SUICIDE (Lat. self-murder) is a heinous crime,ty the law of the United Kingdoms though it was treated as venial by the Roman law, and was the subject of panegyric by Stoic philosophers. The law of England treats it as a felony, and hence there may be accessories to it, so that if A persuade B to kill himself, and B does so, A is guilty of murder. Suicide, or felo de se (q.v.), not only includes one who deliberately kills him self, but also one who in maliciously attempting to kill another is himself killed. If A, however, requests B to kill him, and B does so, A is not a felo de se, though B is a mur derer. If A and B mutually agree to commit suicide together, and in the attempt one only dies, the other is guilty of murder. When it is said that a man was a suicide, this implies that he was in his senses, for otherwise he committed no crime; hence an insane person, unless when in a lucid interval, cannot commit the crime. The punishment inflicted on a suicide consisted, formerly, in an ignominious burial in the higway, with a stake driven through the body, and without Christian rites, also the legal consequence was forfeiture of the goods and chattels to the crown. The only consequences now are forfeiture of goods and deprivation of Christian rites. The burial now takes place in a churchyard, but between 9 and 12 P.M. An attempt to commit suicide is not punishable like an attempt to murder a third party, nevertheless it is a misdemeanor. The conse quences of suicide on the contract of life-assurance are generally guarded against by an express stipulation that, if the assured die by his own hand, the policy shall be void; and it has been held by the that the policy is forfeited even though the party destroyed himself in a fit of frenzy or delirium.—In Scotland suicide is also followed by forfeiture of the movable estate to the crown.
There are, no doubt, even in modern times, some who hold the theoretical opinion that suicide is permissible in certain circumstances, but in regard to those who have actually permitted or attempted the crime, there has almost always been detectable evidence of cerebral changes, or, at all events, of that irritation and excitement which initiate and accompany molecular disorganization of the nervous structure. In short, suicide, as a rule, is a syniptom of some form of insanity, permanent or temporary, in which the emotions and passions are excited or perverted. Suicide is likewise a concomitant of certain bodily diseases; for example, of dilatation and fatty degeneration of the heart, of blood degeneration, of affections of the intestinal mucous membrane, of the uterus, and of the brain and nervous matter; and it may be regarded as a•requent sequence of the melancholic, the morose, and hypochondriacal temperament. It has appeared as an
epidemic; it has been observed as a hereditary tendency in certain families, and as a tendency more frequently exhibited by males than females; more frequently by the edu cated and affluent than by the industrial and ignorant classes; most frequently in large cities, and as directly engendered by luxury, political agitation, gambling, intemperance, and demoralization. It would appear, however, that indulgence and asceticism, riches and extreme poverty, claim nearly an equal number of victims. It has been calculated that twice as many artisans commit suicide as laborers. In 1840, it was found that in every 10,000 of the population, 1.33 masons, carpenters, butchers; 7.43 tailors, shoe makers, bakers; 4.9 bankers, professionals; 2.0 of persons assured in equitable office; 7.8 dragoons; 6.7 servants and coachmen; 4.0 paupers, died by their own hand. Obser vation has shown that from 20 to 35 is the most influential age in inducing the suicidal tendency, and the age appears to determine, to a certain degree, the modes of death se lected as well as the proclivity. As might be expected, the nature of the delusion, the accessibility of the means, imitation, the profession or pursuit of the individual, novelty, and notoriety, all influence the choice of the instrument or means of death. The thee maniac dies by crucifixion; the great majority by ropes, rivers, wells, razors, arsenic; the medical man by aconite, chloroform. Even sex is characterized by peculiar preferences. Females seek voluntary death according to the following order of the means—hang ing or strangulation, abstinence, precipitation, drowning, cutting, poison; males, again, according to this order—cutting, shooting, hanging, poison, drowning. Race, climate, country, and the distinguishing polity of different societies to a certain extent affect the proportion of suicides to the population. In the kingdom of Sweden there is calculated to be 1 suicide to every 92,375 inhabitants; in Saxony, 1 to 8,446; in Russia, 1 to 34,246; in the United States, 1 to 15,000. In Paris, 1 suicide occurs in 2,700; in St. Petersburg and London, 1 in 21,000 citizens. Middlesex, again, is the most prolific of all English counties; Chester least so; there being in the former 10.5, in the latter 7.2 to 100,000 people. In all England, the proportion is 7.4.—Anatomy of Suicide, Forbes Winslow ; Du Suicide et de la Folie Suicide, etc., a Brierre de Boismont; Traite du Suicide, Louis Bertrand; English Suicide Fields, Radcliffe, p. 701; Medical Critic, 1862.