Attempted Suicide.
The relative proportion between suicides and suicidal attempts has been the subject of much difference of opinion.
It is a common idea that many attempts are made with a view to coerce or influence relations and friends, attempts which, in fact, are not intended to be successful, although they sometimes succeed.
In general, if a second attempt be made, after a fruitless effort, and especially after recovery from injury, the patient is insane. Attempts at suicide by cutting very frequently fail, as do attempts by the use of fire-arms; but on the other hand, death is much more certain if drowning or hanging has been the means used.
In cases of poisoning, also, the victims are often found half dead, and skilful treatment restores a great number. In a recent case a man threw himself between the rails in front of an advancing train, and yet escaped without any injury; but such attempts are almost certain destruction.
Ogston (Ed. Med. Journal, Feb. 1885) narrates a very interesting and instructive case of suicide: the deceased had evidently made repeated attempts to kill himself with a razor; six incisions were visible on the chest and five on the neck, but the unfortunate man finding himself not dying fast enough, had finally cast himself into the sea, and was drowned.
In view of the great uncertainty existing as to the relation between attempted and completed self-destruction, I made a special appeal to the medical profession in this country, through the medical journals, for information, but received only few replies. As a rule, hospital medical officers consider that attempts far outnumber successes, whilst general practitioners incline to the opinion that failures are less frequent. As a summary of all the cases reported to me, the numbers were in the relative proportion of 21 failures to 12 completed instances. I have already said how difficult it is to form a correct estimate of the number of suicides (see page [58]); the sources of error are still more numerous when we attempt to estimate the number of unsuccessful attempts. The police are entirely at a loss to supply any valuable information as to the proportion of attempts. I consider that they are not concerned in a third of such instances; they only hear of those cases that occur in the public streets, or in lodging houses, or in the parks; or of those attempts at drowning, which are at times frequent, by jumping from the bridges, especially in London.
“Of one hundred persons,” says Esquirol, “who attempt suicide only forty succeed.” Brierre de Boismont says, “for one suicide there are two attempts.” Legoyt has ascertained that in Dublin, 1874-76, for three years the proportions (known to the police) were 41 successes and 123 attempts. He also calculates that in the countries of Europe, excluding Turkey, there are annually 28,000 persons who attempt to kill themselves, and 22,000 succeed. The Statistical Society published in Vol. I. of their Journal the following figures; in one year, 75 completed to 47 attempts; in another, 117 completed to 58 attempted; these were London cases, and the numbers were, I believe, procured from the police registers. During a period of nine years, 4,595 suicides were registered in Paris, and 1,864 suicidal failures. In Baden, during two years, 417 suicides were discovered, whilst the official records show only 22 cases of attempted suicide.
The attempt to commit suicide is much less liable to interruption than attempted murder. There is no resistance from the opponent to be allowed for, and it is easy to evade the officers of the law by attempting the act when alone. As a matter of fact, it is a rare event for anyone to commit suicide when in company with others. The majority of suicides are not discovered until after death.
Comte considers it a folly of lawmakers to think that enactments can check the act.
Heber, “Journey through India,” calls attention to the very small amount of success, during many years, which English officials achieved in preventing suicidal drowning at Benares and elsewhere in British India, by means of legal enactments.