CHILD SUICIDES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 134, 29 February 1908, Page 10

CHILD SUICIDES.

The suicide of a thirteen-year-old girl, unable to face a reprimand, at Hampstead, England, is an example, according to a -wellknown psychologist, of the -'neurotic and over-pr'ecoclous tendency of tho age. ■ "That suicido for inadequate' reasons is on tho increase is common knowledge," ho continued,' "but tho most striking tact revealed by statistics is the number of young children who in'tho'last Few yearsii:)vo put an 6iid;to their lives. During iUOI eleven children of about tho age of ten committed suicido, and in 1905 six cases of. sclf-destruc-tion in children of the samo age and 118 cases' befcweon ten and fifteen years-of age were recorded. In most of these cases'tlio fear of reprimand for some slight noglcct of duty scorns to have been the cause.

"Despair caused by failure to keep up with school duties is a fruitful cause of suicide .among German children, over GOO of such cases having been traced by Professor Eulqnberg, of Berlin, within tho past twelve years. In Russia, another great centro of . child-suicide, political and Socialistic activity is common, among the ifchbol children, and over-precocious ideas nro a cause, of self-dcstruction. In England, iinretiuited affection or petulance at not being taken seriously in their youthful love affairs is tho commonest causo of suicide among ckildreu of fifteen or sixteen."