THE DEMON OF GREED. 361 



ever, as the following table, compiled from the .Reports 

 of the Registrar-General, will show: 



DEATHS BY SUICIDE 

 YEARS. PER MILLION LIVING. 



1866-70, 66.4 



1871-75, 66.0 



187680, 73.6 



1881-85 73.8 



1886-90, . . 79.4 



1891-95, 88.6 



Dr. S. A. K. Strahan, in his work on " Suicide and In- 

 sanity," states that: " Within certain limits the rate of 

 suicide ebbs and flows with the prosperity of a nation/ 7 

 and he says that it has been proved by several Continental 

 writers that the death-rate from suicide " rises and falls 

 with the price of bread." The first statement is un- 

 doubtedly true, the latter quite untrue. During the 

 whole period included in the above table the price of 

 wheat was falling from 50s. 9d. in 1859-61 to 32s. lOd. 

 in 1889-91. The price of bread is of no importance 

 when the conditions of life are such that thousands of 

 people have not the means of buying any food at all. 

 Insanity and suicide are both largely due to want, or the 

 dread of want, as the weekly records of coroners' in- 

 quests and the police courts plainly show. 



Yet another indication of the deterioration of the 

 people, owing to the unhealthy and unnatural conditions 

 under which millions of them are compelled to live, is 

 afforded by the continuous increase for the last thirty- 

 five years of premature births, and of congenital defects 

 in those who survive. The following table showing 

 the proportion to 1000 births, is from the Fifty-eighth 

 Annual Report of the Registrar-General, p. xviii. : 



