SUICIDE, the act of designedly de stroying one's own life. To constitute suicide, in a legal sense, the person must be of the years of discretion and of a sound mind. The law of England treats suicide as a felony involving the for feiture to the crown of all the personal property which the party has at the time he committed the act, including debts due to him; but it is not attended with forfeiture of freehold or corrup tion of blood. The body of the self murderer was required to be buried without Christian rites in the open high way or cross roads, and a stake was thrust through it to mark the public de testation. This law was repealed dur ing the reign of George IV., and the only consequences now are forfeiture of goods and deprivation of Christian rites. The burial may take place in a churchyard, but between 9 and 12 P. Suicide was treated as venial by the Romans, and was esteemed a virtue in certain cases, by the Stoic and Epicu rean Philosophers. Valerius Maximus, who wrote in the 1st century, states that a poisonous liquor was kept publicly at Massilia, and that it was given to such as presented themselves before the Senate and procured its approval of the reasons which prompted them to get rid of life. Suicide is often set down as
furnishing positive evidence of insanity. The law of England treats suicide as a felony; and those who commit suicide are held to be sane and responsible, un less there be clear evidence to the con trary.
Suicide, however, is a very frequent result of insanity, more especially in Christian countries, and the verdict gen erally given by coroners' juries is that the person destroyed himself while in a state of unsound mind; not so much, however, from the fact of insanity be ing thereby established, as that any other verdict would distress the surviv ing relations and friends of the deceased. Suicidal mania or insanity may be de fined as a perversion or reversal of the natural instinct of love of life, leading to its destruction. Suicides are more numerous in cities than in town and country life. The chief causes for sui cide are vice and crime, madness, delir ium, alcoholism, poverty, and moral suffering. In the United States insanity is the leading cause.