishment, and envy.\n\nIn Class 4, under personal, he places, offended vanity, despair,\nremorse, suicide to expiate a fault, suicide to secure virtue or\npersonal purity or honour, impatience to obtain the future life, and\nthe vanity of dying for nothing. Under public causes he classes suicide\nto save public honour of a government, to avenge the disgrace of one\u2019s\ncountry, to defend the honour of others, and suicide in despair of the\nstate of public affairs.\n\nDespine, in his Natural Psychology, vol. iii., pp. 74-132, divides\nInsane Suicides into four series:\n\n I.\u2500Death occurs from an act proposed by the delusion of delirium; as\n if a man should jump off a high place thinking he is able to fly.\n (Delirium.)\n\n II.\u2500Self-destruction from Lypemania, producing a state of such\n sorrow and fear that the sentiment of attachment to life is lost.\n (Melancholia.)\n\n III.\u2500Suicide is performed to obtain death, simply from the desire to\n die. (Suicidal Monomania.)\n\n IV.\u2500The sufferer is caused by his malady to be violent and to destroy\n someone, either himself or others. (Acute Mania.)\n\nHe then proceeds to study suicides, in persons of healthy mind, \u201csous\nl\u2019influence d\u2019un cerveau sain.\u201d It is determined by passions which\narise from noble and generous sentiments, whilst homicide depends on\negotistical and perverse passions. He divides into three series the\npassions determining suicide:\n\n I.\u2500Those occurring during rage or violent passion, incompatible with\n free will.\n\n II.\u2500In such a psychical state, that the man morally free, does not\n decide by free-will. Placed between two modes of action, imposed on\n him by circumstances; and of which one is so repugnant to his feelings\n that he takes the other which is less repugnant, viz., suicide.\n\n III.\u2500In the state of moral liberty, in which the man decides on his\n action by his free will.\n\nHe then gives as causes, despair, ennui, alcoholism, religion, loss of\nhonour, to escape execution, misery, self-sacrifice, and stoicism.\n\nThe older authors on Suicide only viewed it from a narrative and\nsentimental point of view, and it is only of late years that it has\nbeen the object of any scientific research; but now that a study of\nsuicide, as a fact, has been instituted, it has fallen almost entirely\ninto a statistical groove, to the neglect of research into the mental\nstate and emotions of the unfortunate individuals who become victims.\nSuicide is an individual act, and this point is in danger of being\nlost sight of in a too absorbing study of general principles.\n\nMost copious and elaborate investigations have been made into the\nproportional intensity of cosmic, telluric, climatic, and racial\nstates, as causes of Suicide, to the neglect of the fact that men and\nwomen are not simply automatons, and that mental and moral causes act\nin different fashions on different minds more certainly than data\nof temperature, geological formation, and position of the sun. Than\nMorselli, no man has contributed more information on the subject of\nSuicide; but he is so far led on by his devotion to figures, that\nhe actually assigns as a cause of suicide and as a factor in its\nprevalence, the relative position of the Sun and Earth, the alternating\nstates of Aphelion and Perihelion!\n\nI am under great obligation to continental observers, for in the\nensuing pages I quote frequently from their statistics, viz., from\n\u0152ttingen, Wagner, Falret, Quetelet, Brierre de Boismont, Drobisch,\nLegoyt, Lisle, and from Morselli of Turin, who supplies the most recent\ndata.\n\nAmong predisposing influences will be mentioned, the effects of race,\nreligion, education, and morality; together with those of climate, and\nthe geographical peculiarities of a country.\n\nThe varying proportions exhibited by the differences of age, sex, and\nsocial condition; the effects of town as compared with country life,\nand the special characteristics of the military and naval services, and\nof prison life, will be described.\n\nIn respect to social life, mention will be found of the states of\ncelibacy, matrimony, and widowed life; and also some special reference\nto suicide in childhood.\n\nIn our consideration of determining causes we shall be guided by the\nscheme of tabulation in use in many continental states, because it\naffords a better means of comparison between the several data, than\nif any independent arrangement were suggested. This scheme divides\nthese final causes into three main classes, of mental diseases, bodily\ndiseases, and moral or immoral motives, as follows:\n\n A.\u2500Mental Affections. _See special Chapter_; including Insomnia,\n Spiritualism, suicides caused by Imitation, and desire of Notoriety.\n\n B.\u2500Bodily diseases; Incurable diseases; pain, Alcoholism, Morphia\n habit, and the effect of Hereditary predisposition.\n\n C.\u2500T\u00e6dium vit\u00e6, nostalgia, etc.\n\n D.\u2500Violence of the passions; jealousy, anger, avarice, disappointed\n love, spite.\n\n E.\u2500Effect of the Vices; libertinism, onanism, drunkenness.\n\n F.\u2500Domestic trouble, and anguish of the affections; loss of relatives,\n deluded hopes, dissensions at home, want of children.\n\n G.\u2500Financial losses; loss of employment, gambling, loss of law suits.\n\n H.\u2500Misery, want of home and food, and fear of such want.\n\n I.\u2500Fear, shame, and remorse; seduction, unmarried pregnancy, the\n haunting of a criminal\u2019s conscience.\n\n J.\u2500Despair; this class is made to include unknown causes; to which may\n be added:\n\n K.\u2500Honourable motives, yet misdirecting conduct.\n\nBeyond all the predispositions, and states of disease, as causes of a\nvoluntary death, follow the consideration of the less tangible, but\nterribly effectual moral motives, which have been briefly tabulated.\nVolumes have been, and might still be written on the disastrous\neffects of ungoverned passions, and ill-regulated desires, and their\nconsequences, guilt and shame, remorse and terror.\n\nVolumes also might be contributed on the allied subjects of the misery\nand pain, always present with us, and near us, and which but few of\nus wholly escape contact with, or sharing. In these pages we must be\ncontent with a notice of only the most frequent of those troubles.\n\nAs before observed, the suicides of eminent men in ancient history were\nusually brought about by motives more or less honourable, if mistaken,\nbut practically, in our times, the final causes of the act are of a\nless elevated character.\n\nIf we except the case of lunatics under protection, among whom the\nproportion of suicides is small, from the care with which they are\nwatched, and the case of those in whom insanity bursts forth suddenly,\nand without any warning, the catalogue of motives given above will be\nfound practically almost complete.\n\nBrierre de Boismont gives the following classification of 4,595 cases\nwhich occurred in France, assigning the mental or moral determining\ncauses.\n\nBut it is obvious that these tables must be taken _cum grano salis_,\nbecause of the impossibility of discovering in every case the true\nmotive, and because of the coincidence of several causes in many\ninstances.\n\n  652 Lunatics, about one-seventh of all cases.\n  405 Other diseases of body, incurable, or with intolerable pain.\n  530 Alcoholism.\n  361 Domestic troubles.\n  311 Sorrow, disappointment.\n  134 Remorse, and fear of the law.\n  306 Disappointed love.\n  237 Ennui.\n  277 Reverses of fortune, and cupidity.\n  282 Poverty and misery.\n   55 Delirium of acute diseases.\n   44 Gambling.\n   43 Want of occupation.\n   26 Pride and vanity; notoriety.\n   56 Indolence.\n  145 Hypochondriac and hysterical.\n   54 Jealousy.\n  121 Misconduct.\n  556 Motive unknown.\n\nKolb, J.\u202fF., in his work on the \u201cCondition of Nations,\u201d gives the\nfollowing Table of Causation in respect to French Suicides; in a recent\nyear, 79 per cent. were males, and 21 per cent. were females.\n\nFrom a total of 5,922 suicides, 1,794 were caused by mental disorders,\n855 domestic troubles, 837 bodily diseases and pain, 701 alcoholism,\n688 poverty and misery, 235 violence of the passions, 229 remorse, and\nfear of the law, and 583 from motives unclassed.\n\nOf 6,782 cases observed by Falret, the following proportions were\ncalculated by him: Caused by misery 1\u22157, loss of fortune 1\u221521, gambling\n1\u221543, love affairs 1\u221519, domestic troubles 1\u22159, fanaticism 1\u221566,\ncalumny, wounded self-love, and failed ambition 1\u22157, remorse 1\u221527.\n\nNo attempt on a large scale has ever been made to tabulate English\ncases, as to causation.\n\nThe following Table arranged by M. Lisle, has never been equalled, for\ncompleteness, and for the large number of cases included in its scope.\n\n\nFRENCH SUICIDES.\u2500_Lisle._\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                 CAUSES.                   \u2502  Male.  \u2502 Female. \u2502  TOTAL.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Misery                                   \u2502  2,355  \u2502    587  \u2502  2,942\n  Debts, business embarrassments           \u2502  2,809  \u2502    195  \u2502  3,004\n  Gambling                                 \u2502    157  \u2502      1  \u2502    158\n  Loss of employment                       \u2502    237  \u2502     26  \u2502    263\n  Loss of law-suits                        \u2502    137  \u2502     19  \u2502    156\n  Other losses                             \u2502    332  \u2502     59  \u2502    391\n  Fear of poverty                          \u2502    264  \u2502     55  \u2502    319\n  Reverse of fortune                       \u2502    280  \u2502     45  \u2502    325\n  Regret for loss of fortune               \u2502     63  \u2502     17  \u2502     80\n  Unrealised hope of fortune               \u2502     53  \u2502     12  \u2502     65\n  Nostalgia                                \u2502     26  \u2502      -  \u2502     26\n  Loss of children, position, &c.          \u2502    373  \u2502    193  \u2502    566\n  Bad conduct and ingratitude of children  \u2502    137  \u2502     74  \u2502    211\n  Sorrow for absent children               \u2502     20  \u2502     20  \u2502     40\n  Sorrow for absence from family           \u2502     35  \u2502     16  \u2502     51\n  Sorrow of children for ill-treatment     \u2502    159  \u2502     72  \u2502    231\n  Parental squabbles                       \u2502    110  \u2502     26  \u2502    136\n  Jealousy between members of a family     \u2502     19  \u2502      7  \u2502     26\n  Other domestic troubles                  \u2502  3,355  \u2502  1,242  \u2502  4,597\n  Disappointed love                        \u2502    938  \u2502    627  \u2502  1,565\n  Jealousy                                 \u2502    229  \u2502    118  \u2502    347\n  Pregnancy, unmarried                     \u2502      -  \u2502    239  \u2502    239\n  Disgust with marriage                    \u2502     35  \u2502     18  \u2502     53\n  Remorse                                  \u2502    190  \u2502     77  \u2502    267\n  Idleness                                 \u2502     76  \u2502      4  \u2502     80\n  Debauchery                               \u2502  1,569  \u2502    233  \u2502  1,802\n  Drunkenness                              \u2502    656  \u2502     82  \u2502    738\n  Habitual roguery                         \u2502  2,105  \u2502    359  \u2502  2,464\n  Disgust with social position             \u2502     68  \u2502      9  \u2502     77\n  Desire to avoid legal pursuit            \u2502  1,741  \u2502    365  \u2502  2,106\n  Desire to avoid execution of judgment    \u2502    383  \u2502     21  \u2502    204\n  Desire to avoid military duty            \u2502    266  \u2502      -  \u2502    266\n  Desire to avoid calumny                  \u2502     37  \u2502     27  \u2502     64\n  Desire to avoid pain                     \u2502  3,522  \u2502  1,165  \u2502  4,687\n  Disgust of life                          \u2502  1,547  \u2502    374  \u2502  1,921\n  Hypochondria                             \u2502    640  \u2502    211  \u2502    851\n  Disgust of military life                 \u2502    214  \u2502      -  \u2502    214\n  Reproaches of employers                  \u2502    106  \u2502     41  \u2502    147\n  Sorrow for loss of situation             \u2502     53  \u2502     24  \u2502     77\n  Rivalry in business                      \u2502      8  \u2502      -  \u2502      8\n  Insanity, general                        \u2502  6,744  \u2502  3,982  \u2502 10,726\n  Insanity, partial, or monomania          \u2502    603  \u2502    244  \u2502    847\n  Idiocy                                   \u2502    510  \u2502    307  \u2502    817\n  Cerebral congestion                      \u2502    504  \u2502    177  \u2502    681\n  Passion                                  \u2502     51  \u2502     17  \u2502     68\n  Political excitement                     \u2502     34  \u2502      -  \u2502     34\n  Religious fears                          \u2502     40  \u2502     28  \u2502     68\n  Suicide after crime                      \u2502    299  \u2502     28  \u2502    327\n  Unknown cause                            \u2502  5,121  \u2502  1,354  \u2502  6,745\n                                           \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                                           \u2502 39,302  \u2502 12,824  \u2502 52,126\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nRACE, GEOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCES, AND CLIMATE.\n\n\nThe inhabitants of the majority of countries are not at the present\ntime so unique racially, as was probably the case at an earlier date.\nRaces of men have spread themselves to contiguous lands, and have\nemigrated to other tracts of country; so that it is now much the\nreverse of usual to find a nation composed of any one race, or even\nof a very preponderating majority of one stock. The more nearly,\nhowever, that a state is thus constituted, the more obvious appears the\nfact that each race of men has a certain underlying \u201cspecial rate of\nsuicide.\u201d\n\nThis rate, I say, underlies all the variations exhibited by the various\nportions of that race; which may be due to Climate, Religion, Morals,\nor Education.\n\nThe idea of a real Specific Ethnic Rate of Suicide is, I believe, due\nto Wagner of Berlin; and the more the subject has been examined, the\nmore obvious the conclusion appears.\n\nIt may be compared to that principle adopted by modern chemists, that\nevery elementary body has a definite specific rate of gravity; and\nindeed the simile may be carried farther still, for as the chemist\nby combining his elements can prepare a new body, having a different\nspecific gravity rate, dependent on the rates of the original elements;\nso a country composed of a mixture of two races, exhibits a \u201cSuicide\nRate\u201d different from the special rates of the constituent races, and\nintermediate between them.\n\nAlthough it may not be practicable to prove these statements by a\ndirect appeal to figures, because no case can be produced which is\nnot, at any rate to some extent, complicated by considerations of a\ncollateral nature, but yet the more deeply the matter is investigated\nthe more true it will be found to appear. The statistics collected by\nWagner and by \u0152ttingen may be consulted in this connection.\n\nThe changes of rate produced by Race mingling can be studied, not only\nin countries where the process has been going on for centuries, but\nalso in respect to recent movements of men. When Europeans emigrate,\nthey are found to carry with them to their new home their peculiarities\nin regard to Suicide: the several races of Germans have a high rate\nat home, and on examination of the records of a country peopled by\nemigration, of New York, for instance, we find that the Germans there\nkill themselves more often than the Anglo-Saxon element, which has\nin its home a low suicide rate. During the year 1883, in New York\nthere were 151 cases, of these no less than 70 were Germans; now the\nproportion of Germans in New York is certainly not seven-fifteenths of\nthe population.\n\nThe Negro races in their original homes shew an avoidance of voluntary\ndeath, and they carry this characteristic with them into other lands:\nin the United States the relative proportion between the number of\nsuicides, in coloured and white men, is about one to eighty.\n\nThe rate of suicide observable in a race is seen to be curiously\nassociated with stature; the original inhabitants of Germany were tall\nand fair; these had originally a high rate, and descendants of this\nrace shew the same peculiarity to-day. In proportion as these fair tall\nGermans infiltrate another country, just as certainly does the suicidal\ntotal grow. Morselli states that in Italy the rate increases from south\nto north, gradually, in proportion as the stature also increases, until\nthe German states are reached. There is, however, another tall fair\nrace, who have a low rate, the Slavonic; on the eastern borders of\nHungary where these immigrate, the Hungarian rates are lowered.\n\nIn Europe the highest proportion of suicide is shewn by the Germanic\nraces, and the two stocks, German and Scandinavian, divide the\nsupremacy for the maximum rate.\n\nThe ne plus ultra of German purity in race is found in Saxony, and this\nkingdom has the largest suicide ratio of any country.\n\nThe height of Scandinavian purity in race is found in Denmark, and\nthere also the ratio is very large, enormous, in fact: in Norway the\nrate was for very long also extreme, but the great severity of recent\nlaws with respect to offences and to drunkenness have made an almost\nincredible reduction in the amount of suicide.\n\nOur British population is of too mixed a blood to enable statistics to\nshow much of value; but the ratio is much smaller in the Anglo-Saxon\nthan in the German.\n\nThe Celtic races avoid suicide, as is seen by the low rates in Ireland\nand Wales.\n\nThe races of Slavonic origin show the lowest rates, with those of\nAsiatic Turanian origin, the Magyars, Finns, and Lapps.\n\n\nCLIMATE AND GEOGRAPHICAL DATA.\n\nThe extremes of heat and cold seem to tend to a low rate. In Europe\nthe highest rates are found in the central and upper two-thirds of the\nnorth temperate zone; the maximum being at about 50\u00b0 lat.\n\nThe countries of the west and the south of Europe give the minimum\nproportions.\n\nThe principal suicide area of Europe is a zone lying from the north of\nFrance to the east of Germany, with two foci, viz., the country around\nand including Paris, at a rate of 330 per million of inhabitants, and\nthe kingdom of Saxony, at a rate of 469 per million. Compare with\nthese very high numbers the proportions shown by regions lying more to\nthe south: viz., Calabria, 9; Portugal, 16; Sardinia, 13; Spain, 19;\nand Sicily, 18 per million. Leaving this central European area, and\nadvancing to the north, we again reach territories where lower rates\nare found to prevail, although not so low as those of the Mediterranean\ncoast. While Scotland has a rate of 48, Ireland\u2019s proportion is even\nmuch less, about 24. Finland has a low rate, and so has Northern\nRussia, 35 per million inhabitants.\n\nMountainous countries show a lower rate than lowlands; the Highlands of\nScotland and Wales give a ratio only half that of England.\n\nIn the mountain cantons of Switzerland self-destruction is almost\nunheard of.\n\nThe amount of suicide varies considerably in the several counties of\nEngland; it has in many years happened that Rutland and Westmoreland\nhave shown a very high rate; but this may possibly be due to their very\nsmall size rendering the comparison unfair.\n\nDr. J.\u202fN. Radcliffe, some years ago now, took the pains to calculate\nthe rate per million for each county, from the Registrar\u2019s returns; he\ngives the following as the counties having the highest rates:\u2500\n\nThe London area: Middlesex, 105; Kent, 97; Surrey, 95; and Sussex, 89\nper million inhabitants.\n\nThe Midland area: Leicester, 89; Lincoln, 87; Nottingham, 87; Warwick,\n77; and Derby, 80.\n\nThe Northern area: Westmoreland, 99; Cumberland, 86; Lancaster, 70; and\nChester, 70 per million.\n\nVery large proportions follow the great Rivers of Europe, especially\nthe Po, Seine, Loire, Rhone, Oder, Rhine, Elbe, Thames, and the Scheldt\nin Belgium.\n\nOn Marshes, Salt Marshes, and lands low lying and liable to floods,\nthe ratio is much less, as in Holland and on the Landes in France.\nBut we shall, I think, be justified in considering that it is not the\nriver that has caused the suicides, nor the marsh that has made them\nfew; the truth no doubt is that the marsh has rendered the people few,\nand simple in habit, whilst rivers, the oldest means of locomotion,\ninvited settlers, and settlers made town after town, and then a city on\neach river, and multitudes grew, and as some few became wealthy, the\nmillions became permanently in want.\n\nMontesquieu, with whom suicide was a favourite study, called England\nthe \u201cLand of Suicide,\u201d from its fogs and damp, dark, cold climate,\nbut he was wrong; even at that time France had a heavier voluntary\ndeath-rate. Over and above which our suicides cluster in preference\nround our summer months, and not our foggy ones, to which fall our\nheaviest ordinary death-rates.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nEDUCATION, RELIGION, AND MORALS.\n\n\nQuite closely connected with the consideration of these influences,\nare others partly dependent on them, the manners and customs of a\npopulation, the extent of civilisation, and education, and their\nreligious and moral state. The manners and customs are to a great\nextent peculiar to each race, while the members of each race are all\napt to take on an amount of civilisation by means of education, which\nvaries in a quite indefinite manner. No amount of argument or inquiry\nseems, however, to invalidate the statement that a preponderant rate\nof suicide, and a high rate of madness exist in countries the farthest\nadvanced in our modern ideas of civilization, and in education, and in\nmodern modes of thought.\n\nThe intensely complicated state of modern society lays ambushes for\nus of myriads of dangers, difficulties, annoyances, illnesses, and\nworries, which to the denizen of a savage country are entirely unknown.\nThat the influence of modern education is to increase the suicide-rate\nis proved by statistics of many sorts; from tables of the percentage\namongst those \u201cable to read and write,\u201d and the reverse; from the\nconscription tables of France and Italy, and from the fact that those\ncountries which possess the higher standard of general culture, furnish\nthe largest contingent of voluntary deaths, other data being equal, or\nallowed for.\n\nM. Brouc, indeed, went so far, many years ago, as to affirm that, given\nthe number of persons in the public schools of a country, he could\ndeduce the number of suicides which took place there annually.