MARRIAGE AND INSANITY. 101 



throat while in a warm bath. No cause could be 

 assigned for the act. He had two sons and a daughter 

 all under age at the time of his death. The family 

 separated, the daughter marrying. On arriving at the 

 age of thirty-five the eldest son cut his throat while in 

 a warm bath, but was rescued ere life was extinct. 

 At about the same age the second son succeeded in 

 killing himself in the same way. The daughter in .her 

 thirty-fourth year was found dead in a bath-tub with 

 her throat cut. Her son at the age of twenty-seven 

 attempted to kill himself by cutting his throat while 

 in a bath at his hotel in Paris, but did not succeed. 

 Subsequently at the age of thirty he made a similar 

 unsuccessful attempt, but was again saved. A year 

 afterwards he was found in his bath by his servant with 

 his throat cut from ear to ear." 



Voltaire records and comments upon a like case in 

 these words : "I have almost with my own eyes seen 

 a suicide whose case deserves the attention of physi- 

 cians. A man of serious turn of mind, of mature 

 age, and of irreproachable conduct, free from strong 

 passions, and above want, killed himself on the I7th 

 October 1769, and left a written explanation of his 

 act, addressed to the council of the city in which he 

 was born. This it was thought best not to publish, for 

 fear of encouraging others to quit a life of which so 

 much evil is spoken. In all this there was nothing 

 astonishing such cases are met with every day; but 

 the sequel is more remarkable. His father and his 

 brother had each committed suicide at the same age as 



