140 .SUICIDE. 



kind, as well as of terror, fright, fear, alarm, in all their 

 degrees. 



Self -starvation is a very common form of self-destruction, 

 especially in the dog, as the result of grief. But it does not 

 appear, in the majority at least of such cases, that there is 

 any distinct desire to destroy life ; though, on the other hand, 

 there is as little reason to doubt, in other animals as in man, 

 that in many of such cases suicide is deliberate. In most 

 instances grief destroys appetite; anorexia is produced that 

 leads to the refusal of food ; neither hunger nor thirst is felt ; 

 digestion becomes impaired by abstinence ; and marasmus 

 frequently fatal is the result. 



Monkeys have frequently poisoned themselves uninten- 

 tionally, and as the result of errors of imitation, curiosity, 

 greed, or indiscriminate or non-discriminating appetite. 

 Imitation of man's operation of shaving has also led to 

 accidental suicide by cut throat of the stupidly imitative 

 animal. 



In many forms of disease, mental or bodily, accidental self- 

 destruction not unfrequently occurs. Thus, in the c sturdy ' 

 of the lamb, the animal loses its ordinary power of vision ; 

 it wanders, becomes entangled in avoidable obstacles, spins 

 round and round, has no sense of danger, and no knowledge 

 for the moment of the significance or results of its actions ; 

 hence it gets itself only too readily into fatal dangers (Pier- 

 quin) . 



There are physicians who ascribe all suicide proper in 

 man to insanity ; who regard the mere act of intentional self- 

 destruction as a proof and phenomenon of mental derange- 

 ment. And the same kind of arguments that apply to man 

 apply to other animals. No doubt from a legal view-point 

 it is at least inconvenient to regard all suicide as the off- 

 spring and indication of mental disorder. But from a 

 medical aspect, on the other hand, much may be said in 

 favour of such an opinion. 



Absurd artificial criteria have been established, mostly by 

 jurists, separating insane from sane suicide such criteria, 

 for instance, as forethought or premeditation ; deliberation 

 or fixity of purpose; ingenuity of plan; adequateness of 



