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t 
 
 THE 
 
 ANATOMY OF SUICIDE 
 
 FORBES WINSLOW, 
 
 MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, LONDON J 
 AUTHOR OF " PHYSIC AND PHYSICIANS." 
 
 " But is there yet no other way, besides 
 These painful passages ; how we may come 
 To death, and mix with our connatural dust? 
 ****** 
 Nor love thy life, nor hate : but what thou liv'st 
 Live well; now long or short permit to Hkavkn." 
 
 MlI.TON, 
 
 LONDON: 
 HENRY RENSHAW, 356, STRAND. 
 
 SOLD BY CARFRAE & SON, EDINBURGH; 
 
 AND FANNIN & CO., DUBLIN. 
 
 1840. 
 

 ^^Fpiri 
 
TO 
 
 JAMES JOHNSON, ESQ., M.D 
 
 PHYSICIAN EXTRAORDINARY TO THE LATE KING, 
 ETC. ETC. 
 
 Cj^i^ OTovfe i£S tretricateir, 
 
 AS A TESTIMONY OF RESPECT FOR HIS HIGH PROFESSIONAL ATTAINMENTS, 
 
 AND AS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE 
 
 ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM A PERUSAL OF THE MANY ABLE WORKS 
 
 WITH WHICH HE HAS ENRICHED 
 
 THE MEDICAL LITERATURE OF HIS COUNTRY. 
 
 London^— May, 1840. 
 
 20fi74.() 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 This treatise had its origin in the following circumstance : — 
 A few months ago, the author had the honour of reading 
 before the Westminster Medical Society y a paper on " Suicide 
 Medically considered," which giving rise to an animated 
 discussion, and evolving an expression of the opinions of 
 several eminent professional men, excited at the time much 
 interest. 
 
 It was the author's object in his paper to establish a fact, 
 he believes, of primary importance, — that the disposition to 
 commit self-destruction is, to a great extent, amenable to 
 those principles which regulate our treatment of ordinary 
 disease ; and that, to a degree more than is generally sup- 
 posed, it originates in derangement of the brain and abdo- 
 minal viscera. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, these points were not considered 
 with the minuteness commensurate with their value, the dis- 
 cussion which followed the author's communication afforded 
 him great satisfaction. It tended to strengthen in his mind 
 an opinion previously formed, that the members of the medical 
 profession were inferior to no other class in a knowledge of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 those higher branches of philosophy that give dignity and 
 elevation to human character. 
 
 To explain more fully the author's views on the subject of 
 Suicide is the object of the present v^ork, which is, strange to 
 say, the first in England that has been exclusively devoted 
 to this important and interesting branch of inquiry. 
 
 Hitherto suicide has been the theme of the novel and the 
 drama, and has never, with the exception of an incidental 
 notice in works on medical jurisprudence, been considered in 
 this country in reference to its pathological and physiological 
 character. 
 
 That an intimate acquaintance with this branch of know- 
 ledge is highly important to the medical philosopher, few will 
 deny; that it is a subject of general and painful interest, 
 all must admit. The apparent coolness with which suicide 
 is often committed has induced many to suppose that the 
 unfortunate perpetrator was at the time in possession of a 
 sound mind ; and it is this idea which has induced the pro- 
 fession to conceive the subject as one foreign to their pursuits, 
 and belonging rather to the province of the moral philo- 
 sopher. How far the author has succeeded in disproving 
 this opinion, it is for others to decide. 
 
 He takes this opportunity of acknowledging the assistance 
 he has received from the writings of Pinel, Esquirol, Falret, 
 Fodere, Arnold, Crichton, Willis, Black, Haslam, Burrows, 
 ConoUy, Pritchard, Mayo, Ellis, Paris, Smith, Beck, Taylor, 
 and Ray. To the pages of Dr. Johnson's Medico-chirurgical 
 Review, the Medical Gazette, the Lancet, and British and 
 Foreign Medical Review, he is also largely indebted. 
 
 In conclusion, the author, conscious of its imperfections, 
 claims for his work no other praise than that it is the first 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 attempt in this country to reflect light on a branch of medical 
 and moral philosophy, the importance of which is only equalled 
 by the difficulties impeding its investigation. He will feel him- 
 self amply repaid, should his introductory essay (for such only 
 can it be considered) stimulate others more competent than 
 himself to prosecute the inquiry which he has commenced. 
 Their success will aiford him much satisfaction and pleasure ; 
 for in the attainment of their endeavours will his hopes be 
 fulfilled, and his ambition gratified. 
 
 London,— May, 1840. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. ANCIENT LAWS AND OPINIONS 
 
 ON THE SUBJECT OF SUICIDE. 
 Examples of antiquity no defence of suicide — Causes of ancient suicides — 
 The suicides of Asdrubal, Nicocles, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Han nibal^ 
 Mithridates, the in habitants of _Jthg city of Xanthus, Cato^Charondas» 
 Lycurgus, Codrus, Themistocles, Emperor Otho, l^rutus and Cassius, 
 Mark Antony and Cleopatra , Petronius, Lucan, Lucius Vetus, Sardana- 
 palus, M. Curtius, Empedogjes, Theoxena, — Noble resistance of Jose- 
 phus — Scripture suicides :/Samsonl Sau l, Ahitophel, Judas Iscariot, 
 Eleazar, Razis — Doctrines of the^^ stoics, Seneca, Epictetus, Zeno — 
 Opinions of Cicero, Pliny, on suicide — Ancient laws on suicide, 
 
 p. 1—29 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WRITERS IN DEFENCE OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Opinions of Hume — Effect of his writings — Case of suicide caused by — The 
 doctrines of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Montaigne examined — Origin 
 of Dr. Donne's celebrated work — Madame de Stael's recantation — 
 Robert of Normandy, Gibbon, Sir J^ More, and Robeck's opinions 
 considered ---------------p. 30 — 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SUICIDE A CRIME AGAINST GOD AND MAN. — IT IS NOT AN 
 ACT OF COURAGE. 
 
 rhe sin of s uicide — The notions of Paleyon the subject — Voltaire's opinion — 
 Is s uicide^self-murde r ? — Is it forbidden jp Scriptur e ? — Shakspeare 's " 
 views on the subject— The alliance between suicide and murder — Has a 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 man a right to sacrifice his own life ? — Everything held upon trust — 
 Suicide a sin against ourselves and neighbour — It is not an act of cour- 
 age — Opinion of Q. Curtius on the subject — Buonaparte's denunciation 
 — ^ of suicide — Dryden's description of the suicide in another world, 
 
 p. 36—44 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES IN INDUCING 
 THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 
 
 Moral causes of disease — Neglect of psychological medicine — Mental philo- 
 sophy a branch of medical study — Moral causes of suicide — Tables of 
 Falret,&c. — Influence of remorse — Simon Brown, Charles IX. of France — 
 Massacre of St. Bartholomew — Terrible death of Cardinal Beaufort, from 
 
 remorse — T!ie Chevalier de S . Influence of disappointed love — 
 
 Suicide from love — Two singular cases — Effects of jealousy — Othello — 
 Suicide from this passion — The French opera dancer — Suicide from 
 wounded vanity — False pride — The remarkable case of Villeneuve, as 
 related by Buonaparte — Buonaparte's attempt at suicide — Ambition — 
 Despair, cases of suicide from — The Abbe de Ranee — Suicide from blind 
 impulse — Cases— Mathews, the comedian — Opinion of Esquirol on the 
 subject — Ennui, birth of— Common cause of suicide in France — Effect 
 of speculating in stocks — Defective education — Diffusion of knowledge — 
 " Socialism" a cause of self-destruction — Suicide common in Germany — 
 Werter — Goethe's attempt at suicide — Influence of his writings on Hack- 
 man — Suicide from reading Tom Paine's " Age of Reason" — Suicide to 
 avoid punishment — Most remarkable illustrations — Political excitement — 
 Nervous irritation — Love of notoriety — Hereditary disposition — Is death 
 painful? fully considered, with cases — Influence of irreligion, p. 45 — 107 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IMITATIVE, OR EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. 
 
 Persons who act from impulse liable to be influenced — Principle of imitation, 
 a natural instinct — Cases related by Cabanis and Tissot — The suicidal 
 barbers— Epidemic suicide at the Hot^l des Invalids — Sydenham's 
 epidemic— The ladies of Miletus — Dr. Parrish's case — Are insanity and 
 suicide contagious ? ------____. p^ 108 — 114 
 
 CHAPTER VI. , / 
 
 SUICIDE FROM FASCINATION. 
 
 Singular motives for committing suicide — A man who delighted in torturing 
 himself— A dangerous experiment — Pleasures of carnage— Disposition 
 
CONTENTS. XI 
 
 to leap from precipices — Lord Byron's allusion to the influence of fasci- 
 nation — Miss Moyes and the Monument — A man who could not trust 
 himself with a razor — Esquirol's Opinion of such cases — Danger of as- 
 cending elevated places ---------- p. 115 — ,120 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF THE ENTHUSIASM AND MENTAL IRRITABILITY WHICH, IF 
 ENCOURAGED, WOULD LEAD TO SUICIDE. 
 
 Connexion between genius and insanity — Authors of fiction often feel what 
 they write — Metastasio in tears — The enthusiasm of Pope, Alfieri, Dry- 
 den — Effects of the first reading of Telemachus and Tasso on Madame 
 Roland's mind — Raffaelle and his celebrated picture of the Transfiguration 
 — The convulsions of Malbranche — Beattie's Essay on Truth — Influence 
 of intense study on Boerrhave's mind — The demon of Spinello and, 
 Luther — Bourdaloue and his violin — Byron's sensitiveness — Men do not 
 always practise what they preach — Cases of Smollett, La Fontaine, Sir 
 Thomas More, Zimmerman — Tasso's spectre — Johnson's superstition — 
 Concluding remarks _-_-__-_-__ p. 121 — 129 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Influence of climate — The foggy climate of England does not increase the 
 number of suicides — Average number of suicides in each month, fi-om 
 1817 to 1826 — Influence of seasons— Suicides at Rouen — The English 
 not a suicidal people — Philip Mordaunt's singular reasons for self-de- 
 struction — Causes of French suicides — Influence of physical pain — Un- 
 natural vices — Suicide the effect of intoxication — Influence of hepatic dis- 
 ease on the mind — Melancholy and hypochondriasis. Burton's accounts 
 of— Cowj^sr's case of suicide — Particulars of his extreme depression of 
 spirits — Byron and Burns's melancholy from stomach and liver derange- 
 ment — Influence of bodily disease on the mind — Importance of paying 
 attention to it — A case of insanity from gastric irritation — Dr. Johnson's 
 hypochondria — Hereditary suicide, illustrated by cases — Suicide from 
 blows on the head, and from moral shocks communicated to the brain — 
 Dr. G. Mantell's valuable observations and cases demonstrative of the 
 point — Concluding remarks ---p. 130 — 161 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 Diseases of the brain not dissimilar to affections of other organs — Early 
 symptoms of insanity — The good effects of having plenty to do — Occu- 
 pation — Dr. Johnson's opinion on the subject — The pleasure derived 
 from cultivating a taste for the beauties of nature — liffect of volition on 
 diseases of the mind — Silent grief injurious to mental health — Treatment 
 of ennui^The time of danger, not the time of disease — The Walcheren 
 expedition — The retreat of the ten thousand Greeks under Xenophon — 
 Influence of music on the mind in the cure of disease — Cure of epidemic 
 suicide — Buonaparte's remedy — How the women of Miletus were cured 
 of the disposition to suicide, and other illustrations — Cases shewing how 
 easily the disposition to suicide may be diverted — On the cure of insanity 
 by stratagems — On the importance of removing the suicidal patient from 
 his own home — On the regulation of the passions - - p. 162 — 194 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 
 
 On the dependence of irritability of temper on physical disease — Voltaire and 
 an Englishman agree to commit suicide — The reasons that induced Vol- 
 taire to change his mind — The ferocity of Robespierre accounted for — 
 The state of his body after death — The petulance of Pope dependent on 
 physical causes — Suicide from cerebral congestion, treatment of — Ad- 
 vantages of bloodletting, with cases — Damien insane — Cold applied to the 
 head, of benefit — Good effects of purgation — Suicide caused by a tape- 
 worm — Early indications of the disposition to suicide — The suicidal eye — 
 Of the importance of carefully watching persons disposed to suicide — 
 Cunning of such patients — Numerous illustrations — The fondness for a 
 particular mode of death — Dr. Burrows' extraordinary case — Dr. Conolly 
 on the treatment of suicide — Cases shewing the advantage of confinement, 
 
 p. 195—220 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE THE RESULT OF INSANITY? 
 
 The instinct of self-preservation — The love of life — Dr. Wolcott*s death-bed — 
 Anecdote of the Duke de Montebello — Louis XL of France — Singular 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 death of a celebrated lawyer — Dr. Johnson's horror of dying — The 
 organ of destruction universal — Illustrations of its influence — Sir W. Scott, 
 on the motives that influence men in battle — Have we any test of in- 
 sanity ? — Mental derangement not a specific disease — Importance of 
 keeping this in view — Insanity not always easily detected — Is lowness of 
 spirits an evidence of derangement? — The cunning of lunatics — Esquirol's 
 opinion that insanity is always present — Moral insanity — The remarkable 
 case of Frederick of Prussia — Suicide often the first symptom of insanity — 
 Cases in which persons have been restored to reason from loss of blood, 
 after attempting suicide — The cases of Cato, Sir Samuel Romilly, Lord 
 Castlereagh, Colton, and Chatterton, examined — Concluding remarks, 
 
 p. 221—245 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
 
 The importance of medical evidence — The questions which medical men have 
 to consider in these cases — Signs of death from strangulation — Singular 
 positions in which the bodies of those who have committed suicide have 
 been found — The particulars of the Prince deConde's case — On the pos- 
 sibility of voluntary strangulation — General Pichegru's singular case — 
 The melancholy history of Marc Antonie Galas — How to discover whe- 
 ther a person was dead before thrown into water — Singular cases — Admi- 
 ral Caracciolo — Drowning in a bath — The points to keep in view in cases 
 of suspicious death — Was Sellis murdered ? — Death fronn wounds — The 
 case of the Earl of Essex --------__ p. 246 — 264 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Number of suicides in the chief capitals of Europe from 1813 to 1831 — 
 Statistics of death from violence in London from 1828 to 1832 — Number 
 of suicides in London for a century and a half — Suicides in Westminster 
 from 1812 to 1836 — Suicide more frequent among men than women — 
 Mode of committing — Influence of age — Effect of the married state — 
 Infantile suicides — M. Guerry on suicides in France — Cases — Suicide 
 and murder — Suicide in Geneva --------p. 265 — 280 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 APPEARANCES PRESENTED AFTER DEATH IN THOSE WHO 
 HAVE COMMITTED SUICIDE. 
 
 Thickness of cranium — State of membranes and vessels of brain — Osseous 
 excrescences — Appearances discovered in one thousand three hundred and 
 thirty-eight cases — Lesions of the lungs, heart, stomach, and intestines — 
 Effect of long-continued indigestion -__--_ p. 280 — 282 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Introduction — Contempt of death — Eustace Budgel — M. de Boissy and his 
 wife — Mutual suicides from disappointed love — Suicide from mortifica- 
 tion — Mutual suicide from poverty — A French lady while out shooting — 
 A fisherman after praying — Determination to commit if not cured — 
 Extraordinary case after seduction — Madame C. from remorse — M. de 
 Pontalba after trying to murder his daughter-in-law — Young lady in a pet 
 — Sir George Dunbar — James Sutherland while George III. was passing — 
 Lancet given by a wife to her husband to kill himself — Servant girl — 
 Curious verses by a suicide — Robber on being recognised — A man who 
 ordered a candle to be made of his fat — After gaming — Writing whilst 
 dying — From misfortune just at a moment of relief — Curious papers 
 written by a suicide — By heating a barrel in the fire — By tearing out the 
 brains — Sisters by the injunction of their eldest sister — Mutual from 
 poverty — Girl from a dream — Three servants in one pond — Indifference 
 as to mode — By starvation — A man forty-five days without eating — mu- 
 tual of two boys after dining at a restaurateur's — By putting head under 
 the ice — By a pair of spectacles — By jumping amongst the bears — Young 
 lady from gambling — Verses by a suicide — To obtain salvation — A lover 
 after accidentally shooting his mistress — Mutual attempt — M. Kleist and 
 Madame Vogle — Richard Smith and wife — Love and suicide — Bishop of 
 Grenoble — Suicide in a pail of water — Mutual suicide of two soldiers- 
 Lord Scarborough — A man who advertised to kill himself for benefit of 
 family — The case of Creech, and the romantic history of Madame de 
 Monier — Suicide of M. — , after threatening to kill his brother — Two 
 young men— Two lovers — Homicide and suicide from jealousy — Cure of 
 penchant for suicide — Attempt at prevented — Man in a belfry — Attempt 
 at — The extraordinary case of Lovat by crucifixion - - p. 283 — 334 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CAN SUICIDE BE PREVENTED BY LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENTS ? 
 
 INFLUENCE OF MORAL INSTRUCTION. — CONCLUSION. 
 
 The legitimate object of punishment — The argument of Beccaria — A legal 
 solecism — A suicide not amenable to human tribunals — Evidence at 
 coroners*- courts ex-parte — The old law of no advantage — No penal-law 
 will restrain a man from the commission of suicide. — Verdict o^ felo-de-se 
 punishes the innocent, and therefore unjust — All suicides insane, and 
 therefore not responsible agents — The man who reasons himself into 
 suicide not of sound mind — Rational mode of preventing suicide by pro- 
 moting religious education ---p. 33.5 — 340 
 
ERRATA 
 
 Page 46, for " mens conscia" &c. read 7iiens sann in corpore sano, and for 
 '• Horace" read Juvenat.. 
 
THE 
 
 ANATOMY OF SUICIDE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. — ANCIENT LAWS AND 
 OPINIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Examples of antiquity no defence of suicide — Causes of ancient suiciglgs — 
 The suicides of Asdrubal, Nicocles, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Hannibal, 
 Mithridates, the inhabitants of the city of Xanthus, Cato, Charondas, 
 Lycurgus, Codrus, Themistocles, Emperor Otho, Brutus .an^ ^ _<k^^i us, 
 Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Petronius, Lucan, Lucius Vetus, Sardana- 
 
 i"flnarjiiiiji|jwii«jrii -Iii'«''---Iinii Hi i,, ' 
 
 palus, M. Uurtius, Empedocles, Theoxena, — Noble resistance of Jose- 
 phus — Scripture suicides : SarasorKSaiilj^^ 
 
 E lea ^^ ^r ife ^t'^ — I][octrines of the stoics, Seneca, Epictetus, Zeno — 
 Opinions of Cicero, Pliny, on suicide— Ancient laws on suicide. 
 
 Human actions are more under the influence of example than 
 precept ; consequently, suicide has often been justified by an 
 appeal to the laws and customs of past ages. An undue 
 reverence for the authority of antiquity induces us to rely 
 more upon what has been said or done in former times, than 
 upon the dictates of our own feelings and judgment. Many 
 have formed the most extravagant notions of honour, liberty, 
 and courage, and, under the impression that they were 
 imitating the noble example of some ancient hero, have 
 sacrificed their lives. They urge in their defence that 
 suicide has been enjoined by positive laws, and allowed by 
 ancient custom ; that the greatest and bravest nation in the 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 world practised it; and that the most wise and virtuous 
 sect of philosophers taught that it was an evidence of 
 courage, magnanimity, and virtue. There is no mode of 
 reasoning so fallacious as that which is constantly appealing 
 to examples. A man who has made up his mind to the 
 adoption of a particular course can easily discover reasons 
 to justify himself in carrying out his preconceived opinions. 
 If a contemplated action, abstractedly considered, be good, 
 cases may be of service in illustrating it. There must be 
 some test by which to form a correct estimate of the just- 
 ness or lawfulness of human actions ; and until we are agreed 
 as to what ought to constitute that standard, examples are per- 
 fectly useless. No inferences deduced from the consideration 
 of the suicides of antiquity can be logically applied to modern 
 instances.' We live under a Christian dispensation.^ Our no- 
 tions of death, of honour, and of courage, are, in uiany respects, 
 so dissimilar from those which the ancients entertained, that 
 the subject of suicide is placed entirely on a different basis. 
 In the early periods of history, self-destruction was considered 
 as an evidence of courage ; death was preferred to dishonour. 
 These principles were inculcated by celebrated philosophers, 
 who exercised a great influence over the minds of the people ; 
 and, in many instances, the act of self-immolation constituted 
 a part of their religion. Is it, then, to be wondered at, that 
 so many men, eminent for their genius, and renowned for 
 their valour, should, under such circumstances, have sacri- 
 ficed themselves? 
 
 The famous suicides of antiquity generally resulted from 
 one of three causes : — First, it was practised by those who 
 wished to avoid pain and personal suffering of body and mind; 
 secondly, when a person considered the act as a necessary 
 vindication of his honour ; and thirdly, when life was sacri- 
 ficed as an example to others. 
 
 The first class is the most excusable of the three. Pain, 
 physical or mental, puts a man's courage severely to the test. 
 He may have to choose between the alternative of years of 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 3 
 
 ^unmitigated anguish, or an immediate release from torture. 
 Need we feel surprise at many resorting to the latter alter- 
 •native, when they have been taught to believe death either to 
 be an eternal sleep, or a sure entrance into regions of hap- 
 piness ! 
 
 How many instances have we on record of persons who 
 have dispatched themselves to avoid falling into the hands of 
 an enemy I The case of the wife of Asdrubal, the Cartha- 
 ginian general, is a famous instance of the kind. Asdrubal 
 had deserted his post, and had fled to Scipio ; and during 
 his absence his wife took shelter with her troops in the 
 temple, which she set on fire. She then attired herself in 
 her richest robes, and holding her two children in her hands, 
 addressed Scipio — ^who had surrounded the building with his 
 troops — in the following language : — " You, O Roman, are 
 only acting according to the laws of open war ; but may the 
 gods of Carthage, and those in concert with them, punish 
 that false wretch who, by such a base desertion, has betrayed 
 his country, his gods, his wife, his children ! Let him adorn 
 thy gay triumph; let him suffer in the sight of all Rome 
 those indignities and tortures he so justly merits !" 
 
 The case of Nicocles, King of Paphos, in Cyprus, who 
 committed suicide in conjunction with his wife and daughter, 
 on the approach of King Ptolemy, is another in point. 
 Isocrates, the celebrated Athenian orator, starved himself to 
 death, sooner than submit to the dominion of Philip of 
 Macedon. Demosthenes also poisoned himself, when Anti- 
 pater, Alexander's ambassador, required the Athenians to 
 deliver up their orators, fearful of being subjected to slavery 
 and disgrace. 
 
 The persecution to which the Romans subjected Hannibal, 
 after he was oppressed with years and sunk in obscurity, 
 impelled him to have recourse to the poison which he always 
 kept about him in a ring, against sudden emergencies. 
 Mithridates took poison, and administered the same to his 
 wives and daughters, in order to escape being taken prisoner 
 
 b2 
 
4 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 by Pompey, before whose victorious arms he had been com- 
 pelled to fly. 
 
