ABSTRACT

There are two sorts of extra-social causes to which one may, a priori, attribute an influence on the suicide-rate; they are organic-psychic dispositions and the nature of the physical environment. In the individual constitution, or at least in that of a significant class of individuals, it is possible that there might exist an inclination, varying in intensity from country to country, which directly leads man to suicide; on the other hand, the action of climate, temperature, etc., on the organism, might indirectly have the same effects. Under no circumstances can the hypothesis be dismissed unconsidered. We shall examine these two sets of factors successively, to see 1 Bibliography.—Falret, De l’hypochondrie et du suicide, Paris, 1822.—Esquirol, Des maladies mentales, Paris, 1838 (V. I, p. 526-676) and the article Suicide, in Dictionnaire de médecine, in 60 vols.—Cazauvieilh, Du suicide et de l’aliénation mentale, Paris, 1840-Etoc-Demazy, De la folie dans la production du suicide, in Annales medico-psych., 1844.—Bourdin, Du suicide considéré comme maladie, Paris, 1845.—Dechambre, De la monomanie homicide-suicide, in Gazette Medic., 1852.—Jousset, Du suicide et de la monomanie suicide, 1858.—Brierre de Boismont, op. cit.— Leroy, op. cit.—Art. Suicide, in Dictionnaire de médecine et de chirurgie pratique, V. XXXIV, p. 117.— Strahan, Suicide and Insanity, London, 1894.