Climate and Geographical Data.
The extremes of heat and cold seem to tend to a low rate. In Europe the highest rates are found in the central and upper two-thirds of the north temperate zone; the maximum being at about 50° lat.
The countries of the west and the south of Europe give the minimum proportions.
The principal suicide area of Europe is a zone lying from the north of France to the east of Germany, with two foci, viz., the country around and including Paris, at a rate of 330 per million of inhabitants, and the kingdom of Saxony, at a rate of 469 per million. Compare with these very high numbers the proportions shown by regions lying more to the south: viz., Calabria, 9; Portugal, 16; Sardinia, 13; Spain, 19; and Sicily, 18 per million. Leaving this central European area, and advancing to the north, we again reach territories where lower rates are found to prevail, although not so low as those of the Mediterranean coast. While Scotland has a rate of 48, Ireland’s proportion is even much less, about 24. Finland has a low rate, and so has Northern Russia, 35 per million inhabitants.
Mountainous countries show a lower rate than lowlands; the Highlands of Scotland and Wales give a ratio only half that of England.
In the mountain cantons of Switzerland self-destruction is almost unheard of.
The amount of suicide varies considerably in the several counties of England; it has in many years happened that Rutland and Westmoreland have shown a very high rate; but this may possibly be due to their very small size rendering the comparison unfair.
Dr. J. N. Radcliffe, some years ago now, took the pains to calculate the rate per million for each county, from the Registrar’s returns; he gives the following as the counties having the highest rates:─
The London area: Middlesex, 105; Kent, 97; Surrey, 95; and Sussex, 89 per million inhabitants.
The Midland area: Leicester, 89; Lincoln, 87; Nottingham, 87; Warwick, 77; and Derby, 80.
The Northern area: Westmoreland, 99; Cumberland, 86; Lancaster, 70; and Chester, 70 per million.
Very large proportions follow the great Rivers of Europe, especially the Po, Seine, Loire, Rhone, Oder, Rhine, Elbe, Thames, and the Scheldt in Belgium.
On Marshes, Salt Marshes, and lands low lying and liable to floods, the ratio is much less, as in Holland and on the Landes in France. But we shall, I think, be justified in considering that it is not the river that has caused the suicides, nor the marsh that has made them few; the truth no doubt is that the marsh has rendered the people few, and simple in habit, whilst rivers, the oldest means of locomotion, invited settlers, and settlers made town after town, and then a city on each river, and multitudes grew, and as some few became wealthy, the millions became permanently in want.
Montesquieu, with whom suicide was a favourite study, called England the “Land of Suicide,” from its fogs and damp, dark, cold climate, but he was wrong; even at that time France had a heavier voluntary death-rate. Over and above which our suicides cluster in preference round our summer months, and not our foggy ones, to which fall our heaviest ordinary death-rates.
[CHAPTER X.]
EDUCATION, RELIGION, AND MORALS.
Quite closely connected with the consideration of these influences, are others partly dependent on them, the manners and customs of a population, the extent of civilisation, and education, and their religious and moral state. The manners and customs are to a great extent peculiar to each race, while the members of each race are all apt to take on an amount of civilisation by means of education, which varies in a quite indefinite manner. No amount of argument or inquiry seems, however, to invalidate the statement that a preponderant rate of suicide, and a high rate of madness exist in countries the farthest advanced in our modern ideas of civilization, and in education, and in modern modes of thought.
The intensely complicated state of modern society lays ambushes for us of myriads of dangers, difficulties, annoyances, illnesses, and worries, which to the denizen of a savage country are entirely unknown. That the influence of modern education is to increase the suicide-rate is proved by statistics of many sorts; from tables of the percentage amongst those “able to read and write,” and the reverse; from the conscription tables of France and Italy, and from the fact that those countries which possess the higher standard of general culture, furnish the largest contingent of voluntary deaths, other data being equal, or allowed for.
M. Brouc, indeed, went so far, many years ago, as to affirm that, given the number of persons in the public schools of a country, he could deduce the number of suicides which took place there annually.
I subjoin a comparison between the percentage of population at school and the suicide rate in Italy, tabulated by Morselli:-
| ─── | Scholars per Hundred Inhabitants. | Suicides per Million Inhabitants. |
|---|---|---|
| 1863-64 | 5·44 | 27·2 |
| 1865-66 | 5·59 | 28·7 |
| 1867-68 | 6·05 | 31·0 |
| 1869-70 | 6·06 | 27·5 |
| 1871-72 | 6·44 | 32 |
| 1873-74 | 6·80 | 36·5 |
| 1875-76 | 7·15 | 35·3 |
| 1877 | 7·45 | 40·6 |
The same effect is exhibited by tables showing the relative numbers of newspapers published in each State; the more numerous these are, the higher the voluntary death-rate; and in States where the literature is of the higher type, scientific and critical, we find, mutatis mutandis, a higher rate than where the journals simply contain news and politics.
Brierre de Boismont gives a classification of 4,595 French suicides, in respect to education; a résumé follows:─
| ── | Male. | Female. | Total. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Well instructed | 467 | 106 | 573 |
| Read and write well | 601 | 188 | 789 |
| Read, but write ill | 1,145 | 511 | 1,656 |
| Read, but do not write | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Illiterate | 36 | 29 | 65 |
| Data unknown | 969 | 540 | 1,509 |
In respect to England, the Report of the Registrar General for 1880 contains a statement, which I subjoin, of the effect of education on the proportion of voluntary deaths, calculated on the averages of the ten years 1869-78, with regard to the numbers of adults who were able to sign their names in the marriage registers.
| Counties where 27% were unable to sign the register | 57·5 million of inhabitants. | |
| Counties where less than 27% but more than 17% were unable | 69·2 per million of inhabitants. | |
| Counties where less than 17% were unable | 80·2 per million of inhabitants. |
But, on the other hand, the proportions of crime against the person were the lowest on record, and the better educated counties showed the minimum.
The rule that suicide rate increases with the amount of education is more generally observed than almost any other tendency which we have to consider; and it is probably an accurate statement without any reservation; however unpalatable such a dictum may be, I am not aware of any state where the reverse holds good. The general opinion has always been that this rule is only true when the form of education is faulty; the pages of many authors will show the argument that secular knowledge must be judiciously combined with religious teaching, or else such a result may appear; but the facts seem to lead us to the awkward dilemma, that either the religious teaching is seldom duly administered, or else that even piety is unavailing as a deterrent. Prophets have not been lacking for several years past, who have never ceased to warn us that our present system of removing Christian teaching from the necessary curriculum of our public schools, will inevitably increase crime and suicide in the rising generation.
And I fear there can be no doubt that this coming generation will show a higher rate, but whether the diminution of religious instruction will be the cause, will be open to question.
Personally, and speaking with reference to the masses of the population, I think it is likely to cause such an increase; because, although it may be preferable for well-educated men and women to confess to honest doubt, in preference to acquiescence in a form of faith which they cannot heartily hold; still, in minds of less development, for whom a thorough education is impossible, greater stability of character is ensured by an early inculcated religious conviction of the sanctity of life, and an idea of the duty of waiting on Providence to guide our concerns.