CATHOLICISM, PROTESTANTISM, AND SUICIDE. 221 



cause no other race is so jealous of its own purity, its own customs, 

 and especially of the faith of its fathers, as the Jewish. In every 

 country where the chosen people has been spread, it has always pre- 

 served the moral Semitic character, while it has sometimes modified 

 its physical characteristics, as when becoming fair where formerly 

 dark-skinned ; the religion of the God of Abraham is the only bond 

 which now unites its scattered members. This strong influence of 

 race obliges one to proceed cautiously in attributing to the Mosaic 

 religion the little tendency of Jews toward suicide. In the most an- 

 cient history of Palestine not more than ten suicides are mentioned, 

 and their greatest number belongs to a less pure Jewish period, when, 

 through the Babylonish captivity and through the false prophets, they 

 lost all trace of the ancient law. Already, among the last Jews who 

 had to struggle against the invading Roman power, suicide bad be- 

 come more frequent (Josephus) ; but, while dispersing themselves 

 among other nations over the face of the earth, the descendants of 

 Abraham have always shown and still show among their moral char- 

 acteristics an habitual resistance to suicide, although the same can not 

 be said with regard to madness. 



The influence of other religions may be studied without being 

 perplexed with the question of race. It is true that the people called 

 Latins have remained faithful to Catholicism, while the reform of 

 religious thought was the exclusive work of the Anglo-Germans ; but 

 it is likewise true that, in countries of mixed religions, statistics have 

 alwavs shown the hurtful or beneficial effect of each. At first sisdit 

 it is indeed perceived that the purely Catholic nations, Italy, Spain, 

 and Portugal, stand on the last step of the scale of suicide, while 

 those exclusively or mostly Protestant take the first grade ; it suffices 

 to cite Saxony, Denmark, Scandinavia, and Prussia. In countries of 

 mixed religions, then, the inclination toward suicide diminishes in 

 direct ratio to the predominance of Catholicism. Looking at the 

 aggregate of statistics collected by us for the most recent years, 

 it is inferred that the frequency of suicide is, in states of Catholic 

 religion, on an average of 58 per million ; in Protestant states, 190 ; 

 in the United or non-united Greek, 40 ; where there is a mixture of 

 Catholic, Protestant, and other sects, 9G per million. Countries of 

 the Greek religion, then, give the smallest proportion ; but here 

 comes in the great influence of Slavism, which would be sufficient 

 to neutralize all others, as we already found was the case with regard 

 to climate and anthropological characteristics. "With our results, 

 those of "Wagner, Oettingen, and Legoyt agree ; this latter author 

 having calculated, on the statistical documents of Bavaria, Prussia, 

 "Wtirtemberg, and Austria, that the tendency to suicide is, among 

 Protestants, 102*7 per million individuals ; among Catholics, 62*3 ; 

 among other Christians (Greeks, United and the Orthodox) 36*2 : 

 and lastly, among the Jews, 48'4 per million. 



