A STUDY OF SUICIDE. 303 



absolutism, which, in its newest form, insists that the individual 

 exists for the state ; and altruism, which, when put forward as an 

 absolute dogma, is as anti-social as selfishness. These all are only 

 the latest forms of the devices by which some men live at the ex- 

 pense of others. In their essence and principle they are as old as 

 history, and not even the device of making the victims vote away 

 their own liberty, apparently of their own free will, because they 

 think they ought to do so, has anything new in it. 



A STUDY OF SUICID 



By CHAELES W. PILGEIM, M. D. 



AS the love of life is generally acknowledged to be the strong- 

 ■ est instinct of the human mind, it is but natural that the 

 subject of voluntary death should have attracted, at all times, a 

 great amount of attention from moralists and sociologists. 



Some of the noblest men and women of ancient times advo- 

 cated and practiced self-destruction, and the frequency of the act 

 in our own day demonstrates that the fear of death is by no means 

 general. Prof. Mayer, of Paris, in a lecture on this subject, de- 

 clared that every one of his hearers had, at some time, thought 

 favorably of committing the deed. He challenged contradiction, 

 but no one responded. 



This longing for " restful death/' which comes to nearly all of 

 us sooner or later, can usually be resisted ; but often the desire is 

 so great that the will is not strong enough to overcome it, and 

 another name is added to the long list of suicides which statistics 

 show us is increasing with terrible rapidity. 



Very exhaustive statistics in regard to this subject have been 

 compiled by Profs. Bertillion and Morselli, and they both arrive 

 at about the same conclusions. Taking each million of inhabit- 

 ants, the following results were obtained : In Austria the number 

 was increased between 1860 and 1878 by from 70 to 122 annually ; 

 in Prussia, between 1820 and 1878, by from 71 to 133 ; in the smaller 

 German states, between 1835 and 1878, by from 117 to 289 ; in 

 France, between 1827 and 1877, by from 52 to 149, the greater pro- 

 portion being in the larger cities. Peasants rarely commit sui- 

 cide, statistics showing that in Belgium, where laborers can gen- 

 erally find employment, the increase between 1831 and 1876 was 

 only from 39 to 68. In Sweden and Norway about the same result 

 was obtained, viz., an increase from 39 to 80 per year during the 

 same period. Italy, Spain, and Ireland show the lowest number, 

 the increase between 1864 and 1878 being only from 28 to 35 in the 

 former, while in Spain and Ireland it was still less, the latter show- 