 The case of the inhabitarrts of the city of Xanthus is another 
 remarkable instance of the determination exhibited by thou- 
 sands of persons, resolved sooner to die by their own hands 
 than submit to the dominion of a conqueror. Notwithstanding 
 the proffered clemency of Brutus, who not only wept at the 
 dreadful scene he witnessed, but commanded his soldiers to 
 extinguish the fire, and even offered a reward for every in- 
 habitant whose life was saved, the people were so eager for 
 death that they rushed into the flames with exclamations of 
 delight, and forceably drove back the soldiers who were sent 
 by Brutus for the purpose of saving their lives. 
 
 The example of Cato is applauded by some writers as a 
 proof of magnanimity ; the action was the reverse ; it was 
 the effect of pride and timidity. If ever Rome required his 
 experience and patriotic counsels it was at that very period. 
 To desert the duty which Rome had a right to demand by a 
 voluntary death was the meanest conduct in his character. 
 It stamped an indelible stain on his reputation, which only a 
 supposition that his intellect was impaired could rationally 
 excuse. It was not the virtuous Cato who had stemmed the 
 torrent of tyranny, who had crushed the Cataline conspiracj^, 
 who had given the most noble examples of virtuous resolution 
 and rectitude in moral conduct, but the enfeebled Cato, sink- 
 ing under the accumulation of evils, whose soul was depressed 
 with suspense and distracting passions, waiting an oppor- 
 tunity for revenge, or preparing to finish his life on the first 
 disappointment. 
 
 K such examples were admitted magnanimous, in any 
 serious quarrel or war, where success could not be com- 
 manded, it might be considered laudable to commit suicide. 
 The consequences of such reasoning would be obvious. On 
 such occasions, countries would lose their bravest generals, pri 
 vate families their noblest and most experienced supporters. 
 
 " K I_caimQt acquire-wbat I wishy" jays Cato, " I will_ kill 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. O 
 
 mjself ; I will not live to grace Caesar's triumph, though I 
 know Ca^vSar to be the most generous and clement of con- 
 querors; I cannot consent to receive Caesar's favours. My 
 pride is wounded ; my fears destroy all tranquillity ; my body 
 is sinking under adversity ; I will not dedicate my services to 
 my distressed country under the auspices of successful Caesar. 
 I will plunge a sword into my bosom, and commit an injustice 
 to myself, which through a long life I never committed to 
 others. From the uniformity of my former patriotic character, 
 writers, without deep reasoning, will paint this concluding 
 action in glowing colours; they will give additional. lustre to 
 an immortal reputation." Such, we conceive, were the secret 
 springs of action in Cato's mind ; such were the contending 
 passions which excited the delirium. It was not the placid, 
 judicious Cato of former years, but the depressed Cato, impos 
 mentis, committing a rash action, contrary to all his former 
 great reasoning, and virtuous persevering conduct. It was, 
 in fact, Cato's act of insanity ; it was not dying to serve 
 his country, but to effectually rob Caesar of his eminent 
 services ; it therefore appears more the effect of private 
 pique and despondency than a demonstration of public virtue 
 or courage. Had all others concerned in that civil war fol- 
 lowed this extraordinary example, the country would have 
 been robbed of many of its brightest ornaments. Cato could 
 not say with Horace, "Dulce et decorum est pro patria 
 mori," for it was not for his countrymen that he died, but to 
 gratify a selfish caprice, a personal resentment and hatred to 
 Caesar and his power. Had Cassar attacked the city while 
 Cato enjoyed a vigour of mind and body, and when the 
 citizens were better disciplined and less corrupt, he would 
 have despised such inglorious conduct ; he would rather have 
 hoped for some future opportunity to dispel the dark clouds 
 overwhelming the distracted country. 
 
 Physicians have frequent opportunities of observing the 
 diminution of human courage and wisdom from long con- 
 
6 SUICroES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 tinued misfortunes, or bodily infirmities. The most lively, 
 spirited, and enterprising, have become depressed from reite- 
 rated disappointment ; cowardice and despair have succeeded 
 to the most unquestionable bravery and ambition. The man 
 is then changed ; his blood is changed ; and with these his 
 former sentiments. The timidity is no longer Cato's, but 
 belongs to the miserable debilitated body of Cato, which had 
 lost that vigorous soul that so eminently distinguished on other 
 important occasions this excellent and divine patriot. 
 La Motte observes, with reference to Cato's death — 
 
 " Stern Cato, with more equal soul, 
 ^ Had bowed to Caesar's wide control, 
 
 With Rome, had to her conqueror bowed. 
 But that his spirit, rough and proud, 
 Had not the courage to await 
 A pardoned foe's too humbling fate." 
 
 Voltaire, in alluding to the lines quoted above, says, " It 
 was, I believe, because Cato's soul was always equal, and re- 
 tained to the last its love for his country and her laws, that 
 he chose rather to perish with her than to crouch to the 
 tyrant. He died as he had lived. 
 
 " Incapable of surrendering, and to whom ? to the enemy 
 of Rome — to the man who had forcibly robbed the public 
 treasury in order to make war upon his fellow citizens, and 
 enslave them by means of their own money. A pardoned 
 foe ! It seems as if La Motte Houdart was speaking of some 
 revolted subject who might have obtained his Majesty's par- 
 don by letters in chancery. It seems (continues Voltaire) 
 rather absurd to say that Cato slew himself through weakness. 
 None but a strong mind can thus surmount the most power- 
 ful instinct of nature. This strength is sometimes that of 
 frenzy ; but a frantic man is not weak." 
 
 In forming an estimate of the condition of Cato's mind, 
 we must not look at him as delineated by the dramatist and 
 poet, but as exhibited by the historian and philosopher. 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 7 
 
 Oar notions of Cato are too often based on Addison's^ and not 
 Plutarch's description of his character. That Cato was one 
 of the most complete and perfect examples in antiquity of 
 private manners and of public spirit cannot be questioned; 
 and therefore, in this respect, worthy to be held up as an 
 example. Sallust thus eulogizes Cato : — " His glory can neither 
 be increased by flattery nor lessened by detraction. He was 
 one who chose to be, rather than to appear good. He was 
 the very image of virtue, and in all points of disposition 
 more like the gods than men. He never did right that he 
 might seem to do right, but because he could not do otherwise. 
 That only seemed to be reasonable which was just. Free 
 from all human vices, he was superior to the vicissitudes of 
 fortune." It was the dignity of Cato's life that stamped a 
 celebrity on the mode of his death. 
 
 In forming a judgment of the motives which led this dis- 
 tinguished man to sacrifice his life, we must look at him 
 in connexion with his great enemy, Caesar. He was not 
 only opposed to him on public, but on private grounds. 
 Caesar's intimacy with Servilia, Cato's sister, was the ground 
 of much conversation at Rome. During one of the debates 
 concerning the Cataline conspiracy, Caesar received a letter 
 whilst he was in the senate house. Cato, who had intimated 
 that Caesar had been privy to Cataline's proceedings, and 
 believing that the letter might refer to the subject, from the 
 manner in which Caesar endeavoured to conceal it, demanded 
 that it should be handed over to him. The letter was accord- 
 ingly handed to Cato, when, perceiving that it was a letter 
 from Servilia to Caesar, full of protestations of love to his 
 deadliest enemy, he threw it at Caesar in a great rage, and 
 called him a drunkard. This, added to the circumstance of 
 Caesar's complete triumph over him, induced Cato to put an 
 end to his own life. He did not _commit suicide to defeat 
 usurj)ation, or to preserve the liberties and laws of Rome, 
 but it was done when he despaired of his country. It arose 
 
8 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 from his horror of tyranny, and the feeling of intolerable 
 shame at the prospect of a long life under an arbitrary master. 
 The superstructure of years was in a moment levelled to the 
 dust. He had to choose between death or slavery. After 
 the defeat at Thapsus, and hearing that Caesar was marching 
 against him, Lucius Caesar offered to intercede for Cato. 
 His answer was as follows : — " If I would save my life, I 
 ought to go myself; but I will not be beholden to the tyrant 
 for any act of his injustice ; and 'tis unjust for him to pre- 
 tend to pardon those as a lord over whom he has no lawful 
 power." Although it was evident he was bent upon suicide, 
 he persuaded his son to go to Caesar, and cautioned his 
 friend Statilius, whom Plutarch calls " a known Caesar- 
 hater," not to kill himself, but to submit to the conqueror. 
 He then entered into a discussion concefning liberty, which 
 he carried on so violently that his friends were apprehensive 
 that he would lay hands on himself. In consequence of this, 
 his son removed his sword. Cato is then represented as 
 reading Plato's Phaedo, and then calling for his sword, which 
 they refused to bring him. He called a second and third 
 time, and in a fit of rage he struck the servant, and wounded 
 him, and by doing so, injured his own hand, which prevented 
 him from effectually killing himself with his weapon. After 
 he had stabbed himself, his wound was dressed ; but so deter- 
 mined was he to sacrifice his life, that he tore open the 
 wound forcibly, and pulled his bowels out, and thus effected 
 his purpose.* 
 
 It has been said that Addison approved of Cato's self- 
 
 * Caesar's reply on being told of Cato's death was reported to be — " Cato, 
 I envy thee thy death, for thou hast envied me the preservation of thy life ;" 
 on which Plutarch remarks, " Had Cato suffered himself to be preserved by 
 Caesar, it is likely he would not so much have impaired his own honour, as 
 augmented the other's clemency and glory." But Cato's own idea was, that 
 it was an insupportable instance of Caesar's tyranny and usurpation that he 
 sliould " pretend" to shew clemency in saving lives over whom he had no 
 legal authority. 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. V 
 
 murder. This does not appear to be the fact, if we are to 
 judge from the words which he has put in the mouth of the 
 dying hero — 
 
 " I am sick to death ; oh, when shall I get loose 
 
 From this vain world, the abode of guilt and sorrow ! 
 
 And yet methinks a beam of light breaks in 
 
 On my departing soul. Alas, I fear 
 
 I have been too hasty ! O ye powers that search 
 
 The heart of man, and weigh his inmost thoughts, 
 
 If I have done amiss, impute it not : 
 
 The best may err, but you are good, and — idies.y 
 
 Two celebrated instances amongst the Grecians of men 
 who voluntarily sacrificed their lives in order to maintain the 
 dignity and importance of their own institutions, are exhibited 
 in the cases of Charondas and Lycurgus. The former, in 
 order to encourage a proper freedom of debate, had made it 
 death to come armed into the assembly of the states. One 
 day, coming himself in haste to a convention without having first 
 laid aside his sword, he was rebuked by some one present, as 
 a transgressor of his own laws. Stung with the justice of the 
 imputation, he instantly plunged the sword into his own heart, 
 both as a sacrifice to the violated majesty of the law, and a 
 tremendous example of disinterested justice ; trusting, more- 
 over, thus to seal with his own blood a strict observance in 
 others of his wholesome institutions. 
 
 When Lycurgus had accomplished his great work of legis- 
 lation in Sparta, he took the following method of rendering 
 his system unchangeable and immortal. He stated that it 
 was necessary that he should consult the Delphian oracle re- 
 lative to his new laws. He then made all the Spartan magis- 
 trates and people take a solemn oath that they would observe 
 and keep his laws inviolate " till his return." He accordingly 
 went to consult the oracle, and having sent back the answer 
 in writing to Sparta, "That the laws were excellent, and 
 would render the people great and happy who should observe 
 them," he resolved never to return himself, in order that the 
 people might never be absolved from their oath. He ac- 
 
10 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 cordingly starved himself to death. Plutarch considers that 
 Lycurgus reasoned himself into the act, under the belief that 
 a good statesman and patriot should seek to make his death 
 itself in some way useful to his country. The same authority 
 considers that he intended the mode of his death to be a prac- 
 tical illustration of the great principle which pervaded the 
 whole code of his laws, which was — temperance. 
 
 Alike honourable, in a worldly point of view, was the death 
 of Codrus, King of Athens. The oracle was consulted with 
 reference to the condition of the country. That nation was 
 predicted to be prosperous whose king should be first slain 
 by the enemy. Codrus disguised himself as a private soldier, 
 and entered the enemy's camp, where he contrived to pick a 
 quarrel with the first man he met, whom he permitted to slay 
 him ; thus, for the good of his country, courting his own death. 
 
 Themistocles is said to have poisoned himself rather than 
 lead on the Persian army against his own countrymen, 
 although fame, wealth, and honour were within his grasp. 
 
 The Emperor Otho, to avoid the further sacrifice of life in 
 the imperial contest, resolved to die by his own hands, not- 
 withstanding his troops implored and beseeched him to lead 
 them on to a second engagement in which victory was almost 
 certain. King Otho's answer to the demand of his soldiers 
 is considered to embody the spirit of true Roman heroism — 
 ^^ Deny me not the glory of laying down my own life to pre- 
 serve yours. The more hope there is left, the more honour- 
 able is my early retirement ; since it is by my death alone 
 that I can prevent the further effusion of Roman blood, and 
 restore peace and tranquillity to a distracted empire, by 
 being ready to die for its peace and security."* 
 
 * The affection and resolution of an obscure private soldier was very re- 
 markable, who, standing before Otho with his drawn sword, spoke thus — 
 " Behold in my action an instance of the unshaken fidelity of all your 
 soldiery. There is not one of us but would strive thus to preserve thee," and 
 immediately he stabbed himself to the heart. Many private soldiers, after 
 Otho's death, gave the same proof of fidelity to their deceased lord. — Flularchh 
 Life of Otho. 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 11 
 
 Two of the most distinguished men of antiquity who sacri- 
 ficed their own lives were Brutus and Cassius. Before their 
 battle with Caesar on the plains of Philippi, these two warriors 
 had a conversation on suicide. Cassius asked Brutus what 
 his opinions were on the subject of self-destruction, provided 
 fortune did not favour them in the contest in which they 
 were about to be engaged. Brutus replied, that formerly he 
 had embraced such sentiments as induced him to condemn 
 Cato for killing himself; he deemed it an act of irreverence 
 towards the gods, and that it was no evidence of courage. But 
 he continues, " Now, in the midst of dangers, I am quite of 
 another mind." He then proceeds to tell Cassius of his deter- 
 mination to surrender up his life " on the Ides of March." He 
 states no particular reasons for having changed his opinions 
 on the subject of suicide. The issue of the battle is well 
 known. Many things conspired to damp the courage of 
 Cassius and Brutus. In imitation of Caesar, Brutus made a 
 public lustration for his army in the field, and during the cere- 
 mony an unlucky omen is said to have happened to Cassius. 
 The garland he was to wear at the sacrifice was given to him 
 the wrong side outwards ; the person, also, who bore the 
 golden image before Cassius stumbled, and the image fell to 
 the ground. Several birds of prey hovered about his camp, 
 and swarms of bees were seen within the trenches. Cassius, 
 believing in the Epicurean philosophy, considered all these 
 circumstances as disheartening omens of his fate. After the 
 defeat of Cassius, he ordered his freedman to kill him, which 
 he did by severing his head from his body. 
 
 Plutarch makes Brutus die most stoically. After having 
 taken an affectionate leave of his friends, and having assured 
 them that he was only angry with fortune for his country's 
 sake, since he esteemed himself in his death more happy than 
 his conquerors, he advised them to provide for their own safety. 
 He then retired, and, with the assistance of Strato, he ran his 
 sword through his body. Dion Cassius (Lib. xlvii) repre- 
 sents Brutus as far from acting the stoic at his last moments. 
 
12 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 He is said just before his death to have quoted the following 
 passage from Euripides — " O wretched virtue ! thou art a 
 bare name ! I mistook thee for a substance ; but thou thyself 
 art the slave of fortune." 
 
 In considering the motives that induced Brutus to destroy 
 himself, we must not forget to take into calculation the effecl 
 which the apparition he saw previous to the battle of Philippi 
 must have had on his mind. Brutus was naturally watchful, 
 sparing in his diet, and allowed himself but little time for 
 sleep. He never retired to rest, day or night, until he had 
 arranged all his business. At this time, involved as he was in 
 the operations of war, and solicitous for the event, he only 
 slumbered a little after supper, and spent the remainder of the 
 night in attending to his most urgent affairs. When these 
 were dispatched, he occupied himself in reading till the third 
 watch, when the tribunes and centurions came to him for 
 orders. Thus, a little before he left Asia, he was sitting alone 
 in his tent, by a dim light, at a late hour. The whole army 
 lay in sleep and silence, while Brutus, wrapped in meditation, 
 thought he perceived something enter his tent ; turning to- 
 wards the door, he saw a monstrous and horrible spectre 
 standing by the side of his bed. " What art thou ?" said he, 
 boldly. The spectre answered, " I am thy evil genius, Brutus ! 
 Thou wilt see me at Philippi." To which he calmly replied, 
 " I'll meet thee there." In the morning he communicated to 
 Cassius what he had seen. Cassius, who was an Epicurean, 
 had often disputed with Brutus on the subject of apparitions. 
 He said, when he had heard the statement of Brutus, that the 
 spectre was not a spirit, but a real being ; and argued at con- 
 siderable length on the subject, and induced the general to 
 think that his fate was decided. There can be no doubt but 
 that this singular presentiment co-operated with other circum- 
 stances in inducing Brutus to fall by his own hands.* 
 
 * It is said that the night before the battle the same spectre appeared to 
 Brutus, but vanished without saying anything. 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Amongst the ancient suicides, those of Mark Antony and ^ 
 Cleopiida deserve especi^ CQWfiideration. It is not our purpose 
 to enter into an elaborate history of these celebrated charac- 
 ters, but merely to refer to those circumstances tliatJjad_an 
 immediate connexion with their last moments. 
 
 Three circumst^ge.s acted poweriully on Antony's mind in 
 inducing him to seek a voluntary death. The first was his 
 having be en defeated by Caesar ; the .second, the idea that . 
 Cleopatra had betrayed him ; and tlie third was ihp bfl^pf jy^ 
 Cleopatra's death. 
 
 As soon as Antony was defeated, the unhappy queen fled 
 to her monument, ordered all the doors to be barred, and com- 
 manded that Antony should be informed that she was dead. 
 He was overwhelmed with grief, and retiring to his chamber, 
 opened his coat of mail, and ordered his faithful servant Eros 
 (who had been engaged to kill him whenever he should think 
 it necessary) to dispatch him. Eros drew his sword, and, in- 
 stead of killing his master, ran it through his own body, and 
 fell dead at Antony's feet. Antony then plunged his sword 
 into his bowels, and threw himself on the couch. The wound 
 was not, however, immediately fatal. In a short period after, 
 Diomedes, Cleopatra's servant, came to Antony with a request 
 that he would instantly repair to her chamber. His delight 
 was unbounded when he heard that Cleopatra was alive, and 
 he directly ordered his servant to carry him to her. As she 
 would not allow the doors to be opened, Antony was drawn 
 up to her window by a cord. He was suspended for a con- 
 siderable time in the air stretching out his hands to Cleopatra. 
 Notwithstanding she exerted all her strength, strained every 
 nerve, and distorted her features in endeavouring to draw him 
 up, it was with the greatest difficulty it was effected. Cleo- 
 patra laid him on the bed, and, standing over him, so extreme 
 was her anguish, that she rent her clothes, and beat and 
 wounded her breast. After Antony's death, when Cleopatrai 
 heard that Caesar had dispatched Gallus to take her prisoner,/ 
 
14 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 \ and that he had effected an entrance into the monument, she 
 
 I attempted to stab herself with a dagger which she always carried 
 
 \ about with her for that purpose. When she heard that it was 
 
 ^Csesar's intention to send her into Syria, she asked permission 
 
 to visit Antony's tomb, over which she poured forth most 
 
 bitter lamentations. " Hide me, hide me," she exclaimed, 
 
 " with thee in the grave ; for life, since thou hast left it, has 
 
 been misery to me." After crowning the tomb with flowers, 
 
 she kissed it, and ordered a bath to be prepared. She then 
 
 sat down to a magnificent supper ; after which, a peasant came 
 
 to the gate with a small basket of figs covered with leaves, 
 
 which was admitted into the monument. Amongst the figs 
 
 and under the leaves was concealed the asp, which Cleopatra 
 
 applied to her bosom. She was found dead, attired in one 
 
 of her most gorgeous dresses, decorated with brilliants, and 
 
 m i^JQg on her golden bed. 
 
 Few of the illustrious men of antiquity have exhibited such 
 philosophic coolness as Petronius, after he had determined to 
 sacrifice his life. The levity which distinguished his voluntary 
 death was in accordance with the gaiety and fi*ivolity of his 
 life. The capricious friendship of a Nero had been withdrawn 
 from him, and in consequence he had determined on his own 
 death. This arbiter elegantiarum during life, determined to 
 indulge in a luxurious refinement of that death he was pre- 
 paring to encounter. Being well aware he could not long 
 escape from the murderous edict, after a fall from the summit 
 of imperial favour, he opened and closed his veins at pleasure. 
 He slept during the intervals, or sauntered about and enjoyed 
 the delights of conversation with his friends ; but his discourse 
 was not of so elevated a character as that attributed to Seneca 
 or Socrates. 
 
 The poet Lucan exhibited great apparent serenity at the 
 approach of death. After the veins of his arm had been 
 voluntarily opened, and he had lost a large quantity of blood, 
 he felt his hands and his legs losing their vitality. As the 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 15 
 
 hour of death approached, he commenced repeating several 
 Hnes out of his own Pharsalia, descriptive of a person similarly 
 situated to himself. These lines he repeated until he died. 
 
 Cocceius Nerva starved himself to death in the reign of 
 Tiberius. It was said that he was displeased with the state of 
 public affairs, and had made up his mind to die whilst his own 
 integrity remained unsullied. 
 
 During the bloody reign of Nero, many singular suicides 
 took place. The particulars attending the deaths of Lucius 
 Vetus, his mother-in-law Sextia, and Pollutia his daughter, 
 are worth recording. After Lucius had distributed all his 
 wealth among his domestics, requesting them to remove every- 
 thing from his house excepting three couches, he, with his 
 mother-in-law and daughter, retired into the same chamber, 
 opened a vein with the same lancet, and after, reclining each 
 on a separate couch, waited calmly the approach of death. 
 His eyes, and those of his mother-in-law, were both fixed on 
 the daughter, while the daughter's wandered from one to 
 the other. It was the earnest prayer of each of them to 
 die first, and to leave the others in the act of expiring.* 
 
 When the throne of Sardanapalus was endangered, he con- 
 ceived a magnificent and truly luxurious mode of committing 
 suicide, quite in character with the extravagance and disso- 
 luteness of his former life. He erected a funeral pile of great 
 height in his palace, and adorned it with the most sumptuous 
 and costly ornaments. In the middle of this building was a 
 chamber of one hundred feet in length, built of wood, in 
 which a number of golden couches and tables were spread. 
 On one of these he reclined with his wife, his numerous con- 
 cubines occupying the rest. The building was encompassed 
 round at some distance with large beams and thick wood, to 
 prevent all egress from the place. Much combustible matter, and 
 an immense pile of wood were also placed within, together with 
 an infinite quantity of gold and silver, royal vestments, costly 
 
 * Tac. An. xvi. 
 
