76 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[April 2, 1900. 



SIR JOHN SIBBALD ON SUICIDE. 



By Dr. J. G. McPherson. f.e.s.e., Mathematical 

 Examiner in the University of St. Andrews 



At a recent meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

 Sir John Sibbald, retired Commissioner on Lunacy, 

 gave some very interesting results of his examination 

 of the statistics of suicide in Scotland for many years. 

 And the most startling, though at the same time the 

 most comforting, was his conclusion against the opinions 

 of all who had not carefully investigated the case, as to 

 the increase of suicide. He found that it was not really 

 on the increase. 



He first drew attention to the fact that the statistics 

 of Scotland showed the increased number of suicides 

 during May, June, and July, compared with November, 

 December, and January. This coincides with the result 

 of statisticians in other countries. The winter deciease 

 was not owing to the deterrent of cold water by ch own- 

 ing, but in the other forms of wounding, poisoning, and 

 hanging. 



In regard to the comparative influence of town and 

 countiy life on the occurrence of suicide. Sir John 

 found that suicide was not — as was generally supposed — 

 more frequent in towns. In fact, the annual rate j^er 

 million of population in the eight principal towns of 

 Scotland was somewhat lower than the rate in mainland 

 rural districts. 



He found great — even remarkable — diflferences in the 

 rates foi- different parts of Scotland, the counties all 

 along the east coast having higher rates than those 

 along the west coast. The average rate for the whole 

 of Scotland (from 1877 to 1894) was 55 per million of 

 population. The lowest rates were for the Highland 

 counties lying north-west of a line drawn from the 

 Moray Firth to the Firth of Clyde. The rate for 

 Inverness was as low as 27 ; whereas in Kincardine, on 

 the east coast, the rate was as high as 92. This showed 

 that the Scotch statistics bore out the statement of 

 previous writers — that suicide was far less common 

 among the Celtic ra«e than among the Teutons, being 

 a more dreamy and less determined race, and that in 

 this "espect the Highlanders and other Celtic people 

 were more like women. 



Medical men are of opinion that, although the pro- 

 portion of the male sex who committed suicide was large 

 in comparison with the female sex, women had quite 

 as strong suicidal tendencies as men, if not stronger, 

 but they lacked the courage to put their feelings into 

 effect. Hence, though the tendency may be as strong in 

 the Highlander as in the Teuton or the Roman, he had 

 not the courage of his suicidal conviction. 



Until Sir John gave us the result of his extensive in- 

 vestigation, it was held by most observers that suicide 

 has been increasing to a great and perhaps alarming 

 extent in recent years. The average rate for the vears 

 1865-1869 was 40 in Scotland and 67 in England, 

 whereas the average rate for the years 1890-1894 was up 

 to 54 in Scotland and 86 in England — an increase of 

 35 and 2B per cent, respectively in thirty years. Two 

 factors come in to account for this. The state of public 

 feeling as to suicide has changed ; the belief that an 

 act of suicide necessarily involved disgrace has greatly 

 diminished since suicide has been recognised to be, to a 

 great extent, the result of mental disease; and, in con- 

 sequence of this change of opinion, efforts to conceal its 

 occurrence have correspondingly decreased. That is one 

 reason. The second is that as suicides have increased, 

 accidents have decreased. In the onlv case where suicide, 



by the strict police and registration machi-:ery under 

 statute, is now impossible to be concealed, viz., by hang- 

 ing, the rate during that period is unchanged : it stands 

 fixed at 16 per cent, in Scotland and 26 per cent, in 

 England. That is an important fact. But turning to 

 the suicides by the other method.s — poisoning, wounding, 

 and drowning — it is found that almost exactly as these 

 rates have increased, the rates for accidents from the 

 same causes have decreased. Similar results are shown 

 from the English statistics — that the total increase in 

 the rates of suicide by wounding, poison, and drowning 

 is exactly counterbalanced by a total decrease in the 

 rates of accident from the same causes. Accord'ngly 

 the alleged increase of suicide is not proven. 



Dr. Clouston, one of the highest authorities on mental 

 diseases, followed this up by mentioning a very curious 

 fact — that the average rate of suicide between the ages 

 of fifty-five and seventy is greater than that between 

 fifteen and fifty. He stated his decided opinion that 

 sexual influences mainly accounted for the difference. 

 He showed that up to fifty a man or woman is, or 

 should be, full of life, vigorous, and healthy ; conse 

 cjuently possessed of a strong desire for the reproduction 

 of the race ; and that while possessed of that feeling he 

 or she had no desire to die, but rather a strong desire to 

 live. On the other hand, in the later years the body 

 became less vigorous, the blood less easily inflamed, and 

 consequently sexual feeling became less strong, and the 

 wi.sh to live gradually passed away and the tendency to 

 suicide became stronger. 



Dr. Clouston was also of opinion that excess of alcohol 

 led to a condition of brain which frequently led to 

 suicide. It was not so much wori-y as drink that was 

 the prevailing incentive. Alcohol, over-indulged in, 

 produced the paralysis of the great human vital in- 

 stinct of self-preservation. 



Sir John Murray instanced another aspect of suicide, 

 and related a cui'ious spectacle of which he was a witness 

 a good many years ago in China. A large numbfr or 

 youths were being examined for some Chinese degreo. 

 The examination was held along the bank of a river, 

 each candidate having a small temporary booth fitted up 

 for him on the bank. The opposite bank was lined 

 with thousands of spectators; and when an unlucky 

 candidate failed to pass, he was expected to walk into 

 the river and end his disgrace. 



It was pointed out by Dr. Clouston that German 

 authors held that the Roman Catholic portions of their 

 Fatherland did not show so many suicides as the Protes- 

 tant 25art.. There they had the moral and religious 

 element coming in, which prevented men and women 

 from committing suicide, even when they were diseased 

 and felt suicidal. And Sir John Murray expressed his 

 opinion on this that it would always hold good that in 

 those countries where they had individual responsibility, 

 as they had in all Protestant countries, for opinions and 

 for religious beliefs, there necessarily they would have a 

 disturbance more frequently resulting in suicide than 

 in the Roman Catholic faith, where they had the firm 

 idea of corporate responsibility. 



THE EVOLUTION OF SIMPLE SOCIETIES. 



By Professor Alfred C. Haddon, m.a., d.sc, f.r s. 



II.— THE PASTORS OF THE STEPPES. 



In my first article, in the Febi'uai-y number of Know- 

 ledge, I bi-iefly described the social condition of huiiiinj; 

 folk, more particularly those of the tropical forests of 



