Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-18
EPIDEMIC OF SUICIDES.
Comment on the Subject by a Spe-
cialist

The diversified comment upon the So
called epidemic of suicide which seems
to be at present raging, from officers OF
high rank in active service in the army
and navy to obscure individuals in remote
sections. brings phase OF a mooted aues-
ton to the FORE said prominent Wash
ington specialist this morning.
Il take the view that If a man has any
thing on earth which may be called his
own property, so to speak, it Is his life.
Yet even his life may be taken from him
by process of law. his name by Danish
ment and incarceration in prison, his real
and personal belongings to satisfy the
claims Of his creditors, while his family
and friends will leave him isolated upon
the bare rock of desolation. and he may be
as alone and as useless to himself and the
world as piece of foatsam tossed ashore
by the rollers of the
IF the law may take everything a man
has, including his life. surely the individual
ought to be allowed to take 1t if he pleases;
often it is all he has left of which he
may dispose by any act of his. In the
first place person is not necessarily in
sane because he commits suicide. and 1
consider such a theory both shallow and
absurd. Insane persons commit suicide.
and SO do the sane. and 1t is with the lat
ter with whom We are dealing.
ITO these persons the physical act which
lifts the hand to the mouth to swallow
the poisonous draft: to press the muzzle
of revolver against the temple; to walk
to the dock and take the single step which
precipitates the body into the dark water,
this individual and specific act is merely
an automatic muscular process of propul-
sion coincident with or subsequent to a
suit attained by the brain, or as l. shall
designate the function, the spiritual be-
ing. and is the logical result of we'll
formed and definite. If fatal. reasoning
process producing a conclusion which the
physical being is powerless to resist and
naturally obeys.
Therefore, a man who feels that life to
him offers no inducements to maintain has
d right. an inherent right, to part with it;
with what is essentially and primarily his
own. The maintenance of life requires
great physical and mental effort, unoon-
scious with some and wildly conscious with
others. and, in this country, a greater or
lesser sum of money. In certain tropical
countries life may be maintained practical
ly without money and effort but not here.
"A perfectly sane person reaches the con-
clusion that life is not worth the effort to
maintain it. and he terminates it by his own
act. The killing of men in battle is a sort
of voluntary suicide in that every man
who goes into battle knows that it is at the
hazard of his life and he takes the chances.
War is merely legalized murder by whole
sale. 1t is practical suicide for a certain
proportion of all men who go into battle.
and actual suicide where men lead and COM
pose forlorn hopes.
But the mind undergoes different pro-
cess of reasoning in this latter question of
life destruction. Such sacrifice of life is
recognized by tradition and popular belief
as patriotic and right. If it is. laws in such
states where they are enacted which make
of attempts at self-destruction a crime are
wrong. If a man, owning his own life, may
say that he will sacrifice it for his country,
If need be- he assuredly possesses a pre-
eminent and superior right to sacrifice 1t to
himself
Every man ought to be the arbiter Of
the disposition Of his body and what there
is in it, call 1t what you may, SO long as he
does not commit crime in the furtherance
of his conclusion While 1 deplore suicide.
the practice of all physicians Is such that
they realize perfectly well that there are
conditions under which life Is not to par
ticular individuals worth the living. A per-
son whose environment lies without the
scope of these conditions fails to appreciate
them. 1t is. therefore, almost idle for those
whose mental and physical beings are COM
forted to pass judgment, except theoretical
ly, upon others less fortunate.
Again, IL there Is any one fact unsettled
Ii Is as to what element or elements conSti-
tute life unless it be that the physical body
is mere medium of animation for whatever
may be the active propelling principle which
moves the muscles and dictates our physi-
cal acts. or. for that matter, which operates
what we call the mind. Remarks about the
soul, the spirit. the vital principle, the Hv-
ing element the brain. the nerve centers.
etc, are vague as they are unsatisfactory
when the great crucial question Is
asked. What is the element of lfe?'
when the answer to this question may
be demonstrated as satisfactorily as a
mathematical problem. suicide will be
viewed in a different light. Until then the
suicide holds that his life is his own, what
ever life really u.s. and he chooses to end 1t
by making it impossible for the physical
body to perform it's functions.
THAT is all there Is, as matter Of cold
fact, to suicide"