16 SUICIDiS OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 apparel, rich furniture, curious ornaments, and all the appa- 
 ratus of luxury and magnificence. All being arranged, this 
 splendid funeral pile was set on fire, and continued burn- 
 ing until the fifteenth day ; duriqg which time Sardanapalus 
 revelled in all kinds of sensualities. The multitude without 
 were in astonishment at the tremendous scene, and at the 
 immense clouds of incense and smoke which issued with the 
 flames. It was stated that the king was engaged in offering 
 some extraordinary sacrifices ; while the attendants within 
 alone knew that this dissolute prince was putting such a 
 splendid end to his effeminate life.* 
 
 There has been some dispute as to the death of Marcus 
 Curtius. Plutarch attributes his death to accident, but 
 Procillius considers that it was voluntary. He says, the earth 
 having opened at a particular time, the Aruspices declared it 
 necessary, for the safety of the republic, that the bravest man 
 in the city should throw himself into the gulf; whereupon 
 Curtius, mounting his horse, leaped armed into it, and the 
 gulf immediately closed. But Livy and Dionysius relate 
 the circumstance in a different manner. They say that 
 Curtius was a Sabine, who, having at first repulsed the 
 Romans, but being in his turn overpowered by Romulus, and 
 endeavouring to make good his retreat, fell into the lake, 
 which from that time bore his name. The lake was situated 
 almost in the centre of the Roman forum. Some writers 
 consider the name was derived from Curtius the Consul, be- 
 cause he caused it to be walled in after it had, been struck 
 with lightning, j* 
 
 The death of the celebrated philosopher and poet, Em- 
 
 * At Anchiale, there was a monument erected to the memory of Sarda- 
 napalus. It consisted of an image carved in stone work, and having the 
 thumb and the finger of the right hand joined, as if making some sound or 
 noise with them. On the monument was inscribed these words in Assyrian 
 characters : " Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndarax, founded Anchiale and 
 Tyre in one day. Eat, drink, and be merry. As for the rest, it is not worth 
 the snap of the finger." 
 
 f Varro de Ling. Lnt.^ lib. iv. 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 17 
 
 pedocles, of Sicily, was remarkable. Wishing to be believed 
 a god, and that his death might be unknown, he threw him- 
 self into the crater of Mount iEtna, and perished in the 
 flames. The mode of his death was not discovered until 
 some time afterwards, when one of his sandals was thrown 
 up from the volcano. 
 
 Ancient history affords us many noble examples of indi- 
 viduals who preferred voluntary death to dishonour and loss 
 of character. If ever self-murder could be considered as in 
 the slightest degree justifiable, it would be under such circum- 
 stances. Who cannot but honour the conduct of the noble 
 virgins of Macedon, who threw themselves into the wells, and 
 courted death, sooner than submit to the dishonourable pro- 
 posals of the Roman governor ! When Theoxena was pur- 
 sued by the emissaries of Philip, king of Macedon, who had 
 been guilty of murdering her first husband, she produced a 
 dagger and a box of poison, and placing them before the 
 crew of the ship in which she was endeavouring to make 
 her escape, she said, " Death is now our only remedy and 
 means of vengeance ; let each take the method that best 
 pleases himself of avoiding the tyrant's pride, cruelty, and 
 lust. Come on, my brave companions and family, seize the 
 sword or drink of the cup, as you prefer an instantaneous or 
 gradual death." Some fell on the sword, others drank the 
 poison until death was effected. After Theoxena had accom- 
 plished her designs, she threw herself into the arms of her 
 husband, and they both plunged into the sea. 
 
 The resistance which Josephus made to the importunities 
 of his soldiers to fall by his own hand sooner than surrender 
 to the enemy, is perhaps the most noble instance of the kind 
 on record. After the success of the Romans in Judaea, Jo- 
 sephus, who commanded the Jewish army, wished to deliver 
 himself up to his conquerors; he was encouraged to this 
 by certain dreams and visions. When Josephus's inten- 
 tion was known, the soldiers flocked round him, and ex- 
 pressed their indignation at his intention. They urged him 
 
18 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 to fall by his own sword, and to let them follow his example, 
 sooner than abandon the field. To this appeal Josephus 
 replies, " Oh, my friends, why are you so earnest to kill your- 
 selves ? why do you set your soul and body, which are such 
 dear companions, at such variance ? It is a brave thing to 
 die in war, but it should be by the hands of the enemy. It 
 is a foolish thing to do that for ourselves, which we quarrel 
 with them for doing to us. It is a brave thing to die for 
 liberty ; but still it should be in battle, and by those who would 
 take that liberty from us. He is equally a coward who will 
 not die when he is obliged to die. What are we afraid of, 
 when we will not go up and meet the Romans ? Is it death ? 
 Why then inflict it on ourselves? You say. We must be 
 slaves. Are we then in a clear state of liberty at present ? 
 Self-murder is a crime most remote from the common nature 
 of all animals, and an instance of impiety against God our 
 Creator." 
 
 Josephus, in the spirit of a true philosopher, urged his 
 soldiers to abandon the notion of suicide ; but instead of being 
 calmed by his discourse, they became enraged, and rushed 
 on him. Fearing that the case was hopeless, Josephus pre- 
 vailed upon them to listen to the following proposal. He 
 persuaded them to draw lots ; the man on whom the first 
 lot fell was to be killed by him who had the second, and the 
 second by the third, and so on. In this way no soldier would 
 perish by his own hand, except the last man. Lots were 
 accordingly drawn ; Josephus drew his with the rest. He 
 who had the first lot willingly submitted his neck to him who 
 had the second. It happened that Josephus and a soldier 
 were left to draw lots ; and as the general was desirous neither 
 to imbrue his own hand in the blood of his countryman, nor 
 to be condemned by lot himself, he persuaded the soldier to 
 trust his fidelity, and to live as well as himself. Thus ended 
 this tragical scene, and Josephus immediately surrendered 
 himself up to Vespasian. 
 
 The first instance of suicide recorded in Scripture is that 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 (B> 
 
 of Samson. After suffering many indignities from the hands 
 of the Philistines, his anger was roused to the highest pitch, 
 and, resting against the pillars that supported the building in 
 which the lords of the Philistines and an infinite number of 
 others were assembled^ he offered up the following prayer : 
 " O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen 
 me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may at once 
 be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes ;" and taking 
 hold of the pillars, he said, " Let me die with the Philis- 
 tines: and he bowed himself with all his might, and the 
 house fell upon the lords and all that were therein ; so that 
 the dead which he slew at his death were more than they 
 which he slew in his life." 
 
 In Samson's case, there is nothing said in Scripture either 
 to condemn or justify the act ; but it appears evident from 
 the whole history of the last events of his life, that he 
 was but an instrument in the hands of God for the accom- 
 plishment of his wise purposes. The glory of God had been 
 violated in the person of Samson ; he had been subjected by 
 the Philistines to great indignities ; and it was to demonstrate 
 the power of God in the destruction of his enemies that 
 Samson's life was sacrificed. Samson is, then, to be consi- 
 dered as a martyr to his religion and his God. 
 
 The case of Saul has also been cited. It is thus referred toy 
 in Scripture : — " And the battle went sore against Saul, and 
 the archers hit him, and he was sore wounded of the archers. 
 Then said Saul unto his armourbearer. Draw thy sword, and 
 thrust me through therewith, lest these uncircumcised come 
 and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armour- 
 bearer would not, for he was sore afraid ; therefore Saul took 
 a sword and fell upon it. And when his armourbearer saw 
 that Saul was dead, he fell likewise upon his sword and died 
 with him."^ 
 
 It must be recollected that the Jews considered that a man i 
 was justified in committing suicide to prevent his falling into^ 
 
 f 1 Samuel, xxxi. 
 c2 
 
^ 
 
 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 the enemy's hand, and on this account Saul was commended 
 for killing himself. But there was nothing glorious in Saul's 
 death. His army was defeated by the Philistines, and Saul 
 sounded a retreat; and as he was making his ignominious 
 flight, an arrow from the ranks of the enemy hit him, and it 
 was then that he implored his armour-bearer to dispatch him. 
 Much has been made of the self murder of Ahitophel. 
 Donne has referred to it at some length. He says that in 
 this case there can be ^^ no room for excuse." Ahitophel 
 was considered one of the wisest counsellors of his age. He 
 joined Absalom in his rebellion against his lawful prince, 
 David ; and when he saw that it was God's determination to 
 defeat his counsel, and that his advice for the first time was 
 neglected, he became full of secret indignation and disap- 
 pointment; and in order to avoid the consequences of his 
 own utter despair and ruin, for his perfidy, he hanged him- 
 self. Nothing can be urged in justification of this act. The 
 facts are presented to us in biblical history ; and we are left 
 to form our own judgment upon the course which this " Ma- 
 chiavelian counsellor," as he has been termed, thought proper 
 to adopt, 
 v^onne has also cited the case of Judas Iscariot.* He must 
 
 /*IThis is the only case of suicide recorded in the New Testament. Judas's 
 conduct is condemned in the strongest language ; he is called in the Gospel 
 of St. John (vi. 70,) " a devil, and the son of perdition ;" and in the first 
 chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, at the 25th verse, after the account given 
 of his violent death, he is said to have gone to his own peculiar place. (Etg 
 Tov Torrov rbv idiov.) 
 
 Virgil thus alludes to the " place of punishment" allotted to those who 
 sacrifice wantonly their own lives : — 
 
 *' Proxima deinde tenent maesti loca, qui sibi letum 
 Insontes peperere manu, lucemque perosi 
 Projecere animas. Quam vellent aetliere in alto 
 Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores! 
 Fas obstat. Tristique palus inamabilis unda 
 Alligat, et novies Styx interfusa coercet." 
 
 (^NEis, lib. vi. ver. 434 et seq.) 
 " The next in place and punishment are they 
 Who prodigally throw their souls away : 
 
SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 ^ 
 
 have been sadly in want of sound illustrations to have brought 
 forward the instance of this traitor as a justification of the act 
 of suicide. Judas has been considered by some writers as a 
 martyr. Petilian said " that Judas, and all who killed them- 
 selves through remorse of sin, ought to be accounted martyrs, 
 because they punish in themselves what they grieve to have 
 committed." To whom Augustine replies, " Thou hast said, 
 that the traitor perished by the rope, and has left a rope be- 
 hind him for such as himself But we have nothing to do 
 with him. We do not venerate those as martyrs who hang 
 themselves." 
 
 — The case, mentioned by the same authority, of Eleazar, the 
 brother of Judas Maccabeus, taken from the book of the 
 Maccabees, is said to be one of voluntary suicide, and where 
 self-destruction was laudable. Eleazar sacrificed his own life 
 for the purpose of destroying King Antiochus, and therefore 
 his suicide is to be considered as a voluntary sacrifice for the 
 good of his country. 
 
 The self-destruction of Razis is full of horror, and can only 
 be quoted as an evidence of the act of a madman. When the 
 tower in which Razis was fighting against the enemy of 
 Nicanor was set on fire, he fell on his own sword, " Choosing 
 rather," says the text, " to die manfully than fall into the hands 
 of the wicked, to be abused otherwise than beseemed his noble 
 birth ; but missing his stroke through haste, the multitude also 
 rushing within doors, he ran boldly up to the wall, and cast 
 himself down manfully among the thickest of them ; but they 
 quickly giving back, and a space being made, he fell down in the 
 
 Fools, who, repining at their wretched state, 
 
 And loathing anxious life, suborn their fate : 
 
 With late repentance now they would retrieve 
 
 The bodies they forsook, atld wish to live ; 
 
 Their pains and poverty desire to bear. 
 
 To view the light of heaven and breathe the vital air. 
 
 But fate forbids, the Stygian floods oppose, 
 
 And with nine circling streams the captive souls inclose." 
 
 (Dryden.) 
 
22 SUICIDES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 midst of a void place. Nevertheless, while there was yet breath 
 within him, being inflamed with anger, he rose up ; and though 
 his blood gushed out like spouts of water, and his wounds were 
 grievous, yet he ran through in the midst of the throng, and 
 standing on a steep rock, when, as his blood was not quite 
 gone, he plucked out his bowels, and taking them in both his 
 hands, he cast them upon the throng, and calling upon the 
 Lord of life and spirit to restore him them again, he thus 
 died."* 
 
 Having considered the remarkable suicides of antiquity, we 
 will now briefly allude to those doctrines and opinions of the 
 celebrated philosophers of ancient times, which must of neces- 
 sity have tended to create this recklessness of human life. 
 
 The doctrines inculcated by the stoical philosophers, or the 
 disciples of Zeno, must have increased the crime of suicide. 
 " A stoical wise man is ever ready to die for his country or his 
 friends. A wise man will never look upon death as an evil ; 
 that he will despise it, and be ready to undergo it at any time." 
 " A wise man," says Diog. Laertius, in his life of Zeno, when 
 expounding the stoical philosophy, " will quit life, when op- 
 pressed with severe pain, or when deprived of any of his senses, 
 or when labouring under desperate diseases." It is astonishing 
 that a sect of philosophers who inculcated that pain was no 
 evil, should so often have practised suicide. Much as we 
 would condemn such principles, still we must admit that most 
 of the admired characters of antiquity belonged to this cele- 
 brated sect — men distinguished for their wisdom, learning, and 
 the strictness of their morals. Cato was a stoic, and he put 
 into practice the principles of the sect to which he belonged, f 
 
 * Mace. i. 6. 
 t There is something sublime in the stern copiousness with which the 
 stoics dwelt particularly on the facility with which suicide may be com- 
 mitted. "Ante omnia cavi, ne quisvos teneret invitos : patet exitus. Si 
 pugnare non vultis, licet fugere. Ideoque ex omnibus rebus, quas esse vobis 
 necessarias volui, nihil feci facilius, quam mori. Attendite modo et videbitis 
 quam brevis ad libertatem et quam expedita ducat via. Non tarn longas in 
 exitu vobis quam intrantibus, moras posui," &c. — Seneca de Providentia, in 
 fine. V^ide epistle Ixx; 
 
ANCIENT LAWS ETC. RESPECTING SUICIDE. 23 
 
 Among the philosophers of antiquity, Seneca stands pre- 
 eminently forward as the defender of suicide. He says, 
 " Does life please you ? live on. Does it not ? go from whence 
 you came. No vast wound is necessary ; a mere puncture will 
 secure your liberty. It is a bad thing (you say) to be under 
 the necessity of living; but there is no necessity in the case. 
 Thanks be to the gods, nobody can be compelled to live."* 
 These were the principles of the " wise Seneca," and yet he 
 wanted the courage to commit suicide when put to the test. 
 He says, " Being emaciated by a severe illness, I often thought 
 of suicide, but was recalled by the old age of a most indulgent 
 father ; for I considered not how resolutely * I ' could en- 
 counter death, but how ' he' could bear up under my loss." 
 This is not, however, the only instance in which Seneca 
 yielded his stoical principles to the dictates of natural affection 
 and rational judgment. 
 
 Among other distinguished philosophers who advocated 
 suicide was Epictetus. Although a stoic, he did not blindly 
 follow the doctrines of Zeno. Epictetus considered that it 
 was the duty of man to suffer to almost any extent before he 
 sacrificed his own life. " If you like not life, you may leave 
 it; the door is open ; get you gone ! But a little smoke ought 
 not to frighten you away; it should be endured, and will 
 thereby be often surmounted." 
 
 Epictetus followed strictly his own principles : in this re- 
 spect he was superior to Seneca. Seneca was born in the lap 
 of good fortune ; Epictetus was a slave, and had to pass 
 through the rugged paths of adversity, bodily pain, and 
 penury. Seneca was banished from Rome for an intrigue; 
 Epictetus was sent into exile for being a man of learning and 
 a philosopher. 
 
 When Epictetus was beaten unmercifully by his master, he 
 said, with great composure, " You will certainly break my 
 leg." He did so ; and the philosopher calmly rejoined, " Did 
 
 * Epistles xii. and Ixx.; and De Ira, lib. iii. 
 
24 ANCIENT LAWS ETC. RESPECTING SUICIDE. 
 
 I not tell you you would do it ?" This was in the true spirit 
 of stoical philosophy. 
 
 Mnrnns Anrplins Antonin us wafi. perhaps, one of the brightest 
 ornaments of the sect of stoics. He carried into the minutest 
 concern of life the doctrine of Zeno. " He was," says Gibbon, 
 " severe to himself, indulgent to the imperfections of others, 
 just and beneficent to all mankind." 
 
 Zeno, the founder of the sect of stoical philosophers, acted 
 up to the principles which he inculcated to his disciples. His 
 suicide is recorded to be as follows : — As he was going out of 
 his school one day, at the age of ninety-eight, he fell down, 
 put a finger out of joint, went home, and hanged himself. 
 
 Cleanthes, also, the successor of Zeno, followed the example 
 of his master in philosophy, by shortening the period of his 
 life in the following manner : — After having used abstinence 
 for two days, by the advice of his physician, for the cure of a 
 trifling indisposition under which he was labouring, he had 
 permission to return to his former diet; but he refused all 
 sustenance, saying, " that as he had advanced so far on his 
 journey towards death, he would not retreat^ He accordingly 
 starved himself to death. 
 
 Among the most distinguished orators of antiquity who 
 spoke in favour of uicide stands Cicero. During his banish- 
 ment he would have actually destroyed himself, if it had not 
 been for his natural timidity and want of resolution. He 
 j^writes to his brother Quintus, " The tears of my friends have 
 prevented me from flying to death as my refuge." , 
 
 Pliny was an advocate of suicide. In a chapter entitled 
 " On God," he writes thus — " The chief comfort of man in his 
 imperfect state is this, that even the Deity cannot do all things. 
 For instance, he cannot put himself to death when he pleases, 
 which is the greatest indulgence he has given to man amid 
 the severe evils of life." Pliny belonged to the Epicureans, 
 and his notions are in accordance with the doctrines of that 
 sect. 
 
 Pliny the younger appears to have had different notions on 
 
ANCIENT LAWS ETC. RESPECTING SUICIDE. 25 
 
 the subject. When lamenting the death of a dear friend, 
 Corellius Rufus, who had killed himself, he says, " He is 
 dead — -dead by his own hand, which agonizes my grief; for 
 that is the most lamentable kind of death which neither pro- 
 ceeds from nature nor from fate." The whole epistle from 
 which the above extract is made indicates a noble and feeling 
 heart. 
 
 It appears that the Roman laws respecting suicide were of 
 a fiscal nature. They viewed the act not as a crime ab- 
 stractedly, but considered how far the circumstance affected 
 the state or treasury. In some portion of the Roman empire 
 the magistrate had the power of granting or refusing per- 
 mission to commit suicide. If the decision was given 
 against the applicant, and he persisted in sacrificing his life, 
 disgrace and ignominy were heaped upon his body, and 
 it was buried in the most humiliating manner. The ten our 
 of the law relating to suicide laid down in "Justinian's 
 Digests" is to the following effect: — " Those who, being 
 actually accused, or who being caught in any crime, and 
 dreading a prosecution, made way with themselves, were 
 to have their effects confiscated. But this confiscation w^as 
 no punishment of suicide, as a crime in itself, being then 
 only to take place when the crime committed incurred 
 the confiscation of property, and when the person accused 
 of it would have been found guilty. For which reason 
 the heirs-at-law were permitted (if they thought proper) 
 to try the cause as though the accused person, who had 
 put a period to his life, had been still living; and if his 
 innocence could be proved, they \vere still entitled to his 
 effects. But if any one killed himself, either through weari- 
 ness of life, or an impatience under pain or ill health, for a 
 load of private debt, or for any other reason not affecting the 
 state or public treasury, the property of the deceased flowed 
 in its natural channel. In the case of an attempted but in- 
 complete suicide, where a man was under no accusation, a 
 distinction was made as to the causes impelling to it, before 
 
26 ANCIENT LAWS ETC. RESPECTING SUICIDE. 
 
 the question as to its punishment was to be determined. If 
 it proceeded not from weariness of life, or an impatience under 
 the pressure of some calamity, the attempter was to suffer the 
 same punishment as if he had effected his purpose ; and for 
 this reason, because he who without reason spared not his 
 own life, would not be likely to spare another man's."* 
 
 If a prisoner committed suicide, the jailor authorized to 
 protect him was punished very severely. The Roman law 
 made a distinction between soldiers and civilians. If a 
 soldier attempted to take away his life, and it could not be 
 proved that he was suffering at the time from great grief, 
 misfortune, madness, &c., it was deemed a capital offence, 
 and death was the punishment. And even in cases where 
 it was established that the act was the result of mental per- 
 turbation, he was dismissed from the service with ignominy 
 and disgrace. 
 
 During the pure ages of the Roman Republic, when reli- 
 gion was reverenced, when the gods were looked up to with 
 respect as the disposers of all events, suicide was but little 
 known. But when the philosophy of Greece was introduced 
 into the Roman Empire, and the manners of the people be- 
 came corrupted and degenerated, the crime increased to an 
 alarming extent. This indifference to life was also augmented 
 by the spread of stoical and epicurean principles. The stoic 
 was taught to believe his life his own ; that he was the sole 
 arbiter of his existence ; and that he could live or die as he 
 pleased. The same principles were inculcated by the epi- 
 curean philosophy. Is it, then, to be wondered at, that 
 suicide should be of common occurrence, when such de- 
 grading principles had taken possession of the minds of the 
 people ? 
 
 By the law of Thebes, the person who committed suicide 
 was deprived of his funeral rites, and his name and memory 
 were branded with infamy. The Athenian law was equally 
 
 * Corpus Juris Civilis, lib. xlviii. tit. xxi. parag. 3. 
 
ANCIENT LAWS ETC. RESPECTING SUICIDE. 27 
 
 severe : the hand of the self-murderer was cut off, and buried 
 apart from his body, as having been an enemy and traitor to 
 it. The Greeks considered suicide as a most heinous crime. 
 The bodies of suicides, according to the Grecian custom, were 
 not burned to ashes, but were immediately buried. They 
 considered it a pollution of the holy element of fire to con- 
 sume in it the carcases of those who had been guilty of self- 
 murder. Suicides were classed "jwijth_the public or private 
 eiiemyj_with the traitor, and conspirator against his country ; 
 with the tyrant, the sacrilegious wretch, and such grievous 
 offenders whose punishment was impalement alive on a 
 cross."* 
 
 ' These laws, however, fell into disuse, as appears evident 
 from the circumstance of there being so many cases of suicide 
 which escaped this treatment. 
 
 In the island of Ceos the magistrates had the power of 
 deciding whether a person had sufficient reasons for killing 
 himself. A poison was kept for that purpose, which was 
 given to the applicant who made out his case before the 
 magistracy. 
 
 The same custom was followed among the Massilians, the 
 ancient inhabitants of Marseilles. A preparation of hemlock 
 was kept in readiness, and the senate, on hearing the merits 
 of the case, had the power to decide whether the applicant had 
 good and substantial reasons for committing suicide. There 
 was, no doubt, much good effected by this regulation, as it 
 clearly acknowledged the principle that the power of a man 
 over his own life rested not in himself, but in the voice of the 
 magistrate, who alone was to determine how his life or death 
 might affect the state. 
 
