The following Table arranged by M. Lisle, has never been equalled, for completeness, and for the large number of cases included in its scope.

French Suicides.─Lisle.

Causes.Male.Female.Total.
Misery2,3555872,942
Debts, business embarrassments2,8091953,004
Gambling1571158
Loss of employment23726263
Loss of law-suits13719156
Other losses33259391
Fear of poverty26455319
Reverse of fortune28045325
Regret for loss of fortune631780
Unrealised hope of fortune531265
Nostalgia26-26
Loss of children, position, &c.373193566
Bad conduct and ingratitude of children13774211
Sorrow for absent children202040
Sorrow for absence from family351651
Sorrow of children for ill-treatment15972231
Parental squabbles11026136
Jealousy between members of a family19726
Other domestic troubles3,3551,2424,597
Disappointed love9386271,565
Jealousy229118347
Pregnancy, unmarried-239239
Disgust with marriage351853
Remorse19077267
Idleness76480
Debauchery1,5692331,802
Drunkenness65682738
Habitual roguery2,1053592,464
Disgust with social position68977
Desire to avoid legal pursuit1,7413652,106
Desire to avoid execution of judgment38321204
Desire to avoid military duty266-266
Desire to avoid calumny372764
Desire to avoid pain3,5221,1654,687
Disgust of life1,5473741,921
Hypochondria640211851
Disgust of military life214-214
Reproaches of employers10641147
Sorrow for loss of situation532477
Rivalry in business8-8
Insanity, general6,7443,98210,726
Insanity, partial, or monomania603244847
Idiocy510307817
Cerebral congestion504177681
Passion511768
Political excitement34-34
Religious fears402868
Suicide after crime29928327
Unknown cause5,1211,3546,745
39,30212,82452,126

[CHAPTER IX.]
RACE, GEOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCES, AND CLIMATE.

The inhabitants of the majority of countries are not at the present time so unique racially, as was probably the case at an earlier date. Races of men have spread themselves to contiguous lands, and have emigrated to other tracts of country; so that it is now much the reverse of usual to find a nation composed of any one race, or even of a very preponderating majority of one stock. The more nearly, however, that a state is thus constituted, the more obvious appears the fact that each race of men has a certain underlying “special rate of suicide.”

This rate, I say, underlies all the variations exhibited by the various portions of that race; which may be due to Climate, Religion, Morals, or Education.

The idea of a real Specific Ethnic Rate of Suicide is, I believe, due to Wagner of Berlin; and the more the subject has been examined, the more obvious the conclusion appears.

It may be compared to that principle adopted by modern chemists, that every elementary body has a definite specific rate of gravity; and indeed the simile may be carried farther still, for as the chemist by combining his elements can prepare a new body, having a different specific gravity rate, dependent on the rates of the original elements; so a country composed of a mixture of two races, exhibits a “Suicide Rate” different from the special rates of the constituent races, and intermediate between them.

Although it may not be practicable to prove these statements by a direct appeal to figures, because no case can be produced which is not, at any rate to some extent, complicated by considerations of a collateral nature, but yet the more deeply the matter is investigated the more true it will be found to appear. The statistics collected by Wagner and by Œttingen may be consulted in this connection.