\n\nI subjoin a comparison between the percentage of population at school\nand the suicide rate in Italy, tabulated by Morselli:-\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                      \u2502  Scholars per  \u2502  Suicides per\n          \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500        \u2502    Hundred     \u2502    Million\n                      \u2502  Inhabitants.  \u2502  Inhabitants.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  1863-64             \u2502      5\u00b744      \u2502     27\u00b72\n  1865-66             \u2502      5\u00b759      \u2502     28\u00b77\n  1867-68             \u2502      6\u00b705      \u2502     31\u00b70\n  1869-70             \u2502      6\u00b706      \u2502     27\u00b75\n  1871-72             \u2502      6\u00b744      \u2502     32\n  1873-74             \u2502      6\u00b780      \u2502     36\u00b75\n  1875-76             \u2502      7\u00b715      \u2502     35\u00b73\n  1877                \u2502      7\u00b745      \u2502     40\u00b76\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nThe same effect is exhibited by tables showing the relative numbers of\nnewspapers published in each State; the more numerous these are, the\nhigher the voluntary death-rate; and in States where the literature\nis of the higher type, scientific and critical, we find, _mutatis\nmutandis_, a higher rate than where the journals simply contain news\nand politics.\n\nBrierre de Boismont gives a classification of 4,595 French suicides, in\nrespect to education; a _r\u00e9sum\u00e9_ follows:\u2500\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n            \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500              \u2502 Male.   \u2502 Female. \u2502  TOTAL.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Well instructed             \u2502    467  \u2502    106  \u2502    573\n  Read and write well         \u2502    601  \u2502    188  \u2502    789\n  Read, but write ill         \u2502  1,145  \u2502    511  \u2502  1,656\n  Read, but do not write      \u2502      1  \u2502      2  \u2502      3\n  Illiterate                  \u2502     36  \u2502     29  \u2502     65\n  Data unknown                \u2502    969  \u2502    540  \u2502  1,509\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nIn respect to England, the Report of the Registrar General for 1880\ncontains a statement, which I subjoin, of the effect of education on\nthe proportion of voluntary deaths, calculated on the averages of the\nten years 1869-78, with regard to the numbers of adults who were able\nto sign their names in the marriage registers.\n\n    Counties where 27%    } 57\u00b75 million of\n  were unable to sign the }    inhabitants.\n  register                }\n\n    Counties where less   } 69\u00b72 per million of\n  than 27% but more       }    inhabitants.\n  than 17% were unable    }\n\n    Counties where less   } 80\u00b72 per million of\n  than 17% were unable    }    inhabitants.\n\nBut, on the other hand, the proportions of crime against the person\nwere the lowest on record, and the better educated counties showed the\nminimum.\n\nThe rule that suicide rate increases with the amount of education is\nmore generally observed than almost any other tendency which we have\nto consider; and it is probably an accurate statement without any\nreservation; however unpalatable such a dictum may be, I am not aware\nof any state where the reverse holds good. The general opinion has\nalways been that this rule is only true when the form of education is\nfaulty; the pages of many authors will show the argument that secular\nknowledge must be judiciously combined with religious teaching, or\nelse such a result may appear; but the facts seem to lead us to the\nawkward dilemma, that either the religious teaching is seldom duly\nadministered, or else that even piety is unavailing as a deterrent.\nProphets have not been lacking for several years past, who have never\nceased to warn us that our present system of removing Christian\nteaching from the necessary curriculum of our public schools, will\ninevitably increase crime and suicide in the rising generation.\n\nAnd I fear there can be no doubt that this coming generation will show\na higher rate, but whether the diminution of religious instruction will\nbe the cause, will be open to question.\n\nPersonally, and speaking with reference to the masses of the\npopulation, I think it is likely to cause such an increase; because,\nalthough it may be preferable for well-educated men and women to\nconfess to honest doubt, in preference to acquiescence in a form\nof faith which they cannot heartily hold; still, in minds of less\ndevelopment, for whom a thorough education is impossible, greater\nstability of character is ensured by an early inculcated religious\nconviction of the sanctity of life, and an idea of the duty of waiting\non Providence to guide our concerns.\n\n\nTHE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION.\n\nIt is impossible to deny that, in respect to the influence of religion\non the proportions of suicide in Europe, the maximum rate constantly\nfalls to Protestant States, to the Roman Catholic next, then the Greek\nChurch, and, lastly, the minimum falls to the Jews.\n\nAn average, estimated from a large collection of numbers by Morselli,\nshows that the ratio is 58 per million in Catholic States, 190 per\nmillion in Protestant States, and in the Greek Church 40 per million;\nbut the low suicide rate of the Slavonic races renders conclusions\nas to the Greek Church most unreliable; but it seems to the author\nthat this is not an accurate deduction from the relative numbers, the\nproportion allotted to Protestant countries being much too high.\n\nLegoyt gives Catholics 62, Protestants 102, Greek Church 36, Jews 48,\nand this seems an estimate more near the truth. Curiously enough,\nCatholics far exceed Protestants in the statistics of total crime in\nall countries.\n\nWith regard to the Jews, we are met by the difficulty of the\ncoincidence of race and religion, in the most marked form the world\nhas ever seen. The Jews are undoubtedly more liable to lunacy than\nare Christians; in Bavaria, for example, there is one lunatic to 908\nCatholics, 967 Protestants, and 514 Jews.\n\nHistory renders it quite certain that in the days of Jewish purity, and\nin the time of the kings up to the Babylonish captivity, the number\nof suicides was very small. Self-destruction is not even mentioned in\nthe Pentateuch as a crime; it was apparently thought that the command,\n\u201cthou shall not kill,\u201d obviously included it.\n\nIn later days the number increased; after the close of Old Testament\nhistory, when the Jews became more mixed with other nations, it became\ncommon. Many killed themselves in the Roman siege of Jerusalem, as\nJosephus narrates; in 1521, forty Jews were imprisoned in France,\ndoubtless for purposes of extortion; they all killed themselves [Contes\nde Guillaume de Nangis, p. 96]. And although many Jews put an end to\ntheir existence during the times of terrible persecution of the Middle\nAges, notably 1200-1400, they have always preserved a reputation\nthroughout Europe for contempt of suffering, and for the avoidance of\nself-destruction.\n\nComing now to the present day once more, I introduce here a Table,\ncompiled chiefly from Italian and German sources, which shows the\ncomparative suicide rates, in juxtaposition to the comparative\nproportions of Catholic and Protestant inhabitants; it is very\nsuggestive, and calls for a few words respecting the Protestant\nReligion. Compare Morselli, Influenze Sociali, p. 218.\n\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n              \u2502                        \u2502        \u2502 Catholics \u2502Protestants\n              \u2502                        \u2502Suicides\u2502    per    \u2502    per\n     \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500     \u2502       COUNTRY.         \u2502  per   \u2502 Thousand  \u2502 Thousand\n              \u2502                        \u2502Million \u2502    of     \u2502    of\n              \u2502                        \u2502        \u2502Inhabitants\u2502Inhabitants\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n             {\u2502Spain                   \u2502   19   \u2502    999    \u2502     1\n   Catholic  {\u2502Portugal                \u2502   16   \u2502    999    \u2502     1\n   Countries {\u2502Italy                   \u2502   44   \u2502    995    \u2502     2\n             {\u2502Belgium                 \u2502   90   \u2502    996    \u2502     4\n             {\u2502France                  \u2502  216   \u2502    982    \u2502    16\n              \u2502                        \u2502        \u2502           \u2502\n     Mixed   {\u2502Ireland                 \u2502   24   \u2502    757    \u2502    234\n   Catholics {\u2502Bavaria                 \u2502  102   \u2502    713    \u2502    275\n    prevail  {\u2502Lower Alsace            \u2502  130   \u2502    642    \u2502    322\n             {\u2502Baden                   \u2502  157   \u2502    648    \u2502    331\n              \u2502                        \u2502        \u2502           \u2502\n             {\u2502Holland, South          \u2502   50   \u2502    367    \u2502    613\n     Mixed   {\u2502Prussia                 \u2502  168   \u2502    331    \u2502    651\n  Protestants{\u2502Holland, North          \u2502   54   \u2502    278    \u2502    663\n    prevail  {\u2502Wurtemburg              \u2502  172   \u2502    304    \u2502    687\n             {\u2502Black Forest            \u2502  160   \u2502    259    \u2502    736\n             {\u2502Oldenburgh              \u2502  200   \u2502    228    \u2502    764\n              \u2502                        \u2502        \u2502           \u2502\n             {\u2502Swiss Protestant Cantons\u2502  279   \u2502    68     \u2502    922\n             {\u2502England                 \u2502   74   \u2502    53     \u2502    946\n  Protestant {\u2502Hanover                 \u2502  150   \u2502    29     \u2502    960\n   Countries {\u2502Saxony                  \u2502  469   \u2502    21     \u2502    976\n             {\u2502Denmark                 \u2502  265   \u2502     1     \u2502    999\n             {\u2502Sweden                  \u2502  101   \u2502     0     \u2502   1,000\n             {\u2502Norway                  \u2502   75   \u2502     0     \u2502   1,000\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nThe Protestant Religion, more than any other, is the Religion of\nIdea; Faith, Hope, and Charity, all ideals, are its aims; it refuses\nall material assistance; neither image, nor cross, nor beads, is an\nessential.\n\nThe Protestant is taught to educate his consciousness, and is\nresponsible alone for his own actions; he cannot lean on the reed of\ncomfort from Masses, or on the idea that a confession of his sins to a\npriest absolves him from the result of them.\n\nProtestantism tends to develop individual research into its doctrines,\nself-reflection, and inward communings with one\u2019s consciousness.\n\nMysterious and sublime dogma is the object of contemplation, with the\nintention that such idealism shall bring forth fruit as good actions.\n\nThis system, so grand and overpowering is, it appears, liable to\nderange weak minds, especially when by neglecting a due share of\ntaking one\u2019s own worldly responsibilities, such aspire to be devotees,\ninspired by the highest ideals, but declining to translate good\nintentions into good deeds, and the active exercise of charity, and\nduty to their neighbours.\n\nThe extraordinary lateral offshoots of the church, which are seen at\nintervals, the various forms of Revivalism, and the proceedings of the\nSalvation Army, are all to a certain extent mischievous; although they\nare, no doubt, productive of some benefit to those who still remain in\ngross ignorance and vice. Yet such violent temporary ebullitions of\ntheological activity do certainly unhinge men\u2019s minds, and do foster\na higher suicide rate. The more permanent, but less violent, waves\nof change in religious matters do more good, and at the same time\nless harm; I refer to the alternating popularity of such forms as\nEvangelicalism and Ritualism. Almost all sudden changes, especially in\nfaith and violent emotions, are harmful.\n\nIn general, as a result of the sum of religious statistics, too\nnumerous and voluminous for quotation here, we may generalise and\nsay that Catholics incline to suicide through madness, following\ntheir vices, while Protestants fly to suicide as relief from domestic\ntroubles, monetary anxieties, remorse for wasted opportunities, and\nregret for the absence of hoped for results; they are also more liable\nthan Catholics to suicide following religious mania.\n\nExtravagances in religion are sometimes a symptom of madness; at\nothers, extravagances in religion lead to madness in enfeebled minds.\n\n\nMORALITY.\n\nThe morals of a state cannot fail to have a deep and lasting effect\non the amount of crime and madness, and hence on the suicide rate.\nBut it is by no means easy to prove by statistics the actual rate of\ninfluence; the social customs and modes of life are so very various,\nand the different laws of each state with regard to moral sins are so\ndifferent. At the same time it cannot be denied that several important\nnations, among whom the virtues of social family life are specially\nstudied, have a very high suicide rate, such as the Germans and Danes.\n\nThe average of suicide is found generally to run hand in hand with that\nof the ratio of total crime. Crime has increased for many years in all\nEuropean countries except Britain and Holland. Suicide has increased\nin all except Norway and Russia, and but slightly in England and the\nNetherlands. Where there is an average annual increase of suicide,\nthere is almost always seen a synchronous increase of crime.\u2500Morselli.\nStill some countries with very small suicide rate have a very large\nproportion of crime, as Spain and Italy, which have an average of one\nconvict to 8,130 inhabitants; while Denmark has one convict to 110,474\ninhabitants, and England has one convict to 132,791 inhabitants.\n\nIt has been found that in respect to the departments of France, the\nmaximum of homicides occurred in connection with the minimum of\nsuicides.\u2500Despine.\n\nAlso in Italy, in those districts where crimes against property\npredominate, suicides are more frequent than in those divisions where\ncrimes of blood are frequent.\u2500Morselli.\n\nParent Du Chat\u00e9let remarks that the suicide rate of prostitutes is very\nlow. Brierre de Boismont estimates the proportion supplied in Paris by\nregistered fallen women as 1-240 of all cases. This author also states,\nof his series of French cases, that 40 per cent. were persons who led\nbad moral lives, either drunkards, gamblers, thieves, prostitutes, or\npersons living in adultery.\n\nThe proportion which falls to those who are in health, and lead regular\nlives, is very small; whilst those who begin life in health, and\npander to their vices and appetites, abandon themselves, as statistics\ndefinitely show, to a prospect of poverty, disease, and crime; to the\nprison, the asylum, the hospital, and to a suicide\u2019s grave.\n\nAnd it is not only open vice that lowers the tone a man may even keep\nall the conventional rules of morality, and yet fall in this manner,\nif he neglect and ignore a cheerful acquiescence in those high moral\naspirations, which alone make the idea of a self-sought death an evil\nto which nothing on this side of the grave can compare.\n\nThere need not be any difficulty in understanding that lack of moral\ntraining, and imperfect and improper education, foster suicide; for it\nis obvious that men will be more prone to sin, if they have had their\nconsciences weakened by bad advice, loose habits, and the companionship\nof persons who take a light view of wickedness, and only sneer at\nself-improvement and goodness.\n\nA system of \u201claisser aller,\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t care,\u201d are stepping stones to\nsuicide; self-restraint and active efforts after perfection lead one\ndaily farther from it.\n\nAristotle, in the \u201cEthics,\u201d Lib. 3, cap. 7, and Plato, in his \u201cPh\u00e6do,\u201d\nremark that \u201cSuicide is committed to avoid evil, and not because it is\nhonourable.\u201d\n\nThe suicide judges that the possible evil after death is less than the\ntrouble he has now to bear; hence it is clear enough that the best\npreventive is to fix on the crime the character of an evil much greater\nthan any that can happen to a man naturally.\n\nAlthough it has been shewn that the spread of education is followed\nby an increased amount of self-destruction, yet, if a large number of\nsuicides be analysed, the ratio of one-fifth only are well educated;\nbut then it must be remembered that only a small fraction of the\npopulation is educated at all thoroughly. It is the spread of an\nunsound system of partial education, the tasting of the Pierian spring\nwithout drinking deeply, which poisons the mind; mere fragmentary,\nrudimentary instruction unballasted by the requisite amount of moral\nand religious teaching. The mere ability to read is, I think, liable\nto become a great curse unless most carefully used, for it is only\ntoo common to find that those who can only read, only read what\nthey had much better have left unread; such as sensational tales,\nthe criminal trials in the daily papers, political squabbles, and\nnarratives of suicides. There could be no stronger prompting influence\nand determining cause of voluntary death to many an ailing and tempted\nsufferer than the perusal of such literature.\n\nIn \u201cAurora Floyd\u201d and \u201cLady Audley\u2019s Secret,\u201d two novels of high\nstanding, suicide is suggested definitely as a remedy for trouble, at\nleast twelve times.\n\nCh. Elam writes, \u201cThe great publicity given to the minuti\u00e6 of\natrocious crimes in the public press is undoubtedly a fruitful source\nof crime. Dove, who poisoned his wife, confessed, after his conviction,\nthat the idea had been given to him by study of the case of Palmer, at\nRugeley.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nURBAN AND RURAL LIFE; EMPLOYMENT; ARMY, NAVY, AND PRISON LIFE.\n\n\nThe suicide rate of any great city is found to be higher than the rate\nof the rural district around it, and this statement is true of every\ncountry. Many causes contribute to this increased rate, besides the\nmere density of population, which however may be considered to have of\nitself an influence to make suicide more frequent.\n\nStatistics do not shew that the proportion increases with the total\npopulation of the urban district; in London, for example, although the\ntotal population is so much greater than that of Brussels, yet the\nsuicide rate is much lower.\n\nUrban life only tends to exaggerate the general inclination of a\npeople; as Morselli puts it,\u2500\u201cthe suicide rate is high in the rural\ndistricts when it is so in the towns; in the latter, on the contrary,\nit becomes lower in proportion to the general average.\u201d\n\nTown life is powerful to modify the human will, and the feelings and\nacts of mankind, but it will not neutralise all the other social and\nindividual influences.\n\nThe most important difficulty in making correct estimates of the\nsuicide rates of cities, is the uncertainty as to where the line\nshould be drawn to separate the town from the country; for it is\nobvious that if these have different rates, the proportion for the town\nmay be rendered high or low accordingly, whether the line be drawn\nthrough the suburbs, or beyond the farthest of them. Cities more than\nvillages contain the two extreme states of riches and poverty, both of\nwhich tend to a voluntary death: in cities the struggle for existence\nis much sharper than it is amid the scattered population of villages,\nand together with this point is the collateral one of mental strain and\nexcitement existing when not required for merely procuring a living.\n\nThe ratio of suicides in several cities, calculated in the year 1883,\nis here given, with reference to a million of inhabitants:\u2500Paris, 402;\nCopenhagen, 302; Stockholm, 354; Naples, 34; Rome, 74; London, 87;\nVienna, 287; Brussels, 271; Berlin, 170; St. Petersburgh, 206; and New\nYork, 144.\n\nIn London, Buckle tells us, there has always been a higher rate than in\nthe rest of England. During\u2500\n\n  1846-50 they were 107 per million } England, 66\n  1856-61      \u201e    100       \u201e     }   \u201e      65\n  1861-70      \u201e     88       \u201e     }   \u201e      66\n  1872-76      \u201e     86       \u201e     }   \u201e      69\n\nThese figures show about one-third more suicide in London than the\ncountry. The same proportion holds good at the present time.\n\nThe Middlesex portion of London has always had a higher percentage than\neither the Kent or Surrey portions.\n\nIn Berlin the suicide rate was stationary in 1860-1872; indeed,\ndecreasing in 1870-1872, but a large rate compared to the country\naround; in 1860 the relative numbers were 160 for the city to 100 in\nthe country.\n\nLegoyt calculates the suicide rate of the United States as 32 per\nmillion; and New York City, for the year 1876, as 142 per million.\n\n\nEMPLOYMENT.\n\nWith regard to the business of one\u2019s life, it has been noticed that\nprofessions and trades, which by habits, physical and mental, bring\nwomen near to men, often tend to raise in an extraordinary degree the\ninclination of women to kill themselves.\n\nIt is a matter of the greatest difficulty to procure statistics\nsufficiently reliable of the numbers of each profession and trade, to\ncouple with the numbers of known suicides of each trade and profession,\nfor the purpose of obtaining a \u201cprofessional suicide rate.\u201d\n\nItalian statistics show that the rates are higher in those trades which\nare concerned with luxuries, and lower in those whose products command\na more regular market, such as are necessaries.\n\nGoldsmiths, jewellers, makers of arms, scientific instruments, toilet\nnecessaries, musical instruments, &c., give a higher rate than that of\nbuilders, weavers, spinners, tailors, glovers, &c.\n\nNuns, convent maids, and lay sisters, all numerous classes in Italy,\ngive very few suicides.\n\nIn the higher walks of education the rates are all higher. Men of\nscience, doctors, lawyers, military men, and the governing officials,\nall are very prone to self-destruction.\n\nIn those counties of France where there is the greatest attention paid\nto trade, agriculture, and commerce, the suicide rate is the highest;\nin counties where the development of business is slight the rate is\nlower.\n\nAnd, further, it is almost universally true that the states that have\nmost perfect railway systems are those which have the largest average\nof suicide.\n\nNow, all countries having a largely developed trade are liable to\ncommercial depressions; these are constantly followed by waves of\nincreased lunacy and more numerous suicides; and note that these\neffects follow not immediately on a crisis, but after a little interval.