228 



G. H. KNIBBS. 



Annual Excess ( + ) or Deficiency ( - ) per 10,000,000 persons on 

 the average annual frequency of suicide in Australia, 1859-1910. 





Differ. 





Differ. 





Differ. 1 



Differ. 





Differ. 



Year. 



per 10 



Year. 



per 10 



Year. 



per 10 j Year. 



per 10 



Year. 



per 10 





million. 

 + 89 





million. 





million, j 



million. 





million. 



1859 



1870 



—192 



1880 



— 10 



1890 



+ 15 



1900 



+ 8 



1860 



— 80 



1871 



201 



1881 



41 



1891 



— 1 



1901 



74 



1861 



+ n 



1872 



185 



1882 



259 



1892 



+ 22 



1902 



52 



1862 



62 



1873 



108 



1883 



165 



1893 



1576 



1903 



197 e 



1863 



— 1 



1874 



9 



1884 



123 



1894 



84 



1904 



142 e 



1864 



+ 31 



1875 



40 



1885 



135 



1895 



99 



1905 



174e 



1865 



—115 



1876 



34 



1886 



122 



1896 



123 



1906 



96 



1866 



35 



1877 



40 



1887 



+128a 



1897 



232c 



1907 



— 8 



1867 



116 



1878 



183 



1888 



165a 



1898 



121 



1908 



+ 56 



1868 



77 



1879 



7 



1889 



31 



1899 



115 



1909 



28 



1869 



136 



1880 



10 



1890 



15 



1900 



8d 



1910 



49 



Any sign (-f- or -) continues downward to the change of sign. 



In respect of these differences it may be noted that the 

 relatively large increase above the average which charac- 

 terised 1887 and 1888 (see differences marked a) nearly 

 synchronises with a speculating period, viz., the days of 

 the silver and land booms. The large value for 1893 (see b) 

 corresponds to the bank failures and collapse of the land 

 boom. The high value for 1897 (see c) slightly follows the 

 incidence of drought conditions, viz., in 1895 and subse- 

 quent years. 



The low value for 1900 synchronises with the South 

 African war, when many men were drawn from Australia 

 for military service in South Africa (see d in table). The 

 high values for 1903, 4, 5 (see e), correspond to the period 

 of the most serious drought in Australia. 



Practically the frequency of suicide for the whole of the 

 period 1859 to 1886 was under the general average fre- 

 quency, and for the whole of the period 1887 to 1910 it was 

 above the average for Australia. The mean frequency for 

 10,000,000 population for 1859 to 1886 inclusive was 1040*4 

 and from 1887 to 1910 inclusive was 1207*8. But a refer- 

 ence to Fig. 1 will shew that the assumption of a slow 



, 



