Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/197

Rh those who commit the act on some trivial cause or provocation or from imitation, of those who while sane give way to sudden impulse, and of those who, after a longer or shorter struggle, succumb at their own hands to a growing impulse. Civilization, drunkenness, imitation, and hereditary propensities are accountable for much of the self-destruction prevalent; and so, to a greater or less extent, are age, sex, the state of health, and daily occupations of the victim.

Attempts have been made to prove that climate has an effect upon the rate of suicide, but these attempts have never done more than show that the temperate regions have the highest ratio. This, of course, is not due to the climate, but to the more complicated civilization, the greater physical and mental wear, and the more extensive interference with natural laws met with in the temperate regions. While it is true that climate exerts but little influence over the rate of suicide, the seasons, on the contrary, do strongly affect it. The popular belief is that suicide is more frequent during the months of winter and spring. This, however, is incorrect. Cold, wet, damp weather does not, as so many people suppose, promote despondency and suicide. Strange as it may seem, at that period of the year when the sufferings of the poor and the sick are least, when employment is most readily obtained, when the pleasure of living should be at its highest, suicide is most frequent. May, June, and July, the months of song and sunshine in all countries, give the greatest number of self-murders. For this there is no satisfactory explanation, unless we accept that of the medical fraternity, which is that during the period of early summer the organism is working at a higher tension, every function of mind and body is more active than at any other period of the year, and consequently there is greater liability to sudden physical and mental collapse.

The sad fact that suicide and education increase at an equal rate is now generally admitted. Civilization does not free humanity from grief, disgrace, and disappointment; but wherever civilization is highest the struggle for existence is fiercest, life is most artificial, and there the most failures of the human race are met with. There was a time in Roman history when suicide was almost epidemic. It was when the great republic had reached its acme of civilization—when poetry, art, and eloquence were triumphant. It is probable that the proportion of suicides due to mental derangements is increasing, but how rapidly can never be exactly determined. Morselli says that about one third of all suicides may be attributed to insanity.

Many people, however, anxious to stamp the act with reprobation, declare that every suicide is insane. This is wrong. While those who bring about their self-destruction may have acted