A STUDY OF SUICIDE. 309 



tilted out of the window and hung by the ropes which were fast- 

 ened to the beam. He then, by way of finishing, nailed his right 

 hand to the arm of the cross, but could not succeed in fixing the 

 left, although the nail by which it was to have been fixed was 

 driven through it, and half of it came out on the other side. This 

 happened at eight o'clock in the morning. Some persons by 

 whom he was perceived ran up-stairs, disengaged him from the 

 cross, and put him to bed. By medical care his wounds ulti- 

 mately healed, but he was ever afterward morose and singular." 



A person bent upon suicide will sometimes await a favorable 

 opportunity for months, or overcome apparently insurmountable 

 difficulties by the exercise of ingenuity which, if it were devoted 

 to the accomplishment of a better object, would be worthy of the 

 highest commendation. Dr. Wynter cites the case of a man who 

 was placed under medical observation because he had attempted 

 to commit suicide. He was watched with the greatest care; 

 during nine months all means — so far as his attendants knew — by 

 which he could injure himself were removed. But one morning 

 he was discovered hanging by his neck from the bedstead, quite 

 dead. How he became possessed of the cord was an enigma 

 which was afterward solved by the discovery that he had care- 

 fully preserved every piece of string from the parcels that had 

 been sent to him from time to time. "With them he had twisted a 

 rope sufficiently strong to accomplish his purpose. The news- 

 papers a few months ago reported the case of a man named Fred- 

 erick Helbig, of Zanesville, Ohio, who also showed considerable 

 inventive talent. He was blind and disconsolate, and therefore 

 resolved to die, but as none of the common methods were suited 

 to his purpose he made his way to the cellar, broke off a piece of 

 the gas-pipe, and then covering the end of the pipe and his head 

 with a heavy quilt, quietly suffocated himself with the gas. 



Another extraordinary case is that of a man who was quite 

 recently admitted to the Buffalo Insane Asylum. He had at- 

 tempted suicide the day before while in the station-house, and, 

 owing to his dangerous tendencies, he was placed under the care 

 of a special night-watch, who sat outside his door. For three 

 nights all went well, but on the fourth he jumped from the head 

 of his bed for the transom over his window, the only exposed glass 

 in the room, crashing through the panes and seizing the bars on 

 the outside. Before the attendant could prevent it he had, with 

 a bit of glass, cut into his throat, severing the thyroid cartilage. 

 The patient was in a frenzied condition, and it required the efforts 

 of five attendants to keep him from tearing open the wound. The 

 cartilage was united and the wound sewed and dressed. Foiled in 

 his attempts to tear open the wound, he fixed his lips and jaws 

 tightly and exhaled forcibly. He succeeded literally in blowing 



