SELF-DESTRUCTION.

Otago Witness, Volume 26, Issue 1705, 26 July 1884, Page 25

SELF-DESTRUCTION .

The Practice of Suicide among the Anoibnts. — Suicide in England and France —Paris the Headquarters.— Suicidal Epidemics. —Hereditary Suicide.— Self.Destbuotion an Act ov Cowardice. Among the ancients suicide was very frequently resorted to, sometimes for the most trivial reasons, and was considered part of their code of religion and honour. By the Romans especially it was regarded quite, in the light of a national custom, and by their Jaws a man was justified in killing himself when worn out by lasting pain or lingering disease, or burdened with a load of debt, or oven from sheer wearineßs of life (taidiuin vitw). His will Was valid ; and if intestate his heirs succeeded him. Among the illustrious individuals of former tiinas who quitted this world voluntarily and prematurely we find the names of Demosthenes, Antony and Cleopatra, Cato, Hannibal, Cassius and Brutus, and many others. Suicide was looked upon an a cardinal virtue by the Stoics, whose founder, Zeno, hanged himself at the ripe old ago of ninety-eight. The custom wag also highly commended by Lucretius and the Epicureans, The philosophers of old spoke of it as "a justifiable escape from the miseries of life," apd as "the greatest indulgence given to man," Diogenes even going so far as to declare that " the nearer to suicide the nearest to virtue."

The ideas of the ancients concerning this practice underwent a great change after the time of Constantino the Great, with the advancement of the Christian,religion, which has always discouraged suicide and regarded it as one of the degrees of murder. During the middle ages, when religious sentiment was predominant, instances of self-destruction were few and far between, these few being mostly caused by the monotony of monastic life; but with the Renaissance was revivod a modified form of Stoicism, with, of course, a return of suicide. In More's " Utopia " tho inhabitants of the happy republic, when, from sickness or old age, they are become a burden to themselves and to all about them, are'exhorted — but in nowise compelled— by their priests to deliver themselves voluntarily from their "prison and torture," or to allow others to effect thoir deliverance. To the somewhat melancholy tendency of the Elizabathan periou and the psychological studies of Shakspeare succeeded a long period of calm ; but towards the end of the eighteenth century began, with Werther — who nas been called " Hamlet's posthumous child "—the era of modern suicidal melancholy. This differs essentially from the suicidal era of the ancients, being psychical rather than physical, Whereas theirs was born of sheer exhaustion and satiety, with wapt of belief in afuture state of existence), that of the present day is the melancholy of a restless and unceasingly analysing soul, eternally brooding over the insoluble problems " Whence ?" and " Whither ?" which disordered state not unfrequently leads to incapacity for action, and finally to inability to live.

Quito devoid of foundation is the assertion so persistently made by foreigners, and at' last almost b.olie'ved in by themselves, that Erighnd is the laad of- suicide. Frenchmen especially seem seriously to entertain the idea that we are always ready to blow ou£ our brains in a fit of the spleen, caused by our much maligned climate, and gonoral dullness a?id lack of amusement 1 In point of fact Paris itself is , the headquarters of self - destruction, and its Morgue one of the principal 1 and most'frequented show-places of the city. The casds th.ere are mu,ch more numerous in proportion to tho number of tho population than in this country, aad have been variously estimated at from three to five times as many ; but there' is not the publicity afforded them in the Parisian press that is given them by our own widejycirculatnd daily and weekly papers. .As a proof that climate has but little connection with the tendency to commit suicide it may be pointed out that the' inhabitants of damp and foggy Holland, a " oountry that draws fifty foot of water," are by no means addicted to selfslaughter. The buoyant, light-hearted Irish are, with tho exception perhaps of the Neapolitans, the least ' suicidal people in .Europe. In what may be designated, as compared with European countries, the topsy turvy nations of China and Japan, suicide is quite an institution, and is apparently looked upon as a fine art ; so much so that in the latter country the sons of peoplo of quality exercise themselves in their youth for five or six years, in order that they may kill themselves, in case of need, with grace and elegance. In India the voluntary self-immolation of widows on their deceased husbands' funeral-pyres was, until recently, a universal practice, and still takes placo occasionally in secret, though very "properly discouraged by the Government. In aomo part 3 of the East Indies the natives vow suicide in return ■ for boons solicited 1 from their idols ; and in fulfilment of this vow fling themselves from lofty precipices, and 'are dashed to pieces. Or they will destroy themselves after having had a quarrel with anyone/ in order that their blood may lie at their adversary's door.