\n\nAt the crisis the majority of minds are strung up to the needed effort:\nit is the loosening of the tension that upsets the mental equilibrium;\nthe exhaustion following prolonged exertion. Similar to these\ncommercial waves are the effects of war, increased prices and taxation;\nit was not the bad years of the Crimean War that gave the heaviest\nvoluntary death rate, but the two years after.\n\nIn Austria the war of 1858-9 was effectual in the increased rates of\n1860-61.\n\nIn France suicides and lunatics were more numerous in 1872 and 1873,\nnot in the years of the war, 1870 and 1871.\n\nLegoyt gives the following analysis of suicides: Middle classes and\noutcasts, 596 per million; liberal professions, 218; industrial\nclasses, 128; tillers of the soil, 90 per million.\n\nI subjoin a Table, borrowed from Lisle, shewing the employment in more\nthan 50,000 cases of suicide in France.\n\nTABLE of 52,126 French Suicides arranged according to Occupation.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n           \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500                       \u2502 Male.  \u2502 Female.\u2502 TOTAL.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  I.\u2500Of SLIGHT EDUCATION:             \u2502        \u2502        \u2502\n        Shepherds                     \u2502    276 \u2502     32 \u2502    308\n        Woodcutters, charcoal burners \u2502     54 \u2502      6 \u2502     60\n        Agricultural labourers        \u2502 12,179 \u2502  3,681 \u2502 15,860\n        Beggars and vagabonds         \u2502    335 \u2502    115 \u2502    450\n        Prostitutes                   \u2502      0 \u2502     53 \u2502     53\n        Mechanics in Wood             \u2502  1,729 \u2502     72 \u2502  1,801\n         \u201e        \u201e Leather           \u2502    377 \u2502     27 \u2502    404\n         \u201e        \u201e Iron              \u2502  1,437 \u2502     64 \u2502  1,501\n         \u201e        \u201e Cotton, Silk      \u2502  1,339 \u2502    463 \u2502  1,802\n         \u201e        \u201e Stone             \u2502  1,079 \u2502     48 \u2502  1,127\n        Other mechanics               \u2502    541 \u2502     91 \u2502    632\n        Porters, Commissionaires      \u2502    368 \u2502      6 \u2502    374\n        Sailors                       \u2502    311 \u2502      9 \u2502    320\n        Drivers of carriages, vans    \u2502    468 \u2502      7 \u2502    475\n        Domestic servants             \u2502  1,270 \u2502  1,204 \u2502  2,474\n                                      \u2502        \u2502        \u2502\n  II.\u2500Of BETTER EDUCATION:            \u2502        \u2502        \u2502\n        Bakers, confectioners         \u2502    373 \u2502     29 \u2502    402\n        Butchers                      \u2502    265 \u2502     24 \u2502    289\n        Furniture dealers             \u2502    259 \u2502     28 \u2502    287\n        Hatters                       \u2502    102 \u2502     21 \u2502    123\n        Shoemakers                    \u2502    639 \u2502     46 \u2502    685\n        Hairdressers                  \u2502    164 \u2502      8 \u2502    172\n        Tailors                       \u2502    644 \u2502    780 \u2502  1,424\n        Laundry workers               \u2502     73 \u2502    221 \u2502    294\n        General shopkeepers           \u2502  1,233 \u2502    289 \u2502  1,522\n         \u201e      travelling dealers    \u2502    314 \u2502     62 \u2502    376\n        Inn-keepers                   \u2502    741 \u2502    159 \u2502    900\n                                      \u2502        \u2502        \u2502\n  III.\u2500Of SUPERIOR EDUCATION:         \u2502        \u2502        \u2502\n        Wholesale dealers, bankers    \u2502    382 \u2502     12 \u2502    394\n        Merchants\u2019 clerks             \u2502    441 \u2502     27 \u2502    468\n        Artists                       \u2502    194 \u2502     25 \u2502    219\n        Clerks and copyists           \u2502    276 \u2502      2 \u2502    278\n        Students                      \u2502    118 \u2502      2 \u2502    120\n        Public officials              \u2502  1,187 \u2502     23 \u2502  1,210\n        Professors and teachers       \u2502    169 \u2502     32 \u2502    201\n        Military and Navy men         \u2502  2,826 \u2502      4 \u2502  2,830\n        Lawyers and doctors, &c.      \u2502    427 \u2502     16 \u2502    443\n        Persons owning property       \u2502  2,693 \u2502    808 \u2502  3,501\n                                      \u2502        \u2502        \u2502\n  IV.\u2500                                \u2502        \u2502        \u2502\n        Without business              \u2502  1,106 \u2502  2,012 \u2502  3,118\n        Unknown employment            \u2502  2,741 \u2502  2,447 \u2502  5,188\n                                      \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                                      \u2502 39,302 \u2502 12,824 \u2502 52,126\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\n\nMILITARY AND NAVAL LIFE.\n\nIt is an almost universal truth that the suicide rate of any state is\nsmaller than the rate observed in the men composing the Army and Navy\nof the same country.\n\nThis point was first brought prominently into notice about twenty years\nago with respect to our English soldiers; Dr. Millar pointed out that\nin 1862 the rate was 278 per million (estimated at per million), and in\n1871 at 400 per million, and at the present time it is about triple the\nrate for ordinary Englishmen of between 20 and 30 years of age. In the\nItalian army at the present time the rate is treble that of ordinary\nItalians between 20 and 30 years of age.\n\nThe suicidal tendency of an army is materially increased by foreign\nservice; so that in the English Army, when the number was 339 per\nmillion at home, in India the numbers were 468. And it has been found\nthat there is a higher percentage among soldiers of long service; three\ntimes the amount is found among soldiers of over 14 years\u2019 service than\nis found among those of under 3 years\u2019 service.\n\nDr. Millar also observed that there were twice as many voluntary deaths\nin the Cavalry as in the Infantry.\n\nIn Saxony the soldier\u2019s rate was 640 per million, while the civilian\u2019s\nrate was 368; in Prussia, 419 to 168; in Sweden, 450 to 101; in\nAustria, 442 to 144; in Wurtemburg, 320 to 170; in Belgium, 662 to 90;\nin France, 510 to 216.\n\nIn the Austrian, Italian, and French armies the officers have a rate\ndouble that of the men; non-commissioned officers have the highest rate.\n\nThe high military rate seems to spread, too, among civilians in their\nneighbourhood; some of the highest civilian rates are found on the\nAustrian and Prussian military frontiers, where there is constantly a\nmilitary establishment retained as a guard.\n\nEven at the present time in our Navy the rate is much higher than among\ncivilians. From a Report on the Health of the Navy, 1883, I find there\nwere among 43,350 officers and men, 255 deaths; 176 from disease, 79\nfrom injury, and 6 suicides. This gives a death-rate of only 5\u00b788 per\nthousand, with a suicide rate of 138\u00b75 per million.\n\n\nPRISON LIFE.\n\nPrisoners have a higher suicide rate than civilians at liberty,\nespecially if we consider attempts at suicide.\n\nIt is usual to make a distinction between convicts whose fate is\nsettled, and prisoners arrested, and untried, or at least not\nconvicted. For instance, Morselli gives for\n\n  England: Prisoners, 1,100; Convicts, 350,\n  France:     \u201e         750;    \u201e       80,\n\nas the relative rates of voluntary death.\n\nFemale prisoners give a very high rate in Denmark and Italy, and\nsuicides of females are more numerous than those of males in the\nprisons of these two states.\n\nMore than half of Prisoner Suicides are of men and women convicted of\ncrimes against the person.\n\nThe longer a prisoner remains in a convict prison, the less is the\ntendency to suicide; most prisoners become used to the mode of life\nunder a year of confinement.\n\nSolitary confinement produces a greater suicide tendency than\nassociated imprisonment, and the systems of mixed prisoners.\n\nFrom a return of English local prisons, just issued, I find there were\nin 1883, only ten cases of suicide, of whom only one was a female. This\nreturn did not include the great convict establishments; with respect\nto which I may add that successful attempts at self-destruction are\nvery rare, and statistics are not directly available.\n\nIn the prisons of Italy, the frequency of suicide is greatest in\nprisoners of between twenty-one and thirty years; that is at an earlier\nage than among people at large; it is found to be more often attempted\nby countrymen than by town dwellers; another reversal of data.\n\nNearly half of all cases occur in the first year of confinement.\nTwo-thirds of the prison suicides had always been reported as \u201cwell\nconducted.\u201d\n\nOnly twenty-three per cent. of the cases occurred in criminals having a\nshorter sentence than three years.\n\nSo far as I can learn, all these points are, broadly speaking, equally\ntrue with regard to prisons in England.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nSEASONS AND TIMES.\n\n\nIt is an old, old story that the destinies of man are _governed_ by\nthe sun, moon, and planets; but modern science rather scouted the\nideas of the astrologers and Chaldeans; to suicide is due the honour\nof reintroducing the connection. Morselli says, with regard to the\nsun, \u201cIt is in fact well known that the number of these violent\ndeaths varies according to the position of the earth and the sun. In\nthe season of the year in which the earth is in aphelion there is a\n_maximum_, of suicide; when in perihelion the _minimum_ is attained.\u201d\n\nThe result of a large collection of statistics shows, however, that the\nmaximum suicide rate occurs in summer 88 times out of 100, as opposed\nto winter; in spring the maximum occurred 9 times in 100. As to the\nminimum, it occurs in winter 88 times out of 100, and only 12 times in\nautumn out of the same number of observations.\n\nAs to the months, in a general way, suicide increases from January to\nJuly, and then decreases again, month by month, to the end of the\nyear. Reckoning by cities only, instead of by states, the results are a\nlittle upset, but in 11 cases of large numbers, 9 maxima fell in May,\nJune, and July. The number of cases of mental disease has been observed\nto vary in similar months, reaching their maximum in the heat of summer.\n\nThe following Table of \u201cDeath Rates of each Season\u201d may be compared\nwith the foregoing remarks on the \u201cSeasonal Suicide rate\u201d:\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n     \u2500\u2500   \u2502 Spring. \u2502 Summer. \u2502 Autumn. \u2502 Winter. \u2502 TOTAL.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  England \u2502   110   \u2502    96   \u2502    95   \u2502    99   \u2502   400\n  France  \u2502   117   \u2502    88   \u2502    86   \u2502   109   \u2502   400\n  Holland \u2502    88   \u2502    91   \u2502   126   \u2502    95   \u2502   400\n  Austria \u2502   115   \u2502    82   \u2502    91   \u2502   112   \u2502   400\n  Italy   \u2502    88   \u2502   105   \u2502   100   \u2502   107   \u2502   400\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nFrom these figures it will be apparent that the greatest mortality in\nEngland falls to spring, and next to winter; or exactly opposite to the\ntendency of suicide. In Italy only do the maxima of general mortality\nand suicide coincide in the hotter two quarters of the year.\n\nIt is not so much the actual hot weather which seems to increase the\nnumber of suicides and the amount of lunacy, nor the actual cold\nweather which seems to check the number, as it is that the _onset_ of\nhot weather seriously affects the human system in such a way as to\nupset the equilibrium of mind function, and to suffer mental motives to\nderange the intellect.\n\nIn these considerations the spring is reckoned as consisting of March,\nApril, and May, and the other seasons accordingly.\n\nI do not find that these seasonal peculiarities are very marked in the\nsuicide rates of this country taken alone, not in London at any rate;\nfor example, I subjoin the figures obtained in Central Middlesex for\ntwo years.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n    \u2500\u2500   \u2502 1883. \u2502 1884. \u2502\u2502   \u2500\u2500   \u2502 1883. \u2502 1884.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Spring \u2502  30   \u2502  24   \u2502\u2502 Autumn \u2502  20   \u2502  15\n  Summer \u2502  23   \u2502  37   \u2502\u2502 Winter \u2502  22   \u2502  26\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nThe Annual Reports of the Registrar General do not throw any light\non this question, nor, I may say, on several other somewhat fanciful\ninvestigations into which foreign observers have led the way.\n\nMorselli states, \u201cit is most probable that the moon exercises more or\nless influence on suicides as it does on madness and epilepsy, which\nare generally aggravated at the time of the waning moon (full moon and\nsecond quarter).\u201d\n\n\u201cThe influence of the moon would be more sharply felt by men than\nby women, particularly at new moon.\u201d This last, it seems, is the\nconclusion drawn from the labours of the modern astrologers of Prussia.\n\nBut from the statistics given by himself for 1869, it appears that\n255\u00b78 and 258\u00b78 per 1,000 occurred respectively in the moon\u2019s first\nquarter and last quarter, against 246\u00b78 and 238\u00b76 per 1,000 in the new\nmoon and full moon quarters; no very marked difference.\n\nWith regard to days, Brierre de Boismont finds in regard to Paris that\nthe number of suicides in the first ten days of a month exceeds the\nnumber of the last twenty; and, stranger still, the two first days\nof the month also give the largest numbers: this does not occur in\nEngland, nor in London alone.\n\nAs to week days, among men the beginning of the week is most fatal;\nMonday highest, then Tuesday, then Wednesday, and Saturday the fewest.\n\nAmong women also peculiarities come out, but they are different;\nSaturday has still the fewest, the Thursday and Friday are very high,\nMonday and Tuesday low, but Sunday has the highest number of all.\n\nAnd now with regard to hours and times of the day, darkness seems to\nbe preferred to daylight. But according to a rather complete set of\ntables, which I reproduce here, giving every hour, night and day, I\nfind that from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., about noon, and from 2 to 3 p.m. have\nvery much the highest numbers. The rate diminishes almost regularly\nfrom 3 p.m., through midnight to 3 a.m., when the lowest number is\nreached.\n\nBrierre de Boismont arranged this Table; it refers to 1,993 cases\nobserved in Paris.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n   1 a.m.    51 \u2502  1 p.m.    79\n   2 a.m.    49 \u2502  2 p.m.   117\n   3 a.m.    45 \u2502  3 p.m.   144\n   4 a.m.    50 \u2502  4 p.m.    89\n   5 a.m.    70 \u2502  5 p.m.    86\n   6 a.m.   102 \u2502  6 p.m.    67\n   7 a.m.   102 \u2502  7 p.m.    89\n   8 a.m.   126 \u2502  8 p.m.    69\n   9 a.m.   104 \u2502  9 p.m.    69\n  10 a.m.   110 \u2502 10 p.m.    62\n  11 a.m.    81 \u2502 11 p.m.    44\n  12 Noon   123 \u2502 12 p.m.    65\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nSEX, AGE, AND SOCIAL STATE.\n\n\nThe relative proportion of suicides exhibited by the sexes is one of\nthe data in connection with our subject that received the earliest\nattention, and from such early observations, until the present time,\nthe proportion has been remarkably constant in our own country, and\nthroughout Europe.\n\nThree males to one female is the prevailing rate shown by the majority\nof states reckoned in their entirety. In urban districts, and in\nthe great cities the female proportion is increased, and averages\none woman to two men. The Spaniards form the most notable exception\nto the average, female suicide even in the rural districts of Spain\nbeing abnormally frequent; Italy, which resembles Spain in many\npeculiarities, is not similar in this respect.\n\nAs a reason for the predominance of male suicide, attention is called\nto the fact that the struggle for existence falls at the present time,\nand always has fallen chiefly to the men of a state, the typical female\nmind, it should also be remembered, is more capable of accommodating\nitself to change of circumstances, and is also more marked by powers of\nself-sacrifice, than the male intellect.\n\nThe more prominent causes of male suicide are the vices, money\ntroubles, and t\u00e6dium vit\u00e6; whilst females are more often driven to take\ntheir lives by the passions, mental weaknesses, remorse, and shame.\n\nIt is a peculiarity of female self-destruction that Sunday is very\nfrequently chosen as the day for its commission; on the other hand,\nmales avoid Sunday very markedly.\n\nIn Geneva, an old notification, dated 1777, was recently found, stating\nthat two out of three voluntary deaths in the city were those of men.\n\nIn the decennial period 1861-70, the proportion of 293 males to 100\nfemales was found in England and Wales; but in the 10 years 1871-80,\nthe rate for males had increased up to 306, to 100 females; since then,\nhowever, the female rate has again gone up, being in 1882 not less than\n100 women to 278 men.\n\nThe Registrar General calculated in 1880 that the chance of a male\ninfant dying by suicide in England, was 1 to 211, and of a female so\ndoing was 1 to 578.\n\nThe female rate for England has always been higher than that of many\ncontinental states.\n\nWith respect to London, in 1878 the proportions were 2\u00b75 to 1; and in\n1881, the female rate was less; 3\u00b703 men to 1 woman.\n\nIn Paris, of late years, the female rate has been very high; 1\u00b72 male\nto 1 female.\n\nScotland shows a high female rate.\n\nThe present proportions of the European countries are: France, 79 to\n21; Italy, 80 to 20; Prussia, 82 to 18; Spain, 71 to 29; Saxony, 77\nto 23; Russia, 80 to 20; Holland, 78 to 22; Ireland, 78 to 22; and\nScotland, 72 to 28.\n\nFor the United States of America, the estimated numbers are 79\u00b725 to\n20\u00b775.\n\nFor the English colonists in Australia, 82 to 18 is the estimated\nproportion.\n\nAs an illustration of the trifling causes which sometimes lead to the\nact, I may mention that Drs. Georget and Falret have both stated in\nmedical journals that French women have frequently committed suicide,\nonly because they have happened to lose their personal charms of\nappearance.\u2500Burrows.\n\nThe female sex contributes a considerable number of cases dependent\non child-birth; these are of two classes: suicide during the course\nof the mental failure, the puerperal mania, so well known to occur at\ntimes in pregnancy and after parturition; and those saddening cases\nof self-destruction occurring as a sequence to the mental anxiety and\nshame, depending on pregnancy and child-birth in single women, who are\nconstantly being seduced under promise either of marriage, or at least\nof maintenance, and then deserted by men whose malevolence is only\nequalled by their lust.\n\nSimple hysteria is also the cause of a small percentage of female\nsuicides; the amatory passion being usually primarily at fault.\n\n\nAGE.\n\nIn a calculation including the greater part of Europe, the effect of\nage is found to be such that the proportion of suicide increases from\nchildhood up to about fifty-five years of age, and then declines very\nuniformly.\n\nThe largest numbers occur in the years between forty and fifty.\n\nTaking both sexes together, the period of life which exhibits by far\nthe most cases extends from twenty-one to sixty years of age.\n\nThe male tendency comes to its maximum after forty years of age.\n\nThe female tendency comes to its maximum before thirty years of age.\n\nIn England the ratio of female suicide between the years of fifteen\nand twenty exceeds the male by more than one-tenth. In Italy it has\nbeen observed the rate becomes high, at an earlier age than in Europe\ngenerally. Youth is a fertile suicide stage, and after a stationary\nperiod at a high rate, there comes another period marking the decay\nof mind and the declension of life; in this, man has but a short\nfuture to regard, and he prefers to await a natural end, especially\nas at this time of life the religious feelings, often clouded over\nby the struggles of middle life, again shine clear. Esquirol wrote,\n\u201cLa vieillesse, qui inspire \u00e0 l\u2019homme le desir de vivre, parcequ\u2019il\nest plus pr\u00e8s du terme de la vie, est rarement expos\u00e9e au suicide.\u201d\nSee \u201cMaladies mentales.\u201d There exists, however, some confusion in the\nmatter, due to associating actual numbers with per-centages at various\nages, inasmuch as Legoyt insists that the amount increases absolutely\nwith age.\n\nThe Registrar General for England has stated that the suicidal tendency\nwith regard to age increases with the advance of age to the 65-75\ndecennial period, and that it then diminishes, still however remaining\nvery great; in this country then the amount does not decrease at such\nan early age, as in most of the countries of Europe.\n\nI add as an example, the Swedish proportions during the several periods\nof life, to show the rate for age:\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n        AGE.      \u2502 Male. \u2502 Female.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  To 16 years     \u2502   3\u00b75 \u2502   0\u00b79\n  16 to 20 years  \u2502  19\u00b71 \u2502   8\u00b78\n  21 to 30 years  \u2502  91\u00b73 \u2502  29\u00b72\n  31 to 40 years  \u2502 161\u00b73 \u2502  23\u00b72\n  41 to 50 years  \u2502 206\u00b73 \u2502  35\u00b70\n  51 to 60 years  \u2502 201\u00b77 \u2502  34\u00b72\n  61 to 70 years  \u2502 146\u00b73 \u2502  27\u00b79\n  Beyond 70 years \u2502  93\u00b77 \u2502  19\u00b74\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nIn New York, during 1883, of 151 cases, 9 were under twenty years of\nage, and 5 over seventy years.\n\n\nSUICIDE IN CHILDHOOD.\n\nSuicide, apart from lunacy, is the act of passion, or despair, and\nso far spares childhood, during which stage of life one is protected\nby others from care, and when the mind is not yet opened enough to\nfeel the overwhelming tides of amatory, jealous, and other passionate\nfeelings which the adult intellect has to struggle through, and\nperchance survive. It is very rare, also, for insanity to occur in a\nchild before puberty, unless congenital, as imbecility.\n\nBrierre de Boismont gives the ages of 4,595 suicides in Paris; amongst\nthese were 77 children under fourteen years of age, 1\u00b76 per cent.\n\nFrom 1865 to 1874, in England, there were 81 suicides from ten to\nfourteen years of age, 45 male and 36 female; the ratio between these\nnumbers shows female precocity. Child suicide is increasing in England\nand in almost all the continental states.