“ 
4 
NATURE 
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1881 
SUICIDE 
Suicide; an Essay on Comparative Moral Statistics. 
By Henry Morselli, M.D., Professor of Psychological 
Medicine in Royal University, Turin, &c. International 
Science Series, Vol. xxxvi. (London: C. Kegan Paul 
and Co., 1881.) 
HIS work enters the International Science Series as 
an abridged translation of the author’s original 
book, which was written in Italian. As its title implies, 
it is throughout statistical, and as no pains have been 
spared in collecting statistics from every available quarter, 
the results are the most comprehensive and complete that 
can be obtained with reference to the subject of which 
the essay treats. These results are interesting, not only 
because of the light which they shed upon a somewhat 
sombre topic, but also because they show what a powerful 
and trustworthy instrument of inquiry we possess in the 
statistical method, even when applied to what at first 
sight might appear the most complex and variable of 
causes leading to the most uncertain or least calculable 
of effects. For assuredly the most striking feature common 
to all the multitudinous tables which Dr. Morselli presents 
to us is the uniformity with which, under a given set of 
conditions and over a sufficiently wide area of observation, 
a certain average number of suicides will occur. 
Chapter I. is on ‘‘The Increase and Regularity of 
Suicide in Civilised Countries,” and it shows that, to use 
the words of its opening sentence, “from statistics col- 
lected up to this time is demonstrated this most painful 
fact, that suicide has increased from the beginning of the 
century, and goes on continually increasing in almost all 
the civilised countries of Europe and of the New World.” 
Thus, for instance, in France from 1827 to, 1852 there 
was a continued increase in the annual number of 
suicides, from 48’0 to 82°6 per million of inhabitants; 
and in Italy from 1864 to 1877 there was a similarly 
gradual rise from 29°2 to 40°6. 
Of the “influences which act upon suicide,” the first 
that are considered are the “ cosmico-natural.” Concern- 
ing climate it is shown that “the South of Europe gives 
the minimum proportion, while that rises by degrees as 
the centre is approached, reaching a maximum at 50° of 
latitude, and again gradually declining northwards; 
“whence it appears that the zone in which are situated 
the countries where suicide is most frequent is the Ze7- 
perate, as might be anticipated from the historical fact of 
the favourable development of ancient and modern 
civilisation in the regions furthest removed from the 
extreme climates.’’ As shown graphically by a shaded 
map, “the line of suicide crosses the European continent 
from the north-east to the south-west.’’ 
The distribution of suicide in each of the chief countries 
of Europe is then given. Of the statistics on this head 
we may quote those which have reference to our own 
country. 
“In Great Britain the average, lowest in Ireland, 
higher in Scotland and Wales, becomes still more elevated 
in the North of England, and it acquires its maximum in 
the South ; nor can it be said that this is caused by the 
VOL. xxv.—No, 635 
193 
metropolis, as it was in France by the irradiation ot 
Paris, because London, on the contrary, gives a smaller 
proportion of suicides than some of the South and South- 
west counties, and especially Cumberland. We give in 
Table VII. the averages of the five years 1872-76 calcu- 
lated on the population of the census of 1871. 
TABLE VII.—Distribution of Suicide in England-Wales 
(1872-76) 
is : sé log 
Divisions AND Sn 25 Divisions AND 5 2 £5 
Counrigs. a3 | Ss CounrTIEs. 69] am 
a>| 53 42 |45 
I. Lonpon. VI. CENTRAL-WEST. 
Middlesex ... ... | 199'4 | 988" 22. Gloucester ... 29°0 | 59°5 
Surrey... .. ... | 63°2| 85'r | 23: Hereford ... os Bro | 66"r 
SCTE W cea), euely ect ty OtAl | 726 | 24. Shropshire... 158} 59'r 
25. Stafford 43'0 493 
If. -E 26. Worcester ... 21'2 2"0 
SourH-Easr. | 27. Warwick ... 6. 582] 923 
1. Surrey ... » | 330; 90°3 
2 Kent ... «. ww. | 5570) 87°4 |VIT. CeNTRAL-NORTH. 
3: pisses Bee oo ee 47°09 | 1116 || 48, Leicestershire ... | 23°0] 83°2 
Go EA eT ere 328 2°3|| 29. Rutland <.. «. 3'6 | 153'9 
5. Berkshire “ 17'2| 76°0 || 30. Lincoln? 2. 2 29°4 | 68°6 
Tr Gan || 3x. Nottingham... 2970 | 81°6 
+ CENTRAL-SOUTH. | || 32. Derbyshire... 27°4| 84°3 
6. Middlesex ... ... | 26'2| 98°9 
7- Hertford «. | x04 | 53°4|| VIII. Nortu-wesr. 
8. Buckingham ... 9°6 | 61°9 || 33. Cheshire 38°0 | 70°3 
QGv@xtord's.. => vse 11°4 | 63°9 | 34. Lancashire... 197°4| 69°2 
to. Northampton 18°0 | 72°5 | 
II. Ee ean 3'2| 50°5 | IX. Yorr. 
12. Bedford one ate 5'8| 382 Ww aH . . 
~ a 3 x 35- est-Riding 133°4| 714 
13. Canbridge ... 122 | 6375 36. Bast-Riding 26°4| 86'r 
TV East 37- North-Riding ... | 16°4] 54°2 
14. Essex «. 27'6 | 62°6| X. Norvu. 
15. Suffolk... ... «. | 22°6| 65'0 38. Durham ... ... | 37°2| 53'6 
16. Norfolk see eee | 33°2| 77°0 || 39. Northumberland. | 27°2| 70°3 
| 4o. Cumberland... | 21'2| 96:2 
V. SouTH wEsT. | 4r. Westmoreland ... | 3°8} 583 
17. Wiltshire ... o. | x1°6| 47°4 = = 
18. Dorsetshire ... 9°6 50°7 XI. WeLsH. | 
1g. Devonshire ... 38'0 | 62'6 2, Monmouthshire... Io’2| 46°4 
20. Cornwall ... ... 13'8| 38*5 | 43- South Wales ... | 33°6| 43°8 
2r. Somerset... ss 32°0| 66°3 | 44. North Wales ... | 16:0| 36°7 
| 
Surrey, Warwick, and most 
such pre-eminence is unac- 
Why Cumberland, Sussex, 
of all Rutland, should show 
countable. 
Other things equal, the most favourable localities for 
suicide are flat plains and the courses of large rivers, 
while mountainous districts invariably yield the smallest 
percentage. Again, “the regions where suicide pre- 
dominates are all those formed by alluvial deposits of the 
more recent epochs; regions, that is to say, which up to 
the Tertiary period had remained covered by the sea, and 
which, emerging only in later times, assisted the develop- 
ment of the more recent flora and fauna.” 
Concerning the influence of seasons, it is shown that— 
“The transition period between spring and summer, 
and especially the month of June, exercises the most posi- 
tive influence on suicidal tendency, whilst that of winter, 
particularly of December, would be negative. Itis strange 
that for long an opposite opinion was held ; it was main- 
tained that suicide was more frequent in damp, cloudy, 
and dark weather, such as helps the development of the 
melancholy passions.” 
On this subject Dr. Morselli observes that the regular 
distribution of voluntary deaths in the course of the year, 
which, taking the chief countries of Europe, he graphically 
represents by means of curves, ‘is in evident relation 
with that of madness, All alienists are agreed as to the 
greater frequency of mental alienation in the summer 
season, and this law is confirmed by all the statistics of 
the asylums for the insane.” But— 
K 
