222 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



But much more correct than this comprehensive comparison is that 

 between the proselytes of different religions in the same country, be- 

 cause then the political and social conditions do not vary, and the due 

 homogeneity of comparative data remains the same. Statistics, how- 

 ever, are liable to another error ; in most cases the religion of the 

 suicide is not registered, and the column of the unknown always pre- 

 dominates over the others. It is sufficient to cite the Prussian statis- 

 tics of the two years 1871-'72, in which, out of 5,673 registered suicides, 

 quite 3,703 (65 per cent.) can give no answer to the question of the 

 religion professed by the suicides. Nevertheless, we have been able 

 to ascertain the frequency of suicide among individuals of different 

 religions in thirty-seven countries, as our tables show. 



In these thirty-seven comparisons of different countries and peri- 

 ods, hardly four show the Catholics superior in numbers of suicides 

 to Protestants, Jews, and Greeks (Galicia, Bucko wina, Military Fron- 

 tiers, and Transylvania), and one only, also with doubts as to its 

 being an error, gives the higher number to the Jews (? Lower Aus- 

 tria) ; but in the remainder the larger proportions are always offered 

 by the Protestant religion, whether Lutheran or Reformed. The 

 most frequent order in which the various religions follow each other 

 is this : Protestants, Catholics, and Jeics / and next in order of fre- 

 quency come Protestants, Jews, and Catholics. Looking next at the 

 position held by the Oriental Christians, it will be found that once 

 only, and then it was among the Greek Catholics or Uniates, they 

 gave the largest proportion to suicide (Military Frontiers) ; as a rule, 

 their proportion is always lower than that of the Protestants, often 

 also than that of the Catholics of the West. The inferiority in num- 

 bers of the Greeks is most apparent in Transylvania, where the Cath- 

 olics occupy the first place, followed by the Uniates, then by the 

 Lutherans and Calvinists, and lastly, at a long interval, by the United 

 or non-united Greeks. The peculiar position occupied by Jews in 

 relation to Catholics deserves attentive investigation. Jews are in 

 general more subject to mental alienation than either Catholics or 

 Protestants. In Bavaria, for instance, we find one insane in every 908 

 Catholic inhabitants, in every 967 Protestants, and every 514 Jews. 

 In Hanover the reports give respectively one in 527 Catholics, in 641 

 Protestants, and in every 337 Jews. In Wiirtemberg one in every 

 2,006 Catholics, in 2,022 Protestants, and in 1,544 Jews ; and in Den- 

 mark in like manner, while there is one insane person in every 1,750 

 among the Jewish population, there is one in every 2,000 of other re- 

 ligions. In Italy also, since the asylums have been opened to Jews, 

 their contingent has been very considerable (Lambroso, Livi). Is the 

 explanation to be sought in their race, their religion, or their customs ? 

 Dr. Martini (of Leubus) would refer it to their frequent consanguin- 

 eous marriages ; but in truth the supposed evils arising from the con- 

 sanguinity of parents have yet to be proved. To us it seems more 



