Suicide
82 Art. V.? No. 1.
Those who maintain the profitableness of studying motives, as affording the readiest clue to a solution of vexed problems in human psychology, are never at a loss to explain their discoveries by the aid of observed facts; but it is something more than doubtful whether all conclusions thus arrived at are not worthless as regards any real light they throw on the subtler mysteries of mind, or even on the grosser phenomena of psychical life.
There is a very apparent want of solidity in arguments founded on such considerations alone ; most of all are they fallacious on account of the illegitimate nature, so to speak, of their creation. Motives per se, are not primary factors admitting of selection for the bases of discussion; underlying them must be, in fact, those preliminary processes in the evolution of thought, without which thought and its sequences must each and all be wanting. Motive alone, and by itself, cannot exist; it is a consequence?that it may be a necessary consequence is immaterial ?of certain preceding mental processes; and it is into the nature and causation of these latter, that we must perforce inquire if we would arrive at a just and unassailable judgment of motives. It is perhaps difficult, though it should never be impossible, to conceive of motives, of whatever kind they may be, as the outcome of definite arrangements of a permanent mechanism; and that, further, given a knowledge of special mechanism in any case, the unalterable consequences of its activity may be prophesied. To admit this much, however, is at once to declare a connection between material and psychological entities, to strip them, or at any rate one of them, of hitherto generally acknowledged essentials ; and at the same time to remove forthwith from the category of primitive ideas, that which the term ” motive” popularly embodies. It will be at once evident that we attribute to motives a subjective character ; they are, it need hardly be insisted, rigidly abstract; any conception of a motive, save in relation to concrete realities being an impossibility. This, of course, has been otherwise stated, but it would profit little to discuss the question afresh in this place, since there is a pretty universal opinion now-adays favourable to the view here presented. Briefly stated this is to the effect that motives are the outcome of thought; they’ may be the data of action; they never are the primitive causes of volition, inasmuch as they are consequent on mental processes, of which they serve but to mark the conclusion. Whatever, therefore, is attributed to motives, must be referred to a prior stage in psychological history, and that stage is Reasoning.
Whether we may or may not apply this term to include every mental process which results in the establishment of a motive towards a certain act, it will be convenient to so consider it temporarily. This explanation is advisable, since in considering the subject of suicide, to which this introduction tends, we have to deal with agents from whom the most rigid classifiers would be inclined to withhold any claims to a higher ratiocination. Even in the most lowly of idiots, however, there exists the framework of a mind ; and subtracting from them the loftier intellectual capacities, they nevertheless retain so much of practical reason, as suffices to enable them to exercise a limited volition, and in response to objective (or subjective ?) impressions to originate the idea of a motive to this or that action. In what way is the study of the condition thus brought into play to be pursued ?
Pathological research has done more to found a science of psychology than is usually attributed to it; but even admitting all the great advance in this direction witnessed within the last half century, we are constrained to acknowledge how far distant still is the time when we shall be able to describe the least complicated mental process in terms of known and definite meaning. At present it is possible to do little more than suggest the lines along which future discovery may be likely to travel; to lay down directions for guiding inquiries entered on with a view to elucidating existing difficulties ; and particularly is this evident when attempts are made to describe the conditions surrounding suicide. The preliminary work, perhaps, too, the most difficult to accomplish, has been in part performed; but laboriously as it has been carried out, it only avails to demonstrate a physical connection between circumstances of a fixed kind, and the prevalence of the crime. Chiefly statistical, it affords opportunities for deducing laws, which though purely empirical in origin, are, notwithstanding, highly valuable in themselves, and are such as will serve to lighten the task that lies before the constructor of a scientific theory of suicide. Moreover, they deal only with externals, with the objective aspect of the question ; but so far they may be trusted to lend the greatest assistance to consideration of the deeper, subtler study of the subject in its psychological aspect. The work thus achieved has not been done by one or two observers, but is rather the outcome of extended inquiries on the part of many labourers. To Dr Morselli, however, professor of psychological medicine in the Royal University of Turin, is due the credit of epitomising and comparing the data accessible for the purpose, in a work recently issued in somewhat condensed form in this country.* The purpose of a review could hardly be served by anything less exhaustive than quotation of the whole book, and we propose to utilise it in parts in this place as conveying more clearly than any other modern work, the outline facts on which the conclusions hereafter described are based. It must, however, be premised that Dr Morselli deals chiefly and almost entirely with suicide from the statistical side, while the object of this paper is primarily to insist on the necessity for physical, and especially pathological, studies, prosecuted with a view to elucidating psychological states. That physical factors will have a very decided bearing on the meaning attached to these, we cannot, at this stage of our knowledge, doubt.