\n\nChildhood possesses a most highly sensitive mental organisation,\ncoupled with a want of power to fully weigh the consequences of any\nact; but what undoubtedly causes many cases now is over-pressure in\neducation; while the education itself produces precocious development\nof the reflective faculties, of vanity, and of the desires.\n\nDuring the last few years there have been several English cases of\nchildren killing themselves, because unable to perform school tasks;\nyet it must be allowed that the most modern alteration in school\nlife,\u2500the abolition of corporal punishment,\u2500has removed one fertile\ncause of suicide in childhood. _See_ Ferrey and Collineau.\n\nA writer in the Psychological Journal discusses 24 cases, 17 boys and 7\ngirls; of these children 1 was five years old, 2 nine, 2 ten, 5 eleven,\nand 7 twelve. All the girls drowned themselves.\n\n\nMARRIAGE, CELIBACY, WIDOWHOOD.\n\nHaving regard simply to numbers, there are most suicides among the\nunmarried, next among the married, then among widowed persons, and\nlastly, among persons divorced and separated.\n\nBachelors kill themselves oftener than married men; but in Italy,\nFrance, Switzerland and Saxony, married women oftener than virgins.\nWidows surpass widowers in frequency of suicide, and it has been\nsuggested by statistics that widowhood in this respect brings woman\nnearer to man than any other social condition.\n\nWars tend to raise the rate among women, because they make so many\nwidows; the suicide rate of widows rose in a sudden leap in Germany and\nin France, when the last war broke out, and remained over and above the\nrate of virgins and wives for two years after.\n\nMarried men have, throughout, the lowest rate; suicide is more frequent\namong celibate men than among virgins.\n\nDivorce causes more male suicide than female.\n\nAmong men, allowing for extant numbers of each class, we find these\nresultant proportions for 1882:\u2500\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  COUNTRIES. \u2502 Married. \u2502 Single.  \u2502 Widowed.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  France     \u2502   100    \u2502   104    \u2502   160\n  Italy      \u2502   100    \u2502   114    \u2502   198\n  Wurtemburg \u2502   100    \u2502   147    \u2502   162\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nTaking France as an example, the following proportions are found among\nthe suicides, after excluding males under fifteen years of age, and\nfemales under eighteen:\u2500\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  THE SEXES. \u2502 Celibate. \u2502 Married. \u2502 Widowed.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Men        \u2502  422\u00b714   \u2502  271\u00b771  \u2502  737\u00b70\n  Women      \u2502   80\u00b700   \u2502   80\u00b787  \u2502  121\u00b70\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nThat is, unmarried men fewer than widowers. Unmarried women a trifle\nfewer than married women.\n\nIn Prussia, curiously enough, these states are altered; married men\nkill themselves the most often, and married women kill themselves the\nleast often.\n\nItaly, again, resembles France.\n\nIn New York, for 1883, of 124 men and 27 women who killed themselves,\n78 were married, 43 single, and 24 widowed or divorced.\n\nAnother curious remark has been made, whenever and wherever the\nmarriage rate is falling, the suicide rate is increasing, and the\nreverse. The first case is shown, of late years, by France, Germany,\nEngland, Austria; in Italy and Switzerland, from 1875, and in Belgium,\nfrom 1873 to 1876.\n\nOn the other hand, Holland, Norway and Finland, show an increase in the\nnumber of marriages, and a tendency to a lower suicide rate.\n\nThe presence of children to married life affects the suicide rate;\nthey restrain the mother more than the father, in married life and\nwidowhood; whilst they have the contrary effect on divorced persons.\n\nIn France, for example, the suicide loss among the married, where there\nare children, is 205 per million men to 45 per million women; where\nthere are no children, it is 470 per million men to 158 per million\nwomen; and among widowed persons, where there are children, the rate is\n526 per million men to 104 per million women; and where there are no\nchildren, it is 1,004 per million men to 238 per million women.\n\nBertillon remarks that widows are much less anxious than widowers to\nmarry again; that many widows become so to their peace and happiness,\nand the isolation and bereavement of widowhood are usually overbalanced\nby woman\u2019s noblest virtue and care, maternal love; where there is no\nsuch outcome needed, suicide fastens its fangs on the mind.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nINSANITY IN RELATION TO SUICIDE.\n\n\nIt is not my intention in these pages to enter into a lengthened\ndiscussion of the once much debated question as to whether suicide be\ninvariably a proof of pre-existing insanity.\n\nIt is sufficient for my purpose that a certain number of suicides are\ndefinitely insane, and that in these cases the act has been committed\nin consequence of some delusion from which the patient was suffering.\nSuch a one may have been insane on a single point, and no other; or he\nmay have been entirely demented.\n\nBut there certainly are other cases, in which no symptoms of mental\ndisease can be discovered; either in the history of the deceased, or\nin his recent actions, appearance, or conduct. \u201cThere is no lunacy\npresent where the sense of weariness of life is in exact relation\nto existing circumstances; where obvious moral causes exist which\nsatisfactorily account for the deed; when the resolve has been fixed\ndeliberately, and might have been abandoned had the circumstances\nbecome altered; and in which we discover, after honest and impartial\nsearch, no other sign or symptom of mental derangement. When a man\nprefers dissolution to a miserable or contemptible life, or one full of\nmental and physical ills, Morality and Religion must charge him with\nthe deed; Insanity need not claim him for her own.\u201d\n\nThe instinct of self-preservation is not so strong as to prevent men\naltogether from being tired of life, and seeking their own deaths.\nThey may have exhausted all the available sources of pleasure, their\nbusiness may have gone wrong, or their honour may have suffered,\npoverty and loss of position may be at hand, their difficulties may\nseem entirely beyond their power to surmount, and they calmly and\ndeliberately arrange to leave behind them a life which has become\nunbearable; such an act may be unwise, and is certainly presumptuous,\nbut it has in it no sign of disease.\n\nAnd again, the existence of insanity cannot be affirmed in those\nsuicides, which have taken place in every age of the world, and are not\nquite obsolete even now,\u2500those cases of voluntary death among natives\nof uncivilized countries, which form a part of either their political,\nsocial, or religious institutions.\n\n\u201cJust as madness may exist, without any idea of suicide, so suicide\nmay take place, the effect of a full and free determination, formed by\na healthy mind, and executed with the coolness and complete system of\nprecautions of the most perfect logic,\u201d says Maudsley, and he carries\nwith him the greater part of higher class medical opinion.\n\nAll our necessities, our desires, and our passions, produce a mental\nand bodily struggle; every want of man, though necessary to his\nperfection, involves victims to mental failure, and consequently either\nto crime or suicide. Even religion is frequently found to lead to\ndisorder of intellect, from too great abstraction of thought from our\nearthly duties; while, on the other hand, mental failure is often shewn\nby religion becoming so absorbing a theme that it causes a patient to\nforget his worldly responsibilities.\n\nThe following authorities, who have specially studied the state of mind\nin cases of voluntary death, inclined to the doctrine that all suicides\nare insane: Esquirol, Falret, Bourdin, Winslow, Chevrey, Foder\u00e9, and\nDavey.\n\nForbes Winslow especially was the champion of this opinion; he\ndistinctly wrote, no healthy mind ever permitted the act; but then in\nhis time a wave of special tenderness to all criminals overshadowed the\ncountry; and exists even now, for our paupers are far less well cared\nfor than our gaol birds.\n\nM. Foder\u00e9, Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at Strasburg, used to\nsay of voluntary death, \u201ca suicide must be insane;\u201d but this was a\ncolloquial remark, rather than a medical dogma.\n\nM. Falret, in his treatise on \u201cSuicide and Hypochondriasis,\u201d says,\n\u201csuicide is necessarily an act of delirium;\u201d perhaps it is to a medical\nman who considers hypochondriasis and hysteria to be insanity.\n\nIn the year 1777 this question of the coincidence of suicide with\ninsanity was gravely argued before the Parliament at Paris, but the\ndecision was put aside on a question of form, and never settled by them.\n\nDr. J.\u202fG. Davey read an essay before the Bath and Bristol Branch of\nthe British Medical Association a few years back, in which he proved\nto his own satisfaction that \u201csuicide is at all times, and under\nall circumstances, the effect of a positive brain disease;\u201d but his\narguments fail to explain the cases where two persons commit the act\ntogether; are we to suppose such disease of brain to be contagious? He\nmentions such a case, but without explanation. See Asylum Journal of\nMental Science, vol. vii. 108, and xvi. 406.\n\nIt may be only a coincidence, but it is a fact, that almost without\nexception the supporters of the theory that all suicides are insane\nhave been medical attendants in asylums.\n\nClosely connected with unsoundness of mind is the disease epilepsy\nand its consequences; as is well known, the less violent forms, those\nin which the convulsive seizures are less obvious, are more liable to\nend in mental impairment, and thence in suicide, than are the more\nwell-developed cases of convulsion. And among the modes of exhibiting\nits effects, it must not be forgotten that epilepsy is in some cases\napt to show itself, not in a physical spasm but in a nerve storm, burst\nof passion, and what not: compare the opinion of Trousseau, in \u201cL\u2019Union\nMedicale,\u201d 1861; he says:\n\n\u201cIt may even safely be asserted that if a man who has presented no\nprevious mental disturbance, or any sign of lunacy or furor, is not\nunder the influence of alcohol, or any other drug, commit murder or\nsuicide, he is epileptic, and has suffered a complete paroxysm, or has\nhad epileptic vertigo.\u201d\n\nThis very sweeping assertion does not commend itself to me, nor is it,\nso far as I can ascertain, generally accepted as reliable; it is too\nfar reaching and dogmatic; it is one thing to believe epilepsy may be\nrevealed by a burst of violence, and quite another thing to decide that\nevery act of sudden passion is epilepsy, _i.e._, disease, and therefore\nblameless.\n\nBlandford, in his work on \u201cInsanity,\u201d states: \u201cThat sane people commit\nsuicide is a fact that must be apparent to every one who exercises\n_common sense_ in looking upon the subject. The hundreds of poor\npersons who are brought to our hospitals, half drowned, or with throats\nhalf cut, are _not insane_ in any medical sense of the word. Of course\nthere are insane persons who are suicidal.\u201d\n\nM. Leuret epigrammatically sums up the causes of self-murder in the\nthree words, madness, want, and crime.\n\nThe \u201cLancet,\u201d in the autumn of last year, in an editorial article,\nremarked:\n\n\u201cWithout hair-splitting, the great majority of suicides are perfectly\nwell aware of the nature of the act they are performing, and do a deed\nwith a so far intelligent purpose of escaping from a misery which seems\nunendurable, or because of some terror or shame that for the time\noverwhelms.\n\n\u201cIt is heart-breaking and brain-tearing trouble that causes it, in the\n(hope or) belief that dying is sleep, or eternal oblivion.\u201d\n\nDr. Gray, in the American Journal of Insanity, vol. xxxiv., writes,\nin regard to the United States: \u201cSuicide is always an unnatural act,\nbut in the large proportion of cases, if not in the majority, it is\ncommitted by sane people.\u201d\n\nBucknill and Tuke, \u201cPsychological Medicine,\u201d state definitely, \u201cit\ncannot be disputed that suicide may be done in a perfectly healthy\nstate of mind,\u201d ... \u201cneither can it be doubted that it is the effect of\na cerebro-mental disease in many cases.\u201d\n\nM. F. Dabadie, the author of a famous French work on Suicide, remarks,\n\u201cif physiologists had endeavoured simply to establish that suicide was\nfrequently a sign of madness, no one would have denied them; but to\npretend, as some French physiologists have done, that every suicide is\ninsane, is to _insult history and common sense_, and to expose oneself\nto ridicule.\u201d\n\nDes Etangs, in his work, \u201cSuicide in France, from 1789 to 1860,\u201d\nanalyses and reviews the causation of 210,000 cases; he is fully\nconvinced of the very large number of persons who kill themselves from\nsane motives, and with a sane mind.\n\nHe narrates numerous instances in which suicides have left their\nreasons for the act, written out at length, and these reasons, in most\ncases, shew \u201cune lucidit\u00e9 parfaite.\u201d\n\nM. Littr\u00e9 remarks, \u201cQuand un homme expose clairement les raisons qui\nl\u2019emp\u00eachent de vivre plus longtemps, et quand ces raisons sont r\u00e9eles\net non pas imaginaires, quel motif y-a-t-il de lui denier la libert\u00e9\nmorale, telle que nous la connaissons chez chacun de nous?\u201d\n\nIn this place may suitably be mentioned the sad death of the Afghan\nsurgeon Mahomed Ismail Khan, who had studied medicine in England, had\ntaken his diplomas, and had then found all avenues to making a living\nin England closed to him on account of his nationality, colour, &c.\n(he could not return to his Indian home, having lost caste there); he,\npoor fellow, after making repeated efforts to obtain a situation that\nwould support him, and after having exhausted his private means, drank\nprussic acid in bed at his lodgings. He left behind him a long and\ndetailed history of himself, ending in a dissertation on suicide and\nits permissibility.\n\nThis essay, from its great medical and psychological interest, was\noffered to the editor of one of our leading medical journals for\npublication, but this was declined, on the ground that the arguments in\nfavour of suicide were so delusive that it would be a public error to\ndisseminate them. History repeats itself, for I find Voltaire narrates\nthat he knew a professional man who, before killing himself, wrote an\nessay on suicide, and sent it for publication to the authorities of his\nnative town, in 1769; the town council refused to publish it, assigning\nas their reason, that it would encourage men to quit a life, of which\nso much ill could be said.\n\nIt may be stated here, as a generalization, that whilst the medium\ncourse of life is the safest, the extremes of riches and indulgence,\nand their reverse, poverty and asceticism, both increase the suicide\nrate in about an equal proportion.\n\nPost-mortem examination has not as yet disclosed any definite brain\nlesion, even in positive insanity, so that the discovery of a brain\nblemish associated with suicide is hardly to be expected. There have\nnot been any large number of investigations into the post-mortem\nappearances of the brain in deaths from suicide in this country; in\nWurtemburg, however, for two years, 1873-1875, a special examination\nwas ordered in all cases of suicide in the insane, without any very\nvaluable result being arrived at, viz., definite lesions of the brain\nexisted in 45 per cent. of the cases, definite disease of other organs\nin 16 per cent., and negative results in 39 per cent.\n\nBucknill and Tuke divide insane suicides into three classes: 1. The\nmonomania of self destruction; 2. In melancholia, death is chosen as\nthe lesser evil; 3. Delusional, as when the sufferer hears a voice\ncommanding him to act on its behests.\n\nIt must not be forgotten that the criminal law of England allows the\npossibility of a lunatic committing a murder in a lucid interval; and\nso also a lunatic may be held to _kill himself_ in a lucid interval.\n\n\nTHE FORMS OF LUNACY.\n\nThe special symptoms of each form of madness will on consideration\nbe found sufficient to account for difficulties in forming anything\nlike an accurate estimate of the relative amount of suicide in each\nof its forms. For example, in mania, sudden outbursts of violence may\neither end in instant self-destruction, or the sudden violence causes\nsuch precautions to be at once taken, that suicide is not practicable.\nIn melancholia the chances of a self-inflicted death being allowed\nto occur, are much greater, because the patient is inoffensive, and\nthe disease is of long continuance; the sufferer has often daily\nopportunities for months; and thus we find melancholia credited with\nthe largest number. In monomaniacs, again, the project of suicide\nis often matured in their brains, whilst they hide their delusions;\nuntil a sudden outburst of suicide or crime startles the relations,\nwho have only been saying to each other just before, \u201cthe patient is\nsafe enough, the only thing the matter with him is the presence of a\ndelusion.\u201d\n\nTo imbecility, again, we do not find many cases allotted; the imbecile\nhas not mind enough to feel his grievances sufficiently strong to make\nhim exert himself to end them.\n\nIn the Reports of the English Lunacy Commissioners the cases of\ndementia are subdivided into two classes, ordinary and senile, each\ngiving about as many cases as mania.\n\nAbercrombie remarked, that the most striking peculiarity of melancholia\nis the propensity to self-murder; under a conviction of overwhelming\nand helpless misery, the feeling of life to be a burden, arises;\nand this is succeeded by a determination to quit it. A singular\nmodification is sometimes seen, in which with the desire of death,\nthere exists a sense of the sin of suicide; and to avoid this sin,\nanother idea arises, viz., to bring about the death by committing a\nmurder, and so to be executed. Several instances have been described,\nin which the insane murderer has distinctly avowed this process of\nreasoning, disclaiming any malice against the person he had killed,\nwho by the way was generally a child, and in one case the reason for\nchoosing a child was also explained by the lunatic, which was to avoid\nthe risk of sending out of the world a person in a state of unrepented\nsin.\n\nIn the north-western and central parts of Europe madness and suicide\ncoincide in intensity.\n\nOsiander stated that the scale of madness among the European states has\nmuch resemblance to the comparative suicide rates.\n\nOn an approximate estimation I find that the Germanic stock has 2\nmadmen per 1,000 persons, the Celtic-Latin has 1 madman per 1,000\npersons, the Slavonic has 0\u00b76 only.\n\nIt is estimated that there are about 300,000 mad persons in the Old\nWorld, of whom Germany, France, and England, give the greater number.\n\nThe French and Italian statistics of insane suicides are not\nsubdivided, and so are not available to show the relative proportions\nof the forms of insanity; the German numbers give the following result\nin recent years, 1875 _et seq._:\u2500\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                   \u2502      Per Cent.\n  FORMS OF LUNACY. \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                   \u2502 Males.  \u2502Females.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Religious mania  \u2502   0\u00b77   \u2502  0\u00b76\n  Monomania        \u2502   0\u00b76   \u2502  0\u00b75\n  Melancholia      \u2502  68\u00b77   \u2502  69\u00b7\n  Brain fever      \u2502   5\u00b7    \u2502  2\u00b78\n  Mania            \u2502   5\u00b71   \u2502  2\u00b76\n  Imbecility       \u2502   5\u00b77   \u2502  5\u00b70\n  Unnamed          \u2502  14\u00b72   \u2502  19\u00b75\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nWith regard to our own country, the last Report of the Lunacy\nCommissioners for England and Wales shows that of 13,581 patients\nadmitted to the register of lunatics for 1882, 3,877 were stated to\nhave a suicidal propensity, viz., 1,785, or 26\u00b78 per cent. of the\nmales; and 2,092, or 30\u00b72 per cent. of the females.\n\nThe total number of lunatics in charge for the year 1882 was 76,765,\nand of these 17 committed suicide: 10 males and 4 females in asylums, 1\nmale before admission, and 1 male and 1 female while \u201con leave.\u201d There\nwere 17 suicides also in the year 1881. This small number of actual\ndeaths speaks volumes for the care and attention which must be bestowed\non the suicidal patients.\n\nThe proportion of suicidal tendency was higher among pauper than among\nwell-to-do lunatics.\n\nThe highest rate of suicidal propensity was found in cases of\nmelancholia, a proportion of 57, compared to mania 21, ordinary\ndementia 16, senile dementia 15, and idiocy 8.\n\nThe states of family life gave these proportions: marriage 32, celibacy\n24, and widowhood 29, and of married persons, more females than males.\n\nThe Report also subdivides these cases with respect to the causes\nassigned for the insanity; the following were the most fertile causes,\nwith the relative proportions:\u2500\n\nDomestic trouble, 9\u00b77 (twice as many females as males); adverse\ncircumstances, 6\u00b70; overwork, worry, 7\u00b75; religious excitement,\n3\u00b76; love affairs, 1\u00b79; nervous shock, 1\u00b74; alcoholic excess, 12\u00b71\n(nineteen males to six females); sexual excess, 0\u00b75; sunstroke, 0\u00b77;\nvenereal disease, 0\u00b73; self-abuse, 1\u00b70; accidents, 3\u00b72; pregnancy and\nparturition, 3\u00b76; change of life (females), 2\u00b79; privation, 2\u00b70; old\nage, 3\u00b70; bodily disease, 11\u00b70; hereditary transmission, 22\u00b78; and\nprevious attacks, 15\u00b78.\n\nIn England it is not practicable to form any reliable estimate of the\ntrue proportion of insane suicides, as compared with those occurring\nfrom disease and mental trouble. On the Continent an attempt is made in\nmost States to assign the proportion; but it is easy to point out the\ndifficulty of the task and the numerous errors that are liable to creep\ninto such calculations. The following rates per 1,000 suicides have\nbeen published in the \u201cAsylum Journal,\u201d vol. 27: France, 300 insane per\n1,000; Belgium, 470; Prussia, 333; Italy, 343; and Bavaria, 342.\n\nM. Pr\u00e9vost, in a learned investigation of cases of voluntary death,\nestimated that 18 per cent. occurred in insane persons.\n\nI have made careful investigation into all the cases of suicide which\nI have observed, and all those cases upon which I have held inquests,\nas the Deputy for Dr. Danford Thomas, in Middlesex, and I have found\nthat in 20 per cent. only had the deceased ever exhibited symptoms of\ninsanity obvious to the friends and relations.