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A Social Science Treatise.
SUICIDE
Its History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and Prevention.
by
W. WYNN WESTCOTT, M.B. LOND.
Deputy Coroner for Central Middlesex.
Joint Author of the Extra Pharmacopœia.
London:
H. K. Lewis, 136, Gower Street, W.C.
1885.
TO
GEORGE DANFORD THOMAS, ESQ., M.D.,
CORONER FOR CENTRAL MIDDLESEX,
THIS VOLUME IS
DEDICATED
WITH MUCH RESPECT AND ESTEEM
BY
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
In preparing an Essay on Suicide, which I recently delivered before a
Society of medical men in London, I found it impossible in the limited
time at my disposal to do anything like justice to the gravity and
importance of the subject.
The question is one well worthy of the earnest consideration of the
community; indeed, it may be legitimately regarded as one of our
Social Problems, as it involves matters which are intimately connected
with our social organisation, and is with propriety embraced in our
legislative enactments.
When we reflect, with satisfaction perhaps, that in England crime has
been steadily decreasing, the fact that Suicide has been as steadily on
the increase in Great Britain, and in almost every country in Europe,
while it awakens our sympathy on behalf of the unhappy victims, should
stimulate our exertions towards promoting the diminution of this moral
plague spot.
These considerations, added to the fact that there are but two books
in the English language devoted entirely to this subject,─one dated as
far back as 1840, and the other, a most valuable but almost entirely
statistical work, translated from the Italian,─have induced me to
re-arrange and extend my notes, and I now offer them to my professional
brethren and other students of Social Science in the following short
treatise on the History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and
Prevention of Suicide.
As Deputy Coroner for Central Middlesex frequent opportunities are
afforded me of investigating cases of Suicide, and I have added to this
volume original instances and estimates derived from those suicidal
deaths of London, upon which inquests have been held by Dr. Danford
Thomas, or myself.
The works of Legoyt, Morselli, and Wagner, contain an almost complete
estimation of the statistical proportions in regard to the causes and
means of suicide in France, Italy, Germany, &c., and to them I am
greatly indebted for such information.
The Bibliographical Index contains the titles of other works which have
been consulted.
Let me hope that my humble efforts may tend in some degree to the
prevention of self-destruction, and the promotion of a more robust and
healthy public opinion on the subject: if this volume conduces to these
ends my object will have been achieved.
In conclusion, I must express my deep obligation to my friend Dr.
Duncan MacLarty, for his many welcome suggestions, and for his care in
revising these sheets for the press.
WM. WYNN WESTCOTT, M.B.
4, Torriano Avenue,
London, N.W.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I. Introduction; the Ethics of the Subject 1
„ II. History: Ancient and Modern 7
„ III. Notable Suicides: Ancient, of the Middle
Ages, and Modern 17
„ IV. Origin of the Name; Classic Authors,
examples of the Literature of Suicide,
English and Foreign 29
„ V. Jurisprudence; Suicide as a Crime in
England, and abroad 43
„ VI. Jurisprudence; Suicide and Life Assurance;
in respect to Marriage, and to
Wills 51
„ VII. Present Rate, and Increase, in Europe 58
„ VIII. Causation in general, Classification 65
„ IX. Effect of Race, Climate, &c. 75
„ X. Effect of Education, Religion, and
Morality 81
„ XI. Effect of Urban and Rural Life, and
Employment; the effect of Military,
Naval, and Prison Life 93
„ XII. Effect of Times and Seasons 102
„ XIII. Effect of Age, Sex, and Social State 107
„ XIV. Mental Diseases 116
„ XV. Epidemic Suicide, and Suicide from
Imitation, and for Notoriety 129
„ XVI. Effect of Bodily Diseases, Alcoholism,
Want of Sleep; Hereditary influence,
and Spiritualism 135
„ XVII. Effect of Tædium Vitæ, the Passions,
Misery, and Despair 141
„ XVIII. The Means of Suicide, their relative
frequency at home, and abroad 144
„ XIX. Suicide compared to Crime in
General; Attempted Suicide, its relative
amount 154
„ XX. Suicide in British India 161
„ XXI. The Prevention, and Treatment of
the Suicidal tendency 166
„ XXII. The Suicide of Animals 174
Appendix, Rules of Assurance Companies 180
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX 182
GENERAL INDEX 187
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
In every age of the world, and in the history of almost every country,
we find instances more or less numerous of men and women who,
preferring the dim uncertainty of the future to the painful realities
of the present, have sought relief from all their troubles by suddenly
terminating their own existence.
Misery and pain have been the lot of the human race ever since the
dawn of history, and these causes have from the earliest times induced
persons to destroy themselves, and even the fear of eternal punishment
has not sufficed to deter them.
Sorrow, suffering, and mental disease are practically the only causes
of Modern Suicide; but in the ancient world, suicides from these causes
were either much more rare than they are at the present time, or else
were passed over as unworthy of record, in the presence of suicides
of a more honourable nature. Hundreds of instances have come down to
us in which death has been self-sought and inflicted from an idea or
conviction that such self-destruction was to be of obvious advantage
to the state, or to the sufferer’s family; or again, the fatal act was
frequently committed as a point of honour to obviate the disgrace and
ignominy of falling into the hands of a conqueror; or, again, to avoid
pollution and shame at the hands of unscrupulous and debased tyrants.
