374 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Suppose we first examine into the sta- 

 tistics of suicide. Morselli in his admir- 

 able work on that subject comes to the 

 conclusion that those sections of Europe 

 show the highest percentage of suicide 

 where the Teutonic element is predom- 

 inant. Ripley in his excellent work, 

 " The Races in Europe," has examined 

 this proposition critically and with very 

 interesting results.. 



If, for instance, France is studied we 

 will find the greater proportion of sui- 

 cides in the north, where the Germanic 

 race is represented in greatest numbers; 

 similarly we find here also the highest 

 divorce rate; but, more remarkable still, 

 we find evidences of the highest degree 

 of culture. In this same region the 

 greatest number of artists were born to 

 whom were granted awards by the Paris 

 Salon, and here also were born the 

 highest ratio of men of letters. If now 

 Italy be similarly studied we find that 

 its different regions are distinguished 

 in much the same way as they are in 

 France by a preponderance of certain 

 phenomena in certain localities. In 

 comparing the two countries, Ripley 

 closes his criticism by saying : ' ' The 

 effect has been to emphasize once more 

 the enormous preponderance of artistic 

 genius all through the north, from 

 Tuscany to the Alps. How does this 

 coincide with our previous deduction 

 concerning France ? It seems, perhaps, 

 to corroborate the relation of Teutonism 

 to art, until we secure the fact that all 

 northern Italy is overwhelmingly Alpine 

 by race as compared with the artistically 

 sterile south. Couple with this the fact 

 that in reality Teutonism is a negligible 

 factor in Italy, physically speaking, and 

 that precisely the same ethnic type which 

 is so fecund culturally in Italy is in 

 France the one localized wherever art 

 is not and all doubt as to the predom- 

 inant cause of the phenomenon is dis- 

 sipated. We see immediately that the 

 artistic fruitfulness in either case is the 

 concomitant and derivative product of 



a highly developed center of population. 

 Contact of mind with mind is the real 

 cause of the phenomena. It is not race 

 but the physical and social environment 

 which must be taken into account. ' ' 



Morselli himself recognized this fact, 

 for he not only reaches the conclusion 

 that "it is those countries which pos- 

 sess a higher standard of general cul- 

 ture which furnish the largest contin- 

 gent of voluntary deaths," and "The 

 proportion of suicides in all Europe is 

 greater amongst the condensed popula- 

 tion of urban centers than amongst the 

 more scattered inhabitants of the coun- 

 try ; " but in concluding his work he 

 sums up the whole matter in the follow- 

 ing words: "* * * whoever has 

 followed us in the long analytical course 

 which we have pursued ought now to 

 be convinced of the connection between 

 competition and social evolution and 

 the inclination towards suicide. Suicide 

 increases amongst people according to 

 their degree of civilization, not so much 

 because in the high development of the 

 cerebral organism the needs which must 

 be satisfied increase as because the brain 

 shares more largely in the struggle." 



I need only call your attention to the 

 frequent association of suicide with act- 

 ual insanity, or at least with an abnor- 

 mal mental condition, for you to see the 

 bearing of these results on the problem 

 in hand. 



Pauperism is another allied condition 

 to which I would direct your attention. 

 The census of 1880 shows that there 

 were then 66,203 paupers in the several 

 almshouses of the country. Now, pau- 

 perism is to an extent a symptom of 

 mental defect. The individual who, 

 unless absolutely incapacitated by phys- 

 ical disability, so far fails in the struggle 

 for existence that he must be supported 

 at the public expense is certainly suffer- 

 ing from some form of mental defect. 

 F. H. Wines, the special agent of the 

 Census Office for the collection of the 

 statistics of the defective, dependent, 