\n\nThe suicide rates of the great German lunatic asylums are higher than\nthose of our English ones. Dr. L\u00f6wenhardt, of the great asylum at\nSachsenburg, states that the average number of suicidal deaths in that\ninstitution is 5 per cent., a large proportion; for in the asylum of\nIllenau 3 per cent. only killed themselves, and in the asylum of Halle,\nonly 1\u00b77 per cent.\n\nThe varying rates of suicidal death in asylums depend very much on\nthe qualities of the nurses on the staff, and on the relative number\nof patients attached to each attendant, for nothing but a constant\nand lynx-eyed survey will prevent the self-destruction of a large\nproportion of lunatics, when they have a wave of suicidal tendency\npassing over their minds.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nEPIDEMIC SUICIDE; SUICIDE FROM IMITATION, AND DESIRE FOR NOTORIETY.\n\n\nIn relation to lunacy and mental disturbance, I must now refer to the\nquestion of Epidemic and Imitational Suicide.\n\nNo crime seems to have so strong a tendency to spread by example and\nimitation as this one. Epidemics have occurred on many occasions, and\nI have already mentioned an epidemic of suicide taking place among the\nsoldiers of Tarquinius Superbus.\n\nAt Alexandria, in the time of the Ptolemies, an epidemic was originated\nby Hegesias the philosopher, who discoursed so eloquently on the\nnumerous trials of this life and the pleasures of death, that numbers\nof persons destroyed themselves; and the philosopher was banished.\n\nWhen Xanthus, a city of Lycia, was conquered by Brutus, the citizens\nslew themselves by hundreds.\n\nAt Miletus the women committed suicide in large numbers, because their\nhusbands and lovers were detained by the wars: they hanged themselves;\nthe frenzy was checked by an edict that their bodies were to be dragged\nnaked through the streets. Other examples of wholesale suicide are\nshown by the people of Sidon, who burned their city and themselves\nwhen besieged by Artaxerxes Ochus, by the Tyrians when conquered by\nAlexander, and by the Acheans when defeated by Metellus.\n\nAt Marseilles, an old historian records that at one time the young\nwomen made it quite a habit to kill themselves when their lovers were\nnot constant to them.\u2500(Esquirol.)\n\nLarge numbers of suicides were committed by Christians in the terrible\ntimes of persecution in the reigns of Nero, Decius, and Diocletian.\n\nIn the dancing mania and the follies of Tarantulism in Naples, between\n1500 and 1600, the patients often thronged in crowds to the sea shore,\nand rushed singing into the waves, as Lecky narrates.\n\nAn epidemic of drowning affecting women alone also occurred at Lyons;\nthese cases had no apparent cause; it was checked by an order to expose\nall the bodies naked in the market. _See_ Spon, \u201cHistoire de la Ville\nde Lyon,\u201d 1676, and Primerosius Jacobus, \u201cDe mulierum morbis,\u201d 1665.\n\nSydenham is the authority for the statement that suicide prevailed to\nan alarming degree in Mansfield in the year 1697; and at Versailles, in\n1793, 300 persons killed themselves. At Rouen in 1806, at Stuttgardt in\n1811, epidemics occurred. In Valois an epidemic of hanging took place\nin 1813, see Sydenham, \u201cComplete Works,\u201d vol. ii. In July and August\n1806, 300 persons committed suicide in Copenhagen; these cases formed a\ndistinctly marked epidemic. Suicide is almost epidemic, or endemic, in\nconnection with the disease Pellagra in Italy, Spain, and the South of\nFrance. It is said that one-third of the victims of this disease kill\nthemselves. This scourge appears to be a nervous affection, associated\nwith erythema and degeneration of the skin, and dependent partly on the\neffect of the sun, especially in spring, and partly on the consumption\nof unhealthy maize as food; its most usual termination is in dementia.\n\nGroups of Suicides from Imitation, almost amounting to minute\nepidemics, have occurred from several churches, monuments, and elevated\nstructures, their great height being the incentive to the victim to\nthrow himself off; such are the Duomo of Milan, St. Peter\u2019s at Rome,\nthe Campanile of Giotto, Florence, the Vend\u00f4me Column, Paris, the\nMonument, London, the Suspension Bridge at Clifton, and the Archway\nat Highgate; from this last viaduct, which is protected only by a low\nwall, there have been four suicides in as many months; in response to\nrepeated representations from Dr. Danford Thomas and myself, the Local\nBoard have at last undertaken to put up a railing on this bridge.\n\nAfter the suicide of Lord Castlereagh, a large number of persons put\nan end to their lives in the same manner. Several imitational suicides\nand suicidal attempts occurred in 1841, following the drowning of a\nyoung woman in the Thames. She left a letter behind her, explaining her\nunfortunate love affairs; her case made a great noise at the time, and\nmuch public fuss and public sympathy were shewn on her behalf, and no\ndoubt led to her successors\u2019 deaths.\n\nAfter a tragedy at Pentonville, in 1842, in which a man cut the\nthroats of his children and then committed suicide himself, there were\nwithin a week two similar cases.\n\nAt a meeting of the French Academy of Medicine, 1827, Dr. Costel\nrelated that, in Paris, at the Hotel des Invalides, a soldier having\nhung himself on a post, his example was in a very short time followed\nby twelve other invalided soldiers. The post was removed, and there\nwere no more cases in the building for a considerable period.\n\nLegoyt narrates that the drama of \u201cChatterton,\u201d by M. de Vigny, when\nperformed in Paris, caused many persons to kill themselves in imitation\nof the hero; and he asserts that the same effect has followed, in\nFrance, the study of Ugo Foscolo\u2019s \u201cJacopo Ortis,\u201d Byron\u2019s \u201cManfred,\u201d\nChateaubriand\u2019s \u201cRen\u00e9,\u201d Constant\u2019s \u201cAdolphus,\u201d and Lamartine\u2019s\n\u201cRaphael.\u201d\n\nDr. Ebrard, in \u201cLe Suicide,\u201d 1870, condemns the teaching of the stories\nof the Stoics and their suicides to schoolboys, thinking it blameworthy\nto familiarise the youthful mind with the idea of self-destruction.\n\nIn Germany, many references in the literature of our time may be found,\nin which the study of Pessimism,\u2500the doctrines of Schopenhauer (d.\n1860), are blamed for decoying men to self-destruction.\n\nThe following notice is cut from a newspaper, April 1885:\n\n No less than seven suicides effected or attempted were reported in\n Paris one day last week. At five in the morning, a packing-case maker\n in the Faubourg St. Martin, named Rozette, took a dose of laudanum,\n and was removed to a hospital in a critical state; at seven, a\n messenger was found hanging in his lodgings at an hotel in the Rue\n de Chartres; about the same time a concierge at 16, Rue Chalgrin,\n committed suicide with charcoal; at eight, a retired tradesman, aged\n 62, killed himself by firing a revolver in his mouth; at one, a man\n living in the Place de la Chapelle, stabbed himself with a shoemaker\u2019s\n knife; at four, a porter at the Central Markets shot himself with\n a revolver; and lastly, at ten in the evening, a tailor, living at\n the Rue Bonaparte, shot himself twice in the head while riding in a\n cab.\u2500_Galignani._\n\nI have reason to believe that it is perfectly true (although it has\nbeen denied) that a very considerable number of French officers and men\nslew themselves in the confusion and headlong retreat which followed\nthe general advance of the English line, at the close of the battle\nof Waterloo, when the confusion was made worse confounded by the\nadditional onslaught of the Prussians from the flank.\n\nM. Legoyt also narrates this statement as authentic, and there is no\ninherent improbability in it, if we consider that among those who fled,\nwere the \u201cOld Guard\u201d who had never known defeat.\n\nThe love of notoriety also comes in for mention in this place. One\nman has killed himself by attaching his body to a rocket, and then\nsetting fire to the fuse; nothing but a desire to be notorious seems to\nexplain this action. Another man threw himself into the crater of Mount\nVesuvius. Empedocles, the philosopher, threw himself into the crater of\nMount Etna.\n\nSoon after the death of Miss Moyes the first of a series of suicides\nfrom the Monument, London, Elam narrates that a lad took poison\nwith the intent to kill himself; when questioned by the police, he\nanswered, \u201cI wished to be talked about, like the woman who threw\nherself off the Monument.\u201d And this is a very fair example of many\ninstances of voluntary death, but whether it forms a good public policy\nto call those sufferers insane is questionable: personally, I think\nthat such persons are encouraged by the neglect to stigmatise them as\ncriminals.\n\nIt is not every suicide from a dangerous height that is caused by\nimitation; there does undoubtedly exist a peculiar form of fascination,\napt to arise from a sense of insecurity, such as occurs to a person\nstanding on a cliff or a house top, and I am convinced that this\nfascination does cause many _involuntary_ suicides.\n\nMental debility is a cause of it, and so is dyspepsia, and I expect\nthat like lack of courage it is a matter of lack of health. Other\nforms of this weakness are occasionally seen; some men dare not trust\nthemselves with a razor, and others have a terror of handling a\nrevolver.\n\nImprovement of health, strong mental effort, and custom remove these\nunpleasant feelings.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nBODILY DISEASES; INSOMNIA, SPIRITUALISM, HEREDITY, AND ALCOHOLISM.\n\n\nIncurable bodily diseases, and the accompanying pain of some other\ndisorders, are not uncommon causes of a voluntary death. It has been\nestimated that incurable diseases are even more powerful as a cause\nthan very painful ones.\n\nThe heavy voluntary death rate of persons afflicted with pellagra has\nbeen already noticed, as has the dictum of Pliny that the presence of\nstone in the bladder constitutes a fair reason for self-destruction.\nNot long ago I held an inquest on the body of a medical man who\nhung himself to avoid the pain and worry of an apparently incurable\nstricture of the urethra.\n\nContinental statisticians have calculated that bodily disease causes 8\nper cent. of Italian suicides, 13 per cent. of French, 10 per cent. of\nNorwegian, and 12 per cent. of Prussian suicides. These are voluntary\ndeaths, not deaths during delirium accompanying disease.\n\nLoss of sight, and loss of hearing, are both causes of increased\nsuicide rate; in Prussia it has been estimated that persons having\nsuffered such deprivation contribute a rate almost double that of\npersons not so afflicted.\n\n\nINSOMNIA.\n\nClosely connected with mental and bodily disorders as a cause of\nsuicide is sleeplessness, apart from organic disease. There is, I\nsuppose, nothing more trying to the sensations, and nothing more\nexhausting to the nervous system, than this symptom. Its tendency\nto become habitual, and to become more and more complete, are its\nharassing qualities. I have held inquests on cases distinctly referable\nto the misery caused by want of sleep.\n\nThat sleeplessness is an important factor in producing suicide is\npointed out very forcibly by Dr. Jos. Williams in an article in the\n\u201cLancet\u201d of 1850. \u201cBusiness men especially apply to their doctors\nfor this ailment, and their request is often answered by a little\nanti-dyspeptic mixture, whereas a powerful sedative for a few nights,\nuntil rest and change can be arranged for, would be the means of\npreserving life.\u201d\n\nThe \u201cMedical Times and Gazette,\u201d 1872, in referring to two similar\ndeaths from suicide, those of Mr. Justice Willes and Hugh Miller the\nGeologist, insisted also on the necessity of procuring sleep and rest\nfor worried men, and so did good service.\n\n\nALCOHOL.\n\nWithout doubt the habitual use of alcohol to excess is a very fertile\nsuicide prompter, and it is found that the stronger the form of alcohol\nused, the more often crime and suicide are produced; such are as rare\nwhen the light wines are drunk, as they are frequent among spirit\ndrinkers.\n\nLunier, Ann. Med. Psychol., 1872, calculating the results in 79\ndepartments, states that the amount of crime in France is in direct\nproportion to the consumption of alcohol, and so are the rates of\nlunacy and suicide. As a mean of the estimates of many observers,\nabout one-eighth of all suicides are _directly_ caused by alcohol.\nIt produces suicide in several ways; in a fit of drunkenness, during\ndelirium tremens, by causing mania or melancholia, or by leading to\ncomplete imbecility.\n\nSuicides due to alcoholic poisoning, and alcoholic mind failure, are\nindeed seen among those who are too rich to require to work at all,\nor to be regularly at work; but the greatest amount of disease and\ndeath due to alcohol exists among the poor, and especially among the\npoor of our great cities; a very large number of these spend almost\nthe whole of their small earnings in poisonous drinks. The radical\nremedy for suicide caused by this form of indulgence is doubtless the\nimprovement of the intellectual and moral status, the cultivation of\nhabits of thrift, economy, and foresight. If the humble mechanic could\nonly be led to the conviction of the paramount necessity of assuring\nhimself against accidents, disease, and old age, and of avoiding the\ndegradation of becoming chargeable during such misfortunes to the means\nof others who have provided such store, he would neglect the gross\nindulgences of the sot, for the self-esteem and honour arising from a\nconsciousness of having worked while it was yet day, and laid up a\nstore for the evil hours which do so surely come.\n\nThe drink question is one, however, which is now so frequently brought\nto our notice, by our worthy teetotal and temperance friends, that\nI am sure I need not occupy much space in discussing the amount of\nself-destruction caused by alcohol, directly or indirectly, through\ndebauchery, loss of money, position, or self-respect.\n\n\nHEREDITY.\n\nThe influence of Hereditary Predisposition is one of surpassing\ninterest, but is also another of those causes of which it is very\ndifficult to procure accurate statistics; and very few countries have\nas yet given any data in connection with it.\n\nRelations of suicides are apt to be very reticent of confessing to\nlunacy in their families, and it is hereditary mental failure, lunacy,\nepilepsy, dipsomania, &c., which are the forerunners of a future death\nby suicide.\n\nIn Bavaria alone has an effort been made to estimate hereditary\ninfluence; from 1857-66, we are told it was shewn to exist in 13 per\ncent. of all voluntary deaths, since then in 18 per cent.\n\nVoltaire narrates that he knew a professional man, his brother, and the\nfather of both, who all killed themselves at the same age, in the same\nmanner.\n\nBucknill and Tuke give examples of suicide from hereditary insanity,\nand remark, \u201cthat they abound;\u201d similar cases will be found described\nin almost all works treating of insanity.\n\nFalret gives several cases, for example:\u2500In one, a grandmother, mother,\nand grandchild, killed themselves. In another, five sons and one\ndaughter, of a questionably sane father, all committed the act.\n\nGriesinger gives us an example:\u2500A man and his wife became insane, he\nhung himself and she drowned herself; one daughter poisoned herself, a\nson strangled himself, and another daughter threw herself off a house\ntop.\n\nIn Lisle, on \u201cSuicide,\u201d ten marked cases are given.\n\nBurrows narrates, at full length, the case of one family, as\nfollows:\u2500The grandfather hanged himself; he left four sons, one hanged\nhimself, one cut his throat, one drowned himself, and one died a\nnatural death. Two of these sons had large families; of the third,\ntwo children became insane, one died a natural death, the other made\nseveral attempts on his life, and two others drowned themselves,\napparently sane.\n\nThe effect of mental agitation in a person knowing that he is\nthe descendant of insane persons or of suicides, is worthy of\nconsideration; to a well-educated man, what a \u201cskeleton in the closet\u201d\nto live with, must be the constant recollection of the risk to which\nhereditary transmission exposes him. Such a spectre may well refuse\nto be laid, and must be a fertile cause in the production of another\ngeneration of suicides.\n\n\nSPIRITUALISM.\n\nThere is yet another mental cause which is credited both with causing\ninsanity and with causing suicide, especially in the United States.\nI refer to Spiritualism, in the modern acceptation of the title. It\nhas been seriously discussed in America, whether or not a believer in\nspiritualism is not ipso facto mad (Buckham) but without going to that\nextreme point of view, it is most wise to bear in mind that many cases\nof lunacy and many suicides have been assigned to this cause.\n\nThe combined effects of a belief in the doctrine that it is possible in\nour bodies to hold communication with the departed, and of attempts to\npractise this system of intercourse, conjoined with the corollary that\nwhat spirits reveal is true, and so to say, inspired, has frequently\nhad a most fatal effect on minds of a dreamy sort. I knew, myself, a\nmost sane and sensible young medical man, who became imbued, through\na spiritualistic father, with a faith in the possibility of obtaining\ninformation of a mystic and occult character by means of somewhat\nmesmeric proceedings; sad to relate, he very soon became mentally upset\nwith a religious terror, and took his life, without having previously\nevinced any tendency to self-destruction.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nT\u00c6DIUM-VIT\u00c6, THE PASSIONS, MISERY AND DESPAIR.\n\n\nLife weariness was the suicide cause, which French authors supposed to\nbe excited in English people by their climate; and in like manner to\ntheir error in attributing a heavier suicide rate to England than to\ntheir own country; they erred in assigning t\u00e6dium vit\u00e6 as a fertile\nsuicide cause in England. Modern observations disclose but very few\nEnglish suicides due to this influence; we islanders require as a\nrule a stronger stimulus than this one to induce us to terminate our\nexistences. Misery and despair cause a very large number of cases;\nand so do our passions, yet the passions do not cause so large a\npercentage as in hotter countries; along the Mediterranean coast, where\na sub-tropical climate exists, the vices and license of the passions\nare a more fruitful cause than in our temperate clime.\n\nT\u00e6dium vit\u00e6, disgust of life, is not often a simple weariness, not\nat least as a suicide cause; it is either profound sorrow produced\nby a very real and serious loss, or else it is the effect of satiety\nfollowing the abuse of pleasure; still it is occasionally seen in men\nand women who have no object in life, and no need of exertion, and in\nwhom even the daily task of finding something to pass away the time is\ntoo onerous.\n\nTissot cites the cases of Pyramus and Thisbe, Dido, Sappho, Phyllis,\nAlcyon, Portia, Anthony, Cleopatra and Arria, as examples of suicide\ncaused by unrestrained passions; and many modern instances are\ndescribed in Forbes Winslow\u2019s Anatomy of Suicide. Jealousy and\ndisappointment in love affairs do not cause so many voluntary deaths\nas is commonly supposed; and I think it probable that the suicides of\nlovers are often caused partly by a desire to punish the offending ones\nby the regretful feelings which the death of a once-loved person must\nexcite; and such vengeance is not without a certain sweetness to some\npersons\u2019 minds.\n\nCuriously enough envy also has been assigned as the cause of a person\u2019s\nvoluntary death, although it is not clear what consolation this can\noffer.\n\nThe spirit of vindictiveness is, I regret to be obliged to say, a\nrather fertile cause in this country; for example, Dr. Danford Thomas\nnarrates that a servant maid, a few years ago, in Central Middlesex,\nhaving been blamed for her negligence, was given a month\u2019s notice to\nleave; she asked permission to go out, it was granted; she went out and\nbought a piece of rope; the same evening she was found hanging in her\nbedroom.\n\nIn the same district, and about the same time, a young woman-servant\nstrangled herself with a neck scarf to spite her mistress, who had\nscolded her for breakages due to carelessness. In each of these cases\nthe clear opinion of both Coroner and jury was that a feeling of spite\nwas the only prompter of the act.\n\nSeveral worthy members of the medical profession have sought in suicide\na refuge from the mental pain and anxiety caused by unjust accusations;\na doctor is desperately liable to such charges, which are usually\nbrought for the purpose of extorting money, or for revenge.\n\nThere was a sad example in 1865 of a surgeon at Salisbury, and one two\nyears ago at Hounslow; and since then at Kensington a much respected\nmedical practitioner stooped to self-destruction when a criminal charge\nwas brought against him, which subsequent investigation showed to be\nwithout the legal and medical facts necessary to support it.\n\nI believe that if a calculation could be made of the _proximate_\ncauses of suicide in England, the most common causes would be found\nto be misery, despair of success in life, and remorse for crimes,\nmisdemeanours and follies.\n\nIn concluding the consideration of causation, I remark that Morselli\nand others have said, that in the ancient world political fanaticism\nhad its era for causing men to end their lives; in the Middle Ages\nreligious fanaticism held its sway as a cause of suicide; and I should\nadd that in modern times it is the high pressure at which we live, the\ndifficulty of obtaining a livelihood, and the forced education of the\nyoung, which fills our asylums and swells our voluntary death-rate.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nTHE MEANS OF SUICIDE.\n\n\nIt is a somewhat curious fact, considering the immense number of\nfeasible means of terminating one\u2019s existence, that there should be\nsuch a small number of methods in constant use. To enumerate the\npossible means which should fulfil the necessities of the case,\nviz., to be certain and be speedy, would take too long, and would\nbe unnecessary. The means that are used daily are practically very\nfew; the following eight methods include almost every case: Hanging,\ndrowning, shooting, cut throat and other wounds, falls from a height,\nplacing the body in the path of railway trains and other vehicles,\npoison, and suffocation by want of air, or poisonous gases. Voluntary\nstarvation, which was common in ancient Rome, is now almost unknown.\nThe relative frequency of these means is found to vary in each country,\nand in each country varies with age, sex, occupation, and opportunity,\nbut these several numbers are very constant year after year.\n\nWhenever we find the use of an exceptional means, which causes\nprolonged or more exquisite torture, we constantly find evident\ntraces of insanity\u2500(Morselli). The sane man may kill himself, but he\nendeavours to do it as easily as may be.