Suicide


From Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition, 1910)

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Suicide (from Lat. sui, of oneself, and cidium, from caedere, to kill), the act of intentionally destroying one's own life. The phenomenon of suicide has at all times attracted a large amount of attention from moralists and social investigators. Its existence is looked upon, in Western civilization, as a sign of the presence of maladies in the body politic which, whether remediable or not, deserve careful examination. It is, of course, impossible to compare Western civilization in this respect with, say, Japan, where suicide in certain circumstances is part of a distinct moral creed. In Christian ethics and Christian law it is wrong, indeed illegal, as a felo de se, self-murder. It is within comparatively recent years that the study of suicide by means of the vital statistics of various European countries has demonstrated that while the act may be regarded as a purely voluntary one, yet that suicide as a whole conforms there to certain general laws, and is influenced by conditions other than mere individual circumstances or surroundings. Thus it can be shown that each country has a different suicide-rate, and that while the rate for each country may fluctuate from year to year, yet it maintains practically the same relative proportions to the rates of other countries. The following table shows the suicide-rate for various European countries (Bertillon) TABLE I.

C

Country

Period of

Observation.

Annual Number

of Suicides

per Million

Inhabitants.

Saxony. .. ... .

1878-1882

392

Denmark

1880-1882

251

Switzerland. .. .

1878-1882

239

Baden. .. .

198

Wiirtternberg

1877-1881

189

France. .. .. .

1878-1882

180

Prussia. ... .

166

Belgiu

loo

Sweden.. .

92

England and Wales

75

Norwa

69

Scotland

1877-1881

49

Ireland. .. .. .

1878-1882

17

1861-1865 .

1866-1870 .

65 per million living.

. 66

1871-1875 .

66

1876-1880 .

. 74

1881-1885 .

75

1886-1890 .

. 79

1891-1895 .

. 88

1896-1900 .

. 89

1901 -1905

. 100

In addition to furnishing materials for an approximately accurate estimate of the number of suicides which will occur in any country in a year, statistics have demonstrated that the proportion of male to female suicides is practically the same from year to year, viz. 3 or 4 males to 1 female; that it is possible to predict the month of greatest prevalence, the modes of death adopted by men on the one hand and women on the other, and even the relative frequency of suicide amongst persons following different professions and employments; and that in most of the countries of Europe the suicide-rate is increasing. In England and Wales the annual death-rate per million from suicide has steadily advanced, as is shown by the following figures for quinquennial periods: The next table illustrates the continued increase in recent years, and at the same time shows the total number and the number of male and female suicides each year from 1886 to 1905.

TABLE II.

Year.

Male.

Female.

Total.

Suicide-rate

per Million

Living.

1886

1694

560

2254

82

1890

1635

570

2205

77

1895

2071

726

2797

92

1896

1979

677

2656

86

1897

2090

702

2792

90

1898

2166

711

2877

91

1899

2121

723

2844

89

1900

2166

730

2896

90

1901

2318

803

3121

96

1902

2460

807

3267

99

1903

2640

871

3511

105

1904

2523

822

3345

99

1905

2683

862

3545

104

Total.

28,546

9564

38,110

Order

of Fre-

quency.

Males.

Females.

Both Sexes.

Mode.

Num-

ber.

Mode.

Num-

ber.

Mode.

Num-

her.

1

Hanging

5669

Drowning

2089

Hanging

7005

2

Stab-cut

3594

Poison

1652

Drowning

5532

3

Drowning

3443

Hanging

1336

Stab-cut

4365

4

Poison

2264

Stab-cut

771

Poison

3916

5

Fire-arms

2152

Fire-arms

52

Fire-arms

2204

6

Otherwise

1773

Otherwise

527

Otherwise

2300

Total

18,895

Total

6427

Total

25,322

Order

of Fre-

quency.

Males.

Females.

Both Sexes.

Mode.

Num-

ber.

Mode.

Num-

ber.

Mode.

Num-

ber.