At the outset of the inquiry, we are met by the following law, which is incontrovertibly established on the strength of innumerable and regularly classified figures of health. It is thus stated, ” in the aggregate of the civilised states of Europe and America, the frequency of suicide shows a growing and uniform increase, so that generally voluntary death, since the beginning of the century, has increased and goes on increasing more rapidly than the geometrical augmentation of the population, and of the general mortality.” Coincidently with this increase, has taken place what is usually regarded as advance of civilisation; but one remarkable exception to it is offered in the case of England, in which country the porportion of suicides per million of inhabitants has maintained a ” regularity of fixedness ” which could not fail to strike the attention of statisticians. Whatever other country is regarded in this way, an invariable regular increase in the same proportion is observable ; and bo much interest do these facts possess, that it will not be out of place to transcribe here the following instructive tables from Dr Morselli’s admirable book :? England.
Proportion of suicide per million of Periods of year. inhabitants. 1830- 40 (Farr) 62 8 1838-40 (Radclifle) 62’0 1845-55 (Wagner) 62 0 1840-56 (Davis) 660 1856-60 (Morselli) 65*3 1856-60 (Hanshofer) T 65-0 1856-63 (Oettingen) 65 0 1858-63 (Reg. Gen.) 67’0 1856-65 (Legoyt) 69*0 1861-65 (Mozelli) 65-8 * Suicide; an essay on comparative moral statistics, by Henry Morselli, M.D. London, C. Kegan Paul & Co. England. Proportion of suicides per million of Periods of year. inhabitants. 1866-70 (Morselli) 1871-74 (id.) 67 0 1858 (Farr) 6?0 1859 04 1860 70 1861 68 1862 65 1863 66 1-864 64 1865 . 67 18C6 64 1867 62 1868 . 73 1869 70 1870 . 70 1871 66 1872 66 1873 ^ 1874 67 1875 67 1876 73 Tlie second table, quoted below, is a similar calculation based on statistics of the movements of French population from the commencement of Quetelet’s observations”, down to those of Bertillon; and the marked contrast it presents to the foregoing, will be at once apparent.
Proportion r ” 1 * xears. on inhabitants. per million. Increase per cent. 827 8281 829 y 830 J 8311 832 I 833 J 834 835 836 837 838 839 840 841 842 843 844 845 846 847 848 849 850 851 852 20,740 18,517 15,596 15,339 13,882 14,207 13,683 12,876 12,102 12,089 12,128 11,839 11,301 11,907 11.478 11,412 9,707 10.724 9,880 9,544 9,525 9,340 48 54 58 54 f 63 61-2 |_61”8 64-9 72 70-4 73 78-4 82-6 82-7 82-4 84-4 88-4 84 87-1 88-7 1037 100-9 93’5 100-8 100 6 102 100 114 124 114 135 139 128 148 149 152 159 168 178 179 183 186 196 193 200 101 236 232 214 23a 233 238
Similar proofs could be afforded by figures relating to many other countries, but these will suffice to show the general tendency of the whole, which is to show that there is, generally speaking, a marked increase observable in the growth of suicide throughout civilised states. It will be profitable to consider what this is attributable to.
