SUICIDE "WAVES."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 66, 7 March 1908, Page 4

SUICIDE "WAVES."

FACTS ABOUT A SRAXIiE I'HEXOMEXOX.

The seeming epidemic of smciil-.-which has been spreading over the Guman Empire lias induced the Govcrauient to make searching investigation, and compile statistics on the question. The commission which lias been appoiuicd is making a study of what prompts suicides, whv they are apparently epidemical, why more people commit suicide iu April than in any other uioiitu of the year, and of suicides from a pathological point of view. Nut only among men and women, but even in the public schools of Germany, the inllueuce of the periodical epidemics of suicidal mania has been felt. In the twenty-oil.' years from 18M W l'Jo:i, according to a report published recently bv I'rofessor All-ert Kulenbcrg, of the University of Berlin, the number of suicides bv school children attending the primary and secondary schools. ol Germany reached the total of 1125. ihe annual 'average was almost lifty-four; for the age of liftecu and le-s it was almost- fortv-two, in which the ratio between boys and girls was 4.1(i to 1. Statistics further show that in the hi"her "lades, and especially in the sc> oiidary "schools, fully 10 per cent, of the suicides could be ascribed lo mental disturbances. -More than one-fourth, or ~S per cent., of the suicides were the children or near relatives of epileptic, inebriates, or demented persons. In a surprisingly large number of cases the reason for taking life was very trivial. In more than 48 per cent, if was the inability of the pupil to reconcile himself to the school discipline. In not a few instances dangerous literature, love affairs, and alcoholism led '." suicide, while in a comparatively large number of cases the causes had nothing to do with the school at all. but originated in domestic troubles, especially punishments, criticisms, and strictures on the part of parent*. Among adults, strange to say. the iiroiHirtion is not unite so large. Dresden, with a record of 51 per 100.000. and Pari-, with 42 per IOO.IHKI. are the onlv cities wheio the suicide rate !f higher than in Berlin, where the avcr;i,.r i- :iii. In St.. Petersburg the mi'iiWr "I suicide- per inn .oil inhabitant-, according to the latest available statities. is 7. .Moscow 11, Vienna 28. l-ondon ?.l, Koine 8. Milan (i, Madrid :!. Genoa :ll! Brussels 15, Amsterdam 14, Lisbon 2. thri-tiania 2.3, Stockholm 27, Constautinople 12. Geneva 11. ; lu the spring of lUOti there were 010 suicides iu Italy, 010 in the summer, and 44:t during the autumn. Statistic* from other countries all showed the same curious regularity of suicide wave-. In the -priug the rate is always higher than at any other time of the voir. Suicidal mania seems to reach its height in April, when the trees, the grais, ticbirds, and all nature are prophesying the glories of the summer. Perhaps it is because the man who contemplate suicide—and the contemplation is often very long—cannot help at this time of the year comparing his own miserable condition with the gladness the springtime brings to others. It makes him fed more gloomy and out of haruiouy with things than he would on wet, dull days, and he does what many others have done under exactly similar conditions and under the same imaginary provocation. Professor Morselli, after an exhaustive study of the causes of suicide among the people of European nations, summed up in the following maimer: " Suicide is not influenced so much by the extreme heat of the advanced summer season as by the early spring and

summer, which seize upon the organism not yet acclimatised and still under the influence of the cold season." There is little doubt that the end of winter brings with it a depleted condition of vitality, both nervous and physical. 'Thus, in the light of the fact that the most suicides occur during the season of the year, when rejuvenating nature is in her brightest mood, is worthy of consideration.

That weather conditions have varying effects on mentality has long been recognised. Literature is full of allusions to the fact, and not a few of the world's great thinkers have left on record their own emotional llights ami depressions under different meteorological conditions. But most of ns need to take no other word for the fact than our own. In all the vigor of perfect health the iiilluenee on weather on the menial

slate may hardly be recognised, but when Ihe vital (lowers are depleted '.y the exhausting effects of a long nervous or physical strain, then this phase oi tin cnsinieal environment is sure to make itself felt.

Then come the days when everything roes wrong. The groundwork of for-

gotten i|uaiTcl- i- remembered, uuca-y ■ luestion- arise with regard to the Inline, one get- tireil of lite. And how iimeh oi all this can be attributed to ;;u ea-l wind or a leaden sk\- in oth t word-, to weather elicits! I'rciie-soi iVe-tinerinan. who has al.-u bceii making a scieiililro study of the '|iie-iion. ha- come to the ooueluoion thai a satisfactory explanation of how thi- uiorbid feeling becomes infectious may lie obtained. This is what lie -ay-: Thai hypnotic -iiggcstion has been -urn--fully exercised to impel a pel - -mi to almost .-tarve himself to death i- a faet beyon.l Ihe peradvciiture of doubt. I have no doubt, therefore, licit -nggc-tion can be ami i* freipientlv employed t„ 1,, ing about nucule. ' And this. I believe, accounts for the perio.lieal -llieiile epiilelllies which sweep 0"-'l'

The einotiuii-. passions, and. inileel. whatever may lie classified under Ihe general lerm of feeling, have their ori--in and source in the will. Thu-. the mind ihinks. but does not foci: the will feel-, bill doc- not Ihiuk. The will i- really the inetaphv-iral pari M ii-. and. unlike the physical, brain-de-pendent mind, it is fri-o from the I ram no Is of lime and -pace. Thi- being -o. the nill of each indi ■ I mi,,! nui-t be in immediale contact sublimiinilly with every ,dher will. And. therefore, when the mind of one person |,re,enl- to the latter'- will motives, dl her in the form of phenomena or o>' dtougliK. to which the will is bound o ive.'it powerfullv. it i- frequently ib..■rveil that the will* of other poison.\ho are en rapport are agitated in Iho ante „-ay. ' Heine, when one person bv broodingoiij over it hie or otlier motive-, hi--olved to i-ji.l Ids life, his will's con !i- ---'<■ « forthwith impresses itself upon the bad,iK alluned wills of ether-, and '- '-.-oii ;. .„, ~v<v-iiier-.,i-ino -pliere ■i „;..;.),.,