The essence of impulsive insanity is its occurrence without any warning; yet many such suicides might be prevented by a more careful observation on the part of the companions of a patient. Whenever there be any hereditary taint of insanity, or of dipsomania, or of chronic nervous disease, or epilepsy; if there be heredity of self-destruction, or if there have been a previous attack of insanity, or if there be insomnia, the slightest symptoms of mental alteration should be watched for; alterations of conduct, the attitude of suspicion, or of self-accusation, or of unnecessary melancholy. The facial expression will frequently raise the alarm; the restless uneasy eye, and ever varying play of the muscles of the face in one case; and the settled glare of the eye, and expressionless features in another, should warn observers of an approaching crisis of disordered intellect. SUICIDE OF SANE PERSONS. The suicidal tendency so often coexists, either with straightened circumstances, or sudden deprivation of income, that the very modes of treatment most likely to remove the tendency are by these very causes rendered impracticable. Temporary abstention from duty or business, coupled with change of climate and scene, would doubtless cure a very large percentage of cases, but it is exactly the inability to drop the chains of employment, and the absence of the monetary means for travel which are lacking. The means of cure when they are practicable are obvious enough to any physician; a healthy and not too arduous employment; change of air, and scene; and of companionship; the improvement of the bodily health, the exhibition of nervine tonics; and last, but not by any means least, the exercise of every possible means of making sleep a certainty. The continuous poring over one’s troubles, and contemplating one’s fate, without the definite lengthy intermissions given by healthy sleep, are most fertile causes of nervous breakdown and attempted self-destruction. The occurrence of a long night’s slumber frequently entirely removes the pernicious intentions at which an overwrought brain arrived over night. I have already alluded to the debated question as to the tendencies of religion and education. Statistics seem to point so clearly to development of the mind and mental tension as a cause of voluntary death, that it is probably of no use to look to education as a cure for the suicidal tendency in individuals. The cultivation of a religious conviction of the sanctity of life, and the sin of a self-inflicted death is a more certain hindrance to suicide. Persons who are unable to obtain this mental conviction, are, I believe, more prone to take their lives in time of trouble, and beyond good advice and the care of their friends, I do not know that any means exist to restrain them. See Legoyt, Esquirol, Cazeauvieile and Descuret.