URBAN AND RURAL LIFE; EMPLOYMENT; ARMY, NAVY, AND PRISON LIFE.
The suicide rate of any great city is found to be higher than the rate
of the rural district around it, and this statement is true of every
country. Many causes contribute to this increased rate, besides the
mere density of population, which however may be considered to have of
itself an influence to make suicide more frequent.
Statistics do not shew that the proportion increases with the total
population of the urban district; in London, for example, although the
total population is so much greater than that of Brussels, yet the
suicide rate is much lower.
Urban life only tends to exaggerate the general inclination of a
people; as Morselli puts it,─“the suicide rate is high in the rural
districts when it is so in the towns; in the latter, on the contrary,
it becomes lower in proportion to the general average.”
Town life is powerful to modify the human will, and the feelings and
acts of mankind, but it will not neutralise all the other social and
individual influences.
The most important difficulty in making correct estimates of the
suicide rates of cities, is the uncertainty as to where the line
should be drawn to separate the town from the country; for it is
obvious that if these have different rates, the proportion for the town
may be rendered high or low accordingly, whether the line be drawn
through the suburbs, or beyond the farthest of them. Cities more than
villages contain the two extreme states of riches and poverty, both of
which tend to a voluntary death: in cities the struggle for existence
is much sharper than it is amid the scattered population of villages,
and together with this point is the collateral one of mental strain and
excitement existing when not required for merely procuring a living.
The ratio of suicides in several cities, calculated in the year 1883,
is here given, with reference to a million of inhabitants:─Paris, 402;
Copenhagen, 302; Stockholm, 354; Naples, 34; Rome, 74; London, 87;
Vienna, 287; Brussels, 271; Berlin, 170; St. Petersburgh, 206; and New
York, 144.
In London, Buckle tells us, there has always been a higher rate than in
the rest of England. During─
1846-50 they were 107 per million } England, 66
1856-61 „ 100 „ } „ 65
1861-70 „ 88 „ } „ 66
1872-76 „ 86 „ } „ 69
These figures show about one-third more suicide in London than the
country. The same proportion holds good at the present time.
The Middlesex portion of London has always had a higher percentage than
either the Kent or Surrey portions.
In Berlin the suicide rate was stationary in 1860-1872; indeed,
decreasing in 1870-1872, but a large rate compared to the country
around; in 1860 the relative numbers were 160 for the city to 100 in
the country.
Legoyt calculates the suicide rate of the United States as 32 per
million; and New York City, for the year 1876, as 142 per million.
EMPLOYMENT.
With regard to the business of one’s life, it has been noticed that
professions and trades, which by habits, physical and mental, bring
women near to men, often tend to raise in an extraordinary degree the
inclination of women to kill themselves.
It is a matter of the greatest difficulty to procure statistics
sufficiently reliable of the numbers of each profession and trade, to
couple with the numbers of known suicides of each trade and profession,
for the purpose of obtaining a “professional suicide rate.”
Italian statistics show that the rates are higher in those trades which
are concerned with luxuries, and lower in those whose products command
a more regular market, such as are necessaries.
Goldsmiths, jewellers, makers of arms, scientific instruments, toilet
necessaries, musical instruments, &c., give a higher rate than that of
builders, weavers, spinners, tailors, glovers, &c.
Nuns, convent maids, and lay sisters, all numerous classes in Italy,
give very few suicides.
In the higher walks of education the rates are all higher. Men of
science, doctors, lawyers, military men, and the governing officials,
all are very prone to self-destruction.
In those counties of France where there is the greatest attention paid
to trade, agriculture, and commerce, the suicide rate is the highest;
in counties where the development of business is slight the rate is
lower.
And, further, it is almost universally true that the states that have
most perfect railway systems are those which have the largest average
of suicide.
Now, all countries having a largely developed trade are liable to
commercial depressions; these are constantly followed by waves of
increased lunacy and more numerous suicides; and note that these
effects follow not immediately on a crisis, but after a little interval.
At the crisis the majority of minds are strung up to the needed effort:
it is the loosening of the tension that upsets the mental equilibrium;
the exhaustion following prolonged exertion. Similar to these
commercial waves are the effects of war, increased prices and taxation;
it was not the bad years of the Crimean War that gave the heaviest
voluntary death rate, but the two years after.
In Austria the war of 1858-9 was effectual in the increased rates of
1860-61.
In France suicides and lunatics were more numerous in 1872 and 1873,
not in the years of the war, 1870 and 1871.
Legoyt gives the following analysis of suicides: Middle classes and
outcasts, 596 per million; liberal professions, 218; industrial
classes, 128; tillers of the soil, 90 per million.
I subjoin a Table, borrowed from Lisle, shewing the employment in more
than 50,000 cases of suicide in France.
TABLE of 52,126 French Suicides arranged according to Occupation.
────────────────────────────────────┬────────┬────────┬───────
──── │ Male. │ Female.│ TOTAL.