 Libanius, of Antioch, who flourished towards the end of the 
 fourth century, has very happily ridiculed the practice to 
 which we have alluded. In some imaginary pleadings before 
 
 * Vide Pottei*:» Antiquities. 
 
 1/ 
 
28 ANCIENT LAWS ETC. RESPECTING SUICIDE. 
 
 the senate, he advocates the cause of a man who wishes to 
 swallow the hemlock draught, that he may be freed from the 
 garrulity of a loquacious wife. " Truly," says he, " if our 
 legislator had not been addicted too much to law making, I 
 should have been under no necessity of proving before you 
 the expediency of my departure, but a rope and the first tree 
 would have given me peace and quiet. But since he, deter- 
 mining we should be slaves, has deprived us even of the liberty 
 of dying when we please, and has enchained us with decrees 
 on this business, I imprecate the author and obey his mandates, 
 in thus laying my complaints and my request before you." 
 He then, with considerable eloquence and humour, advocates 
 the cause of the *^ envious man," who wishes to taste the 
 "suicidal draught" because his neighbour's wealth had in- 
 creased beyond his own. " Let the wretch," he says, " recite 
 his calamities, let the senate bestow the antidote, and let grief 
 be dissolved in death." 
 
 Libanius then pleads in behalf of Timon, the man hater, 
 who begs permission to dispatch himself because he was 
 bound by profession to hate all mankind, but he could not help 
 loving Alcibiades. 
 
 It is a singular circumstance connected with the subject of 
 suicide, that authors who have written in its defence should 
 quote the cases referred to in this chapter in justification of 
 their views. They have not taken into consideration the 
 peculiar customs, habits, and religion of the people, which of 
 course must have greatly influenced their actions. How ab- 
 surd would it be for us to take the authority of antiquity as 
 an infallible rule of conduct. The Massagetes considered 
 those unhappy who died a natural death, and therefore eat 
 their dearest friends when they grew old. The Libarenians 
 broke their necks down a precipice. The Bactrians were 
 thrown alive to the dogs. The Scythians buried the dearest 
 friends of the deceased with them alive, or killed them on the 
 funeral pile. The Roman people, when sunk in vice and 
 
ANCIENT LAWS ETC. RESPECTING SUICIDE. 29 
 
 licentiousness, considered it a mark of courage and honour to 
 fall by their own hands, and suicide was a common occurrence 
 with them. 
 
 " In the beginning of the spring," says Malt. Brun, " a 
 shocking ceremony takes place at Cola Bhairava, in the 
 mountains between the rivers Taptae and Nerbuddah. It is 
 the practice of some persons of the lowest tribes in Berar to 
 make vows of suicide, in return for answers which their 
 prayers are believed to have received from their idols. This 
 is the place where such vows are performed in the beginning 
 of spring, when eight or ten victims generally throw them- 
 selves from a precipice. The ceremony gives rise to an 
 annual fair, and some trade."* 
 
 No just distinction can be drawn between these customs. 
 The Indian widow, in obedience to the religion of her coun- 
 try, ascends the funeral pile of her husband, and is burnt to 
 death. Thousands annually sacrifice their lives by throwing 
 themselves under the wheels of their idol Juggernaut. Strong 
 feelings of religion impel them to this; they become ex- 
 cluded from society, they lose caste, and are subjected to all 
 kinds of persecution if they do not bow to the customs of the 
 country. What legitimate argument can be deduced from 
 these facts in favour of suicide ? And yet these cases are 
 considered to constitute a justification of the stoical dogma, 
 that we have a right when we please to put an end to our 
 own existence. Desperate indeed must be the circumstances 
 of those who are compelled to found their reasoning on so 
 flimsy a basis. 
 
 * Universal Geography, vol. iii. p. 155. 
 
30 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 WRITERS IN DEFENCE OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Opinions of Hume — Effect of his writings — Case of suicide caused by — The 
 doctrines of Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Montaigne examined — Origin 
 of Dr. Donne's celebrated work — Madame de Stael's recantation — 
 Robert of Normandy, Gibbon, Sir T. More, and Robeck's opinions 
 considered. 
 
 It will be foreign to my purpose to enter elaborately into an 
 examination of the opinions of those who have thought proper 
 to justify the commission of suicide. The arguments which 
 have been advanced by Hume, Donne, Rousseau, Madame 
 de Sta'el, Montesquieu, Montaigne, Gibbon, Voltaire, and 
 Robeck, are founded on such gross and apparent fallacies, 
 that they carry with them their own refutation. 
 
 Hume, whose pen was always ready to support opinions at 
 variance with the precepts of the Christian religion, wrote an 
 essay on the subject of suicide. He has endeavoured to shew 
 that self-murder is consistent with our duty to God, our 
 neighbour, and ourselves. Referring to the first of these 
 three heads, he says — " As, on the one hand, the elements and 
 other inanimate parts of creation carry on their action without 
 regard to the particular interests and situation of men, so men 
 are entrusted to their own judgment and discretion in the 
 various shades of matter, and may employ every faculty with 
 which they are endowed in order to provide for their ease, 
 happiness, or preservation." 
 
WRITERS IN DEFENCE OF SUICIDE. 31 
 
 If an action be clearly shewn to be an infringement of the 
 laws of God, it certainly cannot be one which he has left us 
 to exercise at discretion. All the laws of religion and morality 
 are so many abridgments of man's liberty, in the exercise of 
 his judgment and discretion for his own happiness. Hume 
 then proceeds to examine whether suicide be a breach of duty 
 to our neighbour and society. He observes — " A man who 
 retires from life does no harm to society, — he only ceases to / 
 do good ; which, if it be an injury, is of the lowest kind." The 
 man who sacrifices his own life does a great injury to society. 
 There are very few men in the world who have no relations 
 or connexions, and he entails upon these the opprobrium that 
 society attaches to the crime of suicide. Independently of 
 this, his example acts injuriously on the minds of others, who 
 may not have such good reasons for suicide as he has. " I 
 believe," continues Hume, " that no man ever threw away life 
 while it was worth keeping. For such is our natural horror 
 of death, that small motives will never be able to reconcile us y 
 
 to it." He might as well have stated that such is our horror of 
 poverty that no man ever threw away riches which were worth 
 keeping. The fallacy consists in drawing a conclusion from a 
 mind supposed in its right state, in which every faculty, pro- 
 pensity, and aversion has its due proportion of strength ; and 
 in which the natural horror of death will secure a man from 
 throwing away a life which is worth keeping : and this con- 
 clusion is applied to a depraved state of mind, in which it can 
 by no means hold. 
 
 The same author asserts, " That it would be no crime in me 
 to divert the Nile or Danube from its course, if I could; 
 where, then, is the crime of turning a few ounces of blood out 
 of its natural channel ?" The argument is too puerile to merit 
 refutation. He must first establish that no injury would 
 accrue from diverting the course of the Nile and Danube, 
 before any argument can be deduced from it which is worth 
 one moment's consideration. 
 
 It has been asserted, and remains uncontradicted, that Mr. 
 
32 WRITERS IN DEFENCE OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Hume lent his ^' Essay on Suicide" to a friend, who on re- 
 turning it told him it was a most excellent performance, and 
 pleased him better than anything he had read for a long 
 time. In order to give Hume a practical exhibition of the 
 effects of his defence of suicide, his friend shot himself the 
 day after returning him his Essay. 
 
 If, in any one instance, suicide might admit of something 
 like an apology, it would have been in this — if the detestable 
 author of this abominable treatise had, on receiving the me- 
 lancholy intelligence, committed it to the flames, and ter- 
 minated his own pernicious existence by a cord. But the 
 cold-blooded infidel was too cowardly to execute summary 
 justice on himself. With a truly diabolical spirit, his delight 
 was to scatter firebrands among the people, and say, " Am I 
 not in sport ?" 
 
 Mr. Hume is the hero of modern infidels, because he is the 
 only one among them whose life was not disgraced by the 
 grossest of vices ; for this, his selfish and avaricious spirit 
 affords, perhaps, the true reason. It is well known that Hume, 
 in more than one instance, sacrificed his principles (if he had 
 any) to views of emolument at the suggestion of the book- 
 sellers. It has been said that he was scarcely guilty of a 
 good or benevolent action. His treatment of Rousseau was 
 unfeeling in the extreme; and an intimate friend of the 
 essayist affirms, that " his heart was as hard and cold as 
 marble." 
 
 Montesquieu's arguments in favour of suicide appear to 
 border very closely on those advanced by Hume. They 
 will be found in a letter written in the character of a Persian 
 resident in Europe. 
 
 Rousseau* in his " Nouvelle Heloi'se" observes, " The more 
 I reflect upon it (suicide), the more I find that the question 
 
 * It is generally believed that Rousseau killed himself by taking arsenic ; 
 but this has been denied. Judging from the character and disposition of the 
 man, we should feel disposed to credit the statement respecting his voluntary 
 death. Rousseau always maintained that the following stanza of Tasso had 
 
WRITERS IN DEFENCE OF SUICIDE. 33 
 
 reduces itself to this fundamental proposition : — To seek one's 
 own good, and avoid one's own harm in that which hurts not 
 another, is the law of nature." Rousseau must first clearly 
 establish that what he terms " seeking one's own good" will 
 not be productive of injury to others. According to the 
 notion of what the majority of men conceive to be their 
 good, much evil would result from allowing mankind to act 
 under the influence of their own feelings and judgment. 
 What one man considers " good," another considers evil ; 
 and what often appears to be very beneficial to ourselves, if 
 examined fairly, will be found to be the very reverse. 
 
 Montaigne's arguments are borrowed from ancient writer^~V. 
 in defence of suicide. He assumes at the commencement 
 that suicide is not an evil. He says, that pain, and the fear 
 of suffering a worse death, is an excusable incitement to 
 suicide. The whole that he has advanced is but a string of- 
 sophistries. / 
 
 Dr. Donne has entered more fully into the defence of suicide 
 than any other writer. The whole of his work appears to be 
 written for the purpose of demonstrating that it is praiseworthy 
 to shew a contempt of life in the discharge of our duty, and 
 in the execution of noble and beneficent enterprises. 
 
 Dr. Donne was probably drawn to the contemplation of 
 this subject by his own sufferings. While he was secretary to 
 
 a direct application to him, and accurately described his feelings and position 
 in the world — 
 
 " Still, still 'tis mine with grief and shame to rove, 
 A dire example of disastrous love ; 
 While keen remorse for ever breaks my rest, 
 And raging furies haunt my conscious breast, 
 The lonely shades with terror must I view, 
 The shades shall every dreadful thought renew ; 
 The rising sun shall equal liorrors yield, 
 The sun that first the dire event revealed ; 
 Still must I view myself with hateful eye, 
 And seek, though vainly, from myself to fly." 
 D 
 
34 WRITERS IN DEFENCE OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Lord Chancellor Egerton, he married a young lady of rank 
 superior to his own, which gave offence to his patron, and he 
 was consequently dismissed from office. He suffered extreme 
 poverty with his wife and children ; and in a letter, in which 
 he adverts to the illness of a daughter whom he tenderly 
 loved, he says that he dares not expect relief, even from 
 death, as he cannot afford the expense of a funeral. He 
 afterwards took orders, and was promoted to the deanery of 
 St. Paul's. In the early part of his life, and probably during 
 the period of his sufferings, he wrote his book, entitled, 
 ^' BiixQacvacro;, A Declaration of that paradox or thesis, that 
 self-homicide is not so naturally sin that it may never he other- 
 wise,^'' He did not pubhsh it. He desired it to he remembered, 
 that it was written by Jack Donne, not by Dr. Donne ; and it 
 was published many years after his death, by his son, a dissi- 
 pated young man, tempted by his necessities to forget his 
 father's prohibition. 
 
 Madame de Stael attempted to justify suicide in her work 
 on the passions, but she, greatly to her honour, published her 
 celebrated " Reflections on Suicide," which was written as a 
 recantation of some opinions on the subject incidentally ex- 
 pressed in the work alluded to. She expresses the change in 
 her sentiments on this subject in the following curious man- 
 ner : — " J'ai I'acte du suicide, dans mon ouvrage sur I'influence 
 des passions, et je me suis repentie depuis de cette parole 
 inconsideree. J'etois alors dans tout I'orgueil et la vivacite de 
 la premiere jeunesse ; mais a quoi servirait-il de vivre, si ce 
 n'etait dans I'espoir de s'ameliorer." 
 
 Madame de Stael has treated the subject with considerable 
 ingenuity and ability, and with a great deal of eloquence, 
 but she has hardly enforced sufficiently the arguments against 
 this crime which may be deduced from the use of that por- 
 tion of existence we pass upon earth. We are wise and good 
 just in proportion as we consider and treat life and all its in- 
 cidents as moral means to a great end. Upon every moment 
 
WRITERS IN DEFENCE OF SUICIDE. 35 
 
 of time an eternity is dependent; and whenever we sacrifice a^ 
 moment, we throw away an instrument by which we might 
 have created an eternity of happiness. 
 
 All mankind are not placed upon an equality. Some ex- 
 perience pleasure, others pain, privation or suffering ; the tools 
 with which we are to work may be inconvenient or burthen- 
 some, or light and pleasant ; but they must be the most useful 
 and efficacious, or they would not be put into our hands ; at 
 any rate, they are all we have. We cannot fix too deeply on 
 our minds the truth that life is not an absolute, but a relative 
 existence, as in its relation to the eternity with which it is 
 connected, consists all its value and importance. 
 
 Robert of Normandy, surnamed the Devil, sacrificed his 
 own life, and before doing so he wrote a work in defence of 
 suicide, in which he argued that there was no law that forbids 
 a person to deprive himself of life ; that the love of life is to 
 be subservient to that of happiness ; that our body is a mean 
 and contemptible machine, the preservation of which we 
 ought not so highly to value ; if the human soul be mortal, 
 it receives but a slight injury, but if immortal, the greatest 
 advantage ; a benefit ceases to be one when it becomes trou- 
 blesome, and then surely a man ought to be allowed to resign 
 it ; a voluntary death is often the only method of avoiding the 
 greatest crime ; and finally, that suicide is justified by the 
 example of most nations in the world. Such is the substance 
 of the arguments in favour of suicide urged by Robert of 
 Normandy, and worthy of his celebrated namesake. 
 
 Gibbon and Sir Thomas More are cited as champions in 
 favour of suicide ; but there is nothing which these authors 
 have advanced that merits a separate consideration. 
 
 d2 
 
36 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SUICIDE A CRIME AGAINST GOD AND MAN.— IT IS NOT 
 AN ACT OF COURAGE. 
 
 The sin of suicide — The notions of Paley on the subject — Voltaire's opinion — 
 Is suicide self-murder? — Is it forbidden in Scrip ture ? — Shakspeare's 
 views on the subject — The alliance between suicicle and murder— tlas a 
 man a righl Itt ssttrifice his own life? — Everything held upon trust — 
 Suicide a sin against ourselves and neighbour — It is not an act of cour- 
 age — Opinion of Q. Curtius on the subject — Buonaparte's denunciation 
 of suicide — Diyden's description of the suicide in another world. 
 
 Among the black catalogue of human offences, there is not, 
 indeed, any that more powerfully affects the mind, that more 
 outrages all the feelings of the heart, than the crime of sui- 
 cide. Our laws have branded it with infamy, and the industry 
 which is exerted by surviving relatives to conceal its perpe- 
 tration evinces that the shame which is attached to it is of 
 that foul and contagious character, that even the innocent 
 consider themselves infected by its malignity. 
 
 Much discussion has taken place as to whether self-murder 
 is expressly forbidden in the Old or New Testament.* 
 
 * Duverger de Hauraney a bbot of St. Cyr an, regarded as the founder of 
 Port Roval. wrotp. ^ n the year ibUK^ a treatise on sinridP. whiph hngT^ayc 
 Voltaire, become one of the scarcest books in Europe. 
 
 He says the decalogue forbids us to kill. In this precept, self-murder 
 seems no less to be comprised than murder of our neighbour. But if t here 
 are cases j n^ vhi oh it i n nllnwnblg t^ l^i]] onr npi^[|| i our. there likewi sp are 
 cases in which it is allowable to kill ourselves. We must not make a n 
 aUfipiPt upon onr lives until vyp ho ye consulted rpason. The public authority, 
 
SUICIDE A CRIME AGAINST GOD AND MAN. 37 
 
 Paley, who is a high authority on all questions connected 
 with moral philosophy, denies that it is. He considers that 
 the article in the decalogue so often brought forward, " Thou 
 shalt do no murder," is inconclusive. " I acknowledge (he 
 observes) that there is to be found neither any express deter- 
 mination of the question, nor sufficient evidence to prove that 
 the case of suicide was in the contemplation of the law which 
 prohibits murder. Any inference, therefore, which we deduce 
 from Scripture, can be sustained only by construction and 
 implication.''' 
 
 To maintain that God has not forbidden us to destroy the 
 work of his hands, because self-murder is not particularly 
 specified, is to leave us at liberty to commit many other 
 offences which are not named among the prohibitions, but 
 which are included under general heads. When God said to 
 NQ^la»,^^^_ Wlioso shedd eth man's blood, by man shall hi s blood 
 b e shed, for in the iina ge~ot God made he man," it is evi- 
 dent that, whatever meaning we may attach to the last words, 
 in_3vha |gver sense man is sa id to be made i n__tli£_jmage of 
 God, the reason of the prohibit ioiijio lds as str ong^_against 
 s elf-murder as against any other kind o f murder^ T£ \ am 
 commanded not to shed the blood^of another man becausajhe 
 is made in the imaffe q£ God,JL am not^ justified in shedding 
 my own blood, as I stand in the same relation to the Deij^ 
 as~my^tIow-men. But tEeIre is a particular reason why sui- 
 cide is not any where expressly forbidden by name; that is, 
 that whatever sins and offences God, as a lawgiver, prohibits, 
 he does so with a penalty ; he affixes such a punishment to 
 
 which holds the place of God, may dispose of our lives. The reason of man 
 may likewise hold the place of the reason of God, — it is a ray of the eternal 
 light. 
 
 Voltaire, disposed as he was to advocate the right of committing suicide 
 whenever a man considered death preferable to a dishonourable life, had 
 sufficient sagacity to see through the glaring so jjliistry of S t j Cyran's_reason inef 
 on thj s^ point. The same author says, " A man may k ill himself for th e good 
 ofmsprTnce^ lor thai Of llli country, or ibr thai oi nis relations.'^ 
 
38^ SUICIDE A CRIME AGAINST GOD AND MAN. 
 
 such a crime, and he who transgresses is to undergo the deter- 
 mined punishment in this world or in the next. Neither 
 God nor the magistrate can prohibit self-murder with any 
 , penalty that can affect the criminal himself; because of his 
 ! J very crime, he escapes all temporal punishment in person — 
 1 1 he has anticipated the operation of the law. In fact, he has, 
 in his own person, acted the part of the criminal, judge, jury, 
 and executioner ; he is dead before the law can take any cog- 
 nizance of his offence. No law can be enacted to any pur- 
 pose without a penalty; where, therefore, there can be no 
 penalty, there can be no law. Self-murder prevents all penalty, 
 and therefore wants no particular prohibition ; it must there- 
 fore be included under general commands, and forbidden 
 as a sirii which it is only in the power of God to take cog- 
 nizance of, in another world. 
 
 Again, doubtlessly the inspired writer considered suicide of 
 such an atrocious nature that the warnings of conscience 
 were sufficient to prevent its frequency, and because the 
 voice of nature instinctively cries out against it. 
 
 That the act of suicide must be most offensive in the sight 
 of God is evident, since it is that which most directly violates 
 those laws by which his providence has formed, and still 
 directs, the universe. If any one principle in man is instinctive 
 and implanted in him by the hand of nature, it is that of self 
 preser\^ation. Different religions and different codes have 
 marked out particular duties, and proscribed particular crimes ; 
 in this, every religion unites, every society concurs, and every 
 individual acknowledges within his own bosom the sacred 
 command. If, therefore, to disobey the ordinances of God 
 must be sinful in his sight, if ever the ordinances of men are 
 to be respected, what must be the guilt of that person who 
 violates the first law of nature, who disregards the principle 
 that holds human society together, that fits us for every duty, 
 and prompts us in the performance of them ! 
 
 But it is not merely against the ordinance of his Creator that 
 
SUICIDE A CRIME AGAINST GOD AND MAN. 39 
 
 the self-murderer offends,* he is guilty of a breach of duty tor I 
 his neighbour. He plants a dagger not merely in his owir- 
 breast, but in that of his dearest, his tenderest connexions. 
 He wantonly sports with the pangs of sensibility, and covers 
 with the blush of shame the cheek of innocence. With a 
 degree of ingratitude which excites our abhorrence, he clouds 
 with sorrow the future existence of those by whom he was ; 
 most tenderly beloved, and affixes a mark of ignominy on his 1 
 unfortunate descendants. He disobeys the first of social laws, \ 
 that order by which God appropriated his labours to the 
 welfare of society, and, because he fancies he can no longer 
 exist with comfort to himself, disregards all the duties which 
 he owes to others. 
 
 The alliance between suicide and the murder of others is a 
 closer one than is generally supposed. How many instances 
 are recorded in which suicide and homicide have been con- 
 joined ! He who will not scruple to take away his own life, 
 will not require much reasoning to impel him to sacrifice 
 another's. We refer to the cases of Mithridates, king of Pontus, 
 and Nicocles, as illustrative of this position. Many modem 
 instances are recorded of the same "^character. 
 
 It was maintained by Marcus Aurelius, that there was no 
 more of evil in parting from life than in going out of a smoky 
 chamber ; and Rousseau asks, " Why should we be permitted 
 to cut off a leg, if we may not equally take away life ? has not 
 the will of God given us both ?" Madame de Stael very pro- 
 perly observes that the following passage in Scripture replies 
 to this sophism — " If thy hand offend thee, cut it off ; if thine 
 eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee." Temp- 
 
 * It is evident that the great dramatist considered that suicide was 
 opposed to the divine vs^ill. 
 
 " Against self-slaughter 
 * There is a prohibition so divine, 
 
 That cravens my weak hand." 
 Again, he says — 
 
 " Or that the Everiasting|had not fixed 
 His canon 'gainst self-slaughter !" 
 
40 SUICIDE A CRIME AGAINST GOD AND MAN. 
 
 tation is evidently referred to in the above passage, but it may 
 consistently be used in refutation of Rousseau's illogical argu- 
 ment. Although a man may use any means placed in his 
 power for the removal of physical evils, he is distinctly prohi- 
 bited from destroying his existence. 
 
