Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1908-01-21
SUICIDE STATISTICS.
ChUdless Marriages cause-R7te
High Among Gsrmanic
Nations.

Among 100000 suicides Of al
classes. it has been found that a05
married men with children destroyed
their lives: 47O married men with
out children; $50 widowers with, and
1904 widowers without children.
With respect to the women, As mar
ried women with. and 15S without,
children committed suicide, while 1o4
widows with, and 23S without on
spring, completed the list.
On the face of things. says the II
ustrated London News, it would ap-
pear that in childless marriages the
number of men suicides is doubled and
in women trehled. Leaving the case
OF actual insane persons out of count,
it would also appear that in males
suicide is more frequent than in fe-
males.
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-6ftb part by loss
of fortune, one forty-tbird 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 Germanie races, Saxony having the
largest suicide rate of any country.
In Norway the rate was very large for
time, it's decrease being attributed
to the greater restrictions now laid
on the liquor traffic.
The Celtic races have a 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 the 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 per-
iods have been found to fall in May
June and July. believe indeed June
is found to show marked predomi-
nance as suicide month.
One reason for such pre-eminence in
the warm season of the year is set
down as represented by the onset of
hot weather affecting the system and
tending to disturb the mental equilib-
rum of the subjects. In 1888 cases
noted in Paris the prevailing hours
of self-destruction were from 6 a. M.
to noon and from 2 to s p. m.
Perhaps one of the most curious
phases of this study is revealed in the
| fact already alluded to-namely. that
different countries appear to show
preferences for different means OF
committing 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 in
Switzerland. Cut throat is common in
England and Ireland; it does not seem
to constitute anywhere else a frequent
mode of ending life.
Poisoning is a specially Anglo-Sax
on method of suicide, We are told;
while suffocation by the fumes of car
bonic acid gas, inhaled in a closed
room. is very typical OF suicide in
| France.