Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-09-05


 people into tenement houses lowers their vitality and nervous tone, and makes sui eide easy to happen among them. The labor wars, the unsuccessful strikes, the worri- ment and disasters which trades unions br1ng-theSe are causes of suicide among the poor as patent, just now, as any that know. In the upper ranks it is the contin ual speculative scheming, the hurry and worry and strain of trying to get rich quick ly, that brings on suicide like the night at the close of every business day. The causes which tempt men to commit suicide must be removed by the statesman and the econo- mist rather than by the physician"
 Another very eminent physician Of the city, who did not want the reporter under any circumstances to mention his name, said that he agreed entirely with pr. Ham, ilton's statement that hot, "muggy" weather was the weather which suicide claimed as it's own
 "Nllaneuve from whom we get a large share of our information in thls particular" said the physician, tells us that during tho seven years ln which he gathered statistics in France, in the spring there were 997 sui Cides; in the summer, 933; in the autumn, 627, and in the winter, GAS Villaneuve also declared that in London, Hamburg, Copen- hagen and Rouen, the maximum number of suicides occurred in July, and the minimum AAuAAbSA III oSloOSl eAN ANONSl0OSA' ~ h1o been proven, I believe, that on the continent of Europe suicide diminIshes with the latti- tude, the Danes committing suicide the most and the Portugese the least. The difference between the prevalence of suicide in Denmark and Portugal is as 35 to 1.
 "People should always kill themselves more in large towns than in the country, because in the former places the great causes of suicide, poverty and vice, are A.1-. far moro among civilized than among bar barous people; among people instructed and well read more than among the ignorant Intelligence raises the aspirations of men, and when these aspirations are crushed by the great movements of our complex civili- zation suicide follows naturally. Quetelet, the greatest statistician that ever hved proved that wherever crimes against the person are rife and ratio of suicide is com paratively small, but that where crimes against poperty were abundant the ratio of suicide was much higher. These are singu- lar facts, too, that so few suicides take place in the night time, that three times as many men commit suidide as women, and that the favorite age at which people kill | themselves is in middle life'
 The theory of the learned doctors received strong confirmation by data furnished the | reporter by Dr. John T. Nagle, the City I Registrar of Vital Statistics. Dr. Nagle told the reporter that while in this city, Germans committed suicide far more than any other race of people, the Irish com mitted suicide far less.
 II believe" said the doctor, ''that tenn perament and the national characteristics and peculiarities of people have good deal more to do with suicide than religion or the weather, that is speaking absolutely It is said that Germans kill themselves here out of homesickness, but there are as many Irish | people here as German.
 'Now, 235 people killed themselves here last year, and of these IA were Germans. The number of suicides, by months was as follows: January, 10; February, IS; March, %; April, IS; May, 24; June, 15; July, %; August, 23; September, 10; October, %; | November, 21; December, IS. So you see the greatest number of suicides were in May, July and August, in the hot, "muggy,' Y months. Of the 235 suicides 1S3 were men and 52 were women. Only one of these 23S was colored person. It is an exceedingly rare thing for a colored person to commit suicide. In 1881 made comparison of the suicidal statistics for the past eleven years and discovered the almost incredible fact that of 1,521 deaths by suicide in this city only three of the number were among the colored population. The statistics fol these eleven years showed state of things precisely similar to that of last year. SiN hundred and twcnty-six out of the 1,521 suicides were Germans. More suicides were committed in tho hot months than in the cold; 5o9 people of the ,521 took poison, ant over POO of the sos took arsenic in the form of Parts green. After poisoning, shooting and hanging were the favorite means 0: self-murder The proportion of men anG women held curiously the same-1 ,193 mer to BPS women.
 At the same time that dug out these eleven-year statistics I sent inquiries tt cities all over the world asking for statistics of suicide in the past year-1SS0 Here Is statement which shows the suicide rate pei 100000 inhabitants in some of the prominent cities. don't think New York fares very badly"
 Dr. Nagle handed the reporter the state
 ment. fNllO1uS.