 The interrogatory argument, if it can be so denominated, 
 which is so often used in justification of suicide — " Cannot a 
 man do what he likes with his own ?" — is based upon an absurd 
 and gross fallacy. Man, during his residence on this earth, 
 is but a trustee ; his wealth, his talents, his time, and his 
 very life, are but trust property. He can call nothing truly his 
 own ; he is held accountable for the most apparently trivial 
 action he performs. Life is given to him for noble purposes ; 
 itjs^an emanation from the Deity himself; and no circum- 
 stances would justify us in asserting that our very existence 
 is placed at our own disposal. How truly has the noble poet 
 observed, when alluding to the teniu*e upon which we hold 
 everything during this life — 
 
 " Can despots compass aught that hails their sway, 
 Or call one solid span of earth their own, 
 Save that wherein at last they crumble bone by bone ?" 
 
 This life is one of privation. We are born to misery ; we 
 are led to expect disappointment at every step we take ; 
 blighted expectations, ruined hopes, pain, mental and bodily, 
 constitute a part and parcel of our very existence. No man 
 was more overwhelmed with any species of misfortune than 
 Job ; he was emphatically styled " the man of grief f and 
 when, prostrated to the earth by the most poignant misery, 
 his wife exhorted him to quit life, — to " curse God, and die," — 
 he replied, "What, shall I receive good from the hand of God, 
 and not evil ?" 
 
 No suffering, however acute, could for one moment justify 
 the commission of self-murder. " The concluding scene in 
 the life of Jesus Christ," says Madame de Stael, with a fervid 
 eloquence which does her immortal honour, " seems peculiarly 
 
SUICIDE A CRIME AGAINST GOD AND MAN. 41 
 
 intended to confute those who contend for the right of de- 
 stroying Hfe to escape misfortune. The dread of suffering 
 seized him who had willingly devoted himself to death 
 for the good of mankind. He prayed a long time to his 
 Father in the Mount of Olives, and his countenance was 
 shaded by the anguish of death. ' My Father,' he cried, ' if 
 it be possible, let this cup pass from me.' Thrice with tears 
 was this prayer repeated. All the sorrows of our nature had 
 passed through his divine mind ; like us, he feared the violence 
 of men ; like us, perhaps, regretted those whom he cherished 
 and loved, his mother and his disciples ; like us, he loved this 
 earth, and the celestial pleasures resulting from active bene- 
 volence, for which he incessantly thanked his Father. But, 
 not able to avert the destined chalice, he cried, ' Oh, my 
 Father, let thy will be done,' and resigned himself into the 
 hands of his enemies. What more can be sought for in the 
 gospel respecting resignation to grief, and the duty of sup- 
 porting it with fortitude and patience." Poets and orators 
 have entered into a chivalrous rivalry to celebrate the character 
 of the " bold man struggling with the storms of fate." That 
 adversity refines and ennobles our nature there cannot be a 
 doubt. The most beautiful features of the human mind are 
 developed in suffering; the ordeal through which we pass, 
 however repugnant and abhorrent it may be to our feelings, 
 produces a moral regeneration in the character. We come 
 out of the " fiery furnace," like gold and silver, deprived of 
 much of our dross ; and life, youthful and innocent life, again 
 dawns upon us and gladdens our hearts. 
 
 Suicide is an injury to our neighbour and to society. As 
 long as life lasts, — no matter what amount of misery a person 
 may suffer, — he has it in his power to contribute to the happi- 
 ness of others. By mitigating the distresses of others, his own 
 will be subdued. Let a man writhing under the torture of 
 the gout be brought into contact with a person suffering from 
 the intense agony of tic doloureux, and he will have a prac- 
 
42 SUICIDE NOT AN ACT OF COURAGE. 
 
 tical illustration of the fact, that there are others in the world 
 worse off than himself. 
 
 Suicide has been defended as an act of courage. Courage, 
 forsooth ! If ever there is an act of cowardice, it is that exhi- 
 bited by the person who, to escape from the disappointments 
 and vexations of the world, wantonly puts an end to his 
 existence. The man of courage will defy the opinions and 
 scorns of the world, when he knows himself to be in the right ; 
 will be above sinking under the petty misfortunes that assail 
 him ; will make circumstances bow to him ; will court diffi- 
 culties and dangers, in order to shew that he is able to master 
 them. 
 
 It was a noble sentiment which Q. Curtius put into the 
 mouth of Darius, after every ray of hope had abandoned 
 him : — " I will wait," cried the king, addressing his attendants, 
 " the issue of my fate. You wonder, perhaps, that I do not 
 terminate my own life ; but I choose rather to die by another's 
 crime than by my own." The sentiments of Cleomenes, 
 king of Sparta, expressed when his fortunes appeared most 
 desperate, are equally noble and magnanimous. Being much 
 urged by a friend to dispatch himself, he replied — "By 
 seeking this easy and ready kind of death, you think to appear 
 brave and courageous ; but better men than you and I have 
 been oppressed by fortune, and borne down by multitudes. 
 lie that sinks under toil, or yields to affliction, or is overcome 
 by the opinions and reproaches of men, gives way, in fact, to 
 his own effeminacy and cowardice. A voluntary death is 
 never to be chosen as a relief from action, but as exemplary 
 in itself, it being base to live or die only for ourselves. The 
 death to which you now invite us is only proposed as a release 
 from present misery, but conveys wdth it no signs of bravery 
 or prospects of advantage." 
 
 Euripides put the following words in the mouth of Hercules : 
 " I have considered, and, though oppressed with misfortunes, I 
 have determined thus ; Let no one depart out of life through 
 
SUICIDE NOT AN ACT OF COURAGE. 43 
 
 fear of what may happen to him ; for he who is not able to re- 
 sist evils will fly, like a coward, from the darts of the enemy." . 
 
 When Buonaparte was told of the prevalent opinion, that he 
 ought not to have survived his political downfall, he calmly 
 replied — "No, no; I have not enough of the Roman in me 
 to destroy myself." After reasoning, with considerable in- 
 genuity, on the subject of suicide, he concluded by giving 
 expression to this decided opinion : — " Suicide is a crime the 
 most revolting to my feelings ; nor does any reason present 
 itself to my understanding by which it can be justified. It 
 certainly originates in that species of fear which we denomi- 
 nate cowardice, {poltronnerie.) For what claim can that man 
 have to courage who trembles at the frowns of fortune ? True 
 heroism consists in becoming superior to the ills of life, in 
 whatever shape they may challenge him to the combat." He 
 might have added — " Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior 
 ito." On another occasion, when talking on the subject of 
 suicide, Buonaparte observed, " If Marius had slain himself 
 in the marshes of Minturnae, he never would have stood the 
 seventh time for consul." After having been some time at St. 
 Helena, he one day spoke further on the subject of suicide. 
 He observed : — " With respect to the English language, I have 
 been very diligent. I now read your newspapers with ease ; 
 and must own that they afford me no inconsiderable amuse- 
 ment. They are occasionally inconsistent, and sometimes abu- 
 sive. In one paper I am called a Lear ; in another, a tyrant ; in a 
 third, a monster ; and in one of them — which I really did not 
 expect — I am described as a coward. But it turned out, after 
 all, that the writer did not accuse me of avoiding danger in 
 the field of battle, or flying from an enemy, or fearing to look 
 at the menaces of fate and fortune. It did not charge me 
 with wanting presence of mind in the hurry of battle, and in 
 the suspense of conflicting armies ; no such thing. I wanted 
 courage, it seems, because I did not coolly take a dose of 
 poison, or throw myself into the sea, or blow out my brains. 
 
f 
 
 44 SUICIDE NOT AN ACT OF COURAGE. 
 
 The editor most certainly misunderstands me; I have, at 
 least, too much courage for that."* 
 
 We think it has decidedly been established in the preceding 
 observations that suicide is a crime clearly prohibited in the 
 Bible; that it is, in every sense of the term, self-murder; 
 and that our duty to our Creator, to ourselves, and to society, 
 loudly calls upon us to denounce it, and hold it up to the 
 scorn and reprobation of mankind. How terrifically has 
 Dryden, in his Fables, portrayed the condition of the un- 
 fortunate suicide in another world: — 
 
 ** The slayer of himself, too, saw I there : 
 The gore, congealed, was clotted in his hair. 
 With eyes half closed, and mouth wide ope, he lay, 
 And grim as when he breathed his sullen soul away." 
 
 • Warder's " Letters from the Northumberland." 
 
45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES IN 
 INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 
 
 Moral causes of disease — Neglect of psychological medicine — Mental philo- 
 sophy a branch of medical study — Moral causes of suicide — Tables of 
 Falret,&c. — Influence of remorse — Simon Brown, Charles IX. of France — 
 Massacre of St. Bartholomew — Terrible death of Cardinal Beaufort, from 
 
 remorse — The Chevalier de S . Influence of disappointed love — 
 
 Suicide from love — Two singular cases — Effects of jealousy — Othello — 
 Suicide from this passion — The French opera dancer — Suicide from 
 wounded vanity — False pride — The remarkable case of Villeneuve, as 
 related by Buonaparte — Buonaparte's attempt at suicide — Ambition — 
 Despair, cases of suicide from — The Abbe de Ranee — Suicide from blind 
 impulse — Cases— Mathews, the comedian — Opinion of Esquirol on the 
 subject — Ennui, birth of^ Common cause of suicide in France — Effect 
 of speculating in stocks — Defective education — Diffusion of knowledge — 
 " Socialism" a cause of self-destruction — Suicide common in Germany — 
 Werter — Goethe's attempt at suicide — Influence of his writings on Hack- 
 man — Suicide from reading Tom Paine's " Age of Reason" — Suicide to 
 avoid punishment — Most remarkable illustrations — Political excitement — 
 Nervous irritation — Love of notoriety — Hereditary disposition — Is death 
 painful? fully considered, with cases — Influence of irreligion. 
 
 In our voyage through life, the passions are said to be the 
 gales that swell the canvass of the mental bark ; they obstruct 
 or accelerate its course, and render the passage favourable or 
 full of danger, in proportion as they blow steadily from a 
 proper point, or are adverse or tempestuous. Like the wind 
 itself, the passions are engines of mighty power and of high 
 importance. Without them we cannot proceed, and with them 
 
46 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 we may be shipwrecked and lost. Curbed in and regulated, 
 they constitute the source of our most elevated happiness ; but 
 when not subdued, they drive the vessel on the rocks and 
 quicksands of life, and ruin us. 
 
 " How few beneath auspicious planets born 
 
 With swelling sails make good the promis'd port, 
 With all their wishes freighted." 
 
 -^ Young. 
 
 " In this country," Dr. J. Johnson justly observes, " where 
 man's relations with the world around him are multiplied be- 
 yond all example in any other country, in consequence of the 
 intensity of interest attached to politics, religion, amusement, 
 literature, and the arts ; where the temporal concerns of an 
 immense proportion of the population are in a perpetual 
 state of vacillation ; where spiritual affairs excite in the 
 minds of many great anxiety ; and where speculative risks 
 are daily involving in difficulties all classes of society, — the 
 operation of physical causes in the production of disease 
 dwindles into complete insignificance when compared with 
 that of anxiety and perturbation of mind." 
 
 " Mens conscia recti in corpore sano," is Horace's well- 
 known description of the happy man. Lucretius appears to 
 have formed a correct estimate of the most important bodily 
 and mental conditions on which our happiness depends ; — 
 
 " O wretched mortals ! race perverse and blind ! 
 Through what dread, dark, what perilous pursuits 
 Pass ye this round of being ! Know ye not. 
 Of all ye toil for, Nature nothing asks. 
 But for the body freedom from disease, 
 And sweet unanxious quiet for the mind ?" 
 
 Like human beings, the sciences are closely connected with, 
 and are mutually dependent upon, one another. The link in 
 the chain may not be apparent, but it has a real and palpable 
 existence. Medical and moral science are more nearly allied 
 than we should, a priori, conclude. We speak of the science 
 of medicine, not the practice of it ; for, like judgment and wit, 
 or, as the author of the School for Scandal ironically observes. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 47 
 
 like man and wife, how seldom are they seen in happy union. 
 Garth feelingly alludes to this unnatural divorce : — 
 
 " The healing art now, sick'ning, hangs its head. 
 And, once a science, has become a trade." 
 
 Psychological medicine has been sadly neglected. We recoil 
 from the study of mental philosophy as if we were encroaching 
 on hioly ground. So great is the prejudice against this branch 
 of science, that it has been observed, that to recommend a man 
 to study metaphysics was a delicate mode of suggesting the 
 propriety of confining him in a lunatic asylum ! 
 
 In order to become a useful physician, it is necessary to be- 
 come a good metaphysician ; so says a competent authority. 
 It was not, however. Dr. Cullen's intention to recommend that 
 species of philosophy which confounds the mind without en- • 
 lightening it, and which, like an if/nisfatuus, dazzles only to lead 
 us from the truth. To the medical man we can conceive no pre- 
 liminary study more productive of advantage than that which 
 tends to call into exercise the latent principle of thought, and 
 to accustom the mind to close, rigid, and accurate observation. 
 The science of mind, when properly investigated, teaches us 
 the laws of our mental frame, and shews us the origin of our 
 various modes and habits of thought and feeling — how they 
 operate upon one another, and how they arc cultivated and 
 repressed ; it disciplines us in the art of induction, and guards 
 us against the many sources of fallacy in the practice of 
 making inferences ; it gives precision and accuracy to our in- 
 vestigations, by instructing us in the nicer discriminations of 
 truth and falsehood. 
 
 The value of mental philosophy as a branch of education will 
 be properly appreciated when we consider that this ennobling 
 principle was given to us for the purpose of directing and con- 
 trolling our powers and animal propensities, and bringing them 
 into that subjection whereby they become beneficial to the 
 individual and to the world at large, enabling him to exchange 
 with others those results which the power of his own and the 
 
48 THE INFLUENCE OF CFRTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 gigantic efforts of other minds have developed; maintaining 
 and perpetuating the most dignified and exalted state of hap- 
 piness, the attribute of social life ; unfolding not only treasures 
 which the concentrated powers of individuals are enabled to 
 discover, but developing those more quiet and unobtrusive 
 characteristics of virtuous life, those social affections, which 
 are alone calculated to make our present state of being happy. 
 Independently of the utility of the study, what a world of 
 delight is open to the mind of that man who has devoted 
 some portion of his time to the investigation of his mental 
 organization ! In him we may truly behold — 
 
 " Nature, gentle, kind, 
 By culture tamed, by liberty refreshed, 
 And all the radiant fruits of truth matured." 
 
 When we take into consideration the tremendous influence 
 which the different mental emotions have over the bodily 
 functions, when we perceive that violent excitement of mind 
 will not only give rise to serious functional disorder, but actual 
 organic disease, leading to the commission of suicide, how 
 necessary does it appear that he to whose care is entrusted 
 the lives of his fellow-creatures, should have made this depart- 
 ment of philosophy a matter of serious consideration ! It is no 
 logical argument against the study of mental science, to urge 
 that we are in total ignorance of the nature or constitution of 
 the human understanding. We know nothing of the nature of 
 objects which are cognizable to sense, and which can be 
 submitted to actual experiment, and yet we are not deterred 
 from the investigation of their properties and mutual in- 
 fluences. The passions are to be considered, in a medical 
 point of view, as a part of our constitution. They stimulate 
 or depress the mind, as food and drink do the body. Em- 
 ployed occasionally, and in moderation, both may be of use 
 to us, and are given to us by nature for this purpose ; but 
 when urged to excess, the system is thrown off its balance, 
 and disease is the result. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 49 
 
 To the medical philosopher, nothing can be more deeply 
 interesting than to trace the reciprocity of action existing 
 between different mental conditions, and affections of parti- 
 cular organs. Thus the passion of fear, when excited, has a 
 sensible influence on the action of the heart ; and when the 
 disease of this organ takes place independently of any mental 
 agitation, the passion of fear is powerfully roused. Anger 
 affects the liver and confines the bowels, and frequently gives 
 rise to an attack of jaundice ; and in hepatic and intestinal 
 disease, how irritable the temper is ! 
 
 Hope, or the anticipation of pleasure, affects the respira- 
 tion ; and how often do we see patients, in the last stage of 
 pulmonary disease, entertaining sanguine expectations of 
 recovery to the very last ! 
 
 As the passions exercise so despotic a tyranny over the phy- 
 sical economy, it is natural to expect that the crime of suicide 
 should often be traced to the influence of mental causes. In 
 many cases, it is difficult to discover whether the brain, the 
 seat of the passions, be primarily or secondarily affected. 
 Often the cause of irritation is situated at some distance from 
 the cerebral organ ; but when the fountain-head of the nervous 
 system becomes deranged, it will react on the bodily functions, 
 and produce serious disease long after the original cause of 
 excitement is removed. It is not our intention to attempt to 
 explain the modus operandi of mental causes in the production 
 of the suicidal disposition. That such effects result from an 
 undue excitement of the mind cannot for one moment be ques- 
 tioned. Independently of mental perturbation giving rise to 
 maniacal suicide, there are certain conditions of mind, de- 
 pendent upon acquired or hereditary disposition, or arising 
 from a defective expansion of the intellectual faculties, which 
 originate the desire for self-destruction. These states will all 
 be alluded to in the course of the present inquiry. 
 
 Some idea of the influence of certain mental states on the 
 body will be obtained by an examination of the various tables 
 which have been published, in this and other countries, re- 
 
 E 
 
50 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 specting the causes of suicide, as far as they could be ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 The following suicides were committed in London, be- 
 tween the years 1770 and 1830:* — 
 
 Indication of CauseS' Men. Women. 
 
 Poverty 905 ... 511 
 
 Domestic grief 728 ... 524 
 
 Reverse of fortune 322 ... 283 
 
 Drunkenness and misconduct .. 287 ... 208 
 
 Gambling 155 ... 141 
 
 Dishonour and calumny 125 ... 95 
 
 Disappointed ambition 122 ... 410 
 
 Grief from love 97 ... 157 
 
 Envy and jealousy 94 ... 53 
 
 Wounded self-love 53 ... 53 
 
 Remorse 49 ... 37 
 
 Fanaticism 16 ... 1 
 
 Misanthropy 3 ... 3 
 
 Causes unknown 1381 ... 377 
 
 Total 4337t 2853 
 
 According to a table formed by Falret of the suicides 
 which took place between 1794 and 1823, the following 
 results appear: — Of 6782 cases, 254 were from disappointed 
 love, and of this number 157 were women; 92 were from 
 jealousy; 125 from being calumniated; 49 from a desire, 
 without the means, of vindicating their characters; 122 from 
 disappointed ambition ; 322 from reverses of fortune ; 16 from 
 wounded vanity; 155 from gambling; 288 from crime and 
 remorse; 723 from domestic distress; 905 from poverty ; 16 
 from fanaticism. 
 
 * London Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. v. p. 51. 
 f In a table given by Professor Caspar, of Berlin, one hundred and three 
 cases of suicide are attributed to mental affections ; thirty of these may be 
 classed under this head, and thirty-two under that of fear and despondency 
 combined. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 51 
 
 In preparing the present work, we have endeavoured to ob- 
 tain access to documents which would throw some light on 
 the probable origin of the many cases of self-destruction 
 which have taken place within the last four or five years. 
 In many cases we could obtain no insight into the motives of 
 the individuals; but in nine-tenths of those whose histories we 
 succeeded in making ourselves somewhat conversant with, we 
 found that mental causes played a very con spicuous part_in. 
 the drama. Our experience on this point accords with that of 
 many distinguished French physicians who have devoted their 
 time and talents to the consideration of the subject. 
 
 In considering the influence of mental causes, we shall in 
 the first instance point out the effects of certain passions and 
 dispositions of the individual on the body ; then investigate 
 the operation of education, irreligion, and certain unhealthy 
 conditions of the mind which predispose the individual to 
 derangement and suicide. 
 
 There is no passion of the mind which so readily drives a 
 person to suicide as remorse. In these cases, there is generally 
 a shipwreck of all hope. To live is horror ; the infuriated 
 sufferer feels himself an outcast from God and man; and 
 though his judgment may still be correct upon other subjects, 
 yt is completely overpowered upon that of his actual distress, 
 and all he thinks of and aims at is to withdraw with as much 
 speed as possible from the present state of torture, totally 
 regardless of the future. 
 
 " I would not if I could be blest, 
 I want no other paradise but rest." 
 
 The most painfully interesting and melancholy cases of in- 
 sanity are those in which remorse has taken possession of the 
 mind. Simon Brown, the dissenting clergyman, fancied that 
 he had been deprived by the Almighty of his immortal soul, 
 in consequence of having accidentally taken away the life of 
 a highwayman, although it was done in the act of resistance 
 to his threatened violence, and in protection of his own 
 person. Whilst kneeling upon the wretch whom he had suc- 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 ceeded in throwing upon the ground, he suddenly discovered 
 that his prostrate enemy was deprived of life. This unex- 
 pected circumstance produced so violent an impression upon 
 his nervous system, that he was overpowered by the idea of 
 an involuntary homicide, and for this imaginary crime fancied 
 himself ever afterwards condemned to one of the most dreadful 
 punishments that could be inflicted upon a human being. 
 
 A young lady was one morning requested by her mother to 
 stay at home ; notwithstanding which, she was tempted to go 
 out. Upon her return to her domestic roof, she found that 
 the parent whom she had so recently disobliged had expired 
 in her absence. The awful spectacle of a mother's corpse, 
 connected with the filial disobedience which had almost im- 
 mediately preceded, shook her reason from its seat, and she 
 has ever since continued in a state of mental derangement. 
 
 It is said that the solitary hours of Charles the Ninth of 
 France were rendered horrible by the repetition of the shrieks 
 and cries which had assailed his ears during the massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew.* 
 
 The death of Cardinal Beaufort is represented as truly 
 terrible. The consciousness of having murdered the Duke of 
 Gloucester is said to have rendered Beaufort's death one of the 
 most terrific scenes ever witnessed. Despair, in its worst form, 
 appeared to take possession of his mind at the last moment. 
 
 * The massacre of St.Bartholomew lasted seven days, during which more than 
 5000 persons were slain in Paris, and from 40 to 50,000 in the country. During 
 the execution, the king betrayed neither pity nor remorse, but fired with his long 
 gun at the poor fugitives across the river ; and on viewing the body of Coligni 
 on a gibbet, he exulted with a fiendish malignity. In early life, this monster 
 had been noted for his cruelty : nothing gave him greater pleasure than cutting 
 off the heads of asses or pigs with a single blow from his couteau de chasse. 
 After the massacre, he is said to have contracted a singularly wild expression 
 of feature, and to have slept little and waked in agonies. He attributed his 
 thirst for human blood to the circumstance of his mother having at an early 
 periodof his life familiarized his mind with the brutal sport of hunting bul- 
 locks, and with all kinds of cruelty. It is recorded that, when dying, he 
 actually sweated blood. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 53 
 
 His concluding words, as recorded by Harpsfield,* were — ^^And 
 must I then die ? Will not all my riches save me ? I could 
 purchase the kingdom, if that would save my life. What ! is 
 there no bribing of death ? When my nephew, the Duke of 
 Bedford, died, I thought my happiness and my authority 
 greatly increased ; but the Duke of Gloucester's death raised 
 me in fancy to a level with kings, and I thought of nothing 
 but accumulating still greater wealth, to purchase at last the 
 triple crown. Alas ! how are my hopes disappointed ! Where- 
 fore, O my friends, let me earnestly beseech you to pray for 
 me, and recommend my departing soul to God!" A few 
 minutes before his death, his mind appeared to be undergoing 
 the tortures of the damned. He held up his two hands, and 
 cried — " Away ! away ! — why thus do ye look at me ?" It 
 was evident he saw some horrible spectre by his bed-side. 
 This last scene in the Cardinal's life has been most ably de- 
 lineated by the immortal Shakspeare ; — 
 
 Scene — The Cardinal's Bed-chamber. 
 Enter King Henry, Salisbury, and Warwick. 
 
