INSANITY AND SUICIDE 



189 



sidering suicide too exclusively as an expression of insanity ; 

 and of making any hasty generalisation as to the correlation of 

 these two phenomena. 



If we turn now to the comparative statistics of suicide and 

 insanity in different countries, we reach a similar result. In the 

 following table we place the countries mentioned in order, accord- 

 ing to the rate of insanity prevalent in each ; but we find that the 

 rate of insanity in each case by no means corresponds with the 

 rate of suicide. Thus Norway, which has the greatest number 

 of insane persons, comes but fourth in the number of suicides : 



COMPABATIVB RATES OF INSANITY AND SulOIDB IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. ^ 



On looking at this table, we find that Denmark and Saxony, 

 the classical lands of suicide, which occupy respectively the first 

 and second places in the rate of suicide among the various 

 European countries, occupy respectively the third and eighth 

 places in the rate of insanity. On the other hand, Norway and 

 Scotland, which occupy the first and second places in the rate 

 of insanity, occupy respectively the fourth and eighth places in 

 the rate of suicide. Indeed, the positions of Scotland and Saxony 

 are, in each case, exactly inverted. Thus : 



Scotland 

 Saxony 



Place occupied in the 

 Bate of Insanity. 



2 



Place occupied in the 

 Rate of Suicide. 



E. Durkheim, Le Suicide, p. 41. 



