204 HEREDIiy AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



sole exception of Silesia, the difierence is infinitesimal, and can 

 easily be explained by the difference of the periods which Mor- 

 selli and Durkheim respectively treat of. And the objection 

 would entirely disappear were we to draw up a suicide-chart 

 on the basis of the table above given, and compare it with the 

 suicide-chart drawn up by Morselli. We should find the dark 

 and the light spots on each chart to coincide. Thus, the suicide- 

 rate, very high in Saxony, falls in each case towards the west ; 

 diminishing considerably in Hesse, and reduced to a very small 

 proportion in Westphalia and the Rhine Province. The dark 

 spot which would mark Brandenburg on each chart lightens ia 

 Silesia, lightens still further in West Prussia, and disappears 

 entirely in Posen. It is true, as we have said, that the calcula- 

 tions of Morselli and Durkheim differ sensibly with regard to 

 Silesia. The former estimates the suicide-rate of Silesia at 158 

 per million, the latter at 260 per million. Yet when we compare 

 the respective figures of both statisticians with regard to the 

 provinces bordering on Silesia, we find the proportion between 

 Silesia and the adjacent provinces to be maintained. Thus, 

 according to the two sets of statistics, the proportion between 

 Silesia and Brandenburg remains practically the same : 



Silesia 

 Brandenburg 



We may thus state, as a first conclusion, that Catholicism 

 awards greater protection against suicide than Protestantism does ; 

 and, as the rate of suicide diminishes with the increase of social 

 integration and increases as social life is disintegrated, so may 

 we say that this greater liability of the Protestant community 

 to suicide results from a lack of integration and cohesion among 

 societies which are Protestant. Similarly, the greater protection 

 afforded by the Catholic community against suicide results from 

 the high degree of integration and cohesion among societies which 

 are Catholic. 



