Wm. Wynn Westcott, m.b.
4, Torriano Avenue,
London, N.W.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
| PAGE | |||
| Chapter | [I.] | Introduction; the Ethics of the Subject | 1 |
| „ | [II.] | History: Ancient and Modern | 7 |
| „ | [III.] | Notable Suicides: Ancient, of the Middle Ages, and Modern | 17 |
| „ | [IV.] | Origin of the Name; Classic Authors,examples of the Literature of Suicide, English and Foreign | 29 |
| „ | [V.] | Jurisprudence; Suicide as a Crime inEngland, and abroad | 43 |
| „ | [VI.] | Jurisprudence; Suicide and Life Assurance;in respect to Marriage, and to Wills | 51 |
| „ | [VII.] | Present Rate, and Increase, in Europe | 58 |
| „ | [VIII.] | Causation in general, Classification | 65 |
| „ | [IX.] | Effect of Race, Climate, &c. | 75 |
| „ | [X.] | Effect of Education, Religion, andMorality | 81 |
| „ | [XI.] | Effect of Urban and Rural Life, andEmployment; the effect of Military, Naval, and Prison Life | 93 |
| „ | [XII.] | Effect of Times and Seasons | 102 |
| „ | [XIII.] | Effect of Age, Sex, and Social State | 107 |
| „ | [XIV.] | Mental Diseases | 116 |
| „ | [XV.] | Epidemic Suicide, and Suicide from Imitation, and for Notoriety | 129 |
| „ | [XVI.] | Effect of Bodily Diseases, Alcoholism,Want of Sleep; Hereditary influence, and Spiritualism | 135 |
| „ | [XVII.] | Effect of Tædium Vitæ, the Passions,Misery, and Despair | 141 |
| „ | [XVIII.] | The Means of Suicide, their relativefrequency at home, and abroad | 144 |
| „ | [XIX.] | Suicide compared to Crime inGeneral; Attempted Suicide, its relative amount | 154 |
| „ | [XX.] | Suicide in British India | 161 |
| „ | [XXI.] | The Prevention, and Treatment of the Suicidal tendency | 166 |
| „ | [XXII.] | The Suicide of Animals | 174 |
| [Appendix], Rules of Assurance Companies | 180 | ||
| [Bibliographical Index] | 182 | ||
| [General Index] | 187 | ||
[CHAPTER I.]
INTRODUCTION.
In every age of the world, and in the history of almost every country, we find instances more or less numerous of men and women who, preferring the dim uncertainty of the future to the painful realities of the present, have sought relief from all their troubles by suddenly terminating their own existence.
Misery and pain have been the lot of the human race ever since the dawn of history, and these causes have from the earliest times induced persons to destroy themselves, and even the fear of eternal punishment has not sufficed to deter them.
Sorrow, suffering, and mental disease are practically the only causes of Modern Suicide; but in the ancient world, suicides from these causes were either much more rare than they are at the present time, or else were passed over as unworthy of record, in the presence of suicides of a more honourable nature. Hundreds of instances have come down to us in which death has been self-sought and inflicted from an idea or conviction that such self-destruction was to be of obvious advantage to the state, or to the sufferer’s family; or again, the fatal act was frequently committed as a point of honour to obviate the disgrace and ignominy of falling into the hands of a conqueror; or, again, to avoid pollution and shame at the hands of unscrupulous and debased tyrants.