SHAKE OF SEXES IN INSANITY-RATE 



187 



Having thus satisfied ourselves as to the reality of the pheno- 

 menon, it remains for us to determine its causes. It may, at 

 first sight, appear that the increase in the rate of suicide may 

 be correlated with the undoubted increase in the rate of insanity, 

 with which we shall deal in the following chapter. It is neces- 

 sary, therefore, to warn the reader against any generalisation 

 tending to confound these phenomena, and to see in suicide a 

 mere manifestation of insanity, ia the scientific sense of the 

 word. In the first place, we may observe that if suicide were 

 nothing more than the act of an insane mind, and if the causes 

 of suicide were to be sought simply in the individual conditions 

 of mental pathology, then the rate of sucide should be greatest 

 in the sex, and also in those coimtries, which show a higher 

 rate of insanity. But this is far from being the case. Suicide 

 is a phenomenon of which the male sex possesses almost the 

 monopoly, and if suicide be but an outward expression of the 

 working of an insane mind, the participation of the male sex 

 in the total quantity of insanity should be equally great. That 

 this, however, is not the case is seen by an examination of the 

 figures given by Durkheim relative to the share of the two 

 sexes in the rate of insanity and in the rate of suicide :^ 



Relative Shake op the Sexes in the Rate of Insanity, calcxtlated 



FEB Cent. 



These figures given by M. Durkheim concerning the respective 

 share of the sexes in the rate of insanity are confirmed, as far 

 1 Le Suicide, p. 37. 



