Arizona republican., 1914-05-17
SUICIDE MANIA
 IN GEARS ARMY
Number of Cases of Self Destruction Increas q One Hundred Fifty Per Cent. ill Seven Years - Nearly All Alcoholism
Special to The Republican,

Special to The Republican,
 ST PETERSBURG, May 16-The "Razvedchik, the semi official organ of the Russian army, published some startling figures about the extent of the suicide mania among Russian troops, quoting d report recently presented to d Moscow learned Soci ety by wellknown military sur geon, Dr. ProZoroff. It appears that in 1905 no fewer than IA cases of suicide occurred in the Russian army. In the following year the number rose to 192. Since then it steadily kept on growing. being 210 in 1907. PAP in 1908, 26S in 1909 26s in 1910, 347 in 1911, and 4O5 in 1912. Within seven years, therefore the number of suicides increased about 150 per cent
 The figures for 1913 have not yet been published but, according to Dr. Prozoroff, already the first eight months of the year showed ST cases of suicide and 1S9 cases of attempts at suicide. That this mania is not confined to common soldiers is shown by the fact that out of the 377 cases of suicide just mentioned 72 occurred among officers
 This is certainly a serious state ot affairs. As the Russian papers point out the conditions in the Ger man army are also grave enough. It has recently been calculated that since 1870 the total number of sui cides in the German army has aomunted to 10,439 which makes about 240 cases per annum. In ad- dition, there yearly occur, on an av- craze, in the German army from 130 to 150 attempts at suicide. New eItheless. the figures of the Russian army are considerably higher, and what is more important still, they exhibit an unmistakable tendency to rise, whereas the German figures are steadily declining.
 It is significant that the greater part of the suicides in the Russian | army is officially connected with in- | sanity and alcoholism, and then fol- low as the causa causans, in the case of the common soldiers, 'un- pleasantneSs in the service" and 1 longing for home, and in the case of officers, pecuniary difficulties and romantic sorrows. Of course, one cannot tell to what causes insanity and drink themselves were due in
 each case, but here again the fact l that most of the suicides occur iI
 the spring, when nature is apt to
 revolt against the hard conditions oi 1 life, is not without significance. It is pointed out that large DOT ton of the troops are stationed 1T desolate places in Central Asia or Siberia, which is bound to have ar effect on the psyche of the Russian l soldier. Only to slighter degres 1 operates in the same direction the pretty general rule to draft the re- | cruts for service in other localities
 than those in which they are raised | SC that a soldier from Little Russia often finds himself condemned tC live three years amidst strange sur roundings in Poland, whose language
 even is unknown to him. and sol
 dier from Poland. has to pass tn, most impressionable years of his If, in the Caucasus or the wild solitude T of the Perm forests.
 Egain, it is considered thai tn rToiongation of tfe term of mi 'tarN "c, vice from th 'ce .o three anG : half years, as recently decreed. i.
 not likely to afford relief to the de
 pressed spirits of those who are in
 clined to fret after their homes
 Altogether. it is vast problem
 which the grim statistics brought t'
 light by Dr. Prozoroff have raised
 and the "Razyedchik' justly claim!
 for it the closest attention of tn, military authorities.