The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1900-12-01

- aroused the interesting ques-
tion as to the effect of higher
civilization on suicide, which Prof.
Smith asserts, is to. Increase II. An
other of Prof. Smiths theories is that
marriage is a safeguard against sui
eide, and on both of-these points there
is a decided difference of opinion
among prominent specialists.
Prof Charles L. ADana, of No. so
West Forty-sixth street, indorses DR..
Smiths theories. and says that there
win continue to be an increase of sui
cides and insanity until civilized peo-
pies learn to adjust themselves a little
better to the conditions Of life. He at
tributes the increase to the growing
sensibilities of mankind. and some-
what to the increasing lack of relig-
ious feeling, together with the COM
plexities Of modern life, which wear
on the nerves.
Prof. Dana also looks on marriage
as safeguard against suicide, and
said that statistics prove the proper
tion OF suicides to be less among mar
ried than among single persons. This
he attributed to the natural response
bility felt by married person toward
husband or wife. and, also, to the more
natural and regular mode of living of
the married couple.
DR.. e. c. Spitzkak, of No ss East
Seventy-third street, asked why. If
marriage is safeguard against sui
eide, no book on suicide is considered
complete without a chapter on "Con.
nubial Causes" Both DR.. Dana and
DR.. Smith separated the married from
the divorced in their estimates. but
Dr. Spitzl1a included the divorced as
being result of marriage.
DR.. Spitzka has compiled an inter-
estlng table showing that the husbands
Of literary women, especially, have a
higher rate, not only of suicides. but
OF general mortality than other men.
DR.. Spitzka's table was taken from
three nations, and included 2S0 liter
ary female, as the physician termed
them. One hundred and eighty-one OF
these women survived their husbands
and forty-one were survived, which
gives mortality ratio of to /.
while In the general population the
mortality Of husbands to wives is but
2 to l.
DIR. spitzka found, however, that
where the literary women were mar
ried to literary men the proportion Of
mortality among the men was even
less than in the general population, it
being only 1.6 to 1, while in the general
population it is 2 to 1.
Five of the husbands of these 280
literary women were suicides. This is
very large proportion, but again DR..
Spitzka's theory of needful literary
mating steps in, in extenuation of the
literary woman.
-Four of the husbands committed sui
eide because of unhappy married lives,
but the fifth, on the contrary, commit
ted suicide because his wife had just
died. He was a literary man, howev-
er, while the four others We're non-lit-
erary men.
The tables of DR.. Spitzka, while en-
forcing his theory that marriage is no
preventive of suicide, might also be
used by the former two doctors to en-.
force their theory that to divorce is
due an extremely large proportion Of
suicides. for of the 2S0 literary wo-
men, seventy-four had been divorced
once, fifteen had been divorced twice
and three four times.
AS to the increase in suicides. DR..
Spitzka said he had particularly no
ticed 1t among the Hebrews. Suicide /
was almost unheard of in this race
twenty-five years ago, while now it is |
a common occurrence. This DR.. Spitz-
ka attributes to the decrease in ortho- /
doxy.
DR.. spitzka said he found it quite un-
safe to take official records of the in
crease in suicide, because they are
taken with so much more
accuracy than formerly. which would |
account for some Increase. and also
because in the classification they new I
er go below the surface.
Suicide comes in waves" he said. /
"and one wave reached It's height dur
ing the French Revolution. In any
accurate biography you will find that |
suicides were as frequent as to-day.
Take such a work as 'Pepys' Diary /
for example.
mo less than sixty suicides are
mentioned in Tacitus, and IN 'Plu-
tarch's Lives you win find sixty
more. Such actual increase as there
is I would attribute to the growing
on-accountabilty among men toward
a Divine Power"
DIR. John T. Nagle, head Of the bu-
reau of municipal statistics. could not
either Of Prof. Smiths theories. As to
the increase. he shows table in
which the suicides Of New York CITY
are estimated from 1904 to 1880. In
this period the suicides went from I
every 1885 of the population in 1904.
to 1 in every 1888 Of the population in
lSS0-not a very great difference-but
In this time they have huctuate1 In
various years. The lowest rate was in
1916. l to every 21,72O and the highest
in 1905, when the rate was to every
l,0l7 Of population
Statistics 'as to the relation Of mar
Rage 20 suicide had to be chiefly
irawn from foreign countries. as re-
cords in the United States do not in
'lude this item as a whole In Italy
he statistics prove that the propor-
ion of married, single and widowed
suicides is. according to Marsellrs ta-
lies. as follohws
Married. Single. widowed
Ien... -. .........s+. lVO 40 235
Women. ...........-...i0 90 147
In France the statistics are:
Married. Single widowed
en...--..............l 100 111.4 2J6
.