SUICIDE, the act of intentional self-destruction. At the present time it is held to be reprehensible, if not indeed criminal, in ethics and in law. This was not always the case. Even in Euro pean countries it is not so very long ago that suicide was esteemed infinitely more honourable than disgrace.
Much has been written as to the strik ing differences in the suicide-rate between one country and another. As to "occupational" suicide, the data are too meagre to allow of definite inferences. Climatic influences appear to be uniformly at work in most countries, the rate rising with the lengthening of the days and the increase of temperature and declining to minimum in winter. Religion appears to have a modi fying influence on suicide, Jews being less prone to self-destruc tion than Roman Catholics and Roman Catholics than Protestants, when living under similar conditions. Thus in Switzerland, the suicide-rate is invariably much higher in the Protestant than in the Roman Catholic cantons. According to the late Dr. Ogle, suicide is more common among the educated than the illiterate classes, and the latest statistics for England and Wales show it to be considerably higher in the two highest groups arranged accord ing to social well-being than in the three lower ones. In the United States the suicide-rate for whites is considerably higher than that for negroes. Loss of interest in life itself is probably a powerful factor. There is the striking fact that the rate for unoccupied males in England and Wales is enormously greater than for those who are occupied. Generally speaking the rate is higher in the cities and large towns than in the rural areas.
Men are much more prone to corn mit suicide than are women. In England and Wales, the propor tions are about three to one—the rate for males in the quinquen nium 1921-25 being 154 per million against 54 for females. In New Zealand, the disproportion was even greater, the respective rates being 192 and 46. In Germany, Italy and the Netherlands the ratio of male to female suicides was nearly as high as in Eng land and Wales. Even in Japan, the male suicide rate is fifty per
cent above that for females. In Europe, as in other parts of the world for which statistics are available, the suicide rate rises with age, the maximum being attained after 5o. With women, however, the rise is not so regular as with men, there being a more decided rise at the earlier years 15 to 20 years. In 1926 the figures at age groups were in England and Wales :— Methods Employed.—The modes adopted by suicides to bring about their own destruction follow fairly well defined lines, men adopting the cruder methods and women avoiding in general those modes which involve the spilling of blood or personal disfigure ment. There are, however, what may be termed new fashions in suicide, while a determining factor is often the accessibility of the means to achieve the desired end. The following brief table shows what happened in England and Wales in the case of the adoption of coal-gas as a means of self destruction. • The most notable feature is, of course, the enormous rise in the suicides from gaseous poisoning during the present century. The following are, in order of preference, the methods adopted in recent years in some other countries In the cases of Italy and Switzerland, "poison" appears to include poisoning by corrosives and by gas. In Japan, hanging (I) and drowning (2) are the favourite methods for both sexes.
A careful investigation gives the impres sion that, from a variety of causes, the numbers of actual suicides is understated to a greater or less extent. For example, in Eng land and Wales where an inquest has been held and an "open" verdict is returned, the death is not classified as suicide. In how many cases do we find the verdict "found drowned"? In most cases, probably, suicide is to be inferred. The suicide-rates here given err, therefore, on the side of understatement. But the variations in the suicide rate seem to be in an upward direction, at any rate up to the beginning of the present century.