\n\nThe means I have said is governed by opportunity; for example,\nRussians, on account of their climate, live mostly indoors, and are\nforbidden by law to carry arms, so we find hanging most common. In\nItaly we have an out-door life, and arms are frequently carried, and\nthere we find shooting and drowning the most common. And now of late\nyears, in proportion to the spread of railways, we find the number of\npersons casting themselves under trains to increase.\n\nHANGING is the most prominent means of suicide almost throughout\nEurope; the Germans are the most conspicuous for choosing this mode of\ndeath, and next the Russians; the Italians, on the contrary avoid it.\nIt is by far the most common means used in England, and has of late\nyears been gaining in frequency in many European countries, notably in\nFrance and Denmark. It is never so common among women as among men in\nany country.\n\nDROWNING is the next most frequent means. Italy and France supply\nthe largest proportions; its amount bears a definite relation to the\naverage temperature; the cooler the climate the less frequent is\nsuicidal drowning; it is rare in Russia. The annual reports show that\nit is decreasing in France.\n\nThe female sex is the especial patroness of death by drowning in every\ncountry; twice as many women as men drown themselves in Europe every\nyear.\n\nFIRE ARMS are used chiefly in Italy and Switzerland; they form the\nfifth means in order of frequency in England. In the neighbourhood of\nthe military frontiers of Austria and Germany they are a frequent means\nof death.\n\nCUT THROAT occupies about the same position as drowning in England and\nIreland; but in no other country is it anything like so common. It is\nbeyond all other wounds the most common. Opening of the veins is an\nalmost forgotten practice.\n\nFALLS from a height are a specially favoured means of destruction with\nthe Italians; it is neglected by all other nationalities.\n\nPOISON is another mode of killing very popular among the Anglo-Saxons,\nespecially in England and the United States. Some poisons are very\neasily procured by anyone, because they are used in the arts, whilst\nothers are difficult to be obtained, and are seldom used for suicidal\npurposes, except by medical men and chemists.\n\nThe poisons most frequently used are: Opium, morphia, and their\npreparations; prussic acid, cyanide of potassium (used in photography),\nand essential oil of bitter almonds (used in cookery); carbolic acid\nand its preparations, the disinfectant liquids; oxalic acid (used\nin the arts, to clean metals); strychnia and its preparations, the\nvermin-killing powders.\n\nLess frequently used are lunar caustic; the mercurial salts; the\nvegetable narcotics; the mineral acids; preparations of arsenic,\nphosphorus, and its preparations, chiefly vermin killers; and salts of\ncopper.\n\nSUFFOCATION by carbonic acid gas was first used in Paris. Closed\ncharcoal stoves are common in France, and it is easy to destroy life by\nmeans of them in a small room. The practice is spreading in France, and\nhas taken root in Germany also.\n\nI now subjoin tables of the means employed in England, Scotland, and\nIreland, and in London, and in Europe generally.\n\n\nENGLISH SUICIDES tabulated according to Means.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                             \u2502   1881.     \u2502   1882.\n             MEANS,          \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                             \u2502Male.\u2502Female.\u2502Male.\u2502Female.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Railways and other vehicles\u2502 44  \u2502   6   \u2502 51  \u2502   5\n  Fire-arms                  \u2502 118 \u2502   4   \u2502 121 \u2502   2\n  Cut throat                 \u2502 279 \u2502  60   \u2502 264 \u2502  56\n  Cuts and stabs             \u2502 16  \u2502   2   \u2502 23  \u2502   3\n  Falls from a height        \u2502 27  \u2502  13   \u2502 20  \u2502  21\n  Burns, scalds, explosions  \u2502  2  \u2502   1   \u2502  5  \u2502   0\n  Drowning                   \u2502 271 \u2502  172  \u2502 240 \u2502  179\n  Hanging                    \u2502 474 \u2502  111  \u2502 528 \u2502  120\n  Strangling                 \u2502 37  \u2502  12   \u2502 30  \u2502   9\n  Suffocation by vapours     \u2502  2  \u2502   0   \u2502  0  \u2502   0\n  Poison                     \u2502 147 \u2502  81   \u2502 117 \u2502  111\n  Other causes               \u2502 59  \u2502  17   \u2502 47  \u2502  13\n                             \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                 TOTAL       \u25021,476\u2502  479  \u25021,446\u2502  519\n                             \u2514\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nSUICIDES in ENGLAND: Relative use of various POISONS.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                        \u2502    1881.    \u2502    1882.\n        POISONS.        \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                        \u2502Male.\u2502Female.\u2502Male.\u2502Female.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Arsenic               \u2502  6  \u2502   2   \u2502  4  \u2502   2\n  Mercury               \u2502  0  \u2502   0   \u2502  4  \u2502   3\n  Ammonia               \u2502  1  \u2502   1   \u2502  0  \u2502   1\n  Phosphorus            \u2502  3  \u2502   5   \u2502  1  \u2502   5\n  Sulphuric acid        \u2502  1  \u2502   1   \u2502  2  \u2502   1\n  Nitric acid           \u2502  0  \u2502   0   \u2502  1  \u2502   3\n  Hydrochloric acid     \u2502  6  \u2502   1   \u2502  8  \u2502   2\n  Oxalic acid           \u2502  7  \u2502   8   \u2502 13  \u2502  11\n  Carbolic acid         \u2502 15  \u2502  18   \u2502  6  \u2502  13\n  Opium and morphia     \u2502 33  \u2502   6   \u2502 20  \u2502  12\n  Alcohol               \u2502  0  \u2502   1   \u2502  1  \u2502   1\n  Belladonna and aconite\u2502  1  \u2502   1   \u2502  1  \u2502   3\n  Chloroform            \u2502  1  \u2502   1   \u2502  1  \u2502   0\n  Chloral               \u2502  4  \u2502   1   \u2502  1  \u2502   0\n  Prussic acid          \u2502 19  \u2502   1   \u2502  8  \u2502   3\n  Cyanide of potassium  \u2502 15  \u2502   1   \u2502 10  \u2502   4\n  Strychnia             \u2502  7  \u2502   9   \u2502  8  \u2502  11\n  Benzoline             \u2502  0  \u2502   0   \u2502  1  \u2502   0\n  Vermin killers        \u2502  0  \u2502   0   \u2502  7  \u2502  17\n  Disinfectant fluid    \u2502  0  \u2502   0   \u2502  1  \u2502   1\n  Other poisons         \u2502 19  \u2502  24   \u2502 19  \u2502  18\n                        \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n                TOTAL   \u2502 147 \u2502  81   \u2502 117 \u2502  111\n                        \u2514\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nAs a comparison between England, as a whole, and London, I subjoin\nthese figures, relating to cases in Central Middlesex during 1883 and\n1884, investigated by Dr. Danford Thomas or myself:\u2500\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n               \u2502    1883     \u2502    1884\n      MEANS.   \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n               \u2502Male.\u2502Female.\u2502Male.\u2502Female.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Hanging      \u2502 16  \u2502   1   \u2502 18  \u2502   4\n  Drowning     \u2502 15  \u2502  10   \u2502  7  \u2502   4\n  Poison       \u2502 13  \u2502   5   \u2502 21  \u2502  10\n  Fire-arms    \u2502 12  \u2502   0   \u2502  8  \u2502   0\n  Cut throat   \u2502 13  \u2502   4   \u2502 12  \u2502   3\n  Falls        \u2502  5  \u2502   3   \u2502  1  \u2502   3\n  Stabs        \u2502  0  \u2502   0   \u2502  1  \u2502   0\n  Railways     \u2502  1  \u2502   1   \u2502  0  \u2502   0\n  Burns        \u2502  0  \u2502   0   \u2502  1  \u2502   0\n  Suffocation  \u2502  1  \u2502   0   \u2502  1  \u2502   0\n  Strangulation\u2502  1  \u2502   0   \u2502  1  \u2502   0\n  Other means  \u2502  1  \u2502   0   \u2502  0  \u2502   0\n               \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n       TOTAL   \u2502 78  \u2502  24   \u2502 70  \u2502  25\n               \u2514\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\n\nREPORT of Registrar General for Scotland, 1881.\n\n  Population              3,745,485\n  Total Deaths               72,325\n  General Death-rate          19\u00b731\n  Suicide Rate                 48\u00b75\n  Total Suicides                182\n    Of whom were Males          131\n        \u201e    \u201e   Females         51\n\nTABLE of MEANS.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n      MEANS.    \u2502Male.\u2502Female.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Railways      \u2502  2  \u2502   1\n  Fire-arms     \u2502 10  \u2502   0\n  Cut throat    \u2502 26  \u2502   4\n  Cuts and stabs\u2502  2  \u2502   0\n  Hanging       \u2502 44  \u2502   8\n  Drowning      \u2502 27  \u2502  26\n  Poison        \u2502 11  \u2502   9\n  Unstated means\u2502  9  \u2502   3\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\n_N.B._\u2500These are the latest statistics issued, 1885.\n\n\nREGISTRAR GENERAL\u2019S REPORT for IRELAND for 1882 and 1883.\n\nGeneral Death Rate, 1882, was 17\u00b74; 1883 was 19\u00b72.\n\nSuicide Rate, 1882, was 20\u00b77; 1883 was 24\u00b77.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n              1882.             \u2502            1883.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  There were\u2500                   \u2502There were\u2500\n                                \u2502\n      141 Homicides.            \u2502    107 Homicides.\n                                \u2502\n      105 Suicides { Male,   81.\u2502    124 Suicides { Male,   89.\n                   { Female, 24.\u2502                 { Female, 35.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nThe MEANS were:\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n               \u2502       1882.         \u2502        1883.\n     MEANS.    \u251c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n               \u2502  Male.  \u2502 Female.   \u2502  Male.   \u2502  Female.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Hanging      \u2502    24   \u2502   4       \u2502   19     \u2502    8\n  Drowning     \u2502    14   \u2502   6       \u2502   17     \u2502   14\n  Shooting     \u2502    21   \u2502   2       \u2502   20     \u2502    0\n  Cutting      \u2502    13   \u2502   6       \u2502   25     \u2502    8\n  Poison       \u2502     2   \u2502   4       \u2502    7     \u2502    2\n  Other means  \u2502     7   \u2502   2       \u2502    1     \u2502    3\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nIn a Report on the Health of the British Navy for 1883, there are\nsix suicides described, which occurred during the year; 2 were by\nfire-arms, 1 by hanging, 2 by drowning, and 1 from poison.\n\nI add here a table, supplied by the \u201cLancet,\u201d of the relative\nproportional use of various means in the countries of Europe.\n\n\nPer 1,000 Suicides.\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n    Means.   \u2502England.\u2502Prussia.\u2502Italy.\u2502Belgium.\u2502Switzerland.\u2502France.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Hanging    \u2502   368  \u2502   608  \u2502 167  \u2502  545   \u2502    430     \u2502  450\n  Drowning   \u2502   208  \u2502   182  \u2502 300  \u2502  228   \u2502    267     \u2502  290\n  Fire-arms  \u2502    46  \u2502   109  \u2502 244  \u2502  118   \u2502    170     \u2502  110\n  Cutting    \u2502   206  \u2502    54  \u2502  55  \u2502   39   \u2502     67     \u2502   40\n  Poison     \u2502    94  \u2502    30  \u2502  61  \u2502   23   \u2502     33     \u2502   20\n  Falling    \u2502    20  \u2502     9  \u2502 113  \u2502   15   \u2502     11     \u2502   30\n  Suffocation\u2502    30  \u2502     3  \u2502  22  \u2502    4   \u2502     13     \u2502   70\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nLegoyt has calculated the relative proportions of these causes in the\ntwo sexes, in Europe as a whole, thus:\n\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u252c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n    \u2500\u2500  \u2502Hanging.\u2502Drowning.\u2502Fire-arms.\u2502Wounds.\u2502Falls.\u2502Poison.\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u253c\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n  Male  \u2502  521   \u2502   150   \u2502   134    \u2502  89   \u2502  26  \u2502  48\n  Female\u2502  395   \u2502   346   \u2502    8     \u2502  59   \u2502  27  \u2502  117\n  \u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2534\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\u2500\n\nOf 151 suicides in New York, in 1883, 56 were from fire-arms, 19\nhanging, 15 stabbing and cutting, 12 drowning, 11 falls from a height,\n18 poisoning with Paris green, and 7 with opium.\n\nThese cases have been also tabulated in a manner showing the relative\namounts of each means according to nationalities, and disclose the\nvery remarkable fact, that English, French, Germans and Irish, when\nthey have emigrated and are living in a foreign country, still retain\ntheir racial predilections for means of suicide; but they also shew\nthat there is a tendency to follow the custom of a place, inasmuch as\npoison, the favourite means of the native of New York, becomes more\nfrequent among the French and Germans there, than it is among French\nand Germans at home.\n\nOf means rarely observed, I may mention, death by starvation; it is\nmore rare now-a-days than it was in classical times; it requires\nextreme resolution to persevere in this means of self-destruction, and\nit is extremely painful.\n\nOne case of attempted crucifixion is on record, that of Matthew Lovat,\nin 1802, at Venice; he indeed made two attempts, but failed in both.\n\nIn Middlesex, last year, a man deliberately inhaled coal gas from the\nsupply pipe in his room, and so died of suffocation and blood poisoning.\n\nDuring 1881, there were five unusual cases in England; two persons blew\nthemselves up with gunpowder, one person burned himself to death, one\ndied of voluntary starvation, and one died from eating horsehair.\n\nDuring 1880, one suicide was caused by drinking paraffin spirit, and\nanother by swallowing pennies and pebbles.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nSUICIDE AND CRIME COMPARED; AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.\n\n\nIt is instructive to compare the statistics of crime in general with\nthose of suicide; such data as are found in \u201cRecherches sur le penchant\nau Crime,\u201d by A. Quetelet, illustrate this matter; he gives the figure\nof a curve showing the amount of crime at different ages of life. This\ncurve rises from almost zero at ten years of age to nearly its maximum\nat 20, quite its highest point at 23, and then falls evenly to half its\nheight at 45; thence evenly to 70, when it is at a similar position to\n15 years of age, and thence evenly to zero at the age of 100 years.\nThese proportions are found to exist at the present time in our own\ncountry. Among women the maximum falls a little later in life than\namong men, viz., at 30 years of age. Of crime in general, one woman is\nconvicted to four men.\n\nThe seasons disclose a peculiar proportion; in summer there are most\ncrimes against the person, fewest against property; in winter, fewest\ncrimes against the person, most against property.\n\nOfficials and professional men are more prone to commit crimes against\nthe person than against property; labourers and mechanics commit more\ncrimes against property than against the person. Celibacy contributes\n60 out of 100 criminals. It seems tolerably certain that one-half\nof insane persons, two-thirds of the poor, and three-fourths of all\ncriminals are persons who have drunk to excess.\n\nI add in this place, figures shewing the present decrease of crime\nin England and Scotland, to which reference was made in the preface.\nThis diminution may be, in some part, due to an increase of the police\nforce, and to the greater efficiency of these officers. If these be the\nreal causes of the improvement, and not increased morality, the reason\nwhy the suicide rate is not decreasing becomes explained, because, as\nI point out elsewhere, the police are almost powerless to control the\nperpetration of suicide.\n\nThe number of persons committed for criminal trial in 1882 was\n15,260; this shews a diminution of 381 upon the average of five years\nprecedent. In Scotland, 2,692 persons were committed for trial against\n2,859, the average for the five years immediately preceding. The total\nnumber of \u201cpersons of bad character known to the police\u201d in England is\nalso diminished in 1882, being 38,966, against 39,161 in the previous\nyear, and compared to 46,877 in the year 1872.\n\nSir John Lubbock has lately called attention to the diminished amount\nof English crime at the present time, and attributes it to the spread\nof education. Mr. Justice Smith has also spoken on the same point,\nbut hesitates to assign education as the cause of the improvement; he\nmentions another remarkable point, that the highest rates of criminal\nviolence are associated with the population earning the highest wages,\nchiefly through the greater amount of alcoholic liquors so consumed.\n\nSuicide certainly has points of difference to other crimes of violence;\nthe wicked ones of earth are not those who specially practice it.\nEducation checks crime, although under the influence of increased\nmental tension self-sacrifice is more rife; alcohol increases crime\nand suicide also; this I believe to be due to the fact that habitual\nalcoholic excess lessens the controlling power of the conscience,\nand renders the mind less able to withstand the tension induced by\ndevelopment.\n\nThe prevalence of suicide is every day attributed to the progress of\nimmorality; I associate it as much with the development of thought.\n\nSavages, implacable in their hate, ferocious in their vengeance, and\natrocious in their pleasures, do not commit it, although they kill\ntheir old people, and do not hesitate to drink from the skulls of their\nenemies. It was not common among any of the great nations of old until\nthey became cultivated intellectually. Compare Regnault on Mental\nAlienations.\n\n\nATTEMPTED SUICIDE.\n\nThe relative proportion between suicides and suicidal attempts has been\nthe subject of much difference of opinion.\n\nIt is a common idea that many attempts are made with a view to coerce\nor influence relations and friends, attempts which, in fact, are not\nintended to be successful, although they sometimes succeed.\n\nIn general, if a second attempt be made, after a fruitless effort, and\nespecially after recovery from injury, the patient is insane. Attempts\nat suicide by cutting very frequently fail, as do attempts by the use\nof fire-arms; but on the other hand, death is much more certain if\ndrowning or hanging has been the means used.\n\nIn cases of poisoning, also, the victims are often found half dead,\nand skilful treatment restores a great number. In a recent case a man\nthrew himself between the rails in front of an advancing train, and\nyet escaped without any injury; but such attempts are almost certain\ndestruction.\n\nOgston (Ed. Med. Journal, Feb. 1885) narrates a very interesting and\ninstructive case of suicide: the deceased had evidently made repeated\nattempts to kill himself with a razor; six incisions were visible on\nthe chest and five on the neck, but the unfortunate man finding himself\nnot dying fast enough, had finally cast himself into the sea, and was\ndrowned.\n\nIn view of the great uncertainty existing as to the relation between\nattempted and completed self-destruction, I made a special appeal to\nthe medical profession in this country, through the medical journals,\nfor information, but received only few replies. As a rule, hospital\nmedical officers consider that attempts far outnumber successes,\nwhilst general practitioners incline to the opinion that failures\nare less frequent. As a summary of all the cases reported to me, the\nnumbers were in the relative proportion of 21 failures to 12 completed\ninstances. I have already said how difficult it is to form a correct\nestimate of the number of suicides (see page 58); the sources of error\nare still more numerous when we attempt to estimate the number of\nunsuccessful attempts. The police are entirely at a loss to supply any\nvaluable information as to the proportion of attempts. I consider that\nthey are not concerned in a third of such instances; they only hear of\nthose cases that occur in the public streets, or in lodging houses,\nor in the parks; or of those attempts at drowning, which are at times\nfrequent, by jumping from the bridges, especially in London.\n\n\u201cOf one hundred persons,\u201d says Esquirol, \u201cwho attempt suicide only\nforty succeed.\u201d Brierre de Boismont says, \u201cfor one suicide there are\ntwo attempts.\u201d Legoyt has ascertained that in Dublin, 1874-76, for\nthree years the proportions (known to the police) were 41 successes\nand 123 attempts. He also calculates that in the countries of Europe,\nexcluding Turkey, there are annually 28,000 persons who attempt to\nkill themselves, and 22,000 succeed. The Statistical Society published\nin Vol. I. of their Journal the following figures; in one year, 75\ncompleted to 47 attempts; in another, 117 completed to 58 attempted;\nthese were London cases, and the numbers were, I believe, procured from\nthe police registers. During a period of nine years, 4,595 suicides\nwere registered in Paris, and 1,864 suicidal failures. In Baden, during\ntwo years, 417 suicides were discovered, whilst the official records\nshow only 22 cases of attempted suicide.\n\nThe attempt to commit suicide is much less liable to interruption\nthan attempted murder. There is no resistance from the opponent to\nbe allowed for, and it is easy to evade the officers of the law by\nattempting the act when alone. As a matter of fact, it is a rare event\nfor anyone to commit suicide when in company with others. The majority\nof suicides are not discovered until after death.\n\nComte considers it a folly of lawmakers to think that enactments can\ncheck the act.\n\nHeber, \u201cJourney through India,\u201d calls attention to the very small\namount of success, during many years, which English officials achieved\nin preventing suicidal drowning at Benares and elsewhere in British\nIndia, by means of legal enactments.\n\n\nTHE LAW OF SUICIDAL ATTEMPTS.\n\nSuicide, as before described, is a felony; the attempt to commit a\nfelony is in the eye of the English law a misdemeanour; consult R.\n_v._ Higgins, 2 East., 8; and R. _v._ Martin, 9 C. and P. 213-215. An\nattempt at Felo-de-se is a misdemeanour over which the quarter sessions\nhave jurisdiction; but it is not an attempt to commit murder within the\nmeaning of the Act 24 & 25 Vict, c. 100, _see_ R. _v._ Burgess, 1.\u202fL.\nand C. 258, 32 L.\u202fJ., M.\u202fC. 56.