SUICIDE IN LARGE CITIES. 93 



of New York, many radical defects exist, and ventilation, light, and 

 drainage, are defective in the extreme. Diseases of the nervous sys- 

 tem, principally of the trophic character, exist to a great extent, as 

 results of imperfect lighting and ventilating. 



In the five years preceding 1872 the deaths from nervous diseases 

 in New York averaged 3,155.8, and for the years 18*71 and 1872 were 

 over 6,000, an unusually large proportion, the number of deaths from 

 all causes being 59,623. The vices attending the colonization of the 

 working-class (a great many do not work) are contagious, the moral 

 contact of the vicious with the pure is certain to occur, the ruin of 

 young girls, and depression of tone, are powerful inducers of suicide. 



The American people partake of the characteristics of their trans- 

 atlantic brethren. They are impulsive, energetic, enterprising, emo- 

 tional, liable to excessive mental depression or exaltation. We have 

 all the different bloods of Europe in our veins. We lead, however, 

 an individual life of our own, a life as original and striking as other 

 startling peculiarities of our country. We live too fast ; we make 

 and lose fortunes in a day ; we acquire professioual educations in a 

 few years which take ordinary individuals as many more to get the 

 rudiments of in Europe. It is any thing but festina le7ite here. The 

 seeds of every national soil are sown, and take root before we can 

 employ measures to suppress them. Every thing that can excite the 

 emotions, make tense the mental faculties, and suddenly relax them, 

 is among us. Speculations and stupendous schemes, which in older 

 countries take several heads instead of one to mature, crush down the 

 nervous system of men who work themselves to death, hardly taking 

 time to eat, meanwhile living upon stimulants to enable them to stand 

 the strain. 



There is another class I allude to the poor. The newspaper ac- 

 counts of the miserable suicide in his upper attic tell this story every 

 day. These subjects are chiefly foreigners, deluded to this country 

 by unfounded expectations of fortunes to be made. 



Only a few days ago I read in one of the daily papers that it was 

 not an uncommon occurrence for immigrants to ask of the officials at 

 Castle Garden, in perfect good faith, positions as insurance officers, 

 bank officers, and other unattainable positions. 



Many thousand Italians were sent here by rascally agents in their 

 own country several years ago. They were promised work by these 

 individuals, but on their arrival found none. They reached New York 

 in mid-winter, and many of them found their way into the workshops 

 and almshouses. Misery and suffering were prevalent. Among im- 

 migrants, particularly the Germans, there is a great disposition to 

 suicide, and physical suffering doubtless awakens any hereditary ten- 

 dency that may lie dormant. A great percentage remain at the sea- 

 port, looking for work. New York is particularly affected in this way. 

 Immigrants come here, probably in most instances from occupations 



