Suicide : an essay on comparative moral statistics / by Henry Morselli.

  • Enrico Morselli
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suicide : an essay on comparative moral statistics / by Henry Morselli. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    The first thing we observe is the great number of deaths by hanging in the country, found also by Wagner in the period, 1856-60, and by David during 1845-56 in Den- mark. In death by drowning the greatest proportion is of those individuals without professions, therefore almost all the feminine suicides appear amongst them. In the use of firearms as a means of death, the chief place be- longs, as might be foreseen, to the military, whether in active service or pensioned, whilst the category of the professionals, notaries, doctors, engineers, &c., take the lead among suicides by cutting weapons and poison. Artists in falls from heights, laundresses in asphyxia (as Esquirol has said), show the largest numbers. But the difference between the various groups of professions is not so remarkable as that between the social classes. It may be perceived that in the upper classes hanging is considered too ignoble a method, whilst they have recourse more willingly to the pistol, poison, and, above all, to the knife. In Denmark, also, the minimum numbers of deaths by hanging are those of the military, professionals, officials^ and capitalists (respectively, 35, 51, 56, 60 per cent.), whilst the maximum is found among prisoners, children, peasants, and industrial labourers (namely, 95, 78, 76, 64 per cent.). In the English army, as in all others, the method preferred is naturally that of firearms; hanging scarcely amounts to 8 per cent., poison to 7 per cent. The following are the returns for the decennial 1862-71 (Millar) Cases Per ],000 Firearms .... 363 546 Wounds by knife . 107 161 Drowning .... 55 83 Hanging ..... 53 80 71 Poison 47 Fractures, contusions . 28 42 Otherwise .... 11 17