The influences which predispose to suicide are naturally of the most heterogeneous and complex character; only in the most superficial manner do they admit of classification ; and much as has been already done in giving to them something approaching to their relative importance, it must be admitted that we are scarcely yet on the threshhold of discoveries calculated to throw real light on the processes that compel to voluntary sacrifice of life. Hitherto, all investigation has been necessarily conducted with a view to collecting solid bases of comparison ; only when these are witnessed in considerable completeness can there exist a probable chance of deriving from study of suicides elementary information concerning their determining causes, and it is in this way principally that value attaches to the statistical data compiled so anxiously and laboriously by Morselli and his co-workers in this field of research. For purposes of comparison they are invaluable ; nor is it impossible to deduce from them certain empirical laws, such as that already quoted, in relation to the frequency of suicide, and also in a certain sense indicative of the conditions under which the crime is committed. That which remains to be done, and what is by far the most important portion of the inquiry, is to determine the structural consequences to the organism of its submission to these well-ascertained conditions; and as knowledge of the kind increases so also will there be gradually evolved a scientific theory of suicide on which may be founded measures of prophylactic utility. At the outset the task appears of almost herculean difficulty, but a beginning has already been supplied in those data to which reference has been made. Before proceeding to consider their bearing on the method of future researches it will be as Avell to recapitulate them shortly. In doing so both the plan and the matter of Dr Morselli’s volume may be followed, the subject being most fully as well as most recently treated in it. Of all natural influences climate has ever been assumed the most potent factor in determining the frequency of suicides; no absolute rule can, however, be laid down to this effect, for apart from other and equally powerful associate causes, the mere geographical position of a country exercises really but little influence on the rate of voluntary deaths. It is true that countries to the north are, collectively, more frequently the scene of self-destruction than are those in the south, but this is all that can be urged from returns spreading over a number of years. In Europe, for instance, the highest proportion of suicides to population is contributed, not by the most northerly region, but by a district centrally situate in the continent. It is true though that the countries north of this said region yield a much higher average of suicides than do those south of it, and to such extent the theory of geographical distribution is correct. It will be at once seen, however, that this is widely different from the assertion that suicidal tendency is a direct product of the north as compared with the south, a conclusion generally held at a time when proofs to the contrary were not forthcoming. With the correction of the error thus committed we are also brought face to face with consideration of those physical conditions affecting suicide which are comprehensively classed as telluric; and here again we are compelled to admit the meagreness of available information. What is known of their influences is but the barest indication of possible enlightenment; at its best it has the appearance of little more than guess-work, chiefly because of the slight connection science has yet succeeded in establishing between cause and effect, as illustrated in regional peculiarities and their special endemics. In low-lying countries the practical physician looks to find certain well-marked groups of diseases constantly exhibiting themselves among the inhabitants ; but we are still without clear and intelligible expositions of the reasons for this constancy; and in a similar way the moral statistician safely predicts that among the people living in plains and valleys the average of suicides will be far in excess of those registered among neighbouring hill-dwelling people. That there is a direct connection between these two incontrovertible facts it is impossible to doubt, as also that it will have to be sought in the effects produced on structural characteristics by the interaction of the environment and the individual. When, however, we strive to depict the consequences of such interaction we are confronted at’ once by ignorance of all but the most evident factors of disease; of their remoter consequences we have nothing more real than probabilities to guide us in determining the nature and results; assuredly in this direction there is an unlimited field of research before investigators, and one especially well calculated to repay patient and exhaustive study. Perhaps, too, recent developments in pathological study are not without value as indicating somewhat of the conclusions we shall by-and-by be led to form; particularly with reference to those forms of disease termed ” cretinoid.” In this country attention has of late been awakened to an unusual degree in this respect; and though its results are as yet limited, they may be regarded as bearing on a future solution of many vexed problems. The condition known as myxccdema, to which many physicians have paid consideration, and on which evidence is rapidly accumulating to demonstrate its clinical features, deserves to be ranked as having important bearings on psychical questions as well as physical. Unfortunately, however, the facts most dwelt upon in connection with it are not precisely those to forward discussion as to its origin ; but as further information is gathered this reproach will doubtless be removed.
