The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1891-09-18
SUICIDE AND SCIENCE.
WHY is IT THAT so MANY MEN
COMMIT SUICIDE?
Nearly All Methods of Self Murder Have
Been Exhausted-A Rare Thing
Among Greeks, But FASH
ionable at Rome.

A prominent physician, who has
made study of suicide. said the other
day to Philadelphia Press reporter:
Why should man kill himself? The
popular answer u.s. Because he is
crazy" Scientific men easily disprove
that but are still somewhat at sea in
devising better answer. Was the
philosopher Seneca crazy when he en-
tered the warm bath and opened his
veinsp Were all the hundreds of noble
Romans who made happy dispatch of
themselves insanep Surely not.
The Greeks rarely committed sui
eide. but at one time it was quite the
fashion in Rome It is the rarest of
rarities for slave to commit suicide,
though slave owner often does. Ex-
tensive inquiry fails to develope a
single case of an American negroes
committing suicide, though the rehave
been few cases among the mulattoes
and octoroons Shall it be said, then,
that the superior race is the suicidalp
Surely not for the Greeks were at
least the equals of the Romans. The
solution must be sought elsewhere.
Perhaps religious belief has some
thing to do with it. but it would be
hard to prove it. One fact however,
gives us a clew. Among the lowest
races of mankind, and in the lowest
intellectual grades of any society,
suicide is practically unknown, and
among the very highest in race or Gull
ture it is extremely rare while in the
middle or lower middle classes it is
most common. It is those who are
midway on the course, whether as
races or individuals, those who are in
the struggle, who lose heart and rush
unbidden into eternity. This is only
another way of saying that where the
battle is fercest there are the most
wounds and sudden deaths; those who
have won the victory and those lying
idle in camp and designing no struggle
are fairly we'll satisfied with the situa-
ton. The cultured well-to-do Phila-
delphian is on the whole, as willing
to live as the naked Senegambian
The causes assigned for suicide are
to the last degree curious. In many
cases well-to-do suicides simply allege
that they are tired of life-the monot-
ony of it is too much for them. An
English gentleman left a note to the
effect that he was tired of coming
in and going out lying down and get
ting up, buttoning and unbuttoning.
A London cabman wrote that he had
exhausted all the pleasure of driving
in this world and wanted to see how
they drove in the other. Strange to
say, love and poverty furnish the
smallest number of cases, and mere
bodily suffering the greatest. But the
saddest cases are those in which
whole family dies together, and of
these the Stafford case which occurred
some years ago was most mournful of
all.
He was a druggists assistant, and
was threatened with loss of position
and poverty. He succeeded in gain
ing his wife's consent as his letter
said, that the 'whole family should 90
together" but she did not want to
know when the fatal dose was given.
So he gave her and the youngest child
prussic acid in cooling drink as they
lay down for the night and in few
minutes they expired without pain.
One by one he disposed of the other
five children in the same way-.all in
peace and without pain, thank God,''
he wrote. He then drew up his will,
went out and obtained the signature of
witnesses, returned and wrote four let
tiers, and then swallowed the poison
and was soon corpse. Such case
is beyond analysis by a healthful
mind. Yet we cannot say it was in
sanity.
1t is scarcely possible to conceive of
any method of suicide not already en-
ployed by some one; but whenever one
strikes novel method he is sure to
nave a host Of imitators. Hanging,
drowning, poisoning, stabbing or other
forms of cutting, shooting, and jump
ing from high places are most com
mon. Many women have swallowed
hot Goals, powdered glass and other
destructive articles. Cleopatra applied
an asp to her bosom, and it is worth
noting that she has had no imitators.
Women have horror of serpents, and
they are not easily obtained at the
time desired. France leads all other
nations in suicides, as in the last year
for which we have the record PIG per-
sons killed themselves in each 1,OOO,-
600 OF the population, and the increase
is rapid. Of z, 572 suicides in one wear
one-fifth were in Paris, and smother
ing by charcoal fumes is the favorite
method. In London nearly all suicides
are with the knife and razor, and it is
plain truth that in this respect the
British are the worst scut throats, in
Europe.
Sir Walter Raleigh.
d.