CORRESP ONDENCE. 



553 



AGE AND SUICIDE. 



Editor Papular Science Monthly : 



SIR : In Mr. Robert N. Reeves's interest- 

 ing paper, Suicide and the Environment, 

 Popular Science Monthly for June, 1897, 

 there are several erroneous conclusions, 

 which are, in my opinion, the direct result 

 of false or incomplete statistics. Not long 

 ago (in 1894) I had occasion to gather data 

 from every civilized country in the world 

 while preparing an article on suicide for the 

 New York Medical Record; and, since Mr. 

 Reeves expressly states that his conclusions 

 are based on statistics (he does not introduce 

 them, however, in his paper), I am forced to 

 conclude that his data are false, for it is 

 not probable nay, it is impossible that the 

 gentlemen (the majority of them officials 

 and in charge of mortuary statistics), both 

 in the United States and abroad, from whom 

 I, personally and through correspondence, 

 derived my information in regard to the sta- 

 tistics of suicide, could have unanimously 

 erred. 



It is not my purpose to discuss all of the 

 propositions in which I differ from Mr. 

 Reeves; I will content myself with one. 

 And you will please pardon me if, instead of 

 introducing my tables in this letter, I refer 

 you to them as they are to be found pub- 

 lished in the New York Medical Record of 

 August 17, 1895. 



Mr. Reeves says, " The theory that we 

 hold more strongly to life as we approach its 

 natural conclusion is contradicted by statis- 

 tics, which show that the last half of life 

 exhibits a great increase in the rate of sui- 

 cide." The conclusion here advanced is, 

 according to my observations, wholly incor- 

 rect. According to Morselli, Quetelet, Mayr, 

 and Wagner, the tendency to suicide is great- 

 est at maturity, and decreases, after maturity, 

 with increasing age. Of course, there is a 

 great disparity between the number of the 

 middle-aged and that of the aged ; yet, when 

 the proportion is properly arranged and the 

 correct average found, it will be observed that 

 the above conclusion holds good throughout 

 the civilized world. In a list of a thousand 

 suicides (I have forty-seven similar lists, 

 gathered from all parts of the world, in 

 which the groups of suicides range in num- 

 ber from two hundred to five thousand, and 

 the periods of time embraced from five to 

 twenty years) occurring in oue locality dur- 

 ing a period of nearly ten years, the greatest 

 number is between the ages of thirty and 

 forty years; alter forty there is a marked 

 decrease. I think that Morselli's average of 

 greatest frequency for the entire world would 



be slightly above mine (forty-two years), 

 probably forty-five years. This is about what 

 I make it from his tables. According to my 

 tables, there is an increase in the tendency 

 to suicide from fourteen years up to and 

 slightly beyond forty years, and then a cor- 

 responding decrease in this tendency as in- 

 dividuals grow older. JAMES WEIR, JR. 

 OWENSBOKO, KY., June 5, 1897. 



EARLY PRODUCTION OF ALCOHOL. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



SIR : Prof. Charles E. Pellew's articles on 

 The History of Alcohol in your issues of 

 June and July are very interesting and at- 

 tract by the amusing illustrations. 



Allow me to point out that the figures of 

 alembics ascribed to an edition of the writ- 

 ings of Geber, the Arabian physician of the 

 eighth century, are from the spurious works 

 of this author. Berthelot has shown that 

 the treatises ascribed to Geber, which were 

 published in Latin, French, and German in 

 the sixteenth century, are fraudulent, and 

 that the genuine writings of the Arabian 

 contain far less chemical knowledge than is 

 usually attributed to him. Prof. Pellew is 

 right in stating that the distillation of wine 

 is first mentioned by Albucasis, a Spanish 

 physician, who died in 1107. He might have 

 added that the first definite recipe for pre- 

 paring alcohol occurs in the Book of Fires, 

 by Marcus Graecus, written in the thirteenth 

 century ; in this the volatile liquid is called 

 aqua ardens. Very truly yours, 



H. CARRINGTON BOLTON. 



UNIVERSITY CLUB, NEW YORK, 

 July 4, 1897. 



A CORRECTION. 



Editor Popular Science Monthly : 



SIR : I wish to call your attention to a 

 paragraph under the head of a Biographical 

 Sketch of William Williams Mather, pub- 

 lished in your journal of August, 1896, on 

 page 553, in which a citation is made from 

 an article by Charles Whittlesey upon the 

 personality of the first geologic survey of 

 Ohio. This article I have never seen,* but 

 the statement in regard to my association 

 with Prof. Mather is not warranted by the 

 facts. 



In the spring of 1838 I went to Chilli- 

 cothe, and entered in the land office seven- 

 teen thousand five hundred acres of coal and 

 iron lands in Jackson and Lawrence Coun- 

 ties. These lands were purchased for some 