 King Hen, How fares my Lord ? Speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign. 
 
 Cardinal. If thou be'st Death, I'll give thee England's treasure, 
 Enough to purchase such another island, 
 So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain. 
 
 King Hen. Ah ! what a sign it is of evil life 
 
 When death's approach is seen so terrible. 
 
 Warwick. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. 
 
 Cardinal. Bring me unto my trial when you will. 
 
 Died hef not in his bed? Where should he die? 
 Can I make men live whe'er they will or no ? 
 O, torture me no more, I will confess — 
 Alive again ? then shew me where he is : 
 I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him — 
 He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them. — 
 Comb down his hair ; look ! look ! it stands upright, 
 Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul. — 
 
 * Hist. Eccles. edit. Duaci, 1622, p. 643—4. 
 f Meaning the Duke of Gloucester. 
 
54 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 Give me some drink, and bid the apothecary 
 Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. 
 
 King Hen. O thou eternal Mover of the Heav'ns, 
 
 Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch. 
 O, beat away the busy meddling fiend, 
 That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul, 
 And from his bosom purge this black despair. 
 
 WoT^ick. See how the pangs of death do make him grin ! 
 
 Snlishury. Disturb him not ; let him pass peaceably. 
 
 King Hen. Peace to his soul, if God's good pleasure be! 
 
 Lord Cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, 
 
 Lift up thy hand, make signal of thy hope. — 
 
 He dies, and makes no sign — O God, forgive him! 
 
 Warwick. So bad a death argues a monstrous life. 
 
 King Hen. Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. — 
 
 Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close. 
 And let us all to meditation.* 
 
 M. Guillon relates the following remarkable case : — " The 
 
 ChevaUer de S had been engaged in seventeen * affairs 
 
 of honour/ in each of which his adversary fell. But the 
 images of his murdered rivals began to haunt him night and 
 day ; and at length he fancied he heard nothing but the 
 wailings and upbraidings of seventeen families — one demand- 
 ing a father, another a son, another a brother, another a hus- 
 band, &c. Harassed by these imaginary followers, he incar- 
 cerated himself in the monastery of La Trappe ; but the 
 French revolution threw open this asylum, and turned the 
 chevalier once more into the world. He was now no longer 
 able to bear the remorse of his own conscience, or, as he ima- 
 gined, the sight of seventeen murdered men, and therefore 
 put himself to death. It is evident that insanity was the con- 
 sequence of the remorse, and the cause of the suicide. 
 
 " No disease of the imagination is so difficult to cure as that 
 which is complicated with the idea of guilt : fancy and con- 
 science then act interchangeably upon us, and so often shift 
 their places, that the illusions of one are not distinguished from 
 
 f 
 
 I * King Henry, Act 3. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE.- • 55 
 
 the dictates of the other. If fancy presents images not moral 
 or religious, the mind drives them away when they give pain ; 
 but when melancholy notions take the form of duty, they lay 
 hold on the faculties without opposition, because we are 
 afraid to exclude or banish them."* 
 
 How accurately has the poet depicted the tortures, the 
 sleeplessness, of a guilty conscience : — 
 
 " Though thy slumber may be deep, 
 Yet thy spirit shall not sleep ; 
 There are shades which will not vanish, 
 There are thoughts thou canst not banish ; 
 By a power to thee unknown, 
 Thou canst never be alone ; 
 Thou art wrapt as with a shroud. 
 Thou art gathered in a cloud ; 
 And for ever shall thou dwell 
 In the spirit of this spell." 
 
 A woman with her husband had been employed in a French 
 hospital as servants for a considerable time. Having left 
 their situations, the wife, thirtT/ years afterwards, declared she 
 heard a voice within, commanding her to repair instantly to 
 the chief commissioner of police, and confess the thefts she 
 had committed during the time she was at the hospital. The 
 fact was, that she had been guilty of appropriating occasion- 
 ally to her own use a portion of the food supplied for the 
 patients attached to the Institution. The commissioner 
 listened to the woman's story, and her demand that she should 
 be punished, but refused to take any cognizance of the 
 offence. She returned home, and for some time was extremely 
 dejected. She became so miserable that existence was no 
 longer desirable ; and as the legal tribunals refused to punish 
 her, she determined on suicide, which she committed at the 
 age of fifty-one. 
 
 It is admitted, by almost universal consent, that there is no 
 affection of the mind that exerts so tremendous an influence 
 over the human race as that of love. 
 
 * Dr. Johnson's Rasselas. 
 
56 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 *' To love, and feel ourselves beloved/' 
 
 is said to constitute the height of human happiness. This 
 sacred sentiment, which some have debased by the term pas- 
 sion, when unrequited and irregulated, produces the most 
 baneful influence upon the system. 
 
 " A youthful passion, which is conceived and cherished 
 without any certain object, may be compared to a shell thrown 
 from a mortar by night : it rises calmly in a brilliant track, 
 and seems to mix, and even to dwell for a moment with the 
 stars of heaven ; but at length it falls — it bursts — consuming 
 and destroying all around, even as itself expires."* 
 
 From the constitution of woman, from the peculiar position 
 which she of necessity holds in society, we should, a priori, 
 have concluded that in her we should see manifested this 
 sentiment in all its purity and strength. Such is the fact. 
 A woman's life is said to be but the history of her affections. 
 It is the soul within her soul ; the pulse within her heart ; 
 the life blood along her veins, " blending with every atom of 
 her frame." Separated from the bustle of active life — isolated 
 like a sweet and rare exotic flower from the world, it is natu- 
 ral to expect that the mind should dwell with earnestness 
 upon that which is to constitute almost its very being, and 
 apart from which it has no existence. 
 
 *' Alas I the love of woman, it is known 
 To be a lovely and a fearful thing ; 
 For all of theirs upon that die is thrown ; 
 And if 'tis lost, life hath no more to bring 
 To them, but mockeries of the past alone." 
 
 Byron. 
 
 The term " broken heart" is not a mere poetical image. 
 Cases are recorded in which that organ has been ruptured in 
 consequence of disappointed hope. Let those who are scep- 
 tical as to the fact that physical disease so often results from 
 blighted affection, visit the wards of our public and private 
 
 * Goethe, in allusion to one of his own early attachments. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 57 
 
 asylums. In those dreary regions of misery they will have 
 an opportunity of witnessing the wreck of many a form that 
 was once beauteous and happy. Ask their history, and you 
 will be told of holy and sincere affection nipped in the bud — 
 of wild and passionate love strangled at its birth — of the death 
 of all human hopes, of a severance from those about whom 
 every fibre of the soul had entwined itself. Silent and sullen 
 grief, black despair, 
 
 " And laughter loud, amidst severest woe," 
 
 are the painful images that meet the eye at every step we 
 take through these " hells upon earth."* 
 
 In this country, the great majority of the cases of insanity 
 among women, in our establishments devoted to the reception 
 of the insane, can clearly be traced to unrequited and disap- 
 pointed affection. This is not to be wondered at, if we con- 
 sider the present artificial state of society. We make " mer- 
 chandize of love ;" both men and women are estimated, not 
 by their mental endowments, not by their moral worth, not 
 by their capacity of making the domestic fire-side happy, but 
 by the length of their respective purses. Instead of seeking 
 for a heart, we look for a dowry. Money is preferred to 
 intellect; pure and unadulterated affection dwindles into 
 nothingness when placed in the same scale with titles and 
 worldly honours, 
 
 " And Mammon wins his way 
 Where seraphs might despair." 
 
 How little do those who ought to be influenced by more 
 elevated motives calculate the seeds of wretchedness and 
 misery which they are sowing for those who, by nature, have 
 a right to demand that they should be actuated by other 
 principles ! 
 
 * Love, it is said, often turns the biains of the Italians, even the men. 
 M. Esquirol says, " Frenchmen seldom go mad from love. A Frenchman 
 often kills himself in a sally of passion and feeling, but is seldom in love 
 long enough to go mad about it." 
 
58 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 " Shall I be won 
 Because I'm valued as a money-hugl 
 For that I bring to him who winneth me,"* 
 
 sajs Catherine, in the spirit of honest indignation. It should 
 be remembered that " wedlock joins nothing, if it joins not 
 hearts." 
 
 How many melancholy cases of suicide can clearly be 
 traced to this cause ! Death is considered preferable to a long 
 life of unmitigated sorrow. When the heart is seared, when 
 there exists no " green spot in memory's dreary waste," — 
 when all hope is banished from the mind, and wretched 
 loneliness and desolation take up their residence in the heart, 
 need it excite surprise that the quiet and rest of the grave is 
 eagerly longed for! If a mind thus worked upon be not 
 influenced by religious principles, self-destruction is the idea 
 constantly present to the imagination. 
 
 Of all the sufferings, however, to which we are exposed 
 during our sojourn below, nothing is so truly overwhelming 
 and irreparable as the death of one with whom all our early 
 associations are inseparably linked — one endeared to us by 
 the most pleasing recollections. Death leaves a blank in our 
 existence ; a cold shuddering shoots through the frame, a mist 
 flits before our eyes, darkening the face of nature, when the 
 heart that mingled all its feelings with ours lies, cold and in- 
 sensible, in the silent grave. 
 
 As long as life lasts, there is hope ; but death snatches every 
 ray of consolation from the mind. The only prop that sup- 
 ported us is removed, and the mansion crumbles to the dust ; 
 the mind becomes utterly and hopelessly wrecked. To say 
 that this is but the effect on understandings constitutionally 
 weak, is to say what facts will not establish. The most ele- 
 vated and best cultivated minds are often the most sensitively 
 alive to such impressions. 
 
 The following case made considerable noise at Lyons, in 
 
 * " Love." 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 59 
 
 1770. A young gentleman of rank, of handsome exterior, 
 possessing considerable mental endowments, and most re- 
 spectably connected, fell in love with a young lady, who, like 
 himself, possessed a handsome person, in union with accom- 
 plishments of a high order. They met ; the passion was re- 
 ciprocal, and the gentleman accordingly made an application 
 to her parents to be allowed to consummate their bliss by 
 marriage. The parents, as parents sometimes do under these 
 circumstances, refused compliance. The gentleman took it 
 greatly to heart ; it preyed much upon his mind, and in the 
 midst of his grief he burst a blood-vessel. His case was given 
 over by the medical men. The young lady, on being made 
 acquainted with his condition, paid him a clandestine visit, 
 and they then agreed to destroy themselves. Accordingly 
 the lady brought with her, on her next visit, two pistols and 
 two daggers, in order that, if the pistols missed, the daggers 
 might the next moment pierce their hearts. They embraced 
 each other for the last time. Rose-coloured ribbons were 
 tied to the triggers of the pistols ; the lover holding the rib- 
 bon of his mistress' pistol, while she held the ribbon of his ; 
 both fired at a given signal, and both fell at the same instant 
 dead on the floor ! 
 
 The case now about to be recorded presents some pecu- 
 liarly interesting features. An English lady, moving in the 
 first circles of society, went, in company with her friends, to 
 the opera at Paris. In the next box sat a gentleman, who 
 appeared, from the notice he took of the lady, to be en- 
 amoured of her. The lady expressed herself annoyed at the 
 observation which she had attracted, and moved to another 
 part of the box. The gentleman followed the carriage home, 
 and insisted upon addressing the lady, declaring that he had 
 had the pleasure of meeting her elsewhere, and that one 
 minute's conversation would convince her of the fact, and do 
 away with the unfavourable impression which his apparent 
 rudeness might have made upon her mind. As his request 
 
60 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN »IENTAL STATES 
 
 did not appear at the moment unreasonable, slie consented 
 to see him for a minute by herself. In that short space 
 of time he made a fervent declaration of his affection ; ac- 
 knowledged that desperation had compelled him to have 
 recourse to a ruse to obtain an interview, and that, unless she 
 looked favourably on his pretensions, he would kill her and 
 then himself. The lady expressed her indignation at the 
 deceit he had practised, and said, with considerable firmness, 
 that he must quit the house. He did so, retired to his home, 
 and with a lancet opened a vein in his arm. He collected a 
 portion of blood in a cup, and with it wrote a note to the 
 lady, telling her that his blood was flowing fast from his body, 
 and it should continue to flow until she consented to listen 
 to his proposals. The lady, on the receipt of the note, sent 
 her servant to see the gentleman, and found him, as he re- 
 presented, actually bleeding to death. On the entreaty of 
 the lady, the arm was bound up and his life saved. On 
 writing to the lady, under the impression that she w^ould now 
 accept his addresses, he was amazed on receiving a cool re- 
 fusal, and a request that he would not trouble her with any 
 more letters. Again driven to desperation, he resolved effec- 
 tually to kill himself. He accordingly loaded a pistol and 
 directed his steps towards the residence of his fair amorosa, 
 when, knocking at the door, he gained admission, and imme- 
 diately blew out his brains. The intelligence was communi- 
 cated to the lady, she became dreadfully excited, and a severe 
 attack of nervous fever followed. When the acute symptoms 
 subsided, her mind was completely deranged. Her insanity 
 took a peculiar turn. She fancied she heard a voice com- 
 manding her to commit suicide, and yet she appeared to be 
 possessed of sufficient reason to know that she was desirous of 
 doing what she ought to be restrained from accomplishing. 
 Every now and then she would exclaim, " Take away the 
 pistol ! I wont hang myself ! I wont take poison !" Under 
 the impression that she would kill herself, she was carefully 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 61 
 
 watched ; but notwithstanding the vigilance which was exer- 
 cised she had sufficient cunning to conceal a knife, with 
 which, during the temporary absence of the attendant, she 
 stabbed herself in the abdomen, and died in a few hours. 
 It appears that the idea that she had caused the death of an- 
 other, and that she had it in her power to save his life by 
 complying with his wishes, produced the derangement of 
 mind under which she was labouring at the time of her death ; 
 and yet she did not manifest, and it was evident to everybody 
 that she had not, the slightest affection for the gentleman 
 who professed so much to admire her. Possessing naturally a 
 sensitive mind, it was easily excited. The peculiar circum- 
 stances connected with her mental derangement were suffi- 
 cient to account for the delusions under which she laboured. 
 Altogether the case is full of interest. 
 
 Few passions tend more to distract and unsettle the mind 
 than that of jealousy. Insanity and suicide often owe their 
 origin to this feeling. One of the most terrific pictures of the 
 dire effects of this " green-eyed monster" on the mind is de- 
 lineated in the character of Othello. In the Moor of Venice 
 we witness a fearful struggle between fond and passionate love 
 and this corroding mental emotion. Worked upon by the 
 villanous artifices of lago, Othello is led to doubt the con- 
 stancy of Desdemona's affection ; the very doubt urges him 
 almost to the brink of madness ; but when he feels assured of 
 her guilt, and sees the gulf into which he has been hurled, 
 and the utter hopelessness of his condition, he abandons him- 
 self to despair. Nothing which the master spirit of Shakspeare 
 ever penned can equal the exquisitely touching and melting 
 pathos of the speech of the Moor when he becomes perfectly 
 conscious of the wreck of one around whom every tendril of 
 his heart had indissolubly interwoven itself. To be forcibly 
 severed from one dearer to us than our own existence is a 
 misfortune that requires much philosophy to bear up against ; 
 to be torn from a beloved object by death, to feel that the 
 
62 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 earth encloses in its cold embrace the idol of our affections, 
 freezes the heart ; but to be separated from one who has for- 
 feited all claim to our affection and friendship, and who still 
 lives, but lives in dishonour, must be a refinement of human 
 misery. Need we then wonder that, when influenced by such 
 feelings, Othello should thus give expression to the overflow- 
 ings of his soul : — 
 
 " Oh now, for ever, 
 Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content ! 
 Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars, 
 That make ambition virtue ! Oh, farewell ! 
 Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump. 
 The spirit-stirring drum, th' ear-piercing fife, 
 The royal banner, and all quality, 
 Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war ! 
 And, oh, you mortal engines, whose rude throats 
 Th' immortal Jove's dread clamours counterfeit, 
 Farewell ! Othello's occupation's gone \" 
 
 It is under the infliction of such a concentration of misery 
 that many a mind is shattered, and that death is courted as 
 the only relief within its grasp. Othello, having discovered 
 when it was too late that he had wrongly suspected Desde- 
 mona, and had sacrificed the life of the sweetest creature on 
 earth, a combination of passions drives him to distraction, and 
 under their influence he plunges the dagger into his heart. 
 Jealousy was not, as some have supposed, the exclusive cause 
 of Othello's suicide. 
 
 The following singular case attracted considerable notice 
 fifteen years ago. A woman was subjected to much mal- 
 treatment by her husband. She was jealous of his attentions 
 to one of the servants, and she had frequently declared, that 
 if he persisted in insulting her under her own roof she would 
 either cause his or her own death. On one occasion she was 
 more than usually violent, and expressed her determination to 
 ruin him. Fearful that she would carry her threat into exe- 
 cution, he had her placed in a room where there was no fur- 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 63 
 
 niture, and nothing that she could use for the purpose of self- 
 destruction. Her rage was greatly increased by this barbarous 
 treatment, and her screams were sufficiently loud to alarm the 
 whole neighbourhood. As her husband refused to release her 
 from confinement, she determined no longer to submit to his 
 brutal control, and resolved to commit suicide. Having no 
 instrument that she could use, she felt some difficulty in effect- 
 ing her purpose. She held her breath for some time, but that 
 did not succeed. She then tried to strangle herself with her 
 hands, but that mode was equally unsuccessful. Her deter- 
 mination was so resolutely fixed, that in desperation she tore 
 her hair out by the roots. Still death did not come to her 
 relief. In vain she searched in every corner of the room for 
 something with which she might effectually take away her life. 
 Just as she was beginning to give up the idea as hopeless, her 
 eye caught a sight of the glass in the window ; she instantly 
 broke a pane, and with a piece of it endeavoured to cut her 
 throat ; and yet she could not succeed in effecting her horrid 
 purpose. At last, as a dernier resort, she resolved to swallow 
 a piece of the broken glass, hoping by this means to choke 
 herself She did so, and the glass stuck in her throat, and 
 produced the most excruciating agony. Her groans became 
 audible ; the husband became alarmed, and opened the door, 
 when he found his wife apparently in the last struggles of 
 death. Medical relief was immediately obtained, and although 
 everything that surgical ingenuity could suggest was had re- 
 course to, she died, a melancholy spectacle of the effects of 
 unsubdued passion. 
 
 The two following cases shew how trifling a cause often 
 incites to self-destruction : — 
 
 Madame N , a once famous dancer at the French 
 
 opera-house, was taken to task by her husband for not acquit- 
 ting herself so well in the ballet as she usually did. She ex- 
 hibited indications of passion at the, as she thought, unmerited 
 reproof When she arrived home, she resolved to die, but was 
 much puzzled to effect her purpose. The next morning, she 
 
64 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 purchased a potent poison, but when she returned to her home 
 she found that her husband looked suspiciously at her, and 
 appeared to watch her movements. She then made up her 
 mind to take the fatal draught in the evening, as she was 
 going in the carriage to the opera. She accordingly did so ; 
 the poison did not have an immediate effect. The ballet 
 
 commenced, and Madame N was led on the stage ; and 
 
 it was not until she had commenced dancing that she began 
 to feel the draught producing the desired effect. She com- 
 plained of illness, and was removed to her dressing-room, 
 where she expired in the arms of her husband, confessing 
 that she had, in a fit of chagrin at his rebuke, swallowed 
 poison ! 
 
 A young gentleman, of considerable promise, of high 
 natural and acquired attainments, had been solicited to make 
 a speech at a public meeting, which was to take place in the 
 town in which he resided. As he had never attempted to 
 address extemporaneously a public body, he expressed him- 
 self extremely nervous as to the result, and asked permission 
 to withdraw his name from the published list of speakers. 
 This wish was not, however, complied with, as it was thought 
 that when the critical moment arrived he would not be found 
 wanting even in the art of public speaking. He had pre- 
 pared himself with considerable care for the attempt. His 
 name was announced from the chair; when he rose for the 
 purpose of delivering his sentiments. The exordium was 
 spoken without any hesitation ; and his friends felt assured 
 that he would acquit himself with great credit. He had not, 
 however, advanced much beyond his prefatory observations, 
 when he hesitated, and found himself incapable of proceeding. 
 He then sat down, evidently excessively mortified. In this 
 state he retired to a room where the members of the com- 
 mittee had previously met, and cut his throat with his pen- 
 knife. He wounded the carotid artery, and died in a few 
 minutes. 
 
 A case of suicide from mortified pride, somewhat similar 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 65 
 
 to the last, occurred some years ago in London. A gentle- 
 man, whose imagination was much more active than his 
 judgment, conceived that he was possessed of histrionic 
 powers equal to those which were exhibited by the immortal 
 Garrick. A manager of a London theatre, to whom he 
 was introduced, allowed him to make his debut at his theatre. 
 As is often the case, the public formed a different estimate of 
 his abilities to that which the vanity of the young aspirant had 
 induced him to form ; and the consequence was, that he was 
 well hissed and hooted for his presumption in attempting a 
 character for which his talents so little adapted him. Being 
 naturally sensitive, his failure preyed on his mind ; and under 
 the influence of the mortification, he hung himself, leaving 
 in his room the following laconic epistle, addressed to his 
 mother : — 
 
 "My Dear Mother, — All my hopes have been ruined. 
 I fancied myself a man of genius ; the reality has proved me 
 to be a fool. I die, because life is no longer to *be supported. 
 Look charitably on this last action of my life. Adieu !" 
 
 A common cause of suicide is the feeling of false pride. 
 The only reason assigned for the desperate act of Elizabeth 
 Moyes, who threw herself from the Monument, was, that, 
 owing to the reduced circumstances of her father, (a baker,) 
 it was determined that she should procure a situation at a 
 confectioner's, and support herself. This she allowed to prey 
 upon her mind, although she expressed a concurrence in the 
 propriety of the course suggested. How true it is — 
 
 "Abstract what others fed, what others think, 
 All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink." 
 
 Pope. 
 
 Owing to the fictitious notions abroad in society, the ridi- 
 culously false views which are taken of worldly honours, the 
 ideas which a sickly sentimentality infuses into the mind, this 
 feeling is engendered, to an alarming extent, through the 
 
 F 
 
66 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 different ranks of society. This constitutes one great element 
 which is undermining and disorganizing our social condition. 
 A fictitious value is affixed to wealth and position in the 
 world; it is estimated for itself alone, all other consider- 
 ations being placed out of view. 
 
 " None think the great unhappy but the great." 
 
 Vatel committed suicide because he was not able to prepare 
 as sumptuous an entertainment as he wished for his guests. 
 