1

Hanging

741

Drowning

430

Drowning

1060

2

Drowning

630

Hanging

257

Hanging

998

3

Stab-cut

556

Poison

145

Stab-cut

700

4

Poison

257

Stab-cut

144

Poison

402

5

Fire-arms

245

Fire-arms

6

Fire-arms

251

6

Otherwise

207

Otherwise

ioo

Otherwise

307

Total

2636

Total

1082

Total

3;18

Total Suicide

Male and Female - in England and Wales, 1886-1905, together with the annual rate per million living (Registrar-General's Reports). The reason of the high suicide-rate in some countries as compared with others, and the causes of its progressive increase, are not easily determined. Various explanations have been offered, such as the influence of climate, the comparative prevalence of insanity, and the proportionate consumption of alcoholic drinks, but none satisfactorily accounts for the facts. It may, however, be remarked that suicide is much more common amongst Protestant than amongst Roman Catholic communities, while Jews have a smaller suicide-rate than Roman Catholics. A point of considerable interest is the increase of suicide in relation to the advance of elementary education. Ogle states that suicide is more common among the educated than the illiterate classes. It is also more prevalent in urban than in rural districts. A curious feature in large towns is the sudden outbreak of self-destruction which sometimes occurs, and which has led to its being described as epidemic. In such cases force of example and imitation undoubtedly play a considerable part, as it is well recognized that both these forces exert an influence not only in causing suicide, but also in suggesting the method, time and place for the act. No age above five years is exempted from furnishing its quota of suicidal deaths, although self-destruction between five and ten years is very rare. Above this age the proportion of suicides increases at each period, the maximum being reached between fifty-five and sixty-five. Among females there is a greater relative prevalence at earlier age periods than among males. The modes of suicide are found to vary very slightly in different countries. Hanging is most common amongst males; then drowning, injuries from fire-arms, stabs and cuts, poison and precipitation from heights. Amongst females, drowning comes first, while poison and hanging are more frequent than other methods entailing effusion of blood and disfigurement of the person. The methods used in England and Wales by suicides during 1888-1897, and in Scotland during the years 1881-1897, are given in the following table: TABLE III. Modes of Suicide in England and Wales, 1888-1897. Modes of Suicide in Scotland, 1881-1897. The season of the year influences suicide practically uniformly in all European countries, the number increasing from the commencement of the year to a maximum in May or June, and then declining again to a minimum in winter. Morselli attempts to account for this greater prevalence during what may well be called the most beautiful months of the year by attributing it to the influence of increased temperature upon the organism, while Durkheim suggests that the determining factor is more probably to be found in the length of the day and the effect of a longer period of daily activity. The suicide-rate is higher in certain male occupations and professions than in others (Ogle). Thus it is high amongst soldiers, doctors, innkeepers and chemists, and low for clergy, bargemen, railway drivers and stokers. The suicide-rate is twice as great for unoccupied males as for occupied males.

Authorities

- Morselli, Il Suicidio (Milan, 1879); Legoyt, Le Suicide ancien et modern (Paris, 1881); Westcott, Suicide: its History, Literature, &c. (London, 1885); Ogle, "Suicides in England and Wales, in relation to Age, Sex, Season, and Occupation," Journal of the Statistical Society (1886), vol. xlix.; Strahan, Suicide and Insanity (London, 1893); Mayr, "Selbstmord statistik," in Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften (Jena, 1895); Durkheim, Le Suicide (Paris, 1897). (H. H. L.) Suidas, Greek lexicographer. Nothing is known of him, except that he must have lived before Eustathius (12th-13th century), who frequently quotes him. Under the heading "Adam" the author of the lexicon (which a prefatory note states to be "by Suidas") gives a brief chronology of the world, ending with the death of the emperor John Zimisces (975), and under "Constantinople" his successors Basil and Constantine are mentioned. It would thus appear that Suidas lived in the latter part of the 10th century. The passages in which Michael Psellus (end of the II th century) is referred to are considered later interpolations. The lexicon of Suidas is arranged alphabetically with some slight deviations, letters and combinations of letters having the same sound being placed together; thus, at and E follow 8, and a, rt, c follow It partakes of the nature of a dictionary and encyclopaedia. It includes numerous quotations from ancient writers; the scholiasts on Aristophanes, Homer, Sophocles and Thucydides are also much used. The biographical notices, the author tells us, are condensed from the Onomatologion or Pinax of Hesychius of Miletus; other sources were the excerpts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the chronicle of Georgius Monachus, the biographies of Diogenes Laertius and the works of Athenaeus and Philostratus. The work deals with scriptural as well as pagan subjects, from which it is inferred that the writer was a Christian. A prefatory note gives a list of dictionaries from which the lexical portion was compiled, together with the names of their authors. Although the work is uncritical and probably much interpolated, and the value of the articles is very unequal, it contains much information on ancient history and life.

Editio princeps, by Demetrius Chalcondyles (i 499); later editions by L. Kiister (1705), T. Gaisford (1834), G. Bernhardy (1834-1853) and I. Bekker (1854); see A. Daub, De S. Biographicorum origine et fide (1880) and Studien zu den Biographika des S. (1882); and J. E. Sandys, Hist. of Cassical Scholarship (1906), p. 407.