The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1874-12-05 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE INFLUENCE OF AGE UPON SUICIDE. _ _  _ The influence of age upon suicide is a study of more than speculative interest, on account of its practical bearings, and of the ease and precision with which it can be demonstrated. By age is meant the critical periods of life. These periods having many components heckles the mere fact of years, it is apparent that what we have to examine is a many-sided phenomenon, including together with it the advance in life, the workings of physiological, mental, and sociological causes. It has been lately examined by Dr. O'Dea, and it appears that the maximum of suicides for both sexes occurs between the ages of twenty-live and fift) -five. Previously to the twenty-fifth year there is a sudden increase from two suicides between the ages of five and ten, to one hundred and thirty-six between twenty and twenty-five. After fifty-five the tendency to , suicide declines, but more gradually than it rose, except at sixty-five, where the number inereaseis from eightyone to eighty-three, a rise so slight, however, as to be little worth considering. There are, therefore, three suicidal periods in life; those of organic and .mental growth, of organic and mental completion, and of organic and mental decline. In the first the chart shows 80; in the second, 942; and in the third, 311. Comparing the periods in round numbers, it may be said that they are as one for childhood and adolescence to twelve for adult life, and to fogs for the years of bodily and mental decay. The influence of sex and its attendant circumstances upon suicides at the different periods of life is shown upon the charts. Withfemalea, as among males, there is a sudden and abrupt rise until the twenty-fifth year is reached. This rice Is continued to the thirty-fifth year, at which the maximum of suicides occurs among women. The period from the twenty-fifth to the thirty-fifth year corresponds to that of the greatest pressure from domestic troubles and responsibilities, and also with the greatest activity of the maternal functions. The line thence descends abruptly to the forty-fifth year, whence it rises to the fiftieth, the critical period of mature female life, and then goes down, down, until it reaches the level from which it started. There are, therefore, two culminating points, and whilst the line on the male chart is undulating and sustained, that on the female chart is vertical and abrupt. The lower of the male culminating points is the higher of the female, and contrariwise, the lower of the female is the higher of the male. These charts do not show the relative frequency of suicides among the two sexes. The ratio of suicides to population in the United States is (for the period covered by the last decennial census) twenty-five to 100,000 among males, and three to 100,000 among females. The only periods at which suicides are nearly equal for but sexes is from fifteen to twenty years, during which the number of boy-suicides was thirty-four, of girl-suicides thirty-two. After this the number of suicides among males is much greater than among females.—British Medical Journal.