Without business │ 1,106 │ 2,012 │ 3,118 Unknown employment │ 2,741 │ 2,447 │ 5,188 ├────────┼────────┼─────── │ 39,302 │ 12,824 │ 52,126 ────────────────────────────────────┴────────┴────────┴─────── MILITARY AND NAVAL LIFE. It is an almost universal truth that the suicide rate of any state is smaller than the rate observed in the men composing the Army and Navy of the same country. This point was first brought prominently into notice about twenty years ago with respect to our English soldiers; Dr. Millar pointed out that in 1862 the rate was 278 per million (estimated at per million), and in 1871 at 400 per million, and at the present time it is about triple the rate for ordinary Englishmen of between 20 and 30 years of age. In the Italian army at the present time the rate is treble that of ordinary Italians between 20 and 30 years of age. The suicidal tendency of an army is materially increased by foreign service; so that in the English Army, when the number was 339 per million at home, in India the numbers were 468. And it has been found that there is a higher percentage among soldiers of long service; three times the amount is found among soldiers of over 14 years’ service than is found among those of under 3 years’ service. Dr. Millar also observed that there were twice as many voluntary deaths in the Cavalry as in the Infantry. In Saxony the soldier’s rate was 640 per million, while the civilian’s rate was 368; in Prussia, 419 to 168; in Sweden, 450 to 101; in Austria, 442 to 144; in Wurtemburg, 320 to 170; in Belgium, 662 to 90; in France, 510 to 216. In the Austrian, Italian, and French armies the officers have a rate double that of the men; non-commissioned officers have the highest rate. The high military rate seems to spread, too, among civilians in their neighbourhood; some of the highest civilian rates are found on the Austrian and Prussian military frontiers, where there is constantly a military establishment retained as a guard. Even at the present time in our Navy the rate is much higher than among civilians. From a Report on the Health of the Navy, 1883, I find there were among 43,350 officers and men, 255 deaths; 176 from disease, 79 from injury, and 6 suicides. This gives a death-rate of only 5·88 per thousand, with a suicide rate of 138·5 per million. PRISON LIFE. Prisoners have a higher suicide rate than civilians at liberty, especially if we consider attempts at suicide. It is usual to make a distinction between convicts whose fate is settled, and prisoners arrested, and untried, or at least not convicted. For instance, Morselli gives for England: Prisoners, 1,100; Convicts, 350, France: „ 750; „ 80, as the relative rates of voluntary death.