\n\nWhen the police hear of an attempt at suicide, the culprit is taken in\ncharge by them; if seriously injured the patient is watched in hospital\nby a police officer. It is customary to charge the offender before the\nmagistrates as soon as practicable; in such a case it is more usual\nto bind over the prisoner to \u201ckeep the peace,\u201d than it is to send the\ncase for trial; if there be any evidence of insanity, the prisoner is\nexamined by the police surgeon and another medical man; and if found to\nbe insane is certified as such, and confined in an asylum.\n\nI cannot refrain from saying that both law and custom with respect to\nSuicide are in a very unsatisfactory and anomalous state. On the one\nhand, self-murder is ranked by the law as a _felony_, one of the worst\nof crimes;\u2500on the other hand, hardly one suicide a year is called a\n_felon_. Suicide is not in law any proof of the existence of insanity,\nyet no sooner is the suicide quite dead, than almost every one cries\nout that he was insane. Again, an attempt at suicide is a misdemeanour\npunishable by imprisonment, yet a person caught in the act and taken\nbefore the magistrates is generally dismissed from custody, not because\nof insanity, certainly not, because if that were the plea, he would be\nsent to an asylum, and not set free; but let the culprit presently die\nfrom a cause dependent on the suicidal injury, and the verdict will\nbe that he was insane. Surely such incongruities cannot be allowed to\nexist much longer.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nSUICIDE IN BRITISH INDIA.\n\n\nThe information conveyed in the preceding pages, in reference to\nsuicide in England, and in the countries of Europe, applies in a small\ndegree only to Hindostan. In this vast tract of country, including many\nseparate states, some of which are still under native rulers, and in\nwhich very different religious beliefs exist, and are practised side by\nside, the suicidal tendencies are very varied. The habits and customs\nof the several races are so entirely distinct in many points, that no\nsurprise need be felt when we observe the very different attitudes\nthese hold in respect to self-destruction. The Mohammedan races avoid\nit; the Brahmins encourage it in their religious customs, and in their\nsocial life; whilst the floating British population exhibits a slightly\nhigher rate than that of the British at home.\n\nThe laws respecting suicide in the districts under British rule, are\nenacted by the Indian Penal Code, cap. xvi., ss. 300, 305, 306, 309.\n\nFor other regulations refer to s. 19 of Reg. xix. of 1807; and Nizamut\nAdawlut Reports, Vol. iii. of 1833.\n\nThe average suicide rate for India, as a whole, I estimate at 40 per\nmillion; the rate for the city of Calcutta alone was estimated some\nyears ago as high as one in 2,000.\n\nStatistics of suicide are unfortunately even less reliable in respect\nto India than they are in regard to Europe, for it is to be feared that\na very large number of murders are hidden by want of evidence, and by\nfalse statements, under the garb of voluntary death. The Hindoos of the\nlower class have the very faintest idea of the value of truth for its\nown sake, and Hindoo evidence can be manufactured at a low price in any\nquantity.\n\nThe causation of the suicides of the natives of Hindostan falls into\nfour chief divisions (Chevers), upon each of which I add a few remarks.\n\n\nREVENGE OR ACCUSATION.\n\nAlthough less common at the present time than formerly, cases are still\nseen in which a man or woman will commit suicide to spite another, and\ncall down the opprobrium of the neighbours on him for some injury, or\nfancied slight, such deaths were called _chandi_, or self-immolation;\nthe Rajpoot class greatly practised it; they would protest against\na decree, and then stab themselves as a final protest. Another form\nwas _dhurna_, sitting at an enemy\u2019s door and waiting for death by\nstarvation, hoping to bring down a curse on the offender. The erection\nof a _koor_, or wood pile, for conflagration, and self-burning\nthereon, with or without the offering of some animal, was also a\nprocess designed to invoke curses on an opponent. Cases have also been\nobserved is which a man has cut his throat in a neighbour\u2019s house, so\nthat the neighbour might be accused of murder, and so be made to suffer\nthe penalty for that crime. A fakir has been known to set himself on\nfire, to excite charity; and a Brahmin has thrown himself into a well,\nthat his ghost might haunt the owner of it.\u2500Esdaile.\n\n\nRELIGION.\n\nThe Brahmin religion has had for ages a tenet that self-sacrifice is\nthe most acceptable offering to deity, and five modes of great sanctity\nare enumerated: 1. Starvation; 2. Burying alive; 3. Drowning in the\nGanges; 4. Covering the body with dried cow dung, and setting it on\nfire; and 5. Cutting the throat at the mouth of the Ganges. See the\n\u201cAyeen Akbery.\u201d To throw oneself off the precipices of the Mahadeo\nhills was also a sacred act (Sleeman), and perhaps above all was deemed\nthe death by crushing under the wheels of the Car of Juggernath.\n\nA collateral religious rite is _sati_, or the enforced burning of\nwidows after the death of the husband; this martyrdom is now almost\nextinct, except perhaps in the native-governed states. It was very\nprevalent as late as 1803, in which year no less than 275 wives were\nburned within 30 miles of Calcutta.\n\nA male Hindoo will also occasionally burn himself on a wood pile even\nnow, just as did Calanus in the time of Alexander the Great. See\n\u201cFriend of India,\u201d 1866.\n\nForbes describes several cases in which Brahmin devotees forced\nthemselves to continue eating until their deaths took place.\n\n\nPHYSICAL SUFFERING.\n\nSuicide as a means of relief from pain and disease is common in\nBengal; the sacred books named the Shastras inculcate the doctrine of\nits propriety in such cases. In former times these deaths took place\nwith public ceremonials, but are now perforce privately completed.\nIntestinal worms seem to produce great physical pain and discomfort\namong the poor rice-eating Bengalese, and suicide is not infrequent\nfrom this cause.\u2500Woodford.\n\n\nGRIEF, SHAME, AND JEALOUSY.\n\nThe Hindoos seem to be very sensitive to some trifling annoyances,\nwhich the Englishman would take no notice of, and suicides are\nnot uncommonly the effect of insults and imputations. Thus, the\nCommissioner of the Chota Nagpore district mentioned the case of a\nwoman who poisoned herself because her husband complained of her\nuntidiness, and another because she was asked to feed her own child,\ninstead of being provided with a nurse. A wife killed herself because a\nfriend told her that her husband was illegitimate.\u2500Bellasis.\n\nForbes mentions that when he was at Dhuboy suicide was very common\namong Hindoo widows of the upper classes, who being interdicted from\nmarriage threw themselves into the wells after perceiving the results\nof their imprudences. Jealousy is also a very fertile cause of suicide\namong Hindoo women.\n\nThe means used for committing suicide in India are among females almost\nalways drowning, especially in wells, and among the males drowning and\nhanging are about equally common.\u2500Muir of Madras.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nTHE PREVENTION OF SUICIDE, AND THE TREATMENT OF THE SUICIDAL TENDENCY\nIN THE INSANE.\n\n\nIt is a terrible thought that our much boasted civilisation and modern\neducational advantages bring with them a suicide rate which nothing so\nfar has been found to check.\n\nThe struggle for existence, at our present high pressure, ends in the\nsurvival of the strongest and most able; the weaker in body, and the\nfeebler in mind, get pushed aside and pass away before their due time\nby disease and self-destruction.\n\nWhat can be done? the wheel of progress cannot be stopped because it\ncrushes some victims in its onward course. The abolition of monopolies,\nand even the reforms of land holding, land conveyance, the refusal\nof special advantages to primogeniture, and the schemes of trade\nunionists, now being agitated, cannot do away with poverty. \u201cThe poor\nye have always with you,\u201d said Jesus, and He no doubt meant, \u201cand\nalways shall have,\u201d in this probationary world. If only the grand\nprinciple of \u201cmoderation in all things\u201d were more thoroughly followed\nout to its legitimate conclusion, many deaths due to the extremes\nwhich so many strive after, might be avoided; peace, health, and\ncompetence should be our aim, not wealth and extravagance; and the\nwaves of commercial depression which so repeatedly occur are but the\nsequence of commercial exaggeration, and follow upon over-inflated\nmarkets.\n\nHowever various may be the opinions regarding the mental state of\nsuicides, there is no practical dissent from the acknowledgment of the\ndesirability of preventing the commission of suicide.\n\nFor our purpose, then, it will suffice to consider, on the one hand,\nwhat means are necessary to restrain patients who are acknowledged to\nbe insane; and on the other hand, what measures are permissible to\ndissuade and prevent those in trouble or pain from taking their own\nlives; such means will be equally available whether we think these\nsufferers sane in their deaths, or insane from the time when they\nattempt the destruction of their lives.\n\nThere are doubtless cases of suicide in which it is impossible to\ndecide as to the mental state of the patient; no definition of insanity\nhas ever yet been agreed to, and probably never will; and until medical\nscience has advanced so far as to be able to estimate how much grief\nor pain a man can support without attempting to evade his sufferings,\nthere always will be voluntary deaths of persons who are so notoriously\nsane as to forbid the application of restraint. Yet survivors will\npostulate a momentary insanity, when such persons shall have destroyed\nthemselves to avoid the possibility of an error of judgment.\n\n\nSUICIDE OF THE INSANE.\n\nIn a work such as this, intended not entirely for physicians, but also\nfor students of Social Science, I do not think it fitting to enter into\nparticulars as to the exact means of treating the suicidal propensity\nin such cases, nor do I suggest any definite medical prescriptions to\nrelieve collateral symptoms; such may be safely left in the hands of\nthe skilful physician. I have only to insist on the urgent necessity\nthat exists for the immediate removal from society of any person\nexhibiting mind failure, who shows any tendency to self-destruction;\nand even if suicide be not definitely threatened, no time should be\nlost in commencing the care and treatment of a lunatic.\n\nAnd, again, the means of treatment, and, if necessary, of coercion of\nthose definitely of weak, or of unsound mind, fall to the alienist.\n\nThe whole question of Asylum treatment is now under consideration;\nwhether any private establishments at all should exist, is debated\nwith zeal; the further question of whether the treatment and care of\nthe insane ought not to be begun and perhaps continued, just as is the\ntreatment of bodily disease, without any formal certification, has also\nbeen broached of late, by an editorial in the \u201cLancet\u201d of last year.\nThese questions do not fall within the scope of a treatise on \u201cSuicide\nas a fact.\u201d The managers and attendants in English asylums may at any\nrate be congratulated on their care of their patients in this matter,\nfor the rate of suicide in asylums is but 1 per 1,000 annually.\n\nMany once popular modes of treatment of insane persons are now almost\nforgotten, just as many modes of treating bodily diseases have\ndisappeared.\n\nAs a preventive of suicide in melancholia, the noted Avenbrugger\nrecommended that the patient should be made to drink a pint of cold\nwater every hour, whilst his feet were wrapped in flannel. Hufeland\nalso advised the ingestion of plenty of cold water for mania. The\neminent alienist Burrows recommended emetics, bleeding, and warm baths,\naccompanied by cold douche to the head, as measures fitted to remove\nthe suicidal propensity. The means recommended by Brierre de Boismont\nfor avoiding the suicidal propensity in the insane were the persistent\nuse of morphia to ensure sleep, and the prolonged use of baths,\nthe continuous immersion of the body for four, five, or six hours.\nGriesinger remarks that medication is of no use, and that mechanical\nrestraint does not remove the tendency, even if it renders the act\nimpossible for the time; nothing but constant watching is of any avail\nuntil the inclination passes off.\n\nIt has been suggested by many physicians that bleeding would remove\nthe suicidal tendency in cases where it is associated with cerebral\nirritation, congestion, or inflammation.\n\nSeveral cases of cut-throat are on record, in which the patient, who\nhad just been raving, became sane after the bleeding which followed his\nact: Dr. Southwood Smith mentions this, see \u201cPhilosophy of Health,\u201d\nvol. i., p. 109; and the elder Disraeli mentions that a surgeon\nnarrated such a case to him. See \u201cCuriosities of Literature.\u201d The case\nof the late Sir Samuel Romilly was one example of this point; the\nbleeding restored his senses, and he did all in his power to check the\nh\u00e6morrhage. See Wynter. \u201cBorderlands of Insanity.\u201d\n\nSuicidal patients require most watching early in the morning; a good\nlunch often dispels the tendency for the day. During convalescence from\nmania, &c., relapses into suicidal condition are very common, and it is\nfrequently in these remissions that nurses become less watchful just\nwhen they should be vigilant, and the act is committed.\n\nWhen the tendency is the result of alcoholism, we are met by this\ndifficulty; restraint is needed, and yet no one has the power to\nenforce restraint; the physician succeeds well enough in relieving\nthe alcoholic delirium and coincident risk of suicide, perhaps time\nafter time; but is powerless to prevent a succeeding attack. Unless a\nsufferer can be induced to volunteer his entry into a retreat, there\nare no means of saving him from himself. So long as a man is sensible\nwhen sober, be it only for an hour a day, he is beyond the reach of\ncompulsory cure.\n\nIn the suicidal mania of parturition, on the other hand, the patient\nis happy in being already, from her state, under the practical control\nof her medical attendant, and hence such cases are almost always\nrestrained successfully.\n\nThe essence of impulsive insanity is its occurrence without any\nwarning; yet many such suicides might be prevented by a more careful\nobservation on the part of the companions of a patient. Whenever there\nbe any hereditary taint of insanity, or of dipsomania, or of chronic\nnervous disease, or epilepsy; if there be heredity of self-destruction,\nor if there have been a previous attack of insanity, or if there\nbe insomnia, the slightest symptoms of mental alteration should be\nwatched for; alterations of conduct, the attitude of suspicion, or of\nself-accusation, or of unnecessary melancholy. The facial expression\nwill frequently raise the alarm; the restless uneasy eye, and ever\nvarying play of the muscles of the face in one case; and the settled\nglare of the eye, and expressionless features in another, should warn\nobservers of an approaching crisis of disordered intellect.\n\n\nSUICIDE OF SANE PERSONS.\n\nThe suicidal tendency so often coexists, either with straightened\ncircumstances, or sudden deprivation of income, that the very modes of\ntreatment most likely to remove the tendency are by these very causes\nrendered impracticable. Temporary abstention from duty or business,\ncoupled with change of climate and scene, would doubtless cure a very\nlarge percentage of cases, but it is exactly the inability to drop the\nchains of employment, and the absence of the monetary means for travel\nwhich are lacking.\n\nThe means of cure when they are practicable are obvious enough to any\nphysician; a healthy and not too arduous employment; change of air, and\nscene; and of companionship; the improvement of the bodily health, the\nexhibition of nervine tonics; and last, but not by any means least, the\nexercise of every possible means of making sleep a certainty.\n\nThe continuous poring over one\u2019s troubles, and contemplating one\u2019s\nfate, without the definite lengthy intermissions given by healthy\nsleep, are most fertile causes of nervous breakdown and attempted\nself-destruction. The occurrence of a long night\u2019s slumber frequently\nentirely removes the pernicious intentions at which an overwrought\nbrain arrived over night.\n\nI have already alluded to the debated question as to the tendencies of\nreligion and education.\n\nStatistics seem to point so clearly to development of the mind and\nmental tension as a cause of voluntary death, that it is probably of\nno use to look to education as a cure for the suicidal tendency in\nindividuals.\n\nThe cultivation of a religious conviction of the sanctity of life,\nand the sin of a self-inflicted death is a more certain hindrance to\nsuicide. Persons who are unable to obtain this mental conviction, are,\nI believe, more prone to take their lives in time of trouble, and\nbeyond good advice and the care of their friends, I do not know that\nany means exist to restrain them. See Legoyt, Esquirol, Cazeauvieile\nand Descuret.\n\nA man has a strong natural claim on his relations to take care of him\nwhen he meets with an accident, or is bodily ill, and it is always\nadmitted; the same claim exists that he should be protected against\nhimself, not only when insane, but when in great mental perturbation,\nmisery or despair. Nothing but a constant watchfulness will suffice to\nrestrain some persons from ending a life of present wretchedness, and\nenable them to experience the better times, which are very often in the\nfuture.\n\nAmong measures of precaution, the removal of suggestive weapons, and of\nbooks and papers likely to bring to recollection instances of crime or\nself-destruction, must not be omitted.\n\nEvery effort should be made to secure full occupation for the mind of a\ncomposing character if possible; ennui or t\u00e6dium vit\u00e6 is an important\npredisposing influence.\n\nOf the numerous French authors on suicide, the first rank is held by\nBrierre de Boismont; his suggestions for the prevention of suicide,\namong reasonable persons, _i.e._, not insane, are to avoid sadness,\nto procure a family, and to follow some business; and with regard\nto religion, he advises the confessional and the cloister. Ebrard\nalso extols these two means of cure; of the latter remedy I have no\nexperience, and the former is not likely to be much used in this\ncountry.\n\n\u201cWe are attacked by many moral and social ills; there is much madness\nin our heads, and many evil passions, and weaknesses in our hearts; but\nthe sources of purity are not dried up, the springs of human energy are\nnot exhausted. Let us hope then, let us hope!\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nSUICIDE OF ANIMALS.\n\n\nThe question \u201cto what extent does the mind of one of the lower animals\nresemble that of man,\u201d has been argued by many able men, but no very\ndefinite decision has been arrived at. The point is of prime importance\nin a consideration of whether animals can commit suicide; I mean\n\u201ccan animals kill themselves intentionally, either as the result of\nconsideration and choice, or of impulse?\u201d\n\nNo one doubts that animals may die from some voluntary action of their\nown; for example, a dog may die of eating poisoned food, or a horse\nmay die from a blow caused by jumping over a space with insufficient\ncaution and observation, or a monkey may cut his throat by imitating\na man shaving; similar deaths would not be called suicide in man. The\ntendency of the present day is rather in favour of granting to the\nlower beings of creation a larger share of intelligence than used to be\nassigned to them. Not many years ago it was almost universally granted\nthat animals had no soul, and no future life, and only a limited\ninstinct in this life; no reasoning powers, and no foreknowledge of\napproaching death; all these points have of late years been declared to\nbe uncertain.\n\nIf we deny to animals powers of reflection and knowledge of a\nnecessary death, it is not possible to assent to the statement that an\nanimal can in its own mind decide to end its life at any certain time.\n\nSome animals, certainly, protest against entering a yard where others\nhave been slaughtered, as if the smell of blood suggested their fate\nto them, but what we understand as instinct suffices to explain this\nterror. Birds of prey are known to detect by sight or smell when an\nanimal is about to die; this again is the instinct provided to supply\nthem with food.\n\nIf it be true that a scorpion will sting itself to death when irritated\nbeyond measure, I should be inclined to think that it perishes in its\nefforts to sting its enemies; or if not, I should imagine that the\naction resembles that of a man tearing his hair from anger, when he\ncannot injure his opponent. And the same ideas will apply to the case\nof the bee, which is similarly said to kill itself in wounding its\nenemy.\n\nWild birds will refuse food and die, if confined in a cage; and the\nsurvivor of a pair of tame birds, after the death of his mate, is often\nnoticed to refuse food and rapidly die of exhaustion; but I should\nexplain such cases by saying that the loss had made so intense an\nimpression on the creature\u2019s consciousness as to supersede the impulse\nto feed itself.\n\nI myself remember seeing a healthy little dog refuse food, pine away\nand die, when its young mistress, who had for months hourly petted\nit, became a mother, and the dog became neglected; its death was from\nneglect of a voluntary action, but was it volitional?\n\nRegnault, Elias, in his work on Mental Alienation, decides against the\npossibility of the lower animals ever effecting a voluntary death; he\nsays, \u201cSuicide is the most energetic assertion of man\u2019s superiority;\nwhy do not animals conceive and execute it? Because their nature is\nentirely passive; to them the choice of life or death is not given;\nman, on the contrary, eminently free and active, is able to extend his\nenergy even as far as self-destruction.\u201d\n\nNarratives of the deaths of animals, especially when these have\nbeen pets, are apt to be very unreliable, from the infusion of\nsentiment, and many of the anecdotes of suicide of animals which I\nhave investigated have a semi-mythical character. The stories to\nwhich I give references would close the controversy as to whether\nanimals ever do, or do not commit suicide, _i. e._, kill themselves\nwith the intention of ending their lives, and not accidentally nor\ninadvertently, if they could be relied on to possess anything like\nscientific accuracy. Most of them have been published in newspapers,\n&c., where errors would be liable to suffer correction.\n\nAristotle narrates that a horse having been induced to have connection\nwith his own dam, by the artifice of veiling her, for he had refused to\ndo so previously, on seeing what he had done, jumped intentionally from\na cliff, and was killed by the fall. See History of Animals, lib. ix.,\ncap. 47.