The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-06-26
Philosophy of Suicide.
Boston Journal of Chemistry,

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
DR.. Gray, as follows: 1. Suicide, both
in health and disease, is q violation of
natures laws 2. Suicide, though al
ways an unnatural act, is, in a large
proportion, If in not the majority of cases,
committed by persons who are entirely
sane. 3. Education and custom b ing
powerful influences in overcoming the
instincts of nature, and 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. 4. The teachings of any 500
called philosophy and sensatioDalism
which tend to the disregard of the
truths of religion lead to suicide, break
ing down the moral barrier and COM
! promising the wrong of suicide, by rem
dering it a mere question of choice and
expediency with each individual whethe.
he will live or die. 5. Suicide is in ne
true sense an impulse, but in the sane
and the insane it is the result of de-
II.
and it is an act determined upon in
the mind of the individual, from
causes accepted by his judgment as suf
| ficient, whether real or imaginary.
| Suicide by the sane and insane is fire.
quently the result of hasty or wrong
| Interpretation of facts, both in their
magnitude and consequences-meTel
detective reasoning from true premises.
z. The great and essential distinction
between suicide by 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
Occasional state OF the mind. s. The
strongest safeguard against suicide is the
! sense of mans responsibility to the Gre
ator for all human conduct, including
| the keeping of our lives. II the sense
of accountability to the future be gone,
no consideration of ones duty to family,
to society or self can answer the argu
msnts Of the suicide. It is, indeed, con-
science which makes towards of us
all" but it is slso 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 lire
DR.. MoTet recently published some
interesting statistics concerning suicide
| in France. They cover 8 period OF
forty-five years, and show a steady i'm
crease in the successive fye.year periods
The annual number which was {. 317 in
1881, 80, rose to 6,107 in 1915. The
numbers are more remarkable if the ratio
per 100, 600 inhabitants be taken. This
was about six for the first fve.year
period, seven for the second, eight for
| the third, and so on, till in 1915 il
reached at a bound 16 80, or nearly II
suicides per 100000 inhabitants. This
/ is explained by the terrible events of
| which France was the theatre in that
period. After political complications,
/ age is one of the causes which seems to
/ have most influence Tin France) on the
suicide. The suicides increase regularly
with the age, and the maxi a is
/ found between 20 and 80. The result is
contrary to an opinion expressed by
EsQuirol, that the old man, strongly at
| tached to life, commits suicide rarely.
It is more difficult to comprehend the
increase of suicides among children under
sixteen. DR.. MOret further shows that
men kill themselves four times more FREE
quently than women, and that, eliminat-
ing 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 oil
women in autumn. Married men COM
NIT suicide halt So often as bachelors.
and one>third as often as widoWeFs.
Whether these proportions are the