It is characterised by a universal mucoid transformation of intercellular material, in which the nervous structures participate alike with all other organs. In effect it may be regarded as an extreme development (rather than retrogressive metamorphosis) of connective tissue elements, external evidences of its presence being of cedematous character; and also such as indicate depreciation of intellectual powers. For some years after Sir William Gull first remarked on the features of the disease, it was considered as peculiar to women, and as being of rare occurrence. Later, both these assumptions have been disproved, and now it is certainly demonstrated that both men and women may become its victims, and that it is of much greater frequency than was originally supposed. Beyond dispute it is a condition in which the subject is mentally depraved; and we have absolute proof of its influence on psychical states in a case reported by Dr. Savage, in which extreme mental disturbance was a marked feature of the disease. In fact this observer places the point of departure of all the nervous troubles of myxoedema in the encephalon. For the moment we need not stay to examine the grounds of objection to this view; they have been raised, but imperfect pathological and histiological observations may well be admitted to cover the discrepancies that exist amongst various writers’ opinions. The point to be insisted on in this place is, that here is a disease, prominently brought into notice within the most recent years, and of which, in spite of the assertions of French authors that it is not a newly discovered affection, we are as yet acquainted with little beyond the clinical features it presents. That it is directly inimical to the mental health of the individual it attacks is no longer a matter of dispute ; contention holds only over the way in which damage is produced, a very desirable point to ascertain, but one which cannot possibly hinder the conclusion that it may be, or in fact that it is, an important element for consideration by the scientific student of cerebral disturbances, and especially so in connection with suicide.
(Etiology is admittedly the weakest branch of medical science. Of even the most common diseases, omitting the eruptive fevers, we possess but crude and imperfect ideas respecting their causes and origin. Of none can we say (with the exception already named), such and such conditions will assuredly produce such and such diseases among those submitted to them; and although we are gradually, very gradually, approaching to a rough conception of the part heredity plays in the production of bodily illness, we are remotely distant from the knowledge which will enable physicians to describe the significance of surroundings in setting up initial changes. Most of all, too, is this the case in respect of the subtle lesions to which the master tissues of the body, the nervous, are subject; the whole of present knowledge on this point, spite of all the libraries existing, is summed up in a few empirical deductions of the kind that Ave have commenced to enumerate. We cannot, however, despise even these; they are the rough beginnings of a perfect science that will ripen into splendour as the data of observation increase in number ; that will be enriched with laws founded on perpetual experience ; and that in the years to come will form the basis for every study designed to extend the limits of the known yet farther and farther into the darker regions that surround the science of cerebral pathology.
Proceeding with our inquiry into the influence of telluric conditions on the frequency of violent deaths amongst the inhabitants of a district, it must needs be observed that as the low and more humid regions are left, and the higher and dryer climate reached, the proportion decreases relatively, but not absolutely. For a given country the statement is sufficiently accurate, although exceptions are to be found ; but it may be accepted as practically true, inasmuch as the discrepancies are due to the action of social influences to which we shall refer further on. The conclusion to be drawn from the general rule above given is of vital import to the whole matter in hand, and will at once present itself on reflection. It is that, in the districts most favourable to the grovth and spread of disease, we meet with a more considerable number of voluntary deaths, the two proceeding pari passu with increasing prevalence of conditions inimical to human health. Further, the deduction is justified from this, that, judged apart from associations of civilisation pure and simple, a tendency to throw aside life’s burdens, is the inevitable accompaniment of bodily discomfort; and in the same connection arises the, at present, unanswerable problem,” what is the quantitative relation between mental and physical ill health ?” Indeed, pursue the inquiry in whatever direction we will, arrive as we may at seemingly satisfactory solutions of the difficulty encountered in the search after the causes of suicide, there is always a final remcinet to disturb the whole structure of our reasoning, that, viz., of the actual central lesion, the most important of all. A rough and ready way to supply the needed link would, of course, be to declare, that every disease is attended with mental disturbance, which may or may not result in suicidal tendency. This, however, as well as begging the question, would be utterly unjust and unfounded ; unfounded because of the absence of pathological proof, and of any observations sufficiently general and extended deserve the name of evidence. Equally delusive on examination is the plea that suicidal desires are the outcome of mental degradation, which at first sight would appear more capable of support. We will not dispute that there is a reduction of suicides even with a condition of mental inferiority in comparison with the highest attained (not to say attainable) perfection ; but even then a gulf of impassable dimensions subsists between