88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



looming in the distance a mighty law we cannot yet tell what, that 

 will reach us, we cannot yet say when. It will involve facts hitherto 

 inexplicable, facts that ai'e scarcely received as such because they ap- 

 pear opposed to our present knowledge of their causes. It is not pos- 

 sible perhaps to hasten the arrival of this generalization beyond a cer- 

 tain point ; but we ought not to forget that we can hasten it, and that 

 it is our duty to do so. It depends much on ourselves, our resolution, 

 our earnestness ; on the scientific policy we adopt, as well as on the 

 power we may have to devote ourselves to special investigations, 

 whether such an advent shall be realized in our day and generation, 

 or whether it shall be indefinitely postponed. If governments would 

 understand the ultimate material advantages of every step forward in 

 science, however inapplicable each may appear for the moment to the 

 wants or pleasures of ordinary life, they would find reasons patent to 

 the meanest capacities for bringing the wealth of mind, now lost on 

 the drudgery of common labors, to bear on the search for those won- 

 drous laws which govern every movement, not only of the mighty 

 masses of our system, but of every atom distributed througliout 

 space. Nature. 



---- 



SUICIDE IN LAEGE CITIES. 



Bt ALLAN MoLANE HAMILTON, M. D. 



THE increased importance attached to the study of the relations 

 of mind and body (the impetus to siich study we have to thank 

 Mr. Maudsley for) enables us to pursue our examination of certain 

 psychical states to greater advantage than in former years. The in- 

 vestigation of suicide is now made much more clear as regards both 

 the motive, behavior, and characteristics of the individual who takes 

 his own life, and by the antecedents of his previous health, and other 

 physical influences. 



The object of this paper is to discuss the prevalence of this crime 

 in large cities, its causes both moral and physical, and certain sanitary 

 conditions wliich afiect them. My observations have been made for 

 the most part in New York, the largest city of the continent, and, as 

 the most cosmopolitan, it offers an interesting field for researcli. I 

 have made comparisons between the statistics of London and Paris, 

 and, although it is impossible to obtain the most recent records of 

 these two cities, I think a few hints may be gained that will be oF 

 value in preventing its increase. Statistics do not give us definite in- 

 formation upon tlie questions of heredity, cerebral injuries, neuroses, 

 or other valuable aid in drawing conclusions, so tliat many important 

 links are left out of the chain. 



In all large cities the number of suicides is governed, to a great 