The tendency to suicide varies with the occupation, 1 and is said to be twice as great among artisans as it is among labourers ; it is certainly much' greater' in cities'than in rural districts, and increases With the increase of civilisation and education. Suicide is but rarely met with in old people, arid is also very uncommon in children, although instances aie recorded of quite youngcbildren hanging or drowning themselves on being reproved or punished .for some venial fault.

Some would-be suicides resolve to kill themselves in a particular way, and may fjaye to wait years for an opportunity; others wijl make use of the first mode of destruction that present? itself. Taylor says : " The sigtit of a weapon or qf a particular spot whore a previous Boieide has been committed, will often induce a person who may hitherto have been unsuapootod.of any such disposition, at once to destroy himself." Individuals conscious ojt their liability to commit self-murder would do well, therefore, to avoid t^iat ." sight of means te do ill deeds" which might lead to thp " ill deed " being " done " in a sudden fit Qf desperation or frenzy. A man wuo cannot justify the r^sb apt p$ hja own conscience wilj nnd excuses for it in the examples of others. This imitative propensity may even amount to an epidemic, as at Veroailles in 3.79.3, when no fewer $hap thirteen hundred persons destroyed themselves. Some years ago the Hotel dcs Invalides, Paris, was the scene of one of these outbreaks ; one of the invalids hanged himself on a crossbar of the institution ; and in the ensuing fortnight six or seven others followed his example on the

same bar, the epidemic being only stopped by the governor having the passage closed. Insane people will sometimes display great ingenuity and perseverance in the means by which they choose to put an end to themselves. They are very determined ; aud if frustrated in one attempt will, make others, perhaps all in different ways'; and unless very strictly guarded will generally succeed at last ia effeoting their purpose. An instance of almost incredible determination to dio is that of a French gentleman who dug a trench in a wood and lay in it sixteen days, writing down in a journal each day the state of his feelingu. From this journal it appeared that he suffered greatly, at first from hunger and afterwards from thirst and cold. He left his trench and got a little water from the pump of an inn near tbe wood on the sixth night ; and this he continued to do until the tenth day, when he was too weak to stir. He ceased to write on the fourteenth day ; and on the sixteenth he was discovered by a countryman," who tried — but in vain — to restore him. He died on the eighteenth day. The heredity of suicide, though not universally conceded, is admitted by most authorities, and according to some the tendency to self-destruction is more disposed to be hereditary than any other form of insanity, Cortainly a great number of those who put an end to their own lives are members of families in which instances of suioide or insanity have previously occurred, and the propensity is usually most strong at some particular age. Dr Gall mentions the case of a Frenchman of pro perty who killed himself, leaving a large sum of money to be divided among his seven children. None of these met with any real misfortunes in life, but all succumbed, before attaining their fortieth year, to the mania for suicide.

Intemperance, the root of half the idiocy and a considerable percentage of the insanity of the country, is also largely contributory to the rapidly increasing number of cases of selfmurder. In the French classification, which is " generally admitted to be pretty true of all countries," fifteen per cent, are put down to drink; while thirty- four per cent, are attributed to insanity, twenty-three per cent, to grief, and twenty-eight per cent, to various other causes.

Suicide, whether regarded as a crime or a disease, iB in all cases a rash, ill-advised aot of impatience. Napoleon — who, when his misfortunes reached a climax, declared he had not " enough of the Roman in him " for Buicide— described it as an act of cowardice, a running away from the enemy before being defeated. Perhaps the best safeguards against it are domestic ties and the sense of responsibility and accountability. Very few instances of self-de-struction occur among prudent hard-working heads of families who have insured their lives.. — Chambers's Journal.