Year: 1859

The n. Y. Times, short time since,
commented on the causes which led to
twenty-sevcn known instances of suicide
in the month of August. After noting
the more manifest causes, domestictrouble,
business disappoiniments, ETC., it adds;


Behind the immediate causes which
induce suicide, the thoughtful must dis
cern general reason for the undeniable
growth of selfmurder among us, in the
widespread decay of positive faith and
the drifting of the people away from the
moorings of settled principle. These are
evils only to be met by sounder educa-
ton of youth in the habits Of self-com-
mand as well of self-reliance, in the SIM
pie, old fashioned Christian philosophy
which assures us that all manner of APP
parent evils, even the broils of families,
the wreck of fortunes and the damage Of
reputation, may be shaped Alright if we
will but hold bravely on our course and
persistently stand by the right. The
preacher, the teacher and the parent, each
has his part to perform in preventing su-
icides. al


1t is specially noticeable that of those
forty-seven attempts at suicide which
have marked the last thirty days, the in
strument used in ten cases was poison.
Curiously enough, however, arsenic, the
cheapest, most easily obtained, and surest
of poisons, was not once employed. Opt
um, in some of its forms, was eight times
called into requisition--a fact which of
itself should suffice to quicken our Legis-
lature to the adoption of more stringent
provisions for the prohibition of the sale
of this deadly drug. In our own State
we are especially at the mercy of blum
dering or reckless apothecaries. In poi
sons of all kinds we enjoy a terrible free
trade. We have no law prohibiting the
sale of arsenic, morphine or strychnine,
even to miners, idiots, or insane persons.
A single statute requires that any poison
sold by chemists or grocers shall bear
plain label; but inasmuch as most medi
cines may become poisons by misuse, even
this feeble restriction has become dead
letter. It should be a misdemeanor for
the druggist to sell anything in poisonous
doses without fixing the label of "poison"
upon it, and registering the name of the
party purchasing, the date Of the purchase,
and the alleged purpose for which it is
bought. To minors, poison should never
be sold, except upon the written prescrip-
ton of physician. To prevent the con-
stantly occurring accidents from the use
of arsenic, the Ohio lew makes wise pro-
vision that when sold in quantities of less
than pound, it should be mixed ounce
for ounce with SCOT or indigo. An excel
lent review of this whole subject appears
in late number of the american Medical
MontlHy. The facts and suggestions con-
tanned in this paper ought to startle the
most thoughtless with serious consider
alton Of this grave subject.


We shudder at the story of Lucrezia
Borgia, and read of the Marquise de Brin-
villers, as of some tabled monster of an
tiquit1. But while an actual legislation
in regard to poisors is a perpetual oppor-
tunity offered to the suicide, is is also a
perpetual temptation to the murderer.
The recent annals of crime in the Old
World, as well as in the New, prove, il
proof we're needed, that the temper and
the tendencies of the present age make
this temptation not less terrible than it
was in ancient days. The crafty taking
away of human life is as decidedly on the
increase as the cowardly surrender of the
boon. Our law -givers owe it to the com
munity to put the most effectual checks
they can devise upon these dark proclivi.
| ties.