the mental qualities of the uncultivated rustic and the highly-educated scholar, though both may terminate their existence by self-destruction. In either case, in different degrees certainly, but none the less truly, psychical evolution has progressed with advancing age; and at the time when suicide terminates the career of each, the actual development of mental power has attained proportions which raise the mind very far above its condition at preceding stages of their existence. Hence, though there may occur a disturbance of intellectual functions, this is in sense to be regarded as entailing a coincident degradation no actual psychical attributes. On a priori ground we are entitled to regard mental unsoundness as inciting to suicide; the habitual usage of the courts in accordance with which such deaths are recorded as due to ” temporary insanity,” is something more than a harmless ruse to evade the violation of personal susceptibilities on the part of surviving friends ; and even at the risk of offending the principles of rigid moralists, we must insist on the probability that self-destruction would be impossible to anyone who enjoyed sound health. Vague, in the veriest degree as the term is, it yet includes a very considerable amount of meaning, and seems to definitely limit every instance of perverted function, even though no physical evidence of its being called into activity is anywhere discernible.
We need not unnecessarily confuse discussion on this subject by importing the question of spontaneity into it; it has already been shown that motive pre-supposes volition, and whatever the direction of resulting determinations may be, whether, that is, towards good or evil actions, the preliminaries are invariably of the same character are at all times, that is to say, ratiocinative. In countries where certain diseases are shared in by the majority of inhabitants, we may naturally therefore expect to find higher rates of mortality from causes associated with such prevalence ; it is only inability to trace the lesions of the nervous systems that are coincident with those of other systems or organs, that renders the task of exhibiting causal connection so unusually difficult in respect to suicide. A valuable commentary on the presumed intimate connection between disease and suicide is further afforded by the facts of seasonal distribution of the latter. With a regularity which possesses all the significance of law, the maximum of deaths thus caused is coincident with the months of ending spring and commencing summer ; that is, at those periods of the year when change from one season to another takes place, the numbers show appreciable increase compared with those of fixed seasons. These facts, moreover, are not materially affected by the proved connections between warmer weather and the frequency of insanity, if, as we prefer to consider, another and wider relation between general disease and suicide can be made out. Recognition, it is true, is now-a-days generally accorded to the belief that man’s psychical activities are subject to the operation of the same natural laws as influence his organic functions; and surely it is no improper stretch of possibility to regard bodily infirmities as initiating a train of consequences primarily involving the mind also.
The Racial influences which appear to exert determining power over the commission of suicide, are of a nature that it would hardly be desirable to discuss separately in the present connection. The differences that distinguish peoples are, in this respect, such as it is all but impossible to appreciate without taking fully into consideration that which has been productive of their social evolution in all directions. We cannot in such a review confine attention to merely structural or morphological details; but in order to arrive at any valuable conclusion, the reaction of individuals on their environments would have to be carefully and extensively inquired into; the mere conformation which reveals so much to anthropologists is no safe criterion to the moral statistician; and, indeed, one of the most remarkable facts which meet him at the outset of his study of suicide, is the little reliance to be placed in merely ethnological data, as bearing on the act of self-destruction. Deeply as he may feel that a certain connection does exist in this relation, every additional fact collected in proof only brings more clearly into view the vastly preponderating effect of what are collectively termed ” Social” influences. The sociologist engages in a study that is at once the most interesting and the most complex of all studies. Human action, human motive, human thought, incessantly occupy his attention ; and no conclusion that he arrives at can be looked upon as fixed and unalterable, inasmuch as the changes constantly occurring in the field of observation are endless and incalculable. It would almost appear, then, that the barrenest results would reward attention paid to this branch of investigation ; and a decade or two ago this would have been so far true, that definitions were wanting to it. Now, however, the outline of law is recognisable in the multitudinous complexities that surrounded the subject; and though even yet there is a vagueness about it that may at times discourage, sociology is so far a science that the data on which it rests will admit of examination and classification. Civilisation has been described as having for its watchword ” progress; ” in proportion as mankind has been elevated out of rude, primitive conditions, through adaptations of surroundings to the needs of humanity, so has it risen from lower to higher; and in degree, as the process continues, so does civilisation advance. Add to this rough conception that the whole act of progress has been directed by human intelligence, seeking to supply its own requirements, and there is at once presented the view of external change and modification to meet the needs experienced by man during his mental development.