 We cannot conceive how this evil is to be obviated, unless it 
 be possible to revolutionize the ideas which are generally 
 attached to fame and worldly grandeur. It is difficult to 
 persuade such persons that the end of fame is merely 
 
 " To have, when the original is dust, 
 A name, a wretched picture, and worse bust." 
 
 There is a nameless, undefinable something, that the world 
 is taught to sigh after — is always in search of; a moral 
 ipnis fatuus, which is dazzling to lead it from the road which 
 points to true and unsophisticated happiness. 
 
 Persons naturally proud are less able than others to bear 
 up against the distresses of life ; they are more severely galled 
 by the yoke of adversity ; and hence this passion often pro- 
 duces mental derangement. Such characters exhibit a 
 morbid desire for praise; it acts like moral nourishment to 
 their souls ; it is a stimulus that is almost necessary to their 
 very being, forgetting that 
 
 " Praise too dearly loved, or warmly sought, 
 Enfeebles all eternal weight of thought ; 
 'Till the fond soul, within itself unblest, 
 IjCansfor all pleasure on another's breast. ^^ 
 
 Dr. Reid justly observes, that " he who enters most deeply 
 into the misfortunes of others, will be best able to bear his 
 own. A practical benevolence, by habitually urging us to 
 disinterested exertion, tends to alienate the attention from 
 any single train of ideas, which, if favoured by indolence and 
 self contemplation, might be in danger of monopolizing the 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 67 
 
 mind, and occasions us to lose a sense of our personal con- 
 cerns in an enlarged and liberal sympathy with the general 
 good." 
 
 Villeneuve, the celebrated French admiral, when he was 
 taken prisoner and brought to England, was so much grieved 
 at his defeat that he studied anatomy in order to destroy 
 himself For this purpose he bought some anatomical plates 
 of the heart, and compared them with his own body, in order 
 to ascertain the exact situation of that organ. On his arrival 
 in France, Buonaparte ordered that he should remain at 
 Rennes, and not proceed to Paris. Villeneuve, afraid of 
 being tried by a court-martial for disobedience of orders, and 
 consequently losing his fleet, (for Napoleon had ordered him 
 not to sail or to engage the English,) determined to destroy 
 himself; and accordingly took his plates and compared them 
 with the position of his heart. Exactly in the centre he 
 made a mark with a large pin ; then fixed it, as near as he 
 could judge, in the same spot in his own breast, and shoved 
 it on to its head ; it penetrated his heart, and he expired. 
 When the room was opened, he was found dead, the pin 
 through his breast, and a mark in the plate corresponding 
 with the wound.* 
 
 It has been said that after the death of Josephine, and 
 when Buonaparte was overwhelmed with misfortunes, he 
 attempted suicide. Those who consider Napoleon imma- 
 culate deny the accuracy of the charge. But in order to 
 give the reader an opportunity of judging for himself, we 
 lay before him Sir Walter Scott's account of the trans- 
 action referred to. " Buonaparte," he observes, " belonged 
 to the Roman school of philosophy; and it is confidently 
 reported by Baron Fane, his secretary — though not universally 
 believed — that he designed to escape from Ufe by an act of 
 suicide. The Emperor, according to this account, had 
 carried with him, ever since his retreat from Moscow, a 
 
 * O'Meara's " Voice from St. Helena/' vol. i. p. 57. 
 F 2 
 
68 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 packet containing a preparation of opium, made up in the 
 same manner with that used by Condorcet, for self-destruction. 
 His valet-de-chambre, in the night of the 12th or 13th of 
 April, heard him arise, and pour something into a glass 
 of water, drink, and return to bed. In a short time after- 
 wards the man's attention was called by sobs and stifled 
 groans; an alarm took place in the chateau; some of the 
 principal persons were roused, and repaired to Napoleon's 
 chamber. Yvan, the surgeon who had procured him the 
 poison, was also summoned ; but hearing the Emperor com- 
 plain that the operation of the potion was not quick enough, 
 he was seized with a panic of terror, and fled from the palace 
 at full gallop. Napoleon took the remedies recommended, 
 and a long fit of stupor ensued, with profuse perspiration. 
 He awakened much exhausted, and surprised at finding him- 
 self still alive. He said aloud, after a few moments' reflection, 
 'Fate will not have it so;' and afterwards appeared recon- 
 ciled to undergo his destiny without similar attempts at per- 
 sonal violence." Napoleon's illness was, at the time, imputed 
 to indigestion. A general of the highest distinction transacted 
 business with Napoleon on the morning of the 13th of April. 
 He seemed pale and dejected, as from recent and exhausting 
 illness. His only dress was a night-gown and slippers ; and 
 he drank, from time to time, a quantity of ptisan, or some 
 such liquid, which was placed beside him, saying he had 
 suffered severely during the night, but that his complaint had 
 left him.* 
 
 We cannot conceive a more piteous condition than that of a 
 man of great ambition without the powers of mind which are 
 indispensable for its gratification. In him a constant contest 
 is going on between an intellect constitutionally weak, and a 
 desire to distinguish himself in some particular department of 
 life. How often a man so unhappily organized ends his 
 career in a madhouse, or terminates his miserable existence 
 
 * *' Life of Napoleon." Vol. viii. p. 244. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 69 
 
 "by suicide ! Let men be taught to make correct estimates of 
 their own capabilities, to curb in the imagination, to cease 
 '' building castles in the air," if we wish to advance their 
 mental and bodily health. " Ne sutor ultra crepidamP said 
 Apelles to the cobler. A young man who " penned a stanza 
 when he ought to engross," blew out his brains because 
 he had failed in inducing a London publisher to purchase an 
 epic poem which he had written, and which he had the 
 vanity to conceive was equal to Paradise Lost, forgetting that, 
 in order to be a poet, — 
 
 " Nature's kindling breath 
 Must fire the chosen genius ; nature's hand 
 Must string his nerves and imp his eagle wings/' 
 
 That this state of mind predisposes and often leads to the 
 commission of suicide, numerous cases testify. 
 
 Despair often drives men to suicide. The dread of 
 poverty and want ; the hopes in which we often injudi- 
 ciously place too much of our happiness entirely blasted ; 
 either honest or false pride humbled by public or private 
 contempt ; ambitious views suddenly and unexpectedly dis- 
 appointed ; pains of the body, the loss of those dear and 
 near to us, — tend to originate this feeling, and induce the 
 unhappy person to seek relief in self-murder. 
 
 How terrible is the situation of the man exposed to the 
 influence of this passion, and deprived of the cheering and 
 elevating influence of hope ! We had an opportunity, some 
 years back, of witnessing the case of a maniac, whose derange- 
 ment of mind consisted in his having abandoned himself 
 completely to despair. He laboured under no distinct or 
 prominent delusion, but his mental alienation consisted in 
 the total absence of all prospect of relief. The iron had 
 entered his very soul ; he appeared as if the hand of a relent- 
 less destiny had written on the threshold of his door, as on 
 the gate of the Inferno of Dante, the heart-rending sentence, 
 " Abandon all hope !" 
 
70 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 A woman is seduced by some heartless and profligate wretch ; 
 she is in a short time forsaken and left to her fate. Her mind 
 recurs to the past ; she recalls to recollection her once happy 
 state of innocence and peace. Scorned by the world, shunned 
 by her relations and friends, she is driven to a state of agonizing 
 distraction. Despair, in its worst features, takes possession 
 of her mind, and under this feeling she puts an end to her 
 existence. A man under the operation of this passion wrote 
 as follows : — 
 
 " It has pleased the Almighty to weaken my understanding, 
 to undermine my reason, and to render me unfit for the dis- 
 charge of my duty. My blood rolls in billows and torrents of 
 despair. It must have vent. How ? I possess a place to 
 which I am a dishonour, inasmuch as I am incapable of dis- 
 charging it properly ; I prevent some better man from doing 
 it more justice. This piece of bread which I lament is all 
 that I have to support myself and family ; even this I do not 
 merit ; I eat it in sin, and yet I live. Killing thought ! which 
 a conscience hitherto uncorrupted inspires. I have a wife, 
 also, and my child reproaches me with its existence. But 
 you do not know, my dear friends, that if my unhappy life is 
 not speedily ended, my weak head will require all your care, 
 and I shall become a burthen rather than an assistance to 
 you. It is better that I yield myself a timely sacrifice to 
 misfortune, than, by permitting the delusion to continue longer, 
 I consume the last farthing of my wife's inheritance. It is a 
 duty of every person to do that which his situation requires ; 
 reason commands it, religion approves. My life, such as it is, 
 is a mere animal life, devoid of reason ; in my mind, a life 
 which stands in opposition to duty is moral death, and worse 
 than that which is natural. In favour of the few whose life I 
 cannot render happy, it is at least my duty not to become an 
 oppression. I ought to relieve them from a weight which 
 sooner or later cannot fail to crush them." 
 
 This unfortunate man, after penning the above account 
 
 of his morbid feelings, sent his wife to church on Sundav, 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 71 
 
 May 13th, 1783 ; and after writing an addition to his journal, 
 took a pair of scissors and attempted, although unsuccessfully, 
 to terminate his life by cutting his throat. He then opened 
 the arteries at the wrists, and again failed in destroying him- 
 self; he staggered to the window, and saw his wife returning 
 home, upon which he seized a knife used for killing deer, and 
 stabbed himself in the heart. He was lying weltering in his 
 blood when his wife came in, but was not quite dead. M. le 
 Clare, who relates the case, observes, that he was a man of 
 understanding, and of a lively wit. He possessed a great deal 
 of theoretical learning ; his heart was incorruptibly honest. 
 Like every calm and determined self-murderer, he was proud ; 
 but his pride was not the pride of rank, of riches, or of learn- 
 ing, but that divine pride which arises from a consciousness 
 of incorruptible honesty, and of being possessed of good 
 powers of mind. The office he held was that of an assistant 
 judge in a small college of justice at Insterberg. His mother 
 had been once deranged in her mind. 
 
 Few persons have given a more striking example of this 
 passion than the Abbe de Ranee, when first touched with re- 
 morse for the enormity of his past life, and before the dis- 
 turbed state of his mind had settled into that turn for religious 
 seclusion and mortification which produced the appalling 
 austerities of La Trappe. " To a state of frantic despair," 
 says Don Lancelot, in his letter to La Mere Angelique of 
 Port Royal, " succeeded a black melancholy. He sent away 
 all his friends, and shut himself up in his mansion at Veret, 
 where he would not see a creature. His whole soul, nay, even 
 his bodily wants, seemed wholly absorbed in a deep and settled 
 gloom. Shut up in a single room, he even forgot to eat and 
 drink ; and when the servant reminded him that it was bed- 
 time, he started as from a deep reverie, and seemed uncon- 
 scious that it was not still morning. When he was better, he 
 would often wander in the woods for the entire day, wholly 
 regardless of the weather. A faithful servant, who sometimes 
 followed him by stealth, often watched him standing for hours 
 
72 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 together in one place, the snow and the rain beating on his 
 head, whilst he, unconscious of his position, was wholly absorbed 
 in painful recollections. Then, at the fall of a leaf, or the noise 
 of the deer, he would awake as from a slumber, and, wringing 
 his hands, hasten to bury himself in a thicker part of the 
 wood, or else throw himself prostrate, with his face in the 
 snow, and groan bitterly."* 
 
 How many commit suicide from what is termed a blind 
 impulse ! They fancy that an internal voice tells them to kill 
 themselves ; and considering it impossible to resist what they 
 term a destiny, they do so. A gentleman, a merchant of the 
 city of London, had been exposed to great mental pertur- 
 bation ; his nervous system had received a severe shock. He 
 suffered extremely from a dread of going mad. As he was 
 walking home one afternoon, he heard a voice say, " Kill 
 thyself!" " Commit suicide !" and from that moment he could 
 not banish the idea from his mind. Two or three times he 
 was on the eve of obeying the mandate of this internal voice ; 
 but he fortunately possessed sufficient resolution to resist 
 the temptation. In this state of mind he consulted a phy- 
 sician, who ordered him to be cupped in the neighbourhood 
 of the head. His bowels were attended to, and he was re- 
 commended to visit some friends in the north of Scotland, and 
 to banish from his mind all ideas connected with business. 
 He followed the advice of his judicious physician, and in a 
 short time he completely recovered. 
 
 In the midst of health apparently perfect and uniform, a man 
 was attacked with a sudden disposition to destroy. He seized 
 
 ♦ It is worthy of remark that the judge who condemned, as well as the 
 disciple who betrayed, our Saviour, were both driven by despair to suicide. 
 The fate of Judas is recorded in the Gospel ; the concluding scenes in the 
 life of Pontius Pilate are related by two learned historians (Josephus and 
 Eusebius.) The former says that " Pontius Pilate, after having exercised 
 great cruelties in his government of Judaea, was, before the Roman Em- 
 peror (Caligula), stripped of all his dignities and fortunes, and banished to 
 Gaul, where it is said he suffered such extreme hardships of body and despair 
 of mind, that, after lingering for two years, he became his own executioner." 
 
11 UNIVLRSJTY iJ 
 
 IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 73 
 
 a stick, raised it, struck indiscriminately and broke everything 
 that presented itself to him. After some seconds, the stick fell 
 from his hands, and he appeared restored to himself. The man 
 knew nothing of what he had just done. He was reproached, 
 he was shewn the remnants of the things that he had broken ; 
 he thought they were ridiculing him, and he was greatly irri- 
 tated. He was again seized with frenzy, and killed a person. 
 He was taken before a court of justice, acquitted on the 
 ground of insanity, and placed in an hospital. This dis- 
 position to destroy returned at distant intervals; it then 
 came on more frequently ; and finally, changed into fits of 
 epilepsy. A person seized with this morbid desire is not 
 always unconscious of the approach of the disposition ; he 
 has sometimes a presentiment of it, perceives its danger, 
 seeks to combat it, and frequently succeeds in effecting his 
 purpose. 
 
 A labourer, at the end of his day's work, felt himself 
 seized with an irresistible desire of running ; he rushed upon 
 the quay, which goes from the Louvre to the Greve : every 
 obstacle was overcome. An attempt was made to stop him, 
 but it was not successful. At last he dexterously engaged one 
 of his arms in the wheel of a carriage, which happened to be 
 within his reach. Thus withheld, he recovered his breath, 
 became calm, and appeared to have no idea of what 
 had occurred. This feeling was again manifested, and 
 he was properly sent by his friends to an hospital, when 
 it was discovered that he had a disease of the spinal 
 marrow. 
 
 A man arrived upon the Pont Neuf ; he rushed violently 
 to the parapet, and precipitated himself into the Seine. 
 Pie was seen by some of the bystanders, who drew him out of 
 the water and saved his life. After some days of complete 
 restoration, his friends asked him the reason of his strange 
 conduct. He replied, " I cannot give any account. I am in 
 the happiest situation in the world. I have only to play with 
 fortune and with men. I have never been ill. I do not know 
 
74 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 what troubles may come upon me. I can only recollect my 
 arrival on the Pont Neuf, and my recall to life." 
 
 The particulars of the following fact are recorded in Mrs. 
 Mathews' life of her husband. Mathews the comedian had 
 lived for some days a vapid and inactive life. His spirit had 
 been pressed down, " cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd." In this state 
 of mind, a party of gentlemen called upon him, and proposed 
 a day's excursion. Accordingly, they all mounted their 
 horses. Mrs. Mathews says — " My husband's depressed 
 spirits were exhilarated by the beauty of the weather, and the 
 prospect of a day's pleasure (free from the restraint of a room, 
 listening to truisms) in the open air, where he would have 
 uncontrolled power to gaze upon his idol, Nature, in her most 
 beautiful form. He had not ridden out of the city for some 
 weeks, and was in a state of childish delight and excitement. 
 At this moment his eyes turned upon one of the party, a very 
 little man, who was perched on a very tall horse, and who 
 seemed unusually grave and important. Mr. Mathews 
 looked at him for a moment ; and the next, knocked him off 
 with a smart blow, felling him to the ground. The whole 
 party were struck with horror ; but no one felt more shocked 
 than he who had committed the outrage. He dismounted, 
 picked up the little victim to his unaccountable freak, de- 
 clared himself unable to give any motive for the action, but 
 that it was an impulse he could not resist ; and afterwards, in 
 relating this extraordinary incident, he declared his conviction 
 that it was done in a moment of frenzy, induced by the too 
 sudden reaction from previous stagnation of all freedom and 
 amusement." 
 
 A young woman, about twenty years of age, who had been 
 insane but a short time, and appeared to be recovering, after 
 having assisted to whitewash and clean a ward in an asylum 
 in which she was confined, was sitting, in the evening, taking 
 tea with the nurse and several other inmates. She took ad- 
 vantage of the opportunity when the nurse went to the cup- 
 board for some sugar to seize a knife with which some bread 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 75 
 
 had just been cut ; and in the presence of the whole party, in 
 an instant, before her hand could be arrested, cut her throat 
 in so dreadful a manner that she died almost immediately. 
 
 A patient in the Asylum at Wakefield, the wife of a 
 labourer, a kind-hearted and clever woman, was afflicted with 
 such a propensity to destroy that she was almost constantly 
 obliged to be kept in confinement ; and when at liberty, she 
 could not resist the pleasure of breaking anything she met 
 with. In one instance, she saw some tea-cups on a table, 
 and for some time walked backwards and forwards, and 
 checked the inclination; but eventually the temptation proved 
 too strong, and she swept them at once on to the floor. She 
 afterwards regretted the circumstance ; but the impulse was 
 too powerful to be resisted. 
 
 A monomaniac (says Esquirol) heard a voice within him 
 repeat these words — " Kill thyself! kill thyself P"* He there- 
 fore committed suicide, in obedience to this superior power, 
 whose order he dare not withstand. 
 
 A man, under a religious hallucination, believed himself to 
 be in communication with the Deity. He fancied he heard a 
 celestial voice saying — " My son, come and seat thyself by my 
 side.^^ He opened the window to obey the invitation, fell 
 down, and fractured his leg. When he was carried to his 
 bed, he expressed the greatest astonishment on finding that 
 he had precipitated himself from the window. 
 
 A young lady of considerable beauty was accosted in the 
 street by a strange gentleman. She took no notice at first of 
 the unwarrantable liberty ; but on finding that he persisted in 
 following her, she attempted, by quickening her pace, to 
 escape. Being extremely timid, and having naturally a very 
 nervous temperament, she was much excited. The person 
 in the garb of a gentleman followed her for nearly a mile, 
 and when he saw that she was home, he suddenly turned 
 down a street, and disappeared. The young lady expressed 
 herself extremely ill soon after she entered the house. A 
 physician was sent for, who declared his astonishment at her 
 
76 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 severe illness from a cause so trilling. During the follow- 
 ing night she manifested indications of mental derangement, 
 with a disposition to commit suicide. A strait-waistcoat was 
 procured, and all apprehensions of her succeeding in grati- 
 fying the propensity of self-destruction was removed. Some 
 weeks elapsed before she recovered. To all appearance she 
 was perfectly well. She had no recollection of what had 
 transpired, and expressed herself amazed when she was told 
 that she had wished to kill herself. Two months after she 
 left her bed she was missed. Search was made in every 
 direction, but in vain. After the lapse of two days, she was 
 discovered floating in a pond of water several miles from her 
 home. In her pocket was discovered a piece of paper, on 
 which were written the following lines : — " Oh, the misery 
 and wretchedness I have experienced for the last month no 
 one but myself can tell. A demon haunts me — life is insup- 
 portable. A voice tells me that I am destined to fall by my 
 own hands. I leave this world for another, where I hope to 
 enjoy more happiness. Adieu." 
 
 We have no doubt that in this case, although the acute 
 symptoms of insanity had subsided, she had not recovered 
 completely her sane state of mind. None but those con- 
 versant with the subject of mental derangement would believe 
 that so trifling a circumstance as that of being spoken to in the 
 street would have produced so violent an attack of maniacal 
 delirium as was witnessed in the case of this poor girl. 
 
 M. Esquirol states that he has never seen an unequivocal 
 instance of any individual drawn to the commission of suicide 
 by a kind of irresistible impulse, independently of any secret 
 grievance, real or imaginary. Could the secret feelings of 
 these suicides be accurately, ascertained, there w^ould gene- 
 rally, if not always,' be found some lurking source of dis- 
 content, real or fanciful, in the breast, which serve as 
 motives to their suicidal propensity. Many instances are on 
 record, it is true, where men have put a period to their 
 existence without any apparent visible cause or motive ; but 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 77 
 
 as Rousseau has justly observed, " Le honheur rHa "point 
 d'enseigne exterieur : pour en juger, il faudrait lire dans le cosur 
 de Thomme heureux."" 
 
 " Individuals," says Esquirol, " who appear outwardly the 
 residence of happiness, are often inwardly the focus of chagrin, 
 and tortured with distracting passions. That man can destroy 
 his own life, being at the same time happy in his mind, is a 
 phenomenon which human reason cannot comprehend." 
 
 A diseased temperament, a serious lesion of one or more of 
 the viscera, a gradual exhaustion of the energies of the system, 
 may so aggravate the miseries of life as to hasten the period 
 of voluntary death. But how are we to account for the irre- 
 sistible propensity to suicide which sometimes exists, inde- 
 pendent of an}^ apparent mental or physical ailments ? A 
 melancholic, whose case was published in Fourcroy's Medical 
 Journal of 1792, once said, " I am in prosperous circum- 
 stances ; I have a wife and a child who constitute my happi- 
 ness ; I cannot complain of bad health, and still I feel a hor- 
 rible propensity to throw myself into the Seine." His de- 
 claration was too fatally verified in the event. Crichton was 
 once consulted upon the case of a young man, twenty-four 
 years of age, in full vigour and health, who was tormented 
 by periodical accessions of these gloomy feelings and propen- 
 sities. At those times he meditated his own destruction. 
 But on a nearer view of the fatal act, he shrunk back into 
 himself, and recoiled with horror from its execution. With- 
 out relinquishing his project, he never had the courage to 
 accomplish it. " It is in cases like these," says Crichton, 
 " that energetic measures of coercion, and the effectual ex- 
 citement of terror, should lend their aid to the powers of 
 medicine and regimen." 
 
 In many cases of suicide, the act is preceded by a long 
 train of pers^erted reasoning. These individuals become taci- 
 turn, morose, pusillanimous, and distrustful. The future 
 presents itself to their view under the most unfavourable 
 -aspect, and despair becomes painted on their countenances. 
 
