The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-05 00:00:00

THE INFLUENCE OF AGE UPON
SUICIDE. _ _

_
The influence of age upon suicide is a study of more
than speculative interest, on account of its practical
bearings, and of the ease and precision with which it
can be demonstrated. By age is meant the critical periods
of life. These periods having many components heckles
the mere fact of years, it is apparent that what we have
to examine is a many-sided phenomenon, including
together with it the advance in life, the workings of
physiological, mental, and sociological causes. It has
been lately examined by Dr. O'Dea, and it appears
that the maximum of suicides for both sexes occurs
between the ages of twenty-live and fift) -five.
Previously to the twenty-fifth year there is a sudden
increase from two suicides between the ages of five and
ten, to one hundred and thirty-six between twenty
and twenty-five. After fifty-five the tendency to
, suicide declines, but more gradually than it rose, except
at sixty-five, where the number inereaseis from eighty-
one to eighty-three, a rise so slight, however, as to be
little worth considering. There are, therefore, three
suicidal periods in life; those of organic and
.mental
growth, of organic and mental completion, and of
organic and mental decline. In the first the chart
shows 80; in the second, 942; and in the third, 311.
Comparing the periods in round numbers, it may be
said that they are as one for childhood and adolescence
to twelve for adult life, and to fogs for the years of
bodily and mental decay. The influence of sex and its
attendant circumstances upon suicides at the different
periods of life is shown upon the charts. Withfemalea,
as among males, there is a sudden and abrupt rise until
the twenty-fifth year is reached. This rice Is continued
to the thirty-fifth year, at which the maximum of
suicides occurs among women. The period from the
twenty-fifth to the thirty-fifth year corresponds to that
of the greatest pressure from domestic troubles and
responsibilities, and also with the greatest activity of
the maternal functions. The line thence descends
abruptly to the forty-fifth year, whence it rises to the
fiftieth, the critical period of mature female life, and
then goes down, down, until it reaches the level from
which it started. There are, therefore, two culminat-
ing points, and whilst the line on the male chart is
undulating and sustained, that on the female chart is
vertical and abrupt. The lower of the male culminating
points is the higher of the female, and contrariwise, the
lower of the female is the higher of the male. These
charts do not show the relative frequency of suicides
among the two sexes. The ratio of suicides to popula-
tion in the United States is (for the period covered by
the last decennial census) twenty-five to 100,000 among
males, and three to 100,000 among females. The only
periods at which suicides are nearly equal for but
sexes is from fifteen to twenty years, during which the
number of boy-suicides was thirty-four, of girl-suicides
thirty-two. After this the number of suicides among
males is much greater than among females.—British
Medical Journal.