218 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



because the Anglican Church is a national Church. The case of 

 England is another illustration of the fact we have insisted upon 

 — i.e., that a strongly integrated religion, possessing a thorough 

 hold on the community, is an effective safeguard against social 

 disintegration, of which the increase in the suicide-rate is but a 

 symptom. There is probably no country in which religion possesses 

 greater influence over the population as a whole than England.^ 



III. 



Having examined these figures, let us see whether we can 

 deduce from them any general sociological conclusion. It seems 

 to us that the conclusion is evident. Suicide is directly depen- 

 dent for its decrease or increase on the greater or lesser integra- 

 tion of society. A society which is strongly integrated and 



1 Morselli has calculated the average of suicides in the different States 

 of Europe, according to the religion of these States. He has arrived at 

 the following result : 



AvEEAGB Number of Suicides per 1,000,000 Imbabitanxs. 



Protestant States . . . . . . . . . . 190 



Indefinite (large minority of Catholics) . . . . 96 



Catholic States . . . . . . . . . . 58 



Greek Orthodox States . . . . . . . . 40 



We see that Morselli entirely agrees with Durkheim concerning the 

 greater protection against suicide afforded by Catholicism as compared 

 with Protestantism. But, according to Morselli' s calculation, the Orthodox 

 States are still more greatly protected against suicide than the Catholic 

 States. Nevertheless, this immunity of the Orthodox populations cannot 

 be necessarily attributed to the superior integrating influence of their 

 religion ; for the civilisation of these States of Eastern Europe is very 

 different from the civilisation of the States of Western Europe. We 

 cannot compare Russia or Servia or Bulgaria with Germany or Great 

 Britain or France. Industriahsm is, in Eastern Europe, still in its infancy ; 

 consequently, social life there lacks the intensity which it possesses in 

 Central and Western Europe ; and the degree of intensity of social life is 

 a factor of great importance in the variations of the suicide-rate of a com- 

 munity. The immimity of the States of Eastern Europe, which are almost 

 wholly agricultural, may be attributed to this fact ; for a civilisation based 

 on agriculture is infinitely less developed than a civilisation based on 

 industrialism (vide Morselli, II Suicidio, Milan, 1879). 



