Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-12-11

TIoN OF RESPONSIBILITY.
From the New York Evening Post
DR.. Allan McIane Hamilton of this cit
read very entertaining paper before tn
American public health association on tn
subject of ''Suicide in Large Cities Tn
principal field of his Investigations was thi
city. lie tells US that during a period Q
seven years the crime of suicide has increas
ed in this community three hundred pc
centum. During the three years ending il
1872, 359 persons killed themselves. o
this number y 5 were males and ST females
III were married, lis were unmarried ant
43 were widows and widowers
More persons commit suicide during tn,
summer months than in cold weather Ii
August, 1870, Is persons killed themselves
and IN December of the same year only
in July, 1872, there were twenty cases, anC
in December of the same year only l. Clerk,
commit suicide more frequently than person.
following other occupations. During the
three years ending in 1872, 81 clerks killed
themselves, and only 10 laborers. Poison
NJ is the most usual method 2l2 person,
cut of nearly coo took poison, the preference
being for arsenic, and in n majority Of in
stances for arsenic in the common form OF
Paris green One hundred and forty-seyen
persons shot themselves. and l3j killed
themselves by hanging. Two extraordinary
methods are cted-one that Of man vino
shot himself and then jumped from win
dow, the other that Of man who threw
himself in front Of a moving locomotive en-
gine. This method Of suicide certainly has
been employed a number of times in other
places, and. it iS our impression, more than
once in New York. Another method often
employed. not only in this country, but
throughout the world i jumping from a
building or some high place. DR.. Hamilton
conies~es that under the proper circum-
stances he himself has experienced a morbid
desire Of this character The sensations
he describes Is very common, although We
do not recolect to have heard Of an in
stance in which the sensation was 50 con-
slant as in a case which he mentions, where
the person subject to it refused to sleep in
the third or fourth story Of house for fear
of Jumping from the windows.
The causes of this tendency to suicide are
various DR.. Hamilton accounts for the
! fact that poison is the iayorite method of
committing suicide in this city by the COM
partiye ease with which poison can he OBJ
/ taine1. \ person on Broadway, for example,
can step into drug store and buy almost
any kind OF poison he asks for. and take it,
/ before be could walk half the distance either
to the North river or to the East river. But
while he was walking that distance the I'M
| pulse to self-destruction might have passed
away. There is no doubt that the sale Of
| poisonous drugs ought 10 be more strictly
regulated than it Is Poison, however. Is
| simply the means to an end, and were 1t dis
I tributed daily in every household in assorted
packages it would iail to account for the
number Of suicides except as it afforded op
portunitieS for sell-murder. Suicide Is real
IL the direct result of mental disease. 50
long a. the mind remains unaffected by sur
rounding circumstances. there Is no danger
of suicide Even the impulse to throw one
self from a tower or high building l. purely
mental Nevertheless the mental affection
Is usually due to the bodily condition.
Among other causes thus affecting the hodi
Is condition, DR.. Hamilton speaks Of opium
eating. chloroiorm-taking, whisky drinking,
living in crowded and unwhole>ome tene-
ment houses. unsuccessful oyerwork. strikes,
immortality of all kinds and consequent loss
of self-respect followed by despair, and, IN
short, we may say everything which makes
life seem not worth further effort. 10 he
OF not TO be- Hamlet said, " that is the
question :" and when, in asking this ques-
ton. the mind Is conscious of the iuu.ity Of
longer existence, the answer IS very certain
to be in favor Of death.
For the conditions which produce such a
state Of mind society is partly responsible
An abandoned woman who commits suicide
ordinarily does 50 because, having a desire
to lead an honest life. she Is without hope
of success. 50 She gives up. The Shop-girl
who finds herself mother before she Is
wife. prefers death to life, because she imag-
ines the disgrace is indeljble The clerk
whe had rather face death than his employ
er finds q reason for his preference in the be-
lief that there is no adequate remedy for de-
tected guilt The mechanic, forced into an
absurd conspiracy against the order OF socie-
ty. first under the speci0us plea OF seli-in-
terest. and secondly. under the supposed
necessity of Loyalty adhcrins to his brother
members of the trades-union to which he be
longs. seeks permanent rest from labor be
cause he is to cowardly, first to break away
from the arbitrary restraints which his trade
organization puts upon his work, and second
", to look agrin upon the wan faces Of his
wife and hungry children. In behalf Of So
ciety it Is to he said that in many classes of
cases the individual Is the sole responsible
cause for his own misfortunes on the other
hand. in behalf of the individual it Is to be
said that society makes no allowance for the
inexpericnce and mistakes of youth. Society,
in most Of its various relations 10 the indiyi-
1 l,nI
that sinneth, it shall die"
1t is almost idle. however, TO attempt to
adjust the specific responsibility for the
causes of scli-murder. The fact is that
many Of the causes are very remote and
obscure 50 remote and obscure, perhaps, as
never TO be susceptible Of satisfactory state
ment. All that science and benevolence can
do is to labor to remove or weaken the con-
spicuous physical and moral causes. DR..
Hamilton himself recognizes the limits with
in which all preventive efforts must be con-
fined "To reduce the statistics ofsuicide,
he says, - would require an attack upon our
whole social system 1t would require
more than that it would require an amount
Of mental training for the individual such as
all the schools and systems Of philosophy and
sef-discipline of the race have rs yet been
unable to effect. The Christian religion, in
creating patience which serves instead OF
fortitude in combating the ills of lie, comes
nearest to impartiDg that reSolutc and IN
domitable courage to the human heart which
is INDISPENSABLE But the vitality Of the
courage thus produced depends in part upon
the viyidness of the belief that sel-destruc-
ton will oyerwhelm one in greater evils.
Within the limits mentioned above, how
ever, something may be done. We can trace,
for example, the special temptation to suicide
which during the last few years have beset
clerks and other persons holding positions of
financial trust. to an irredeemable paper cur
rency. to the insane spirit of financial specu-
lation thereby induced, and to the consequent
unlimited chances of gaining sudden wealth
which went to pieces in the great collapse of
credit last year. So far as that class of sui
cides is concerned, the restoration Of sound
currency i 4 necessary preventive measure.
The police power of the state supplemented
by parental authority, may also be properly
exercised in the repression of all immoral
and enticing shows. and in the extinction OF
1agrantly indecent publications, such as are
COW Illegal. Better rooms for the poor less
whisky-drinking individual benevolence,
and all the various Influences which tend II
the enlightenment of mankind will also
tend to reduce the number of suicides, by
making self-destrGction seem to be the
cowardly act il is But after all is said and
done there will still remain untouched that
inscrutable field, the human mind, whose
powers, working perversely. will now and
then lead the Judgment to conclude that life
is vain and that death cannot well be worse.
The BLACK Crock" Caught Mapping.