\n\nBut Professor Axe, of the Royal Veterinary College, tells me that he\nhas never heard of _such_ a refusal on the part of a horse, neither\nhas he ever observed any instance which seemed to him to point to the\nintentional self-destruction of any animal.\n\nThere is an old story mentioned in Boswell\u2019s Life of Johnson, that a\nscorpion if irritated by placing it within a ring of burning coals,\nwill thrust its own sting into itself, and so commit suicide; Dr.\nJohnson doubted it, and remarked that Maupertuis did not credit it.\n\nBory de St. Vincent, in the classic \u201cDictionnaire d\u2019Histoire\nNaturelle,\u201d vol. 15, says he has tried the experiment, and the\nscorpions simply became suffocated.\n\nThere is reference to the suicide of scorpions in Nature, Vol. xi., p.\n29, which speaks of irritating a scorpion by means of a burning glass,\nwith the same result. In the next week\u2019s number, p. 47, is another\nmention of a similar observation. At Vol. xx., p. 553, a writer denies\nthe possibility of a scorpion striking itself, whilst at p. 577, Prof.\nAllen Thompson details hearsay instances of scorpions forcibly piercing\ntheir own heads by their recurved stings, when annoyed by a bright\nlight.\n\nYouatt, Wm., V.\u202fS., tells the story of an artillery horse which refused\nfood, and died from starvation, after the death of another horse, with\nwhich he had long worked. See \u201cThe Horse.\u201d\n\nDr. W.\u202fL. Lindsay is a copious writer on this subject. He fully\nbelieves in animal suicide, and speaks of old age, wounded feelings,\npain, desperation, continued ill usage, captivity, and self-sacrifice\nas causes; and states that he has notes of instances occurring in the\ndog, horse, mule, camel, llama, ass, monkey, seal and deer; stork,\ncock, jackdaw and duck; spider and scorpion; he narrates also some of\nthe cases for which I have given references. See \u201cMind in the Lower\nAnimals.\u201d\n\nHe gives also many very interesting examples of accidental\nself-destruction, such as the strangling of horses by their halters,\nwhen endeavouring to escape from a stable; that monkeys have cut their\nthroats from imitating a man shaving; and that mice have been poisoned\nby eating greenbacks.\n\nSome sorts of fish, as salmon, have been noticed to throw themselves\nout of the water, but it seems very doubtful whether this act is meant\nto be suicidal.\n\nVoluntary deaths of animals during panic and terror, and from\nfascination, seem to intervene between accidental suicides, and\nsuicides which appear to be the result of choice; such deaths are\ncaused by the headlong flight of sheep when worried by a dog, or are\ncaused by fires on the prairies; or by fascination, as seen in the case\nof moths in a candle flame.\n\nOther instances of apparent suicide may be consulted, viz.:\u2500\n\n  Suicide of,\u2500\n\n Dogs, by a railway train, see Freeman\u2019s Journal, Dublin, 1878.\n\n Some fowls, by drowning. Sir S. Baker. The Albert Nyanza. 1876.\n\n Deer in America. Dr. Pierquin. Trait\u00e9 de la folie. 1839.\n\n Storks in conflagrations. Houzeau, J.\u202fC. Etudes sur les facult\u00e9s\n mentales des animaux. 1872.\n\n Pike, from pain. Watson, J.\u202fS. The Reasoning Power of Animals. 1870.\n\n Dog, from the pain of a seton. Wynter.\n\n Spider. Gillies, R. On the Habits of Spiders. 1876.\n\n Dog, by drowning. Shrewsbury Chronicle. Oct. 25, 1878.\n\n Cat, by drowning. Notes and Queries. Oct. 19, 1878.\n\n Dog, by drowning. Notes and Queries. June, 25, 1884.\n\n Horse by drowning. The Veterinarian. Aug. 1864.\n\n Cat, by drowning. Stamford Mercury. Aug. 16, 1878.\n\n Horse, by drowning, at Alloa. July 1876.\n\n Elk. Sir S. Baker. Eight years in Ceylon. 1874.\n\n Dog, from madness. Dr. Macdonald. Times. Oct. 1874.\n\n Dog, from pain of a wound. Dundee Advertiser. 1874.\n\n \u201e \u201e old age. Northern Ensign. July 20, 1870.\n\n \u201e \u201e \u201e Norris (Lindsay.)\n\n \u201e \u201e old age and pain. Morris. (Lindsay.)\n\n \u201e \u201e broken legs, North British Daily Mail. 1876.\n\n Monkey. Forbes. (Lindsay.)\n\n Canvas-back Duck. Gillmore, P., Prairie and Forest. 1874.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\nTHE ATTITUDE OF ASSURANCE COMPANIES TO THE SUICIDE.\n\n\nTo obtain this information application was made to each of the offices\nmentioned, for a prospectus which should include the regulations with\nrespect to forfeiture of policies. I find by analysis that there are\nseven varieties in the proceedings of the companies, and in all of them\nassigned policies are indisputable.\n\n A.\u2500Policy is void by suicide:\u2500Crown, Hand-in-Hand, Law, Rock,\n Provident, and Royal Exchange.\n\n Of these, however\u2500\n\n   Hand-in-Hand _may_ return premiums and interest.\n\n   Law _may_ pay a sum of money if the directors think fit.\n\n   Provident _may_ pay a surrender value.\n\n   Crown _may_ make a reasonable allowance unless the suicide be\n   felo-de-se.\n\nB.\u2500Policy is not void after five years\u2019 existence:\u2500Atlas, Gresham,\nMutual (if assured be 30 years old), Prudential, Whittington, Sun.\n\nC.\u2500Policy is not void after three years\u2019 existence:\u2500Alliance, British\nEmpire, Norwich Union, Pelican.\n\nD.\u2500Policy is not void after two years:\u2500Star, Commercial Union.\n\n E.\u2500Policy is not void after 13 months:\u2500Guardian; London Assurance\n Company.\n\n F.\u2500Policy is not void after one year:\u2500Clerical, Medical, and General;\n Legal and General; Liverpool, London, and Globe.\n\n G.\u2500No mention is made of suicide in the prospectuses of the following\n companies:\u2500Equitable; London, Edinburgh, and Glasgow; Economic; New\n York; Northern; Royal; Scottish Amicable; Union; West of England.\n\nThe Union, and West of England, have a clause that \u201cNo claim is\ndisputed unless there is palpable fraud.\u201d\n\nOf these thirty-two companies only one makes a distinction between\nsuicide of the insane, and felo-de-se, viz., the Crown.\n\n\n\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX.\n\n\n Agabeg and Harris. Principles of the Criminal Law, 3rd ed. 1884.\n\n American Journal of Medical Science. 1878. See Palmer, O. H., and\n Gray, J.\u202fP.\n\n Anti-hegesias. A French Poem on Suicide, critical and historical. 1763.\n\n Baer, A. Der Alcoolismus. 1878.\n\n Bareuc. Reflexions sur le Suicide. 1789.\n\n Beccaria, Bonesana C. On Crimes and Punishments, an essay. 1777.\n\n Beck, John B. Elements of Medical Jurisprudence. 1842.\n\n Bentham, Jeremy. Principles of Penal Law. 1843.\n\n Bertrand, Louis. Trait\u00e9 du Suicide. 1857.\n\n Block, Georg. Vom Selbstmord. 1792.\n\n Bonomi. Del Suicidio in Italia. 1878.\n\n Bourdin, Dr. C.\u202fE. Du Suicide. 1845.\n\n Briand, J., and Chaud\u00e9, E. Manuel complet de M\u00e9decine L\u00e9gale. 1880.\n\n Brierre de Boismont, Alexander. Du Suicide. 1856.\n\n British Medical Journal.\n\n Brouc. Considerations sur le Suicide de notre epoque. 1836.\n\n Bucknill and Tuke. A Manual of Psychological Medicine. 4th ed. 1879.\n\n Buckle, H.\u202fT. History of Civilization in England. 1869.\n\n Bunyon, C.\u202fT. A Treatise on Life Assurance. 18.\n\n Buonafede, Appiano. Histoire de Suicide. 1762 and 1843.\n\n Burdach. Trait\u00e9 de Physiologie. 1841.\n\n Burrows, G.\u202fM. Commentaries on Insanity. 1828.\n\n Camp, Maxime du. Memoires d\u2019un Suicide. 1855.\n\n Caro, E. Le Suicide dans ses rapports avec le civilisation. 1856.\n\n Carpenter, W.\u202fB. Principles of Mental Physiology. 4th ed. 1876.\n\n Casper, J.\u202fL. Forensic Medicine, translated from the German by J.\u202fW.\n Balfour. 1861-5.\n\n Cazauvieilh, J.\u202fB. Du Suicide. 1840.\n\n Chevers, Norman. The Medical Jurisprudence of India. 1870.\n\n Chevrey, J. Etude M\u00e9dicale sur le Suicide. 1816.\n\n Chitty, Joseph, the Elder. Medical Jurisprudence. 1834.\n\n Connoisseur, The. No. 50. 1755.\n\n Dabadie, F. Les Suicides Illustres. Vol. I. 1859.\n\n David. Note sur le Suicide en Danemark. 1860.\n\n Debreyne, M. Du Suicide. 1847.\n\n Descuret, J.\u202fB.\u202fF. La M\u00e9decine des Passions. 1841.\n\n Despine, Prosper. Psychologie Naturelle. 1868.\n\n Dictionnaire des Sciences M\u00e9dicales. Art. Suicide, by Esquirol.\n\n Douay, Edmond. Le Suicide. 1870.\n\n Dumas, Jean. Trait\u00e9 du Suicide. 1773.\n\n Ebrard, N. Du Suicide. 1871.\n\n Elam, Ch. A Physician\u2019s Problems.\n\n Espine, Marc de. Essai analytique de Statistique Mortuaire Compar\u00e9e.\n 1858.\n\n Esquirol, E. Maladies Mentales, 1838, and Article S. in Dict. des\n Sciences M\u00e9dicales.\n\n Etangs, Des. Du Suicide Politique. 1860.\n\n Falret, J.\u202fP. De l\u2019hypochondrie et du Suicide. 1822.\n\n Farr, A. Reports of Registration of Deaths.\n\n Foder\u00e9, F.\u202fE. Trait\u00e9 de M\u00e9dicine L\u00e9gale. 1813.\n\n Formey, J.\u202fH.\u202fS. M\u00e9langes philosophiques. Berlin, 1754.\n\n Franklin, R.\u202fV. De la Philosophie et de la Morale du Suicide. 1835.\n\n Gentleman\u2019s Magazine. Vol. xxv. 1755.\n\n Girardin, St. Marc de. Du Suicide et de la Haine de la Vie. 1843.\n\n Goethe, J.\u202fW. Von. The Sorrows of Werter. 1774.\n\n Gru, Eug\u00e8ne. Les Morts Violents. 1864.\n\n Hecker. De Autokeiria Martyrum. 1720.\n\n Holbach, Paul de. Le Syst\u00e8me de la Nature. 1770.\n\n Indian Medical Gazette.\n\n Jaccoud. Nouveau Dictionnaire de M\u00e9decine. Art. Suicide. 1883.\n\n Jervis, Sir John. Office and Duties of Coroners, by Melsheimer, R.E.\n 1880.\n\n Josephus, Flavius, Works of.\n\n Jousset, P.\u202fG. Du Suicide, 1858, and Sur le Rage, 1868.\n\n Kayser. La Statistique Officielle du Suicide en Norvege. 1852.\n\n Lancet, The.\n\n Laverdy. Code Penal.\n\n Lecky, W.\u202fE.\u202fH. History of European Morals.\n\n Legoyt, A. Le Suicide. 1881.\n\n Leibnitz, C.\u202fW. Von. Du Suicide. 1865.\n\n Leroy, Dr. Etudes sur le Suicide. 1870.\n\n Lisle, E. Du Suicide. 1856.\n\n Lunacy Commissioners, Returns of the.\n\n Luys, J. Des Maladies Hereditaires. 1863.\n\n Marc, C.\u202fC.\u202fH. De la Folie. 1840.\n\n Maudsley, Henry. Insanity and Crime, 1864, and Body and Mind, 1873.\n\n Medical Critic. 1861, 1862.\n\n Medical Times and Gazette.\n\n Mental Science Asylum, Journal of.\n\n Merian, De. Discours sur la crainte de la Mort, et sur le Suicide.\n 1763.\n\n Mesnier, L.\u202fJ.\u202fE. Du Suicide dans l\u2019Arm\u00e9e. 1881.\n\n Millar, W, H. Suicide in the Army. See Journal of the Statistical\n Society. 1874.\n\n Montaigne, Michel de, Essays of. 1580.\n\n Moore, C. A Full Enquiry into Suicide. 1790.\n\n Morselli, Enrico. Il Suicidio. Milan, 1879, and Suicide, an abridged\n translation, London, 1881.\n\n Montesquieu, C. de S. Lettres Persanes. Nos. 74 and 76.\n\n Nizamut Adawlut. Reports of Criminal Cases in India.\n\n Oettingen. Ueber Acuten und Chronischen Selbstmord. 1881.\n\n Ogston, Francis. Lectures on Medical Jurisprudence. 1878.\n\n Osiander. Ueber den Selbstmord, 1813.\n\n Paley, W. Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy. 1785.\n\n Parent Du Chat\u00e9let. Hygi\u00e8ne Publique, 1836, and De la Prostitution,\n 1857.\n\n Paris and Fonblanque. Medical Jurisprudence. 1823.\n\n Plutarch. Life of Alexander the Great.\n\n Pope, H.\u202fM. Law and Practice of Lunacy. 1877.\n\n Pr\u00e9vost. Notes sur le Suicide dans le Canton de Gen\u00e8ve. 1836.\n\n Psychological Medicine, Journal of, 1859, 1878, 1879, 1882.\n\n Quetelet, L.\u202fA.\u202fJ. De l\u2019homme, 1835, and Essai de Statistique Morale,\n 1866.\n\n Radcliffe, J.\u202fN. Suicide Fields.\n\n Ravizza, C. Il Suicidio. Milan. 1878.\n\n Ray, Isaac. Medical Jurisprudence and Insanity. 1839.\n\n Registrar General, Reports of. Annual.\n\n Regnault, Elias. Nouvelles Reflexions sur le Suicide. 1830.\n\n Rousseau, J.\u202fJ. La Nouvelle Heloise. Letters xxi. and xxii. Part iii.\n\n Salomon, Bromberg. Welche sind die Ursachen der in neuester Zeit so\n sehr \u00fcberhand nehmenden Selbstmorden. 1861.\n\n Sleeman, W.\u202fH. Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official. 1884.\n\n Smith\u2019s Annals of Indian Administration.\n\n Social Science Review. 1862 _et seq._\n\n Stael, Mme. de. Influence des Passions, 1817. Reflexions sur le\n Suicide, 1820.\n\n Staeudlin, C.\u202fF. Geschichte der Vorstellungen und Lehren vom\n Selbstmorde. 1824.\n\n Statistical Society, Journal of.\n\n Stephen, Sir J.\u202fF. A Digest of the Criminal Law, 1877, and a History\n of the Criminal Law of England. 1883.\n\n Suicide, an Elegy. 1775.\n\n Suicide, its Guilt and Punishment, in S.\u202fP.\u202fC.\u202fK. series. 1836.\n\n Suicide, on. Rel. Tract Soc. 1830.\n\n Szafkowski, L.\u202fF. De la Mort volontaire. 1840.\n\n Tardieu, A.\u202fA. Etude M\u00e9dico-Legale. 1870.\n\n Taylor, A.\u202fS. Medical Jurisprudence; edited by Stevenson. 1883.\n\n Tissot, J. La Manie du Suicide. 1840.\n\n Tissot, J. Le Droit Penal. 1860.\n\n Tissot, S.\u202fA. Onanisme. 5th ed. 1781.\n\n Trousseau, A. Clinical Medicine. 1867-71, transl. by the New Sydenham\n Soc.\n\n Voltaire. F.\u202fM. Arouet de. Dictionnaire Philosophique. 1765.\n\n Wagner, Adolph. Die Gesetzm\u00e4ssigkeit in den scheinbar willk\u00fcrlichen\n menschlichen Handlungen vom Standpunkte der Statistik. 1864.\n\n Wharton, Francis. Mental Unsoundness. 1855.\n\n Wharton and Still\u00e9. Medical Jurisprudence. 1873.\n\n Winslow, Forbes. The Anatomy of Suicide. 1840.\n\n World, The, No. 193. Sept. 1756.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\n  Abercrombie on Suicide, 124.\n\n  Advanced Views on Suicide, 5.\n\n  Afghan Surgeon, Suicide of an, 121.\n\n  Age, Effect of, 109.\n\n  Alcohol, Abuse of, 136, 156, 170.\n\n  Animals, Suicide of, 174.\n\n  Anomalies of Law, 160.\n\n  Aphelion, 69.\n\n  Archway at Highgate, 131.\n\n  Aristotle on Suicide, 9, 91, 176.\n\n  Army, Suicide in the, 98.\n\n  Assurance Companies, 180.\n\n  Asylums, Foreign, 127.\n\n  Asylums, Use of, 168.\n\n  Athens, Ancient, 9.\n\n  Attempted Suicide, 156.\n\n  Attitude of Assurance Companies, 180.\n\n  Austria, Suicide in, 61, 62, 96, 99, 146.\n\n  Austrian Suicide Law, 50.\n\n  Axe, Professor, on Suicide, 176.\n\n\n  Bailey, Nathan, on Origin of the Name Suicide, 31.\n\n  Balzac on Suicide, 41.\n\n  Beccaria on Suicide, 42.\n\n  Belgium, Suicide in, 60, 62.\n\n  Bentham on Suicide, 47.\n\n  Berenice, Suicide of, 16.\n\n  Berlin, Suicide Rate in, 95.\n\n  Bible, Suicides of the, 17.\n\n  Bibliographical Index, 182.\n\n  Blandford on Suicide, 120.\n\n  Bleeding, Use of, 169.\n\n  Blindness, Effect of, 135.\n\n  Bodily Disease, 135.\n\n  Bodio, Formula of, 61.\n\n  Borrodaile _v._ Hunter, 53.\n\n  Brahmins, Suicide among, 11, 161.\n\n  Brierre de Boismont, 83, 106, 111, 173.\n\n  Broussais on Causes of Suicide, 66.\n\n  Buckmill and Tuke on Suicide, 121, 123.\n\n  Burial of a Suicide, 45.\n\n  Burrows _v._ Burrows, 56.\n\n\n  Calanus, 11.\n\n  Calcutta, Suicide Rate of, 162.\n\n  Carbonic Acid Gas, 146.\n\n  Cato, 22, 38.\n\n  Causation, 65.\n\n  Causes, Tables of, 70, 72, 73, 74.\n\n  Celibacy, 112, 155.\n\n  Ceos, 7.\n\n  Chambers _v._ Queen\u2019s Proctor, 57.\n\n  Charcoal Stoves, 147.\n\n  Chatterton, Suicide of, 132.\n\n  Childhood, 111.\n\n  Children, Effect of having, 114.\n\n  China, Suicide in, 13.\n\n  Christian Church, 3, 14.\n\n  Chrysostom, St., 16.\n\n  Cities, 93, 94.\n\n  Classical Authors, 30.\n\n      \u201e     Suicides, 18.\n\n  Climate, 78.\n\n  Cloister, Use of the, 173.\n\n  Coal Gas, Suicide by, 153.\n\n  Colton on Suicide, 37.\n\n  Commerce, 96.\n\n  Confessional, 173.\n\n  Convict Life, 100.\n\n  Coroner, Warrant of, 45.\n\n  Councils of the Church, 14.\n\n  Crime, 90, 154.\n\n  Crucifixion, 152.\n\n  Curious means of Suicide, 153.\n\n  Cut-throat, 146.\n\n\n  Dabadie on Suicide, 121.\n\n  Deafness, 135.\n\n  Decrease of Crime, 155.\n\n  Dementia, 124, 126.\n\n  Denmark, Suicide Rate in, 60, 62, 89.\n\n  Desfontaines, 31, 39.\n\n  Despine on the Causes of Suicide, 67.\n\n  Development of Mind, 156.\n\n  Drowning, 145.\n\n  Drunkenness, 137.\n\n\n  Ecclesiastical Law, 15.\n\n  Education increases Suicide Rate, 81, 112, 156.\n\n  Education decreases Crime, 155.\n\n  Egypt, Suicide in, 13.\n\n  Elam on Suicide, 92, 133.\n\n  Emigration, 76, 152.\n\n  Employment, 95.\n\n  England, Suicide in,\n\n    \u201e      Army of, 98.\n\n    \u201e      Navy of, 99.\n\n    \u201e      Prisons of, 100.\n\n  Epicureans, 3, 10.\n\n  Epilepsy, 119, 171.\n\n  Epidemic Suicide, 129.\n\n  Etna, Mount, 133.\n\n  Europe, Suicide in, 151.\n\n\n  Failed, Suicide, 156.\n\n  Falls, Suicide by, 134, 146.\n\n  Family Life, 89, 126.\n\n  Fascination, 134.\n\n    \u201e          in Animals, 178.\n\n  Felo-de-se, 43, 160.\n\n  Female Suicide, 105, 108, 109, 110.\n\n  Fire Arms, 145.\n\n  Fleming, R., on Suicide, 34.\n\n  Forfeitures by Suicide, 45, 46.\n\n  Forms of Lunacy, 123.\n\n  Found Drowned, 59.\n\n  France, Laws in, 16, 50.\n\n    \u201e     Suicide in, 61, 62, 63, 83, 115, 151.\n\n\n  Gas, Suicide by, 146, 153.\n\n  German Law on Suicide, 49.\n\n  Germany, Suicide Rates in, 60, 62, 87, 114, 125, 152.\n\n  Gibbon on Suicide, 47.\n\n  Goethe on Suicide, 41.\n\n  Greece, Ancient, 7.\n\n  Greek terms for Suicide, 32.\n\n\n  Hamlet, 33.\n\n  Hanging, 145.\n\n  Hegesias, 129.\n\n  Heredity, 138.\n\n  Hindoos, 11.\n\n  History of Suicide, 7.\n\n  Holland, Suicide in, 60, 61.\n\n  Horn _v._ Assurance Company, 55.\n\n  Horse, Suicide of, 176.\n\n  Hours of the Day, 106.\n\n  Hume, David, 3, 36.\n\n  Hysteria, 109.\n\n\n  Iago on Suicide, 33.\n\n  Imbecility, 124, 125.\n\n  Imitation, 131.\n\n  Increase of Suicide, 58, 60, 62.\n\n  India, Suicide in, 161.\n\n  Insanity, 116-128.\n\n    \u201e       not proved by Suicide, 47, 48, 56, 160.\n\n  Insomnia, 136.\n\n  Ireland, Suicide in, 150.\n\n  Italy, Suicide in, 60, 62, 110, 113, 151.\n\n    \u201e    Prisons of, 101.\n\n\n  Japan, Suicide in, 13.\n\n  Jews, Suicide among the, 2, 11, 85.\n\n    \u201e   very liable to lunacy, 86.\n\n  Johnson, Dr., on Suicide, 36.\n\n    \u201e           on Suicide of Scorpions, 177.\n\n  Jurisprudence, Civil, 51.\n\n    \u201e            Criminal, 43.\n\n\n  Koor in India, 162.\n\n\n  Latin terms for Suicide, 31.\n\n  Laws on Suicide, 43.\n\n    \u201e  Foreign, on Suicide, 49.\n\n    \u201e  Indian, on Suicide, 161.\n\n  Lea River, Corpses in the, 60.\n\n  Legoyt on Suicide, 42.\n\n  Lindsay on Animal Suicide, 177.\n\n  Lisle on Suicide causes, 73.\n\n  Literature of Suicide, 29.\n\n  London, Rate of Suicide in, 94.\n\n    \u201e     means of Suicide in, 149.\n\n  Louis IX., 15.\n\n    \u201e   XIV., 16.\n\n  Love Affairs, 142.\n\n  Lunacy, 116-128.\n\n  Lunatics, Suicide of, 44, 123.\n\n  Lyons, Epidemic at, 130.\n\n\n  MacAdam _v._ Walker, 56.\n\n  Madness, Amount of, 125.\n\n  Mania, 123, 125, 126.\n\n  Marriage, 112, 114.\n\n    \u201e       Second, 115.\n\n  Marseilles, 130.\n\n  Marshes, 79.\n\n  Martyrdom, 2.\n\n  Maupertius, 39.\n\n  Means of Cure, 171.\n\n  Means of Suicide, 144.\n\n    \u201e        \u201e      in India, 165.\n\n  Medical Men, Suicide of, 143.\n\n  Melancholia, 123, 124, 126.\n\n  Mental Diseases,\n\n  Metempsychosis, 2.\n\n  Mexico, 13.\n\n  Middle Ages, Suicides of the, 24.\n\n  Miletus, Suicide in, 129.\n\n  Military Life, 98.\n\n  Modern Suicides, 24.\n\n  Mohammedans, Suicide among, 12, 161.\n\n  Monday, 105.\n\n  Monomania, 123, 125, 126.\n\n  Moon, Effect of the, 102, 104.\n\n  Montaigne, 10, 38.\n\n  Monument, The, 131, 133.\n\n  Morality, 89.\n\n  Morselli on Suicide, 29, 42, 69, 87, 100, 104.\n\n  Moses, 2.\n\n  Mountains, 79.\n\n\n  Navy, 98, 151.\n\n  Negroes, 14, 76.\n\n  New York, Suicide in, 95, 152.\n\n  Norway, Suicide in, 60, 62, 87.\n\n  Notable Suicides, 17.\n\n  Novels, Famous, 92.\n\n  Nuns, 95.\n\n\n  Occupation, 95.\n\n  Odin, 14.\n\n  Old Age, 110.\n\n  Origin of the Name Suicide, 31.\n\n  Othello, 33.\n\n  Over-pressure, 112.\n\n\n  Pain, Suicide from, 135, 164.\n\n  Paine, Tom, on Suicide, 37.\n\n  Paris, Suicide in, 132.\n\n  Pellagra, 130.\n\n  Perihelion, 69.\n\n  Persia, 12.\n\n  Peru, 13.\n\n  Pessimism, 132.\n\n  Philosophy encourages Suicide, 3.\n\n  Poison, 146, 148\n\n  Police, The, 155, 159.\n\n  Policies voided by Suicide, 180.\n\n  Portugal, Suicide in, 60, 87.\n\n  Post Mortem appearances, 122.\n\n  Predisposition, Hereditary, 138.\n\n  Present Rates of Suicide, 58.\n\n  Prevention, 166.\n\n  Prison Life, 100.\n\n  Prostitutes, 90.\n\n  Protestantism, 85, 87.\n\n  Protestants, Morselli\u2019s Table of Suicide by, 87.\n\n  Puerperal Suicide, 170.\n\n\n  Quetelet on Crime, 154.\n\n\n  R. _v._ Alison, 43.\n\n  R. _v._ Dyson, 43, 48.\n\n  R. _v._ Fisher, 48.\n\n  R. _v._ Gathercole, 48.\n\n  R. _v._ May, 48.\n\n  Race, Effects of, 75.\n\n  Railways, 96.\n\n  Rare Means, 153.\n\n  Regent\u2019s Canal, 59.\n\n  Religion, 85, 172.\n\n  Revenge, 162.\n\n  Revivalism, 88.\n\n  Ritualism, 88.\n\n  Rome, Ancient, Suicide in, 9.\n\n    \u201e     \u201e      Suicide Law in, 10.\n\n  Roman Catholics, Suicide Rates of, 85.\n\n  Rousseau, 3, 40.\n\n  Rural Life, 93.\n\n  Russia, Suicide in, 145.\n\n\n  Saints, Suicide of, 16.\n\n  Salvation Army, 88.\n\n  Sati, 163.\n\n  Savages, 156.\n\n  Scandinavia, 14.\n\n  School Tasks, 112.\n\n  Schopenhauer, 132.\n\n  Schwabe _v._ Clift, 53.\n\n  Scorpions, Suicide of, 176.\n\n  Scotland, Suicide in, 149, 150.\n\n  Seasons, Effect of the, 102, 154.\n\n  Sex, 107, 152.\n\n  Shakespeare, 33.\n\n  Sleep, Value of, 172.\n\n  Sleeplessness, 136, 172.\n\n  Spain, Suicide in, 60, 87, 107.\n\n  Specific Rates of Suicide, 75.\n\n  Spiritualism, 140.\n\n  Spite, 142.\n\n  Stael, Madame de, 2, 40.\n\n  Starvation, Suicide by, 152.\n\n  Stephen, Sir J., on Suicide, 48.\n\n  Stoics, the, 3, 10, 132.\n\n  Stone in the Bladder, 10.\n\n  Stoves, 147.\n\n  Sun, Effects of the, 102.\n\n  Suffocation as a means, 146.\n\n  Surgeons, Suicide of, 143.\n\n  Sunday, 105.\n\n  Sweden. Suicide in, 60, 62, 87, 111.\n\n\n  T\u00e6dium Vit\u00e6, 141.\n\n  Taine on Suicide, 41.\n\n  Tall Races, 77.\n\n  Tarantulism, 130.\n\n  Temporary Insanity, 44, 46.\n\n  Tendency, Morning, to Suicide, 170.\n\n  Thames, Corpses in the, 59.\n\n  Thomas, Dr. Danford, on Suicide from Spite, 142.\n\n  Thebes, 9.\n\n  Throat-cut, 146.\n\n  Timon of Athens, 8.\n\n  Tissot on Suicide, 49, 66.\n\n  Town Life, 93.\n\n  Trades, 95.\n\n  Trousseau on Epilepsy, 119.\n\n  Tuke and Bucknill, 121, 123.\n\n\n  Urban Life, 93.\n\n  Utopia of More, 32.\n\n\n  Valhalla, 14.\n\n  Vertigo, Epileptic, 119.\n\n  Vesuvius, Mount, 133.\n\n  Vindictiveness, 142.\n\n  Virginity, 113.\n\n  Void Policies, 180.\n\n  Voltaire, 3, 39.\n\n\n  Warrant of a Coroner, 45.\n\n  Wars, 96, 113.\n\n  Waterloo, Battle of, 133.\n\n  Werter, Sorrows of, 41.\n\n  White _v._ Brit. Emp. Co., 55.\n\n  Widowhood, 112.\n\n  Winslow, F., on Suicide, 29.\n\n  Women choose Sunday for Suicide, 105.\n\n\n  Youth, 110.\n\n\n  Zeno, 3, 10.\n\n\n\n\n  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.\n\n\n  LONDON:\n  Printed by Henry Hansard and Son, near Lincoln\u2019s Inn Fields.\n\n\n\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s note:\n\nObvious typographical errors have been silently corrected.\n\nVariations in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but\nall other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.","title":"Suicide: Its History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and Prevention","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":43302}