Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-11
.FIXING THE RESPONSIBILITY
WAVE OF MURDER AND SUICIDE
IN THE DISTRICT.
Views Of Local Physician-Efect Of
Spring Season and Sugges-
tion-Cases Cited.

ly turns to thoughts of suicide" That Is
said to be one of the explanations of the
wave of murder and suicide that swept
over Washington the past week. There is
unquestionably such thing as ''sugges-
ton in crime, and this. coupled with the
season of the year. probably accounts for
the present outbreak. There were two
murders and five suicides since last Sunday
night, and the police and coroner really
expect more work in the same line.
In discussing the subject with DR.. Edward
F. Schaeffer a medico-legal expert, who
made a special study of suicides and the
literature of crime during his term as
deputy coroner here. the foregoing theory
was advanced to account for the epidemic.
DR.. Schaeffer said that while he has always
been interested in the study of medical
criminology, he does not pose as an alien
iSt. However, he added the records show
a well-defined rise in the suicide rate both
In the spring and fall The rise in the
any explanation can be offered for the con-
dition. according to DIR. Schaeffer. it Is
that with the turn of the seasons there Is
change in the bodily organism, and such
change Is conducive to melancholia, and
consequently to self-destruction.
"The Melancholy Days"
The fact that autumn is a depressing
season with many people is indicated by
the familiar enough term, 1.-The melancholy
days 1t is the time of the falling leaves,
when everything in nature is getting ready
for its winter sleep. The same conditions
affect men affect plants and animals.
out while the autumn might logically be
supposed to be'the most melancholy season
1t Is shown by the record that there are
more cases of melancholia that reach their
climax IN the spring than at any other
season. ho 81,
theory that the most suicides are in the
early morning, and the spring may be
considered the morning Of the year The
oody has probably run down in all its
functions during the winter, and there is
the same tendency to reaction during the
spring weeks that there is with an indi-
vidual who has just arisen after sleeping
all night.
Statistics of suicide show. as stated that
the large majority of cases occur early in
the morning. Most instances are either inst
before or just after breakfast That accords
with the generally accepted belief that
the lowest period is probably after dawn
ana just before breakfast A person who
eats an early dinner and no supper will be
at the low ebb of vitality about daylight
ana the bodily furnace will not get stocked
up for the day before breakfast On the
other hand, morning newspaper and theatri-
cal people and those W hose business habitu-
ally keeps them UP late and who eat about
my uiiish' uo Hot run down., so to speak,
TIL later in the morning. 1t can be noted
that suicides in that class are usually abou,
breakfast time, but the breakfast time is
more nearly toward noon.
"Suggestion" in Suicide.
The question of Suggestion" In suicide
probably has almost as much to- do with
crime in Washington just now as has
the season. There is. of course, no such
thing as suicide bug In the air or an
epidemic Of that sort of violence but I'M
questionably the mere fact that murder and
suicide stories are described at length often
pushes some wavering intellect over the
edse. Personal contact is just as effective
as newspaper reading. If not more so, as is
instanced by the historic outbreak of the
dancing madness in medieval Europe and
the spread of the sect of the Flagalentes
VINO went about from place to place scourg-
Ing themselves and picking up converts
wherever they went. The same thing is re-
corded In ancient history. There was an
epidemic Of suicide among the Athenian
women and 1t was stopped only by threaten
ing to expose the body of the next victim,
nude, In the street.
Record of Cases.
Considering the record Of later cases, at
tention is directed to the instance Of
femoral artery suicide chronicled by Ham
mond in his writings on suggestion and
Ldu never Deen q recorded
case of suicide by cutting the femoral
artery till about twelve or fourteen years
ago, when in New York a man took that
method of "cashing in" The papers nat
urally described 1t at length as a most un-
common case. and there were three similar
cases In the course Of the next fort
night.
The same writer refers to the case of a
New York physician who was summoned to
attend a man who had cut his throat and
done, as most amateurs in suicide do, a
most inartistic job by Sitting his throat
almost from car to ear and missing the
essential artery. The physician said jok-
ingly to his assistant that nobody but a
tyro would have done such piece Of
work.
Now, when you come to commit sui
eide. just make a small nick here he
added, indicating the little triangle under
the point of the jaw, land you will get
much quicker action and leave a good deal
better-looking corpse"
The assistant was apparently sane
healthy young man, with no thought in the
world of suicide, but in the course of q
week he committed suicide by cutting his
throat just as had been suggested.
Thus the epidemic of crime Is accounted
for in Washington. both on the ground of
the season and of suggestion. Possibly the
wave has weeded out all susceptible sub
iepfs hut DOsSihly there arc otharS