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HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



There has thus been an uninterrupted increase in the total 

 number of suicides since 1826, when the total was 1,739, up to 

 1893, when the total was 9,043. 



If we take the Annual Eeports of the Registrar-General for 

 Births, Deaths, and Marriages, during the years 1880-1900 

 inclusive, we find that the increase of suicides at all ages has been 

 as before mentioned, about 45 per cent, for England and Wales : 



Suicides at Dipfbbent Ages in England and Wales, 1880-1900. ^ 



The period of twenty years under consideration is a short 

 one ; nevertheless, when we compare the number of suicides 

 at all ages from ten to seventy -five inclusive which are reported 

 in 1880 with the number reported in 1900, we find at once a 

 notable increase. 



1 The figures here given relate only to the suicides among the male section 

 of the population. During the same period the total of female suicides 

 has risen from 483 (in 1880) to 730 (in 1900), an increase of 51 per cent. 