National characteristics take their tone from individual traits ; the nation is, in one aspect, only a magnified unit, and the direction of its aims and aspirations more or less surely reflects the line along which each constituent member of it thinks and acts. Koughly speaking, some countries are more highly civilised than others, because they have advanced further along the path of progress by multiplying the facilities naturally enjoyed by them, and by greater refinements in matters relating to mutual interests and concerns. All this, however, is primarily dependent on mental characters, on the extent to which general intelligence has developed, and on the special application of such superiority to the improvement of social surroundings. In other words, civilisation tends to progress because of the inevitable necessity that mental development should progress also. In whatever way it is regarded, the one is the consequence of the other. But with increase in complex social relations arise also more widespreading reactionary influences, which find expression in the multitudinous factors of social and political life, with all the distractions and troubles incident thereto. In the same degree, moreover, as these grow increasingly numerous, they tend to excite intercurrent disturbances of larger and larger extent; in the same way as the physiologist sets up a similar series of consequences throughout the organism by disturbing directly a single set of functions.
Hence, though at first but one or a few members of the social series may be immediately affected, yet the influence spreading from them will sooner or later extend its ramifications throughout the whole body politic. Then it is that a stimulus or an emotion, confined at first to its centre of origination, gradually exerts a greater power until at length it becomes universal within natural limits, and many or all who are within the sphere of its influence will experience the reaction it produces. It will happen, too, of necessity, that all will not be affected alike ; individual peculiarities will produce variation of result; while some will respond healthily and readily, others, again, will be injuriously influenced.
Quitting generalities for a moment, and selecting a case in illustration, let us consider the influence exerted by the spread of a popidar delusion, e.g., so called spiritualism. The idea of holding converse with the spirits of the dead originated, no doubt, in a sincere belief on the part of a weak, but wellmeaning enthusiast. From this centre it became widely distributed, until in time every member of the community became at last acquainted with the main conclusions of the leaders of the movement. Fortunately, however, only a few accepted them as bona Jida truths, and such persons were, individually, unlike the majority of their mentally more robust fellows who failed to be influenced in any way by the preposterous notion. They were able to apply the test of reason and probability to the imposture, and to appreciate its spurious nature. So far they were of a higher civilisation than the weaker and more credulous believers, and were thereby removed from the baneful influence of a superstitious creed. The less fortunate adherents to it, however, remained free to be subject to every development their new tenet might display, to every impulse it might suggest, and to be the victims of every inordinate demand it might make on their diseased imagination. Nor do we need to seek far for proofs of the injury they thereby suffered ; nor even for examples of self-destruction directly due to the influence of abnormal fancies, the direct outcome of spiritualistic dreams. It would, notwithstanding, be unwise to deny that spiritualism is a fruit of civilisation ; if we choose, ve may refer it to retrogressive mental action, and declare that it could not be the result of healthy development of the human mind ; but none the less it is truly a consequence of mind-evolution though not in the direction of improvement.
