ARE SUICIDES INSANE?

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6808, 11 January 1929, Page 4

ARE SUICIDES INSANE?

ENGLISH JUDGE SAYS NO The “mer.e formula” at inquests, to say that all suicides were insane, was condemned by Judge Cluer, at Shoreditch County Court, London. Daisy Johnson, of Clapton, sought to recover £2OO compensation for the death of her husband from his employees, coal merchants, of Stoke Newington, Johnson cut his throat, and the widow claimed that the tragedy was caused by depression resulting from injuries her husband received when he was knocked down by a horse during his employment. He was paid compensation until the time of his death, and did not return to work. Dr. W. R. Harris said Johnson became depressed and very worried. One rather differentiated between the kind of insanity which was likely to result in suicide and the degree of insanity which existed in the case of a neurasthenic. Counsel: Did you say at the inquest that he was of unsound mind? Judge Cluer: That is the kind of thing they say at inquests. They used not to be insane. The Romans were not insane when they committed suicide. Saul was not insane when he fell on his sword. It is a formula In England, because suicides used to be buried at the cross-roads. It is a mere formula. Dr. Brander, medical superintendent of Hackney Hospital, expressed the opinion that every suicide was insane. There were some who showed symptoms of delusions, and there were others who did not show symptoms before they committed suicide. Judge Cluer said that If he were to jump from a burning building to avoid being roasted alive he was not insane.