THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 



475 



There can be no doubt that in Germany the phenomenon culminates 

 in frequency for all Europe, and that it tends to disappear in almost 

 direct proportion to the attenuation of the Teutonic racial character- 

 istics elsewhere. 



Consider for a moment our map on this page, showing the rela- 

 tive frequency of suicide, with the one on page 472, which we have 

 already described as illustrating the ethnic composition of France. 

 The parallel between the two is almost exact in every detail. There 



Intensity °f Suicide 



FRANCE 



187-2-6 



After MORSELLl 'dz, 



are again our three areas of Alpine racial occupation — Savoy, Au- 

 vergne, and Brittany — in which suicide falls annually below seventy- 

 five per million inhabitants. There, again, is the Rhone Valley, and 

 the broad, diagonal strip from Paris to Bordeaux, characterized alike 

 by strong infusion of Teutonic traits and relative frequency of the 

 same social phenomenon. The great Seine basin is sharply dif- 

 ferentiated from the highlands along the eastern frontier; and even 

 the Mediterranean coast strip, distinct from the Alpine and Au- 

 vergnat highlands, is indicated. Inspection of these maps betrays 

 at once either a relation of cause and effect or else an extraordinary 

 coincidence. 



Consideration of the distribution of suicide in England lends 



