Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-11-12
SELF-KILLING.
Always Regarded a Crime by Our Laws,
Was Visited by the Church
With the
SeTerest Penalties in Old Times-Epi.
deiaies OF suicide-17s,e32 in Ferry.
five Years in France.

The sudden outbursts OF homieidal and
suicidal manis, which have occurred in
New York during the past week, render ee-
pecially timely paper recently delivered
by Mr.. CLARK Bell before the Msdico-Legal
Society. and offered by him for publication
in the New York Herald The first case re-
ferred to was, 1t will be remembered, the at
tempted murder of Mr.. Lyons, president of
the Third Avenue Railroad Company, and
the immediate su eide of the criminal,
Charles Schwartz. The second was the aw-
ful tragedy of Tuesday, the details of which
thrilled every reader with horror. Mr..
Bells subject was Legislation to Prevent
and Punish Suicide" aud his paper was the
result evidently of careful study of the
many works that have been published on
the subject.
He began by showing that while among
many people and according to many philoso-
PIXIES self killing has been justified or incui-
Gated, 1t Is and always has been By our laws
regarded crime. In his review of the
opinions of the ancients and moderns he
shows that by the canon law the suicide was
regarded as criminal and forbidden the
prayers of the church, and other severe PEN
alties were imposed. Under this law prior
to its abregstion in 1871, frightful penalties
were iuh cited on the bodies of the suicide
and his goods were confiscated. At present
he assumes, suicide is regarded as q crime in
all civiliz countries, aud he inquiries, ~
Is suicide as a social eva on the decrease?
and (2) What can be bes. done by society 10
prevent it's increase, either by legislation or
otherwise?
In considering the first question he begins
with the statistics compiled in France of sui
cides from 1874 to 1904, prior to which time
no reliable data are known. From 1871 to
1887 the proportion of suicides to the popu-
lation in France increased fifty per cent,
Aw-I r. 4 "a r ~
the extent of seventy-eight per cent. From
1881 to 1875 there were 10 France 173 232 sui
cides, or an average of $3.50 year. During
the first part of that time, however, the av-
erage was 33l7 year, and for the last four
years it was 6l07 year. M. Lacassagne
said at the International Congress in 1878
that Paris probably, of all cities in the
world, furnished the largest number OF sui
cioes IN ProPs.tie- ia her population; but
that suicide was exceedingly rare IN the
rural districts of France. 1t is difficult TO
give statistics for England, but according 10
Quetelet there is q remarkable uniformity
in the numbers of suicides during different
periods OF ten or twenty years, although it
varied greatly in exceptional years. The
present average rate in London is about 260
year.
EPIDEMICAL SUICIDE.
On this subject Mr.. Bell says. There is
frequently an epidemic of suicide in a dis
trict-notably the Egyptian epidemic caused
by Hegesios's orations, the Milesian, the cpl
demic OF Manfred in 1879, OF Rouen in
1905, st. Piermont Jean in 1913, and others
in LYONS and Versailles. In the latter city
in 1898 there were some 1900 victims. 1t is
well known that wherever suicide is commit
ted by precipitation from + hight, it is fire.
quently followed by several others, as from
Notre Dame or the Colonne Vendome. In
our country Niagara Falls is q parallel,
though not completely, as it is more difficult
OF access from the great cities. The PEN
sioner who hung himself on one of the Ian
terms of The Hotel des Invalides was followed
by twelve others within a few weeks, and
the authorities only stopped them by remov-
ing the lanterns. In Cuba, at one time the
negroes committed suicide in great numbers
under a religious delusion, believing that
they would be restored 10 lie in three days.
1t was only suppressed by the governor
general ordering the heads of the suicides 10
be exposed in public for one month, their
bodies burned and their ashes publicly scat
tered to the winds.
THE AGE OF SUICIDES.
Tables contained in the paper show that
the largest number of suicides occur between
the ages of twenty-five and ffty-fve; that
| suicides increase in proportion until extreme
old age; that the increase is in direct ratio
10 population until the age of thirty, after
which it continues in inverse ratio TO popu-
lation until the allotted time of life, and tEat
the number OF suicides is very small, both
absolutely and relatively, 10 the population
previous to the age of fifteen. Women COM
init suicide earlier in life, men later. The
proportion Of the sexes is in general three
men TO one woman, but in England and Wales
it is two to one, and in Denmark four to one.
In large cities the proportion isnearer equal.
In this connection the following table, COM
piled by DIR. ODea, (from whom, as from,
other authors, Mr.. Bell quotes freely is Of
| interest: