State of Instruction. 



355 



found that chance has no more operation in this case than in the distribu- 

 tion of crimes, or the other general facts of Statistics. The choice is in- 

 fluenced by age, sex, social condition, and a multitude of other circum- 

 stances very diflicult to distinguish, but very traceable in the constancy of 

 their results.* 



On the average of suicides occurring at any given period of life, it is 

 found that choice is made of one mode of destruction in a very marked 

 degree of preference to others. Thus, in youth, says M. G. a man hangs 

 himself; in maturer age recourse is had to a deadly weapon ; and as his 

 vigour declines, the first means again come into favour, and it is generally 

 by suspension that an old man puts an end to life. These results are il- 

 lustrated by the table at footjt and the more numerous, says M. Guerry, 

 are our observations on this subject, the greater we shall find the constancy 

 of the proportions given. , 



Instruction. 



Having thus presented more or less in detail the facts and inferences 

 which M. G. furnishes on the other subjects comprised in the department 

 of " Moral Statistics," we come now, and in the last place, to a review of 

 the Statistics of Instruction in France. The basis on which our author's 

 calculations are founded requires specific notice. In 1823 public attention 

 in France was directed by the illustrious geographer M. Malte Brun, to 

 the remarkable difference in respect to instruction, between different parts 

 of the kingdom, whence arose the distinction of " Ijo France obscure,'' 

 and " La France eclairee.' AVe are indebted, however, for the first sta- 

 tistical documents on this subject, to the learned Venetian geograplier 

 M. Balbi, pubhshcd in his work, " Statistique du Royaume de Portugal et 

 d'Algarve." The only basis of calculation then possessed, or which has 

 been used by later iuquirers, (except M. Guerry) was the number of pu- 

 pils of the male sex admitted into tiie public schools. But M. G. thinks 



• " When we pass from individuals to masses, we find even in those actions which 

 seem most fortuitous, a regularity of production, an order of succession, that cari 

 only arise from fixity of cause." — For. Quar. Rev. xvi. 213. 



•f- No. 9. Suicides. 



