Suicide: Its History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and Prevention — John Shaqi
Suicide: Its History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and PreventionWestcott, W. Wynn (William Wynn)
Philosophy
Suicide: Its History, Literature, Jurisprudence, Causation, and Prevention
Westcott, W. Wynn (William Wynn)
Suicide
The height of Scandinavian purity in race is found in Denmark, and
there also the ratio is very large, enormous, in fact: in Norway the
rate was for very long also extreme, but the great severity of recent
laws with respect to offences and to drunkenness have made an almost
incredible reduction in the amount of suicide.
Our British population is of too mixed a blood to enable statistics to
show much of value; but the ratio is much smaller in the Anglo-Saxon
than in the German.
The Celtic races avoid suicide, as is seen by the low rates in Ireland
and Wales.
The races of Slavonic origin show the lowest rates, with those of
Asiatic Turanian origin, the Magyars, Finns, and Lapps.
CLIMATE AND GEOGRAPHICAL DATA.
The extremes of heat and cold seem to tend to a low rate. In Europe
the highest rates are found in the central and upper two-thirds of the
north temperate zone; the maximum being at about 50° lat.
The countries of the west and the south of Europe give the minimum
proportions.
The principal suicide area of Europe is a zone lying from the north of
France to the east of Germany, with two foci, viz., the country around
and including Paris, at a rate of 330 per million of inhabitants, and
the kingdom of Saxony, at a rate of 469 per million. Compare with
these very high numbers the proportions shown by regions lying more to
the south: viz., Calabria, 9; Portugal, 16; Sardinia, 13; Spain, 19;
and Sicily, 18 per million. Leaving this central European area, and
advancing to the north, we again reach territories where lower rates
are found to prevail, although not so low as those of the Mediterranean
coast. While Scotland has a rate of 48, Ireland’s proportion is even
much less, about 24. Finland has a low rate, and so has Northern
Russia, 35 per million inhabitants.
Mountainous countries show a lower rate than lowlands; the Highlands of
Scotland and Wales give a ratio only half that of England.
In the mountain cantons of Switzerland self-destruction is almost
unheard of.
The amount of suicide varies considerably in the several counties of
England; it has in many years happened that Rutland and Westmoreland
have shown a very high rate; but this may possibly be due to their very
small size rendering the comparison unfair.
Dr. J. N. Radcliffe, some years ago now, took the pains to calculate
the rate per million for each county, from the Registrar’s returns; he
gives the following as the counties having the highest rates:─
The London area: Middlesex, 105; Kent, 97; Surrey, 95; and Sussex, 89
per million inhabitants.
The Midland area: Leicester, 89; Lincoln, 87; Nottingham, 87; Warwick,
77; and Derby, 80.
The Northern area: Westmoreland, 99; Cumberland, 86; Lancaster, 70; and
Chester, 70 per million.
Very large proportions follow the great Rivers of Europe, especially
the Po, Seine, Loire, Rhone, Oder, Rhine, Elbe, Thames, and the Scheldt
in Belgium.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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