The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-05-29
Philosophy OF suicide.

Suicide has been made the subject OF
scientific analysis and investigation. and
certain points in its philosophy" may be
considered to have been definitely settled.
These are summed up by DIR. Gray as fol-
lows:
1. Suicide, both in health and disease,
is violation of natures laws:
2. Suicide, though always an unnatural
act is, in large proportion, if not the
majority OF cases, committed by persOne
who are entirely sane.
8. Education and custom being power
full influences in overcoming the instincts
of nature, and inducing suicide, the wide
spread publication of the names of sui
cides, the age, the sex, the mode and the
reasons, promotes suicide by inducing inn
itation, and by lessening the horror Of the
act through familiarity with it.
4. The teachings of any so-called phi
losophy and sensationalism which tends to
the disregard of the truths of religion lead
to suicide, breaking down the moral bar
rier and compromising the wrong of sui
eide by rendering it mere question of
choice and expediency with each individ-
ual whether he will live or die.
s. Suicide is in no true sense an i'm
pulse, but in the sane and the 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.
6. Suicide by the sane and the insane
is frequently the result of hasty or wrong
Interpretation of facts, both in their mag
nitude and onsequences-merely defect
i've reasoning from true premises.
2. The great and essential distinction
between suicide by the sane and the in
sane 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 de-
lusional state of the mind.
8. The strongest safeguard against sui
eide is the sense of mans responsibility to
the creator for all human conduct, in
cluding the keeping of our lives. If the
sense Of accountability to the future be
gone, no consideration of ones duty to
family, TO society, or self can answer the
arguments of the suicide. 1t is, indeed,
conscience which makes towards of us
all, but it is also the voice which points
us to the higher responsibility for our
acts, and which, if we heed, makes US
strong to bear the ills OF life.
DR. Moret recently published some in
teresting statistics concerning suicide in
France. They cover a period of forty five
years, and show a steady increase in the
successive five-year periods. The annual
number, which was 3,317 in lS31-35, rose
to Q, ,1O7 in 1S71-75. The numbers are more
remarkable if the ratio per 100, 900 inhabi-
tants be taken. This was about SIX for the
first five.yesr period, seven tor the second,
eight for the third, and so on, till in 1871
IS it reached at a bound 1880, or nearly II
suicides per 100, 900 inhabitants. This is
explained by the terrible events of which
France was the theater in that period.
After political complications, age is one
of the causes which seems to have most
influence Gn France) on suicide. The
suicides increase regularly with the age.
and the maximum is found. be-
tween 20 and 80. This result is contrary
to an opinion expressed by Esquirol, that
the old man, strongly attached 70 life,
commits suicide rarely. 1t is more diff
cult to comprehend the increase of sui
cides among children under 16. 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, mar.
ried men commit suicide half as often az
bachelors, and one-third as often as w1d
overs.
Whether these proportions are the same
in other countries we are unable to say
The steady increase in the whole number
of suicides is true, we believe, of all civil
lied countries, though the rate OF increase
is not everywhere so rapid as in France
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