The history of the Jews as narrated in the Old Testament probably shows
fewer instances of Suicide than the records of any other nation (nine
only in 4,000 years); but whether or no there has been any special
interposition of Providence on their behalf, or whether the result has
been due to the inherent virtues of the laws of Moses, this is not the
proper place to discuss or decide.
It cannot be denied that the influence of religion has caused thousands
to make a voluntary sacrifice of their lives, as offerings to their
deities; and thousands more have voluntarily courted death to prove the
sincerity of their faith.
Madame de Stael has, with questionable propriety, pointed out that
all the “martyr throng” were really instances of self-destruction
instigated by devotion to faith, and that all suicides to avoid the
stain of guilt are deaths of duty.
But, among the numberless faiths of the world, extinct, and now
existing, many have had a direct tendency to invest the idea of
self-destruction with a charm. Some because they taught the doctrine
of total extinction at death; others because they inculcated a belief
in metempsychosis; whilst others, again, have taught the certainty of
bliss hereafter, if death occur, whether self-sought or otherwise,
while fighting for the faith.
Philosophy also, which at different times supplanted or supplemented
religious ideas, has often notably encouraged Suicide. The far-famed
system of the Stoics, founded by Zeno, directly approved of it; to
them it was the culminating point of self-abnegation, a flight from
degradation. The equally notable system of the Epicureans also found
in Suicide a congenial theme for panegyric; they believed in no future
state, and proposed it as a means of escape from pain or annoyance here.
In recent times, accompanying periods of decline of religious
fervour, new systems of mental and moral philosophy have sprung up
and become popular; and these, if not openly advocating the cause and
permissibility of self-murder, have never associated themselves with
Christianity in condemning it. A perusal of the volumes of Voltaire, J.
J. Rousseau, and of David Hume, will make this obvious.
But it seems probable that in the minds of many suicides there
has been, below any religious faith, or philosophical dogma, the
deeply-rooted conviction that death was a sleep and permanent rest, an
eternal oblivion in the grave, and they consequently came to regard
it as the grand solatium for present heart-breaking grief of mind, or
intolerable pain of body.
No more powerful individual deterrent has been suggested than the
firm unwavering mental conviction (which has always been propounded
by the Christian church) that a self-inflicted death is an evil to
which nothing on this side of the grave can compare, and that to rush
unsolicited into the presence of the Creator is an inexpiable crime.
As a general preventive, the force of a well directed system of
education, acting on the probably unlimited capacity for improvement
inherent in the human race, is the lever to which modern civilization
is disposed to trust.
But as I have already stated, several modern systems of philosophy
and ethics, whilst they are the offshoots and result of a more highly
developed mind, yet have not assisted in the extinction of this blot,
but have rather tended to exculpate suicide, and remove the idea of its
moral sinfulness.
The line of argument with respect to our subject, which is followed by
some of those who lead modern philosophical thought, may perhaps be
briefly outlined as follows:─
It is an essential attribute of Humanity that it is progressive;
systems of Morality arise which are each of a higher nature than the
preceding; there is no finality even in Religious improvement.
All Religions become improved in the course of time, by casting aside
their harsher outlines and less delicate features; for example, the
Christian’s Hell, from being a fiery corporeal dungeon, is developed
into a period of mental torture and remorse.
Even Christianity then is exalting itself; it has of late tacitly
consented to the removal of earthly penalties from the sin of
Suicide, penalties which in a bygone age statute law borrowed from
ecclesiastical law; this is one mark of its progressiveness.
Nothing is practically gained by calling Suicide a _crime_; no one
about to slay himself to be rid of brain-distracting trouble will be
restrained by the thought that his proposed action is _criminal_; in
some cases self-destruction is contemptible and cowardly; in some it
is venial; in some cases death is distinctly the lesser evil, in a few
it has been honourable, and as such should escape all condemnation,
and merit the approval of men of development and refinement. In
conclusion, says Philosophy, neither marks of contempt to the corpse,
nor legal forfeitures, nor branding the suicide’s memory,─the three
ecclesiastical penalties,─have had any obvious effect in checking the
act.
Nothing but the increase of education will suffice to prevent those
suicides which are prompted by immoral thoughts and feelings; as to
the venial ones, such as we see in those who but anticipate the hour
of release from the tortures of disease, why should we, who are not
ill, grudge them this relief: and as to those inspired by the highest
and most refined sentiments of honour, we are well content to live in
a world in which such valour and self-sacrifice are exhibited.
The author hopes no individual will feel aggrieved at this _resumé_
of the so-called _advanced_ views on Suicide of to-day; he does
not associate them with any person in particular. These maxims
simply represent the impressions remaining on his mind after several
conversations with men who cultivate the modern developments of thought.
With this apology to the readers of these pages, the divergence between
Christian and philosophic views is left behind; and the main object of
the work is pursued in an independent scientific vein, without straying
into the bye-ways of Ethical discussion.