The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1876-06-17

! suicide Ipluebi'N,
| A correspondent Of the 81. Louis GDbe-
Democrat Or. Z. Younkip) in an interesting
letter about murder and suicide, furnishes
some very suggestive reading. we quote
the concluding part of the communication:
| 1t is observed that when crime Is COM
mitee anG surrounded with dramatic CIT
cums,ances. is published abroad, and made
matter of general comment that certain
number of similar deeds soon follow. It's a
fact that criminal acts proceeding from hate,
revenge and the love of money, excite In GER
tain classes spirit of emulation, and when
! its effects are thoroughly stamped upon the
mind, may lead the individual TO commit
suicide or murder. The Press is always de.
sirous of publishing the startling events ana
dramatic circumstances, and the people are
Just as eager to read them and IN my opinion,
this epidemic Is fed and kept up very largely
by their publicity.
If we disseminate examples of outrage and
disorder we must expect harvest OF crime
and insanity. | believe we should second
the suggestion of NJ. Bouchet who has said
that "instead of feasling upon public recitals
so dangerous TO the common veal we should
rather found moral pest house to which
should be committed SO soon as they make
tutlI appear duCC, luuSC iSSllhiS "HNoS N'h'"
giousness is now beyond question"
History furnishes numerous instances OF
epidemic suicide based upon the publicity
given to like novel circumstances
Plutarch mentions the case of young wo-
man at Miletus who hung herself, and lmme-
diatey a number of her associates made way
with themselves IN similar manner.
An ancient historian of Marsellles records
an epidemic of suicide which ragged among
the young women Of that place.
In 1893, the city of Versailles had 1900
deaths by suicide, which seemed to take rise
from suicide of a romantic character.
In the beginning of the present century, an
epidemic of suicide destroyed large mum bers
in England, France and Germany, the vic
TINS of which conceived a disgust for life by
reading a melancholy story, coupled with
romance and the precocious overindulgence
of pleasure.
In the city Of Paris, at the beginning of
this century, strange infanticidc prevailed,
which seemed to grow out OF the publication
of the Madame CORNER case. Madame Cor
ner, under the influence of tanticidal mono
mania, murdered her own child under Cir
cumstances of the most dramatic character.
An impression was made upon certain
number OF mothers, so that women, though
attached 10 their offspring, were
seized with desire TO get rid of their chill
dren, and were led to commit the most afro
cious deeds.
These epidemic have not been confined to
the immoral, so called, but have been seen
among the religious and devoted as we'll
but for the most part 1t has been wnen they
have been thrown from their guard, and have
given way 10 those mysterious influences
brought to bear upon their minds in way
we know not how.
1t has usually prevailed with that class
who are instinctively led by their own en-
AVID who have zeal without
or else they lay away their better
judgment and are driven into wild insanity
An insanity, too, that seems to possess de-
greeS of forethought and cunning.
la 1861, IN the parish of Montmatre, there
were three young ladies' who were in the act
of preparing for Communion, at which time
they became unconscious, aud were seized
with convulsions. The next day three others
were seized. The third day, still others; and
on the fourth day there were thirty-two and
within forty days there were seventy.tive
young women who fell 10 the floor with this
epidemic. which seemed to take its rise from
some moral influence.
In 1913, in the city of Paris, where 400 wo-
men were at work IN u shop, one of them
turned pale and fell to the floor; her limbs
we're convulsed and her jaws set In two
hours 80 were seized in the same way, and
within four days 1l5 of these women fell |
victims to this moral pathetism.
| have given these historical facts and
shall leave the reader to draw the parallel |
between them and those cases of like import
If our own time. Evidently there is a scien. |
tic problem to this question. Who shall
solve il: