702 



REVIEW Ol REVIEWS. 



September 1, 1913. 



one end of the box an opening with a sliding 

 trap door should be made for removing the 

 contents of the trap ; tack two strips 18 x 1^ 

 X 1-f inches at the end of the box on the 

 bottom, so that when the box is placed upon 

 a floor or level surface, the cone-covered 

 openings in the bottom of the box will be 

 about li inches from the surface on which 

 tlie box is resting. 



You now have one of the very best fly- 

 traps that can be made. Place the trap just 

 outside the back door or near the window 

 or door of the house where the flies congre- 

 gate in largest numbers. Place it close to 

 where the slops are kept. Put sugar, 

 molasses, clabber, or, best, wben available, 

 fish heaxis for bait just l)pneath the bases 

 of the cones. Tlie flies in leaving the bait 

 will fly upward towards the light into the 

 cones and crawl through tlie small opening 

 into the trap. 



One of the most common diseases 

 found to be caused by these insects 



which literally " live, move, and have 

 their being in filth," is typhoid. The 

 health officer of Jacksonville, Florida, 

 has succeeded in entirely stamping out 

 this disease by an effective crusade 

 against the fly. Fortunately — unlike 

 the mosquito which carries the malaria 

 germ — flies never travel far from their 

 birthplace, consequently a town or dis- 

 trict can exterminate its flies, even if an 

 adjacent one makes no attempt so to do. 

 Dr. Pease writes of what he knows. 

 Flies are not more numerous in Aus- 

 tralia than they are in America, and 

 there they will ere long stamp the insect 

 out. Surely we ought not to l^e behind- 

 hand in grappling with what is undoubt- 

 edly a real danger. 



IS SUICIDE A "NATURAL" DEATH? 



The suicide problem has been a very 

 pressing one in Russia for the last few 

 years. Mr. V. Yolsky, writing in Sovre- 

 menny Mir (St. Petersburg), suggests an 

 original solution of the problem, and 

 that is, to regard suicide as a natural 

 death. He says : — 



It is about time to recognise that suicide 

 it 'not infrequently one of the forms of 

 natural death. When a porson suffering 

 from some incurable mental malady, under 

 the pressure of severe melancholia, tJirows 

 himself out of a window on the third or 

 fourth story, is that not a natural death for 

 Jiim? Before his heart ceased to beat he al- 

 ready was a real coirpse. He was no longer 

 a member of the human family, and the 

 greater or lesser rapidity of decomposition of 

 that corpse, of that soulless human frame, 

 does nob change one or other form of de- 

 composition into unnatural. There are cases 

 when a person has spent during his lifetime 

 all his moral and physical energies, when 

 ho has nothing to live with, and he. not 

 waiting for the somewhat delayed " natural " 

 death, hurries to meet it. . " . . The arti- 

 ficially produce<l death is, in our opinion, 

 a natural way out, nay, under given cir- 

 cumstances, even a natural death. Lastly, 

 if our society regards as natural the death 

 ol a workingman who perishes, sometimes 

 within two months, in a factory of lead face- 

 powder, what are the reasons for not re- 

 garding^ as natural tlie deatli of a man who 

 is put in surroundings in which no man can 

 live? 



The writer thinks that suicide ought 

 to be looked upon as one of the diseases 

 which cause death. Here is his argu- 

 ment : — 



In the mortality statistics of all nations, 

 at all times, .vou will invariably find a column 

 of figures summarising the number of deaths 

 from suicide. ... In itself it is nothing 

 alarming. Tt is neci\ssary to reconcile one's 

 self to its existence, as to the exist^Mice of 

 its neighl)Ouring c<ilumns; but it is impos- 

 sible not to dwell on it when it a.ssumes un- 

 due proportions, when there are too many 

 suicides. ... In regard to other disoast's 

 a correct view has long been establishe<l. It 

 is clear to almost evervbody that disease is 

 the result of weakness of the organism on 

 the one hand, and bad conditions in wliich 

 it is put on the other. And nn matter how 

 different the particulars of this or that case 

 may be, the general causes of all diseases 

 are perfectl,v clear. The ver.v names of some 

 diseases, for instance, Russian cholera, or 

 Russian typhoid, emphasise the most charac- 

 teristic . . . trait of tho.se diseases, at 

 once present a picture of the social condi- 

 tions whicli generate and feed those 

 di.seases. 



But a certain element of voluntariness of 

 such death does not permit the people to 

 accept the same view of suicide. It is true, 

 statistics have long shown the regular re- 

 currence or not less regular increase and de- 

 crease in the number of suicide^, that even 

 the suicides are not as " free" as it seems. 

 But the apparent voluntariness of each in- 

 dividual suicide hinders the great public 

 from understanding and recognising the find- 

 ings of science. 



Stating that he does not think that 

 the commonly accepted causes of sui- 

 cide, such as " increase of necessities," 

 "disappointment in life," "alcoholism," 



age,' 



" nervousness of the age." " intense 



