GERMANY AND SUICIDE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 430, 29 August 1908, Page 2

GERMANY AND SUICIDE.

The latest statistical return for the German Empire (says “The Hospital ”) show clearly how the number of suicides in Germany have increased of late. At one time Germany stood comparatively low down in the list of “suicidal countries,” and a long way behind France; at present it possibly heads the list. Thus, in 1906 no fewer than 12,495 suicides were registered of whom 2922 were females. This works out at the high figure of 41-2 per 100,000 of population. The northern provinces show the smallest number ; the large commercial centres, such as Bremen, Berlin and Hamburg, head the list. No statistics are given from which it is possible to draw conclusions as to the probable factors which are responsible for this high figure, but from time to time attention is drawn to the fact that a large number of these cases of suicide are drawn from the unemployed and from the poorer classes, and that the percentage of juvenile suicides is relatively much higher in Germany than in France.