Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, September 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, September 1899: Vol. LV, May to October, 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
The curves marked "normal" were constructed by tabulating in a similar
manner the conditions for every day in a sufficient number of days to
secure a fair average. Five years were so tabulated for Figs. 2, 3, 4,
and 5, and the records for nineteen years used in Figs. 1 and 6.
The whole number of suicides recorded is two hundred and sixty;
murders, one hundred and eighty. It may be noted that this number of
suicides, for a city averaging hardly one hundred thousand inhabitants
for the fourteen years, is largely in excess of the rate recorded for
American cities, but it must be remembered that some of these were
unsuccessful attempts, and also that the social conditions of Denver
tend to swell the number--containing, as it does, so many disappointed
in the last struggle for health.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.]
Fig. 1 shows the occurrence, in per cent, of crimes of both the
classes considered for each month of the year, together with the
monthly meteorological means, computed from the records for nineteen
years. The expectancy curve in the occurrence table is based upon the
supposition that the months of the year are all of the same length,
and that the numerical expectancy would be one twelfth, or eight and a
third per cent for each. It will be seen that the crime curves are for
the most part below the expectancy for the winter months, and above it
for the summer (except for April, and suicides for June), showing the
maximum for the latter class in May and for murders in March. Morselli
shows[C] that for most European countries suicides are at the maximum
in June, though a considerable number show that condition for the
later spring months. A study of the general meteorological means,
shown upon the same plate as the occurrence table, fails to indicate
any good reason for irregularity of the crime curves. The "month"
columns read from the top to the bottom of the chart, and by following
that for May, for instance, which month shows the maximum for suicide,
we find that the meteorological condition for each class of data is
about halfway between the extremes for that class for the year, while
for January (minimum suicides) each class is by far more divergent.
Yet a mean, like those considered in this table, is but the average of
the extremes, and those months which show great per cents of crime
also present great extremes of condition, which fact, interpreted in
the light of those disclosed by the charts yet to be considered, make
the occurrence curve more explicable.
[Footnote C: Suicide, International Science Series.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2.]
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