The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-11-15
DOMAIN OF TEMPERANCE.
DRINK AND SUICIDE.

1t would appear that in France the
number of suicides is in direct pro-
portion to the consumption of alcohol.
In the language of DR.. Victor Betault,
1T (alcohoI pushes man to suicide,
theft, homicide, and every crime
crimes which increase in proportion
to it's consumption And the same
may be said of every country. The
reason, though SO little understand, is
this: There is nothing that SO lowers
the vital powers of man and renders
him so helpless prey to disease of
mind and body as intoxicating drink
taken to excess. 1t delivers up the
Wretched victim to melancholy, de-
spondency and, oftentimes, despair.
This is especially the case with per-
sons of nervous temperament. A per-
son of extremely nervous nature may,
while excited by alcohol, be as un-
goVernable as the most violently in
sane.
The depression of mind, "lowness
of spirits" to which nervous people
are SO liable after periods of nervous
excitement, is greatly increased,
though in. their appalling ignorance
they think by this action to relieve
1t, by the narcotic elements of alco-
mol, which paralyze the brain and
nervous centers. The action of the
brain is disturbed, the mind is cloud
ed and the nerves unstrung. While
In this depressed mental condition
/ np0nln nftnn
the fortunes of mind to which they
are subject.
Inose OF nervous temperament
should, at the peril of their lives.
avoid all stimulants and narcotics.
In Berlin, during the month of jan
uary, 1910, there were seventy-fye
suicides-ffty-three men, twelve
women, seven girls between sixteen
and eighteen and three children under
ten years-and all, nearly all, were at
tributable to drink. DR.. Hitler. of
Kiel, declares that of three hundred
suicides upon within he performed
post-mortem examinations, nearly half
the number were persons addicted to
drink. And he stated that his esti-
mate is rather below than above the
average. In the year 1900 DIR. w. C.
Sullivan already quoted, showed the
connection between the increase of
suicide or attempts at suicide and
drink. He tells us that suicide re-
suIt1ng from alcohol is more impulsive
and occurs at an earlier age than sui
eide from other causes. He declares
that in 220 attempts at suicide the
proportion due to drink was seventy
eight per cent; and that in a great
number cases of found drowned"
the victims are what are called
chronic alcoholists," who have either
destroyed themselves in a fit of mel
ancholia, or have lost their lives by
accident resulting from the stupefy-
ing effect of alcohol
In short the most casual observer
cannot fail to be struck by the alarm
ing increase of crime even in this
country, in the way of suicides, Grim
inal assaults, and secret crimes too
wicked to mention, most of which, if
not all, may be traced to the effects
of indulging in drink. Everywhere
you turn, especially in town and
cities, you meet the withered hand of
beggary, as well as the pallid lips of
blighted lives; where crimes the most
horrible of every kind, misery and
want, are to be found in rank pro-
fusion; and our brightest boys and
manifest men are damned forever, and
womanhood degraded and girls de-
bauched by the blighting curse of in
temperance.