JAMES J. WALSH.
XXVII
SUICIDES
It is a very difficult problem at times to explain just how a suicide is due to mental alienation in a person whose intellectual powers appeared previously unimpaired, yet in most of the cases a knowledge of all the circumstances and of the individual himself would lead inevitably to this more charitable view. Most suicides are persons that have been recognised as paranoiacs and likely to do queer things for a long time beforehand. Indeed, some of the melancholic qualities on which the unfortunate impulse to self-murder depends are likely to have exhibited themselves in former generations. Not long since it was argued that the regular occurrence of a certain number of suicides every year—varying in various places, always on the increase, but evidently showing a definite relationship to certain local conditions —demonstrate that the human will is not free, since from a set of statistics one can foretell about how many cases of suicide would take place in a given city during the next year. As a matter of fact, suicides are not in possession of free will as a rule, but are the victims of circumstances and are unable to resist external influences.
The most important feature of suicide in recent years is the constant increase in the number, the increase affecting disproportionately young adults. This increase in the number of suicides is no illusion; it is not due to more careful statistics. It is true that in recent years, that is to say during the last quarter of a century particularly, the unsparing investigation by the authorities of all cases of suspicious death, and their report by sensational newspapers, has added somewhat to the apparent number of suicides. [{307}] Families were accustomed to announce accidental death and have their story unquestioned, in a certain number of cases, where now there is no hope of concealment because of the unfortunate publicity that has crept into life. This increase, however, would account for only a small additional number of suicides, while the actual figures have more than trebled in the last thirty years.
This increase has come especially in the large cities. According to the report of the New York Board of Health, there were 1,308 suicides in New York City during the decade from 1870 to 1880. During the decade from 1890 to 1900 there were 3,944 suicides. This increase is much more than the corresponding increase in population. During the first decade mentioned there were 124 suicides per million of population. During the last decade this had risen to 196 suicides per million. The increase is nearly 60 per centum. The increase is variously distributed over the different ages. While every five years from twenty upwards shows a percentage of increase in the number of suicides committed, somewhat less than the percentage of increase for all ages, the five years between fifteen and twenty shows an increase of 106 per centum. In a word the deaths of adolescents from suicide have more than doubled in the last thirty years.
Towards the end of the last decade of the nineteenth century there was for a time a cessation of the continuous increase. This occurred during the years 1898 and 1899. Apparently it was due to the fact that the occupation of the country with other interests, the war and its problems, and the fact that an era of prosperity made material conditions better, and thus gave less occasion for depression of spirits. During the years since 1900, however, the increase has not only reasserted itself, but has more than made up for the period during which suicides were less frequent. The increase during the last four years is more than was noted during the six years from 1891 to 1897.
The same increase has been noted in European cities. The higher the scale of civilisation in a city, or at least the greater the material progress and the more strenuous the life, [{308}] the higher the death rate. In Dresden, for instance, the rate is 51 suicides per 100,000 every year. In Paris it is 42, in Berlin it is 36; while in Lisbon and Madrid it is lowest, being only respectively two and three per 100,000 per year. While suicides are more common among men than women in all countries, this is not true for certain ages. Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five the suicides of women are more numerous than those of men. The suicides of women are increasing faster than those of men. Fifty years ago the proportion was five to one. Twenty years ago it had fallen from three to one. Now it is less than two and a half to one. The saddest feature of the suicide situation is the increasing number of the children who commit suicide.
Almost needless to say, children's suicides are without any serious motives and are usually due to an attack of pique because of a slight from a playmate, a reprimand at home, a rebuke from a teacher, envy of the success of a companion, disappointment over a passing love affair, sometimes a peculiar attachment in the case of weak and morbid individuals, the manifestations of which are resented by its object, or are forbidden by parents and guardians. These unfortunate accidents have become so common now that special care must be taken with regard to children of neurotic heredity. When in previous generations there have been the manifestations of lack of mental equilibrium, then children's mutterings with regard to possible recourse to suicide should be the signal for the exercise of close surveillance. As far as possible such children should be kept from the strenuous competition at school in modern life.
As has been well pointed out there is no doubt that the power of suggestion and example has much to do with the increase of suicide. Dymond, an authority in the matter, says, "The power of the example of the suicide is much greater than has been thought. Every act of suicide tacitly conveys the sanction of one more judgment in its favour. Frequency of repetition diminishes the sensation of abhorrence and makes succeeding sufferers, even of less degree, resort to it with less reluctance."