The record-union., 1897-07-16
SUICIDE AND THE SEXES.
More Frequent With Men and De.
stined to Increase With Women.

| At the present day man is much
more prone to suicide than woman.
| This is true of the man in regard TO
| epilepsy, crime and other marked signs
| of degeneration But it has been OBJ
served that as woman approaches man
| in her mode of life she also becomes
more familiar with those abnormal con-
ditions which have previously been pc
! culair to man. The comparatively i'm
| munity of woman from selI-destructiOn
| in the past has depended greatly upon
the relatively less harassing part she
| has taken in the struggle for life. To-
day it is different. Now woman occu-
pies the fields of art literature, finance
| and even politics, and, as she goes
deeper into these vocations, she must
expect to suffer the consequences. AL
ready it is noticeable that feminine sui
eide is not now entirely due to the SEN
timental causes of disappointed love,
desertion and jealousy, but to those
| trials of a more material order such
as have led men to the act of self-de-
struction.
Imitation far exceeds any other of
what are called trivial causes" of sui
eide. and asserts itself more in woman
than in man. 1t is much more common
than is supposed. When self-destruc-
ton becomes epidemic, as it sometimes
does, its prevalence very largely de-
pends upon imitation. 1t is said that
many years ago the wall of Thomas
Hood over THE One More Unfortu-
nate brought many a sentimental per-
son to a watery grave in the Thames.
And in our own day the vivid repre-
sentation of suicide upon the stage un-
der conditions appealing forcibly to the
Imagination has been known to be fol-
lowed by the self imposed death of per-
sons whose conditions resembled closely
those of the suicide in the drama
Attempts have been made to prove
that climate has an effect upon the rate
of suicide, but these attempts have
never done more than show that the
temperate regions have the highest ra-
ito. This, of course, is not due to the
climate, but to the more complicated
civilization, the greater physical and
mental wear, and the more extensive
interference with natural laws met with
in the temperate regions. While it is
true that climate exerts but little in
fiuence over the rate of suicide, the sea-
sons, on the contrary, do strongly af-
feet it. The popular belief is that sui
eide is more frequent during the
months of winter and spring. This,
however, is incorrect. Cold wet, damp
weather does not, as so many people
suppose, promote dependency and sui
eide. Strange as it may seem, at that
period of the year when the sufferings
of the poor and the sick are least, when
employment is most readily obtained,
when the pleasure of living should be
at it's highest, suicide is most frequent.
May, June and July, the months of
song and sunshine in all countries, give
the greatest number of self-murders.
For this there is not satisfactory eX-
planation, unless we accept that of the
medical fraternity, which is that during
the period of early summer the organ
ism is working at a higher tension,
every function of mind and body is
more active than at any other period
of the year, and consequently there is
greater liability to sudden physical and
mental collapse. = Popular Science
Monthly