Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-01-06
The Phenomena of Suicide.

Heretofore it has been assumed that all
suicides are insane, and hence, that their
conduct cannot be tested by the known laws
of human action. So far as passion or mo-
mentary loss of self-command is considered
insanity, this may be true. In France, how
ever, different theory has been promulgated,
and DIR. Boismont, an eminent physician,
has recently published a treatise on suicide,
in which he subjects the whole question to a
searching analysis in accordance with the
mental and physical laws governing mans
nature. The Doctor maintains that " if the
motives Of suicide, and the laws which gov
ern and control them, can be even approxi-
mately determined, great step will have
been gained, both by improving the pathol-
ogy of the malady, and by diminishing its
active and predisposing causes" This is
undoubtedly true. Vast discoveries are
being daily made in different sciences, and
there can be no reason why investigation
and painetalying analysis in the direction
pointed out by DIR. Boismont may not pro-
duce the most fortunate results. The causes
producing or predisposing to suicide, what
ever they may be, seem TO run in cycles.
For long period comparatively few suicides
will occur in a particular country or locality.
Then the disease, or whatever it may be,
will break out, and case follow case with
fearful rapidity. Again, particular modes
of self-destructi0n seem to prevail at par
ticular times. At one time drowning is all
the rage, at another poison--then firearms
or the knife will be used and at one period
in France so great was the mania for jump
ing from high towers that all such places
were closed against the public. Upon gen.
eral data such as these the Investigations of
Dr. Boismont are founded.
The tables attached to the treatise Of DIR.
Boismont make it appear that there is not
much truth in the generally received i'm
preston that tenacity to life increases with
old age. On the contrary, it appears that
the proportion of suicides is greater between
the ages the seventy and eighty than between
the ages of thirty and forty. Another wide
ly spread popular fallacy is that suicides are
most frequent during the gloomy months of
the year. But the incontestible evidences
of figures show they actually occur most
rarely in November and December, and are
most frequent in the months of May, June
and July Nor is it the case that the dark
hours of the twenty-four are those generally
selected for the performance of these dark
deeds Of horror 2,094 suicides take place by
daylight against only 65S by night Il is
also ascertained that the low countries fur
nish the most numerous cases Of self-murder;
the mountain districts are generally the
lowest in the list. In the four thousand five
hundred and ninety-fve cases analyzed by
DIR. Boismont, there were one thousand five
hundred and one single men and five hum
dred and seyenty-nine single women; one
thousand one hundred and twenty-nine mar
ried men and FIVE hundred and fifteen mar
ried women; two hundred and fifty widow
ers and two hundred and eleven widows.
Thirty-seven thousand nine hundred and
twenty-three persons committed suicide in
France between the years 1897 and 1860.
The following are the means used and the
relative proportion Of each: Strangulation,
IA, ,s66 drowning, II ,s45; fire arms, 1890;
asphyxia, 3,224 sharp Instruments l,522
leaps, $50; poison, 736. The treatise Of
DIR. Boismont is exceedingly interesting, and
the subject cannot fail to arrest the attention
of philanthropists.