The deduction is inevitable, that as civilisation progresses both madness and suicide are met with in greater proportion ; and even in those countries where, as in England, there is an apparent w stasis ” in the one respect, there is an unmistakable increase in the other. It is therefore no barren thought that suggests an unmistakable connection between the two conditions of the social organism, viz., suicidal tendency and insanity. May we not conclude that as the preventive treatment of insanity advances, as persons afflicted with the tendency to madness are earlier submitted to protective restraint, the number of possible suicides is being brought under control ? And, as a further consequence of the same reasoning, that suicidal proclivities are in themselves the consequence of incipient madness in the majority of instances. Asylum experience is rich in proofs of the readiness with which ” tractable ” lunatics will adopt self-destruction at the slightest opportunity; and as before observed, ” temporary insanity ” is something more than a beneficent chimera invoked to enable Christian burial to be allowed to the unhappy suicide. By universal agreement civilisation and intellectual activity proceed hand in hand. Those nations which rank in supremacy in the world’s affairs are by common consent preeminent, by reason of the superiority they enjoy in all that conduces to refinement in thought and living; and they contrive to hold such position only as long as they display ceaseless activity in advancing along the path of civilisation. Hence they are incessantly exercising the intellectual faculties by which they are distinguished ; and progressively the national intelligence grows by perpetual extension of habits of reasoning and observation among the masses of the people. Thus each year civilising influences bring a greater and greater number of the masses within the ranks of those who think as well as live; and thereby bring an ever-growing majority also under the influences that determine the proportions of lunatics and suicides to the whole population.
Religion, culture and political creeds are the main factors for consideration in this connection. The first possesses a very high importance in relation to suicide, and one that it is impossible to ignore. Among Protestants the proportion of suicides is markedly high, while among Jews, though selfdestruction is less common, madness take high rank in the common diseases affecting them. On the other hand, Catholics are numerically less prone to self-destruction than either of the two persuasions named; but here should be mentioned the law formulated “by moral statisticians who have specially investigated this subject that ” the inclination towards suicide in the inhabitants belonging to any particular worship, in any given country, will diminish in direct ratio with their numerical inferiority.” If what has been suggested above in dealing with the mode in which individuals are affected by a given belief is true, this would naturally follow; but it may also in part be due to the concentration of energy such a numerically small society must exhibit in order to maintain its distinctness from other societies surrounding them. To explain the preponderance of suicide among Protestant nations, however, is a more dfficult matter, unless we agree to accept the conclusion of Dr Morselli who thus accounts for it: ” The very high average of suicides among Protestants is another fact too general to escape being ascribed to the influence of religion. Protestantism, denying all materialism in external worship, and encouraging full inquiry into dogmas and creeds, is an eminently mystic religion, tending to develope the reflective powers of the mind, and to exaggerate the inward struggles of the conscience. This exercise of the thinking organs which, when they are weak by nature, is always damaging, renders them yet more sensible and susceptible of morbid impressions. Protestantism in the German states, further exercises this exciting influence on the cerebral functions in yet another manner; it originated those philosophical systems which are based on the naturalistic conception of human existence, and put forward the view that the life of the individual is but a simple function of a great whole. These philosophical ideas are harmless enough to strong minds, and those stored with a fit provision of scientific culture, but in the democratic atmosphere of our times the heart is not educated pcivi jpcissu. The religious apathy with which the present generation is afflicted does not arise from a reasoned inquiry into the law of nature, or a scientific appreciation of its phenomena; it is not, in short, a deep conviction of the mind, but springs from a physical inertia, from the little hold obtained by any ideas but such as are directed to material improvement and the gratification of ambition. To our mind, therefore, the greater number of suicides is to be attributed to the state of compromise which the human mind occupies at the present time between the metaphysical and the positivist s phase of civilisation ; and as this transaction is more active in countries of marked mystic and metaphysical tendencies, such as is the case with Protestanism, it is natural that in them suicide should have the greatest number of victims.” The key-note to the whole mystery is struck in this passage, wheie the damage done to weak minds by excessive and laborious thinking out of questions raised in connection with religion is exposed; and inasmuch as freedom is permitted in this direction to Protestant people, it is certain to be followed with the result indicated. Education and culture occupy a somewhat analogous position; and it remains to examine the consequences of their influence.
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