W. Wynn (William Wynn) Westcott - Suicide

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A Social Science Treatise .

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SUICIDE
ITS
HISTORY, LITERATURE,
JURISPRUDENCE,
CAUSATION, AND PREVENTION.

BY

W. WYNN WESTCOTT, M.B. Lond.

DEPUTY CORONER FOR CENTRAL MIDDLESEX.

Joint Author of the
Extra Pharmacopia .

LONDON:
H. K. LEWIS, 136, GOWER STREET, W.C.
1885.

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TO

GEORGE DANFORD THOMAS, Esq. , M.D. ,
CORONER FOR CENTRAL MIDDLESEX,

THIS VOLUME IS

DEDICATED

WITH MUCH RESPECT AND ESTEEM

BY

THE AUTHOR.

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PREFACE.

In preparing an Essay on Suicide, which I recently delivered before a Society of medical men in London, I found it impossible in the limited time at my disposal to do anything like justice to the gravity and importance of the subject.

The question is one well worthy of the earnest consideration of the community; indeed, it may be legitimately regarded as one of our Social Problems, as it involves matters which are intimately connected with our social organisation, and is with propriety embraced in our legislative enactments.

When we reflect, with satisfaction perhaps, that in England crime has been steadily decreasing, the fact that Suicide has been as steadily on the increase in Great Britain, and in almost every country in Europe, while it awakens our sympathy on behalf of the unhappy victims, should stimulate our exertions towards promoting the diminution of this moral plague spot.

These considerations, added to the fact that there are but two books in the English language devoted entirely to this subject,one dated as far back as 1840, and the other, a most valuable but almost entirely statistical work, translated from the Italian,have induced me to re-arrange and extend my notes, and I now offer them to my professional brethren and other students of Social Science in the following short treatise on the History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and Prevention of Suicide.

As Deputy Coroner for Central Middlesex frequent opportunities are afforded me of investigating cases of Suicide, and I have added to this volume original instances and estimates derived from those suicidal deaths of London, upon which inquests have been held by Dr. Danford Thomas, or myself.

The works of Legoyt, Morselli, and Wagner, contain an almost complete estimation of the statistical proportions in regard to the causes and means of suicide in France, Italy, Germany, &c., and to them I am greatly indebted for such information.

The Bibliographical Index contains the titles of other works which have been consulted.

Let me hope that my humble efforts may tend in some degree to the prevention of self-destruction, and the promotion of a more robust and healthy public opinion on the subject: if this volume conduces to these ends my object will have been achieved.

In conclusion, I must express my deep obligation to my friend Dr. Duncan MacLarty, for his many welcome suggestions, and for his care in revising these sheets for the press.

Wm. Wynn Westcott, m.b.

4, Torriano Avenue,
London, N.W.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE
Chapter	Introduction; the Ethics of the Subject	1
History: Ancient and Modern	7
Notable Suicides: Ancient, of the Middle Ages, and Modern	17
Origin of the Name; Classic Authors, examples of the Literature of Suicide, English and Foreign	29
Jurisprudence; Suicide as a Crime in England, and abroad	43
Jurisprudence; Suicide and Life Assurance; in respect to Marriage, and to Wills	51
Present Rate, and Increase, in Europe	58
Causation in general, Classification	65
Effect of Race, Climate, &c.	75
Effect of Education, Religion, and Morality	81
Effect of Urban and Rural Life, and Employment; the effect of Military, Naval, and Prison Life	93
Effect of Times and Seasons	102
Effect of Age, Sex, and Social State	107
Mental Diseases	116
Epidemic Suicide, and Suicide from Imitation, and for Notoriety	129
Effect of Bodily Diseases, Alcoholism, Want of Sleep; Hereditary influence, and Spiritualism	135
Effect of Tdium Vit, the Passions, Misery, and Despair	141
The Means of Suicide, their relative frequency at home, and abroad	144
Suicide compared to Crime in General; Attempted Suicide, its relative amount	154
Suicide in British India	161
The Prevention, and Treatment of the Suicidal tendency	166
The Suicide of Animals	174
, Rules of Assurance Companies	180
182
187

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CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.

In every age of the world, and in the history of almost every country, we find instances more or less numerous of men and women who, preferring the dim uncertainty of the future to the painful realities of the present, have sought relief from all their troubles by suddenly terminating their own existence.

Misery and pain have been the lot of the human race ever since the dawn of history, and these causes have from the earliest times induced persons to destroy themselves, and even the fear of eternal punishment has not sufficed to deter them.

Sorrow, suffering, and mental disease are practically the only causes of Modern Suicide; but in the ancient world, suicides from these causes were either much more rare than they are at the present time, or else were passed over as unworthy of record, in the presence of suicides of a more honourable nature. Hundreds of instances have come down to us in which death has been self-sought and inflicted from an idea or conviction that such self-destruction was to be of obvious advantage to the state, or to the sufferers family; or again, the fatal act was frequently committed as a point of honour to obviate the disgrace and ignominy of falling into the hands of a conqueror; or, again, to avoid pollution and shame at the hands of unscrupulous and debased tyrants.

The history of the Jews as narrated in the Old Testament probably shows fewer instances of Suicide than the records of any other nation (nine only in 4,000 years); but whether or no there has been any special interposition of Providence on their behalf, or whether the result has been due to the inherent virtues of the laws of Moses, this is not the proper place to discuss or decide.

It cannot be denied that the influence of religion has caused thousands to make a voluntary sacrifice of their lives, as offerings to their deities; and thousands more have voluntarily courted death to prove the sincerity of their faith.

Madame de Stael has, with questionable propriety, pointed out that all the martyr throng were really instances of self-destruction instigated by devotion to faith, and that all suicides to avoid the stain of guilt are deaths of duty.

But, among the numberless faiths of the world, extinct, and now existing, many have had a direct tendency to invest the idea of self-destruction with a charm. Some because they taught the doctrine of total extinction at death; others because they inculcated a belief in metempsychosis; whilst others, again, have taught the certainty of bliss hereafter, if death occur, whether self-sought or otherwise, while fighting for the faith.

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