On the other hand, owing to the increase of those who are only casually employed in our great cities, and whose one luxury is the excitement of drink, a larger quantity of cheap, and injuriously adulterated spirits and other liquors is consumed, which, combined with a deficiency of wholesome food, leads more frequently to a fatal result.
Increase of Suicide
The increase has been long known and generally admitted. It is supposed to be largely due to the ever-increasing struggle for subsistence in our great cities, the consequent increase of unemployment, and the dread of the workhouse as the only
alternative to starvation. The following are the figures for the last forty-five years for which official data have been published:—
| Average of Years | Deaths by Suicide per Million living |
|---|---|
| 1866-1870 | 66.4 |
| 1871-1875 | 66.0 |
| 1876-1880 | 73.6 |
| 1881-1885 | 73.8 |
| 1886-1890 | 79.4 |
| 1891-1895 | 88.6 |
| 1896-1900 | 89.2 |
| 1901-1905 | 100.6 |
| 1906-1910 | 102.2 |
Such a table as this, occurring in a country which boasts of its enormous wealth, of its ever-increasing commercial prosperity, of its marvellous advance in science and the arts, and command of natural forces, should, surely, give us pause, and force upon us the conviction that there is something radically wrong in a social system which brings about such terrible evils.
And this should be the more certainly seen to be the case because the same
increase is taking place in all those countries which approach us in their wealth and their commercial prosperity.
There is a group of diseases which are fatal to infants soon after birth. They have been steadily increasing during the last half-century, and call for special notice here, as they seem to indicate physical degeneration as well as personal immorality of a dangerous and perhaps even a criminal nature.