────────────────────────────────────┼────────┼────────┼───────
I.─Of SLIGHT EDUCATION: │ │ │
Shepherds │ 276 │ 32 │ 308
Woodcutters, charcoal burners │ 54 │ 6 │ 60
Agricultural labourers │ 12,179 │ 3,681 │ 15,860
Beggars and vagabonds │ 335 │ 115 │ 450
Prostitutes │ 0 │ 53 │ 53
Mechanics in Wood │ 1,729 │ 72 │ 1,801
„ „ Leather │ 377 │ 27 │ 404
„ „ Iron │ 1,437 │ 64 │ 1,501
„ „ Cotton, Silk │ 1,339 │ 463 │ 1,802
„ „ Stone │ 1,079 │ 48 │ 1,127
Other mechanics │ 541 │ 91 │ 632
Porters, Commissionaires │ 368 │ 6 │ 374
Sailors │ 311 │ 9 │ 320
Drivers of carriages, vans │ 468 │ 7 │ 475
Domestic servants │ 1,270 │ 1,204 │ 2,474
│ │ │
II.─Of BETTER EDUCATION: │ │ │
Bakers, confectioners │ 373 │ 29 │ 402
Butchers │ 265 │ 24 │ 289
Furniture dealers │ 259 │ 28 │ 287
Hatters │ 102 │ 21 │ 123
Shoemakers │ 639 │ 46 │ 685
Hairdressers │ 164 │ 8 │ 172
Tailors │ 644 │ 780 │ 1,424
Laundry workers │ 73 │ 221 │ 294
General shopkeepers │ 1,233 │ 289 │ 1,522
„ travelling dealers │ 314 │ 62 │ 376
Inn-keepers │ 741 │ 159 │ 900
│ │ │
III.─Of SUPERIOR EDUCATION: │ │ │
Wholesale dealers, bankers │ 382 │ 12 │ 394
Merchants’ clerks │ 441 │ 27 │ 468
Artists │ 194 │ 25 │ 219
Clerks and copyists │ 276 │ 2 │ 278
Students │ 118 │ 2 │ 120
Public officials │ 1,187 │ 23 │ 1,210
Professors and teachers │ 169 │ 32 │ 201
Military and Navy men │ 2,826 │ 4 │ 2,830
Lawyers and doctors, &c. │ 427 │ 16 │ 443
Persons owning property │ 2,693 │ 808 │ 3,501
│ │ │
IV.─ │ │ │
Without business │ 1,106 │ 2,012 │ 3,118
Unknown employment │ 2,741 │ 2,447 │ 5,188
├────────┼────────┼───────
│ 39,302 │ 12,824 │ 52,126
────────────────────────────────────┴────────┴────────┴───────
MILITARY AND NAVAL LIFE.
It is an almost universal truth that the suicide rate of any state is
smaller than the rate observed in the men composing the Army and Navy
of the same country.
This point was first brought prominently into notice about twenty years
ago with respect to our English soldiers; Dr. Millar pointed out that
in 1862 the rate was 278 per million (estimated at per million), and in
1871 at 400 per million, and at the present time it is about triple the
rate for ordinary Englishmen of between 20 and 30 years of age. In the
Italian army at the present time the rate is treble that of ordinary
Italians between 20 and 30 years of age.
The suicidal tendency of an army is materially increased by foreign
service; so that in the English Army, when the number was 339 per
million at home, in India the numbers were 468. And it has been found
that there is a higher percentage among soldiers of long service; three
times the amount is found among soldiers of over 14 years’ service than
is found among those of under 3 years’ service.
Dr. Millar also observed that there were twice as many voluntary deaths
in the Cavalry as in the Infantry.
In Saxony the soldier’s rate was 640 per million, while the civilian’s
rate was 368; in Prussia, 419 to 168; in Sweden, 450 to 101; in
Austria, 442 to 144; in Wurtemburg, 320 to 170; in Belgium, 662 to 90;
in France, 510 to 216.
In the Austrian, Italian, and French armies the officers have a rate
double that of the men; non-commissioned officers have the highest rate.
The high military rate seems to spread, too, among civilians in their
neighbourhood; some of the highest civilian rates are found on the
Austrian and Prussian military frontiers, where there is constantly a
military establishment retained as a guard.
Even at the present time in our Navy the rate is much higher than among
civilians. From a Report on the Health of the Navy, 1883, I find there
were among 43,350 officers and men, 255 deaths; 176 from disease, 79
from injury, and 6 suicides. This gives a death-rate of only 5·88 per
thousand, with a suicide rate of 138·5 per million.
PRISON LIFE.
Prisoners have a higher suicide rate than civilians at liberty,
especially if we consider attempts at suicide.
It is usual to make a distinction between convicts whose fate is
settled, and prisoners arrested, and untried, or at least not
convicted. For instance, Morselli gives for
England: Prisoners, 1,100; Convicts, 350,
France: „ 750; „ 80,
as the relative rates of voluntary death.
Female prisoners give a very high rate in Denmark and Italy, and
suicides of females are more numerous than those of males in the
prisons of these two states.
More than half of Prisoner Suicides are of men and women convicted of
crimes against the person.
The longer a prisoner remains in a convict prison, the less is the
tendency to suicide; most prisoners become used to the mode of life
under a year of confinement.
Solitary confinement produces a greater suicide tendency than
associated imprisonment, and the systems of mixed prisoners.
From a return of English local prisons, just issued, I find there were
in 1883, only ten cases of suicide, of whom only one was a female. This
return did not include the great convict establishments; with respect
to which I may add that successful attempts at self-destruction are
very rare, and statistics are not directly available.
In the prisons of Italy, the frequency of suicide is greatest in
prisoners of between twenty-one and thirty years; that is at an earlier
age than among people at large; it is found to be more often attempted
by countrymen than by town dwellers; another reversal of data.
Nearly half of all cases occur in the first year of confinement.
Two-thirds of the prison suicides had always been reported as “well
conducted.”
Only twenty-three per cent. of the cases occurred in criminals having a
shorter sentence than three years.
So far as I can learn, all these points are, broadly speaking, equally
true with regard to prisons in England.