INFLUENCE OF FAMILY LIFE 209 



better. We must bear in mind that the tendency to suicide 

 increases with age. The average age of married men in general 

 is forty-six years eight months ; that of widowers in general is 

 sixty-one years eight months. As far as age is concerned, married 

 men have a very great advantage in relation to suicide ; and this 

 advantage becomes even more marked when we reflect that, if 

 the average age of married men in general is forty-six years and 

 two-thirds, this average is, in great part, determined by the 

 age of married men with children ; for the category of married 

 men without children includes all the young married men who, 

 for one reason or another, do not choose to found a family im- 

 mediately — in other words, the most important contingent in 

 this category consists, not of those physically incapable of having 

 offspring, but of those who have not had time to found a family. 

 The average age of married men without children, therefore, must 

 be calculated at not more than thirty-five years ; for the average 

 marriage age is twenty-seven, and the average age of the father 

 at the time of the birth of his first child is thirty-two. We see by 

 these figures how numerous within the category of married men 

 without children must be the body of young men who have not 

 had time to found a family. If we thus reduce the average age 

 of married men without children, and compare the suicide-rate of 

 this category with that of the widowers with children, we shall see 

 that the position of the latter is, as we have said, relatively better. 



If we compare now the category of widowers with children 

 with that of bachelors of sixty years of age, we find the total 

 of 937 to be to 1,504 as 100 : 160. The coefficient of preserva- 

 tion (1-6) of widowers with children, as compared with bachelors 

 of a corresponding average age, is greater than that of widowers 

 without children, the total of 1,258 standing to 1,-504 as 100 : 119. 

 The coefficient of preservation of widowers with children, as 

 agaiast widowers without children, is approximately 100 : 135 

 (1-35). 



What conclusion are we able to draw from our survey of the 



14 



