Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1907-11-26
CAUSES OF SUICIDE
STATISTICS COLLECTED FROM
MANY SOURCES.
Numerous Cases Attributable to Child
less Marriages-Rate High Among
Germanic Nations-Means of
SeIf-Destruction.

Among 100000 suicides of all
classes, it has been found that 205
married men with children destroyed
their lives; 40 married men without
children SIG widowers with, and 1.OO4
widowers without children.
With respect to the women, As mar
ried women with, and 1853 without,
children committed suicide, while 104
widows with, and 23S without of
spring, completed the list.
On the face of things it would APP
pear that in childless marriages the
number of men suicides is doubled
and in women trebled. Leaving the
case of actual insane persons out of
count. it would also appear that In
in females.
Equally interesting is that phase OF
the subject which deals with the
causes. One table dealing with 6.7S2
cases shows one-seventh caused by
misery, one twenty-first part by loss
of fortune, one forty-third by gamb-
ling, one nineteenth by love affairs,
one-ninth by domestic troubles, one
sixty-sixth by fanaticism, and by foil
ed ambition and remorse one-seventh
and one twenty-seventh respectively.
The geography of suicide is also OF
high interest Westcott says the high
est proportion in Europe is shown by
the Germanic races, Saxony having
"the largest rate of any country" In
Norway the rate was very large for a
time, its decrease being attributed to
the greater restrictions now laid on
the liquor traffic.
The Celtic races have low rate,
and this Is evinced by the figures for
ireland and Wales. Mountainous re-
gions are said to show lower rate
than lowlands. In the highlands of
Scotland and Wales, and in the high
areas of Switzerland, suicide is rare.
Times and seasons also operate ap-
parently, to influence tie act of self
destruction. Roughly speaking, the
curve line of suicide, calculated
through the year, rises from January
to July, and decreases for the second
half of the year. The maximum peri
DDS have been found to fall in May,
June and July. l believe, indeed, June
is found to show marked predomi-
nance as a suicide month.
One reason for such prominence in
the warm season of the year is set
down as represented by the onset OF
hot weather affecting the system and
+ood;or ~ 5ietyrh ,oonto1 aorilihrillm
of the subjects. In 1898 cases noted
in Paris the prevailing hours of self
destruction were from six a. m. to
noon and from two to three p. m.
Perhaps one of the most curious
phases of this study is revealed in the
fact already alluded to--namely, that
different countries to show prefer
ences for different means of commit
ting suicide from other lands. The
most common European method is by
means of hanging, but in Italy this
mode of self-destruction is rare.
Drowning comes next in order, and
twice as many women as men perish
in this way each year in Europe
Shooting is frequent in Italy and
Switzerland. Cut throat is common In
England and Ireland; it does not seem
to constitute anywhere else frequent
mode of ending life.
Poisoning is specially Anglo-Saxon
method of suicide, we are told; willis
suffocation by the fumes of carbonic
acid gas, inhaled in a closed room, is
very typical of suicide in France.