Improvement of health, strong mental effort, and custom remove these unpleasant feelings. CHAPTER XVI. BODILY DISEASES; INSOMNIA, SPIRITUALISM, HEREDITY, AND ALCOHOLISM. Incurable bodily diseases, and the accompanying pain of some other disorders, are not uncommon causes of a voluntary death. It has been estimated that incurable diseases are even more powerful as a cause than very painful ones. The heavy voluntary death rate of persons afflicted with pellagra has been already noticed, as has the dictum of Pliny that the presence of stone in the bladder constitutes a fair reason for self-destruction. Not long ago I held an inquest on the body of a medical man who hung himself to avoid the pain and worry of an apparently incurable stricture of the urethra. Continental statisticians have calculated that bodily disease causes 8 per cent. of Italian suicides, 13 per cent. of French, 10 per cent. of Norwegian, and 12 per cent. of Prussian suicides. These are voluntary deaths, not deaths during delirium accompanying disease. Loss of sight, and loss of hearing, are both causes of increased suicide rate; in Prussia it has been estimated that persons having suffered such deprivation contribute a rate almost double that of persons not so afflicted. INSOMNIA. Closely connected with mental and bodily disorders as a cause of suicide is sleeplessness, apart from organic disease. There is, I suppose, nothing more trying to the sensations, and nothing more exhausting to the nervous system, than this symptom. Its tendency to become habitual, and to become more and more complete, are its harassing qualities. I have held inquests on cases distinctly referable to the misery caused by want of sleep. That sleeplessness is an important factor in producing suicide is pointed out very forcibly by Dr. Jos. Williams in an article in the “Lancet” of 1850. “Business men especially apply to their doctors for this ailment, and their request is often answered by a little anti-dyspeptic mixture, whereas a powerful sedative for a few nights, until rest and change can be arranged for, would be the means of preserving life.” The “Medical Times and Gazette,” 1872, in referring to two similar deaths from suicide, those of Mr. Justice Willes and Hugh Miller the Geologist, insisted also on the necessity of procuring sleep and rest for worried men, and so did good service. ALCOHOL. Without doubt the habitual use of alcohol to excess is a very fertile suicide prompter, and it is found that the stronger the form of alcohol used, the more often crime and suicide are produced; such are as rare when the light wines are drunk, as they are frequent among spirit drinkers.