The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-12-03
THE CAUSE OF SUICIDES.
A Few s satistics---what Should be
Done.

N
Done.
Dir. Allan McLane Hamilton, of Belle.
vue Hospital, New York, and lecturer
on nervous diseases in the Long Island
College Hospital, read before the
American Health Council paper upon
"Suicide in Large Cities, with Refer
ence to Certain Sanitary Conditions
which Tend to Prevent its Moral and
Physical Causes" The doctor said that
his observations upon the subject had
been made for the most part in New
York city. Comparisons have been
made betweeti that city and London
and Paris. In all larger cities the
number of cases is governed, to a great
extent, by the habits, tastes and moral
culture of the people, and back of this
the national characteristics. The
French people, noted for their indiffer-
ence to life and exaggerated morbid
sentimentality, are celebrated for the
propensity to end life with their own
hands. Paris has been, and always
will be, celebrated for the prevalence of
this crime. The Parisians pursue 1t as
an agreeable mode of securing relief
from their troubles. 1t has been as
serted that foggy weather induces sui
cides, although statistics go to dispreve
this, especially in New York. The
months of April, May, June, July and
August, the most pleasant months OF
the year, ore those in which more per-
sons take their lives than at any other
IN the year. The gravity and stolidity
of the English people rather shows in
their favor, as regards this crime. In
the city of New York, between 1866
and 1872, there were 678 suicides, the
males predominating For the three
years, 1870, II and '72, there were 359
suicides, 1872 being Germans. As re-
CARDS conditions, I'll were married, liz
single, 43 widows and widowers, and
27 whose condition was not stated. The
age of the Oldest was 81, and that OF
the youngest, 10. The cause for the
suicide of the latter was remarkable.
She was detected in the theft of fifty
cents from her mother, and seeking to
escape from her shame she resorted to
Paris green. Poison is the most pop,
ular mode of suicide, the preference
being by arsenic, Paris green, opium,
carbolic acid and other irritants. In
sanity causes the largest number oi
suicides, both men and women
drunkenness comes next, and disease
third. The ages at which suicide seems
to be most often resorted to are be-
tween forty and fifty among men and
forty-five and tifty-fve among women
Since the greatest number of deaths in
New York is by poisoning it is i'm
portant to inquire into the causes why
it should be SO. When we take into
consideration the looseness of the
present laws regarding the sale Of
poisons, there appears to be no trouble
for persons who wish these drugs tC
obtain them. 1t is needless to say tina
the opium habit, like alcoholism, lead
to self-destruction in number o
instances. A form of suicide, which
figures largely in American statistics, II
jumping from an elevation. This Ii
oftentimes the result of a momentar,
impulse, produced by the surround
ings. In New York city there were
twenty-one victims of this mode be
tween the years 1866 and 1872. A mos
important duty in connecti n with thi
subject is the influence of the mode o
life of the poorer classes. He alluded
more particularly to the tenement-hous'
system. The vices attending th
colonization of the working classes ar
spread by the contact of the viciou
with the pure, and the depression o
the tone, are powerful inducers of sui
eide. The prevalence of strikes ant
trades unions, with their dangerou
restrictions and foolish oaths of allegi
ance, are fruitful causes of suicides
Men are afraid to work in opposition t
the threats of their fellow tradesmen
and when poverty stares them in tn
face they become desperate and comml
suicide. A great percentage OF the sui
cides in large cities are attributable t
unnatural vices, caused by state c
hypochondliasis or monomania by th
carefully written advertisements of tn
many quacks. The prevalence of Sc
duction in large cities is perhar
greater among the lower classes, th
! large factories being the places whel
the crime is mostly committed an
where suicide often follows. To d
minish the number of suicides th
doctor favored regular meals an
habits, the abolition of immoral ente
tainments, advertising quacks, 81
: called anatomical museums, OF obscer
and sensational literature. Legislatio
should strictly regulate the sale {
poisonous drugs.