St. Landry democrat., 1879-05-31
About Suicide.
1T Is COMMITTED IN 4 MAJORITY OF
IHoston Journal of Chemistry

Suicide has been made the subject OF
scientific analysis and ndinyestigation, and
certain points in its "phll0sophy may
be considered to have been definitely
settled. These are summed up by DR..
Gray as follows:
First-Suicide, both in health and
disease, is violation of natures laws.
Second-Suicide, though always an
unnatural act, is, in q large proportion,
if not the majority of eases, committed
by persons who are entirely sane.
Third-Education and custom being
powerful influences in overcoming the
instincts of nature, and in inducing
suicide, the widespread publication OF
the names of suicides, the age, the sex,
the mode and the reasons, promotes
suicide by inducing imitation, and by
lessening the horror of the act through
familiarity with it.
Fourth-The teachings OF any social
ed philosophy and sensat tlonalism which
tend to the disregard of the truths of
religion, lead to suicide, breaking
down the moral barrier, and compro-
missing the wrong OF suicide, by render
ing it mere question OF choice and
expediency with eachiDdividual whether
he will live or die.
Fifth-Suicide is in no true sense an
impulse, but in the sane and insane it is
the result of deliberation OF more or
less duration, and it is an act determined
upon in the mind OF the individual,
from causes accepted by his Judgment
as sufficient, whether real or Imaginary.
Sixth-Sulcide by the sane and insane
is frequently the result Of hasty Or wronn
Interpretation of facts, both in their
magnitude and consequences-mere
defective reasoning from tue premises.
Seventh-The great and essential dis
tinction between suicide by the sane
and the insane is not in the motive,
method, time or place, but in the mental
state in which the act is committed.
The insane man commits suicide under
delusions, or a delusional state of the
mind.
Eighth-The strongest safeguard
against suicide is the sense of mans
responsibility to the Creator for all
human conduct, including the keeping
of our lives. 1t the sense OF accOunta-
bility to the future be gone, no consid-
Grafton of ones duty to family, to
society or self can ever answer the ar
guments of the suicide. 1t is, indeed,
conscience which "makes towards OF
us ALL" but is also the voice which points
us to the higher responsibility for all
our acts, and which, if we heed, makes
us strong to bear the ills Of life.
DR.. Moret thas.recently published some
interesting statistics concerning suicide
in France. They cover period of
forty five years, and show steady in
crease in the successive five years.
periods. The annual number, which
was 3,317 in 1831-35, rose to 6,107 in
1915. The numbersare more remark
able if the ratio per 100000 inhabitants
be taken. This was about six for the
first five years period, seven for the
second, eight for the third, and so on,
till in 1915 it reached at a bound 1G.-
80 or nearly seventeen suicides per 100,-
900 inhabitants. This is explained by
the terrible events of which France was
the theatre in that period. After politi-
cal complications, age is one OF the
causes which seems to have the most
influence lin Franco on the suicide.
The suicides increase regularly with
the age, and the maximum is found be-
tween seventy and eighty. This result
is contrary to an opinion expressed by
Esquirol, that the old man, strongly
attached to life, commits suicide rarely.
1t is more difficult to comprehend the
increase of suicides among children
under sixteen. DR.. Moret further shows
that men kill themselves four times
more frequently than women, and that,
eliminating the two extreme seasons,
winter and summer, which act in nearly
the same way on both sexes, the suicides
of men are more frequent in spring,
those of women in autumn. Married
men commit suicide half as often rs
bachelors, and one.third as often as
widoweTs: VT e.: : =! i
Whether these proportions are the
same in other countries we are unable
to say. The steady increase in tile
whole number of suicides is true,
we believe, Of all civilized eountries,
though the rate of increase is not every
where so rapid as in France.