The morning call., 1891-11-12
MORAL EPIDEMICS.
Some Precedents for Recent
Murders and Suicides.
1t Is San Franchises Turn Just Now-Opera-
ton OF the Periodic Law-Curi-
Gus Statistics.


At time when every day seems to call in
a natural way for a fresh victim of murder
or self-murder at the Morgue, it becomes an
interesting matter to note that'this crimina
epidemic is by no means without precede MT.
1t seems indeed to be fair case on viii CHI
to base the application Of what stats ticians
OF an advanced grade have learned to call
"The periodic law" Thus far the study of
this law is in its infancy. but some remark
able notifications have already been OBJ
tanned.
For example, notable historical events are
found to have occurred at five consecutive
periods in 1850 years, the periods called for
by the predictions associated with the seven
angels, the seven trumpets and the sew en-
seals in Revelations.
PERIODICALLY.
Apart, however, from Scriptural testi-
mony, the evidence in favor of the opera
ton of the periodic law alike in ancient
medieval and recent hist DRY is startling, if
not absolutely convincing Not only is there
periodical recurrence of disasters, ETC., but
they run into t. pes. Now it is a series of
railroad wrecks, now earthquakes or mari
time disasters, now famine. now SHOWS and
floods, or acts of incendlarism, or again
| epOchs of political assaSsinations and sui
cdes. The Boulanger and Balmaceda af-
! fairs have had host OF historical prece-
| dents.
VOLUME OF EVIDENCE.
| II is, however, the remarkable volume of
! evidence in support of the theory of moral
and criminal epidemics which attracted the
| attention of CALL reporter when he
| essayed to find presidents anterior to the
ltrsl, .taa ba Mt
| criminal epidemic in this city. In tue
course Of the Investigations it became ap-
| parent that the period from 1851 TO 1886 was
as fruitful of lawlessuesS and homicide in
| England as in California
In these wears England had perfect cpl
| demlc of murders. The more recent horrors
of the Jack-the-R Ripper class will sfford but
! faint idea of the state of things then pre-
| vailing after f0rty-fve years of national and
| domestic peace. The Recorder of London,
charging the jury in trial OF peculiarly
atrocIous murder case, alluded TO the two
! years carnival OF horrors, and said: " 1t is
| no part of my duty or that of the Grand
Jury II enter into any investigation of the
! causes that nave led TO this state of things,
! nor whether II arose from any peculiar cir
| cumStanceS in the country or the operation
! of any law, etc, showing that the recngni-
ton Of moral as well as physical epidemics
| was already fact.
| MENTAL CONTAGIoN.
Man being emjnently an emotional and
! initiative animal it will not be difficult to
| find examples Of mental and moral as well
as criminal coutagion. AS early as tle fifth
| century the chief part of the population of
| Syria aud Palestine practically followed the
! example of the enthusiast Simeon. who
! spent thirty-seyeu years of his Ike on the
top of high pillar as a means of salvation.
| II required seven centuries TO wipe out the
| custom.
A, examples of similar contagious may
| be mentioned the crusades, the eraS of
| tlageliants, the couvulsionnaires, the dane
ers, the jumpers, the shakers, the witch
| burners, the Jew-perSecutors, the spirit
rappers and host of others.
SPECIAL NIFEsrATIoNs.
In the same way certain centuries have
| been distinguished by special manifesto
| tions. Thus. the sixteenth was the era of
| wild ana universal reform, the seventeenth
| Of prodigal literature, while the eighteenth
| produced those great commercial chimeras
| which, like the South Sra Bubble and Laws
Mississippi Bank, ruined whole nations.
In regard to moral and criminal epidem-
| les, the analogy between moral and physical
| disease becomes ve-y striking in the light
| of inquiry. Certain diseases are Zen
| demic," or constantly present in certain
places, as yellow fever in Havana and
cholera in Aleppo and Damascus. Even so
there are sections of the earth in which
| crime is endemic, and even part of religion,
as witness the Od Man of the Mountain
and the thugs of India. Infantcide is
endemic in Hindostan, in China, in the
South Sea Islands, in the Hawaiian Islands
and in Ceylon. Suicide is not a crime in
| India or China or Japan.
SEEDS OF VICE.
ut would seem, indeed" says criminal
specialist, chat the seeds of vice and crime
are sown under the surface of society every
where, and that the germ is'eyer present.
| The conditions are casually supplied. So
let the surface of society be disturbed and
II csc seeds Of evil germinate, and their re-
suits will be otfenses against order, prop
erty and life"
AS instances may be cited the epidemic Of
robbery in England in 1892 commented on
by Macauay, and the incendiary era in
France in 1880, repeated in the Commune
forty years after. De Quincy points out
that between 1888 and 1855 six illustri.
Gus persons persisted by assassination,
namely, William of Orange; Henry, Duke
OF Guise: Henry III, The last of the ValoiS
princes; Henry ~, the first of the Bour-
bon line; Glstayus Adolphus and Wallen-
stera.
POPULAR EPIDEMICS.
As for popular epidemics of a homicidal
or suicidal character, their name is legion
In Denmark, in the middle of the last Gen.
tury, number of murders, running into
the hundreds in one year, were committed
under the notion that the expiration on the
scaffold would assure the salvation of tht
criminal. CAPITAL punishment mad to be
suspended and fiogging and branding sub
stituted The epidemic at once died out
In the same way an epidemic of suicide
among the young girls of Lyons was
stopped by exposing the nude bodies of the
suicides in the marke-pace.
TIE CRIME OF SUICIDE.
Suicide has, indeed, greater tendency t.
become epidemic than any other crime
Such epidemics occurred at Rouen in 1896
Stuttgart in 1871 and ValOiS in 1913.
At Versailles, in 1898, no fewer than 130C
persons committed suicide in one year
| Poisoning as special crime was epidemic
in Europe in 1863 1910, 1850, 1915 and 1856.
1t is plain that if the criminal statistics o.
this country could be colated and analysed
as those of Europe have been, the law o.
criminal epdemics would be establish et
with equal clearness. San Francisco ha!
such an epidemic just now.