7B THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 Their eyes become hollow ; they complain of sleeplessness, 
 and are disturbed by frightful dreams. The bowels are in an 
 inactive state ; the functions of the liver become to a certain 
 extent suspended. It is in this state that they contemplate 
 the idea of suicide ; and the diaries which some have kept of 
 their sensations and thoughts disclose the various kinds of 
 death which they have contemplated and rejected, one after 
 another, often for reasons the most preposterous and ridicu- 
 lous. It is singular that in these journals they generally 
 endeavour to hide their despondency and their mental aber- 
 ration, while their moral and intellectual weakness is sure 
 to be betrayed. They often accuse themselves of insanity, 
 and bewail their unhappy lot ; others argue most ingeniously 
 in favour of their meditated suicide. Others again, subdued 
 as it were by the force of the moral and religious principles 
 which they have imbibed, represent to themselves that the 
 act they contemplate is contrary to the moral end for which 
 man was created — fatal to the welfare and happiness of their 
 families. Then ensues a conflict in their breasts. If reason 
 and religion prevail, the project is abandoned, — sometimes 
 abandoned altogether. If otherwise, the suicide is committed. 
 Falret knew the case of a woman who exhibited a tendency 
 to suicide, but who was delivered for a period from the com- 
 mission of the crime by the principles of religion in which 
 her mind had been educated. A long period elapsed before 
 she could reconcile herself to the act of suicide, and then she 
 argued herself into it by the following piece of sophistry : — 
 '' There are no general rules without exceptions ; and I am 
 the precise exception in this case : therefore I may commit 
 suicide without violating my religious principles." 
 
 Having once conceived the idea of suicide, the mind is 
 often rendered so miserable in consequence of it, that the 
 person rushes into the arms of death in order to escape 
 from the terrible state of anticipation. Others meditate on the 
 bloody deed for years. Rousseau, after drawing a piteous 
 portrait of his proscribed and solitary condition, and of the 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 79 
 
 state of his health, adds, ^* Puisque mon corps ri'est plus pour 
 mot quun emharras, un obstacle a mon repos, cherchons done 
 a vfCen degager le plus tot queje pourrai^ 
 
 Tedium vitce, or ennui, is said to be a frequent cause of 
 suicide. We have heard of an Enghshman who hanged him- 
 self in order to avoid the trouble of pulling off and on his 
 clothes. Goethe knew a gardener, and the overseer of some 
 extensive pleasure-grounds, who once spleneticallj exclaimed, 
 ^' Shall I see these clouds for ever passing, then, from east to 
 west?" So singularly developed was this weariness of life, 
 this feeling of satiety, in one of our distinguished men, that 
 it is said of him that he viewed with dissatisfaction the return 
 of spring, and wished, by way of change, that everything 
 would, for once, be red instead of green.* 
 
 " Within that ample nich, 
 
 With every quaint device of splendour rich, 
 Yon phantom, who, from vulgar eyes withdrawn, 
 Appears to stretch in one eternal yawn : 
 Of empire here he holds the tottering helm, 
 Prime-minister in Spleen's discordant realm, 
 The pillar of her spreading state, and more, 
 Her darling offspring, whom on earth she bore. 
 For, as on earth his wayward mother strayed, 
 Grandeur, with eyes of fire, her form surveyed, 
 And with strong passion starting from his throne, 
 Unloos'd the sullen queen's reluctant zone. 
 From his embrace, conceived in moody joy, 
 Rose the round image of a bloated boy : 
 His nurse was, Indolence; his tutor, Pomp, 
 Who kept the child from every childish romp. 
 They rear'd their nursling to the bulk you see. 
 And his proud parents called their imp — Ennui." 
 
 Hayley's Triumphs of Temper. 
 
 It is rare for an Englishman to commit suicide from ennui. 
 The English are diiferent in this respect from the French 
 people. The causes which lead to suicide in this country, 
 
 * Lessing. 
 
80 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 are thosi connected with sudden reverse of fortune, or grievous 
 disappointments, which are allowed to prey upon the mind 
 until the individual seeks relief in the arms of death. In 
 great commercial communities, where men may be reduced, 
 in a few minutes, from affluence to beggary ; where the hopes 
 and aspirations of years are levelled in a moment to the dust, 
 and the individual finds himself exposed to the insulting pity 
 of friends, and the searching curiosity of the public, we need 
 not feel surprise, when all these circumstances rush upon 
 a man's mind in the sudden convulsion and turbulence of its 
 elements, that he should welcome the only escape from the 
 abyss into which he has been hurled. 
 
 It has been stated, by a competent authority, that the week 
 following the drawing of the last lottery in England, no less 
 than fifty suicides were committed ! 
 
 M, Gase, in a memoir read before the Academie Royale 
 de Medecine, traces the increase of suicide in Paris to the 
 spirit of gambling which the Parisians so passionately in- 
 dulge in. The extended system of speculation in this 
 country approximates in its pernicious effects on the con- 
 stitution to those which have been considered to result 
 from gambling. The following case, which was communi- 
 cated to a popular journal, by Dr. J. Johnson, forcibly illus- 
 trates how the constitution may be undermined by rash, 
 inconsiderate conduct, during the excitement arising from 
 temporary circumstances : — 
 
 One day, on the Stock Exchange, when the rumours of 
 failings at home and commotions abroad were producing 
 such alarming vacillations in the public funds that the whole 
 property of a gentleman of high probity, temperance, and re- 
 spectabiHty, was in momentary jeopardy, he found himself in 
 so terrible a state of nervous agitation that he was obliged to 
 leave the scene of confusion, and apply to wine, though quite 
 unaccustomed to more than a glass or two after dinner. To 
 his utmost surprise, the wine had no apparent effect, though 
 he drank glass after glass, in rapid succession, until he had 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 81 
 
 finished a whole bottle. Not the slightest inebriating influ- 
 ence was induced by this unusual quantity taken before 
 dinner. His nervous agitation was, however, calmed, and he 
 went back to the Exchange, and transacted business with 
 steadiness, composure, and equanimity. None of the ordinary 
 effects of wine were produced at the time, but a few days 
 afterwards he was seized with a severe attack of indigestion, 
 a malady by which he had never been previously affected. 
 This case shews that although mental agitation masks, or 
 even prevents, the usual effects of wine, and other stimulants, 
 at the time, and thus enables, and indeed induces, men to 
 take more than under ordinary circumstances, yet the 
 ulterior effects are greatly worse on the constitution than if 
 the stimulants had produced the usual excitement at the 
 moment of their reception into the stomach. It is thus, we 
 have no doubt, that the nervous system of thousands in this 
 country is ruined, and, in numerous cases, the seeds of sui- 
 cidal derangement sown, and that without the victims being 
 conscious of the channel through which they have been 
 poisoned. 
 
 Defective education is a frequent cause of suicide. At the 
 present day, the ornamental has taken the place of the sub- 
 stantial ; the showy and specious, the situation of the solid 
 and virtuous. The endowments of the mind and cultivation 
 of the heart are forced to yield to the external accomplish- 
 ments and graces of the body, and polished manners are too 
 generally preferred to sound morals. The importance of 
 fashion is inculcated in opposition to reason ; religion is made 
 to bow down before the shrine of honour ; and the fear of the 
 world is taught to supersede the fear of God. But what 
 superstructure can be raised on so sandy a foundation ? It 
 can support no incumbent weight ; and, in consequence, it 
 cannot be deemed surprising that an inundation of folly and 
 vice, like a sweeping torrent, should bear down all before it. 
 The dignity of personal worth and character is a point too 
 little considered. Brilliant parts supersede sound judgment ; 
 
82 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 and disinterested virtue, integrity, and public spirit, are out 
 of character in a nation immersed in voluptuousness. Edu- 
 cation of a light and frivolous character leads to a vacuity of 
 serious thoughts and solid principles of conduct. Luxury 
 and profligacy, in all ages, have operated injuriously on the 
 human mind. Cato the elder observes that there could be 
 no friendship in a man whose palate had quicker sensations 
 than his brain and heart. The man who has no internal 
 sources of enjoyment to fly to when others fail, — he whose 
 happiness consists in an indulgence in the pleasures of the 
 senses, when these ephemeral sources of gratification are 
 removed, will, to avoid the vacuum which is made in his 
 existence, readily terminate his own life. 
 
 There cannot be a doubt but that the general diffusion of 
 knowledge, and the desire to place within the command of the 
 humblest person the advantages of education, have not a little 
 tended to promote the crime of suicide. It may be opposed 
 to all our a priori reasoning to suppose that, in proportion as 
 the intellect becomes expanded, knowledge and civilization 
 diffused, the desire to commit self-murder would be engendered. 
 It is an indisputable fact, that insanity, in all its variations, is in 
 a ratio to the refinement and civilization of a country. " It 
 is clearly proved," says Brown, " that in Finestre, where the 
 people are in a deplorable state of ignorance, and education is 
 entirely neglected, only twelve in a hundred of the inhabit- 
 ants being able to write or read, few suicides occur, at least 
 only in the proportion of one in 25,000. In Pari§, that focus 
 of all that is brilliant and imposing in science and literature, 
 the crime is of common occurrence. In Coreze, where only 
 twelve in the hundred can read or write, one suicide in 
 47,000 occurs; and in the High Loire one in 163,000. On 
 the other hand, in Oise and Lower Seine, both places in 
 possession of the highest degree of general instruction, and of 
 the means of advancing in improvement, suicides occur in 
 every 5000 or 9000 inhabitants. In the north of France, 
 Catholicism has been nearly extirpated, and there suicide and 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 83 
 
 crime predominate; south of the Loire, on the contrary, it 
 still retains a strong hold of the affections of the people, and 
 there suicide, and its sinister crimes or maladies are compa- 
 ratively rare. This affords a noble proof that the effects of 
 Christianity, in whatever form and under whatever circum- 
 stances, are peace and joy."* 
 
 It is our firm belief that the increase of suicide in this 
 country is to a certain extent to be traced to the atrocious 
 doctrines promulgated with such zeal by the sect of modern 
 infidels, who falsely denominate themselves Socialists ; a class 
 whose opinions are subversive of all morality and Christianity, 
 and which sap the foundation of society itself It is natural 
 to expect when such principles of infidelity are inculcated, 
 when men are taught to believe in the non-existence of a 
 God, and to consider they are not accountable agents, and 
 are under the operation of an organization over which they 
 have no control, that they should look with philosophic 
 indifference on suicide, and consider it as a justifiable mode 
 of putting an end to the misery and wretchedness engendered 
 by their own opinions. Such doctrines must of necessity be 
 productive of great evil to society ; and it becomes the duty 
 of every Christian and well-wisher to his fellow-men to hold 
 them up to reprobation. The opinions of Owen strike at the 
 root of all order, and of all virtue, social and public, and 
 break down every barrier of law and restraint, making the 
 passions the only standard of right and wrong — the animal 
 appetites the only test of virtue and vice. 
 
 In the Bishop of Exeter's able speech in the House of Lords, 
 on the subject of Socialism, he stated that cases of suicide under 
 circumstances of the most dreadful suffering had occurred, 
 which had been brought about by Mr. Owen's pernicious 
 doctrines. The learned prelate related the particulars of the 
 following case : — Mr. Parke, a most respectable inhabitant of 
 Wolverhampton, had an apprentice, who had been in the habit 
 
 * On Lunatic Asylums. 
 g2 
 
84 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 of attending Socialists' meetings, and hearing their lectures. 
 He purchased all their publications, and his master's shop not 
 being of that kind to furnish them, he was obliged to go 
 elsewhere to obtain them. He dined and drank tea as usual 
 with Mr. Parke on the Sunday, and left after tea to attend 
 St. George's Church. Not coming home at the usual hour, 
 his master sat up for him until 12 o'clock, when, as he had 
 not returned, he concluded that his relations had detained 
 him. He was, however, found dead, in a sort of lumber room, 
 the next morning. Two bottles of poison were lying by his 
 side ; the one which occasioned his death contained prussic 
 acid ; the other, nux vomica : near him were lying four letters, 
 one addressed to his father, another to Mr. Parke, a third to 
 the jury, and a fourth containing his creed; in all of which he 
 expressed his disbelief in the Bible, considering it " the most 
 dangerous book that ever was written," and if ever such a 
 person as Jesus Christ lived, he was the weakest man he ever 
 heard of. In one of the letters he also stated that he had 
 been nurtured in superstition, (meaning, that he had been 
 brought up as a member of the church of England,) and that 
 when he read Owen's works he " shuddered at their common 
 sense." He denied all belief in a future state of retribution ; 
 and as he considered apprenticeship slavery, he thought it 
 more prudent to suffer pain for a moment than to endure six 
 years' servitude. He earnestly entreated the jury not to bring 
 in a verdict of insanity. 
 
 It appears from a letter to the Bishop of Exeter, written by 
 the unfortunate youth's uncle, that he had been from infancy 
 an exceedingly lively boy ; between him and his parents the 
 most glowing affection, as well as the most boundless confi- 
 dence, existed ; but the fatal poison of Socialism changed a 
 confiding heart into a cold concentration of selfishness. 
 After the verdict of the jury, the uncle declared aloud, before 
 a crowded room, in a most vehement manner, that, were he in 
 the presence of the Queen, he would proclaim Owen as the 
 murderer of his nephew. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 85 
 
 The indifference with which self-murder is looked at in 
 Germany is to be ascribed in a great measure to the popular 
 productions of that country. We are reluctant to denounce 
 as undoubted causes of suicide the works of men of splendid 
 talents ; but in such a case it would be wrong, it would be 
 criminal, to mince the matter, and plead any excuse for so 
 detestable a work as Werter. which has unhinged the minds 
 of thousands, before they were aware of its impoisoned and 
 insidious tendency. That it is the work of a man of genius 
 only makes its blackening influence the stronger ; as the fas- 
 cination of the style, and the intense interest of the narrative, 
 operate like an infernal spell to smooth the road to self- 
 destruction. Its leading theme is, that human passions, and 
 particularly love, are immediately inspired by Heaven ; and 
 that it would be wrong — nay, that it is impossible — to 
 resist them ; and conse(piently, if a lover meets with disap- 
 pointment, his only virtuous course is suicide, which is 
 triumphantly catalogued among the virtues, as it was by the 
 heathen morality of the ancients. 
 
 This w^ork, together with Foscolo's imitation of it, the 
 " Ultime Lettere di Jacopo Ortis,^'' and all publications of a 
 similar character, ought to be repudiated by every sound 
 thinking man. Resistance to the dictates of passion, when it 
 prompts to crime and suicide, is a most deadly sin against 
 Werterism ; whilst, obeying the passions to the letter, even if 
 they incite to criminal love or self-murder, gives to its disciple 
 the stamp of one of the virtuous who have courageously braved 
 the laws of good order, fearlessly dared to trample under foot 
 all the commands of God and man, and stood forth as the 
 redoubted champions of human supremacy and the glorious 
 right of self-destruction. Such are the principles of the mis- 
 creants who wish to prove that suicide is a virtue ; and, with 
 the sentiments found in the pages of Werter, they rush head- 
 long and unthinkingly into a deep and awful futurity. 
 
 It is not generally known that Goethe^ the author of the 
 work alluded to, attempted suicide. He considered the death 
 
86 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 of the Emperor Otho as worthy of imitation. In contem- 
 plating the feelings which influenced that monarch, he says 
 he convinced himself that if he could not proceed as Otho had 
 done, he was not entitled to resolve on renouncing life. He 
 adds, " By this conviction, I saved myself from the purpose, 
 or indeed, more properly speaking, from the whim, of suicide. 
 Among a considerable collection of arms, I possessed a costly 
 well-ground dagger. This I laid down nightly by my side ; 
 and, before extinguishing the light, I tried whether I could 
 succeed {a la Otho) in sending the sharp point an inch or two 
 deep into my heart. But as I truly never could succeed, I at 
 last took to laughing at myself, threw away all these hypo- 
 chondriacal crotchets, and determined to live." 
 
 In the melancholy case of Hackman and Miss Ray, 
 the following is the substance of a correspondence which 
 passed between them on the subject of Werter. Hackman 
 was refused the sight of this book by Miss R., who had a copy 
 of the French translation, because, as she expresses herself, 
 she saw too great a similarity between her lover and Werter, 
 not only in point of situation, but in the impetuosity of their 
 tempers. " The book you mention," says Miss R., " is just 
 the only book you should never read. On my knees, I beg 
 you never to read it ! Perhaps you have read it ; perhaps — 
 I am distracted! Heaven only knows to whom I may be 
 writing this letter." To this, Hackman, who was in Ireland, 
 replies : " Nonsense ! to say it will make me unhappy, or that 
 I shall not be able to read it. Must I pistol myself because a 
 thick-blooded German has been fool enough to set the ex- 
 ample, or because a German novelist has feigned such a 
 story." Werter was read, and the effect was most injurious on 
 his mind. Whilst confined in Newgate, he wrote the following 
 letter : — " Among my papers you will see, my friend, some 
 lines I wrote on reading Goethe's Werter, translated from 
 German into French, which, whilst I was in Ireland, Miss R. 
 refused to lend me. When I returned to England, I made 
 her let me read it. But I never shewed her these lines, 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 87 
 
 for fear they should make her uneasy. Unhappy Werter ! 
 still less pretence hadst thou for suicide than I. After finally 
 seeing thy Charlotte married to another — marrying her thy- 
 self — hadst thou a right over thy existence, because she was 
 not thy wife ? Yet wast thou less barbarous than I ; for thou 
 didst not seek to die in her presence, — ^but neither didst thou 
 doubt her love. We can neither of us hope for pardon !" 
 
 The lines were these, supposed to be found, after Werter*s 
 death, upon the ground by the pistol — 
 
 *' If chance some kindred spirit should relate 
 To future times unhappy Werter's fate ; 
 Should in some pitying, almost pardoning age, 
 Consign my sorrows to some weeping page ; 
 And should the affecting page be haply read 
 By some new Charlotte — mine will then be dead. 
 (Yes ; she shall die — sole solace of my love ! 
 And we shall meet — for so she said — above. 
 O Charlotte ! (Martha — by whatever name, 
 Thy faithful Werter hands thee down to fame,) 
 O be thou sure thy Werter never knows 
 The fatal story of my kindred woes ! 
 
 do not, fair one, — by my shocking end 
 
 1 charge thee ! — do not let thy feeling friend 
 Shed his sad sorrows o'er my tearful tale : 
 Example, spite of precept, may prevail." 
 
 It may be mentioned, as a fact corroborating the opinion, 
 that productions of an infidel character have a tendency to 
 originate a disposition to suicide by weakening the moral prin- 
 ciples ; that when the celebrated and notorious TomJPaine's_ 
 .^^Age_of JReason'' was first published, the papers of the day 
 recorded many cases of self-murder committed by persons who 
 avowed that the idea never entered their heads until they had 
 become familiar with the works of the above-mentioned writer. 
 An individual, zealous in the diffusion of Paine's principles, 
 purchased several hundred copies of his work, which he most 
 industriously circulated, gratuitously, in quarters where he 
 knew the doctrines of Christianity had already obtained a 
 footing. A copy of the " Age of Reason," elegantly bound, 
 
88 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 was received by a young lady who was acting in the capacity 
 of a governess in the family of a gentleman of great respecta- 
 bility. The lady had no conception from whom the present 
 came, and having heard of the book, she felt a curiosity to 
 become acquainted with the doctrines which it inculcated. The 
 circumstance of her having received the book was not men- 
 tioned to any member of the family with whom she resided; and 
 in the evening, when she retired to her own room, she read it 
 with great attention. The family noticed, in a few weeks, a 
 perceptible alteration in the appearance of the young lady. 
 She became extremely thoughtful and contemplative. Her 
 health also appeared sensibly affected. The mother of the 
 children whom she was instructing took advantage of the first 
 opportunity of speaking to her on the subject. She expressed 
 herself very unhappy in her mind, but refused to disclose the 
 cause of her mental uneasiness. It was thought she had 
 formed an attachment, and was suffering from the effects of dis- 
 appointed affection. She was questioned on these points, but 
 persisted in concealing the circumstances which had been 
 operating so injuriously on her mind. The mental dejection 
 increased, and the result was, an alarming attack of nervous 
 fever, of which she was cured by an able physician with 
 much difficulty. When convalescent, she was noticed one 
 day busily employed in writing, and when interrupted, 
 shewed great anxiety to secrete the piece of paper on which 
 she had been transcribing her thoughts. In the course of 
 the evening of the same day, a deep groan was heard to 
 issue from her room. The servant immediately entered, 
 when, to her great horror, she saw the governess on the 
 floor with a terrible gash in her throat. Assistance was 
 directly obtained, but, alas ! not in time to save the life of the 
 poor unfortunate girl. On searching her desk, a sheet of 
 paper was dicovered, on which she had disclosed her reasons 
 for the rash act. She said, that from the moment she read 
 the " Age of Reason," her mind became unsettled. Her pre- 
 vious religious impressions were undermined ; in proportion as 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 89 
 
 she was induced to imbibe the doctrines of Tom Paine, so she 
 became miserable and wretched. From one error she fell into 
 another, until she actually believed that death was annihilation ; 
 and although she appeared firmly rooted in this belief, she 
 expressed herself horrified beyond all expression at the bare 
 idea of dissolution. For some time prior to her illness, she had 
 felt an impulse to sacrifice her life, but had not the courage to 
 perform the act. After her recovery, she felt the impulse re- 
 newed with increased strength, until, with a hope of escaping 
 from an accumulation of misery which was weighing her to 
 the earth, she determined to commit suicide. She also, in 
 the document referred to, asked her friends to forgive her, and 
 to take warning from her fate, y^^ 
 
 That many rush into suicide in order to escape the just and 
 legal punishment of their crimes cannot be a matter of doubt. 
 Many under such circumstances are influenced by a fear of 
 public exposure, and prefer death to the idea of being com- 
 pelled to undergo the ordeal of a trial in a court of justice. 
 The following case is but the type of many that could be re 
 lated:— 
 
 A young man of family, the Hon. Mr. , staying at an 
 
 inn in Portsmouth, previously to sailing for India, where he 
 
 was going out as an aid-de-camp to General , with a 
 
 party of friends, also officers, joined company at supper one 
 evening with Mr. Bradbury, the clown of Covent Garden 
 Theatre, a person of very gentlemanlike exterior and manners, 
 and ambitious of the society of gentlemen. He was in the 
 habit of using a very magnificent and curious snuff-box, and 
 on this occasion it was much admired by the party, and 
 handed round for inspection from one to the other. Mr. 
 Bradbury soon after left the inn, and retired to his lodging, 
 when he missed his box, and immediately returned to inquire 
 for it. The gentlemen with whom he had spent the evening 
 had all retired to bed ; but he left word with the porter to 
 mention to the officers early the next day that he had left the 
 box, and to request them to restore it to him when found. 
 
90 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 The next morning, Mr. Bradbury again hastened to the inn, 
 anxious to recover his property, and met on his way the Hon. 
 
 Mr. , and communicated his loss to him ; when he was 
 
 informed by that gentleman that a similar circumstance had 
 occurred to himself, his bed-room having been robbed the 
 night before of his gold watch, chain, and seals, &c., and that 
 he was on his way to a Jew in the town to apprize him of the 
 robbery, in order that if such articles should be offered for 
 sale, he might stop them and detain the person who presented 
 them. This was very extraordinary! Mr. Bradbury then 
 met the other gentlemen of the party, and was told by them 
 that their rooms had also been robbed, one of bank notes to a 
 great amount, another of a gold watch, &c. 
 
 The Hon. Mr. was violently infuriated by his loss ; 
 
 and as he was bound to sail from Portsmouth when the 
 ship was ready, he naturally dreaded being compelled to de- 
 part without his property. He hinted, too, that he had cer- 
 tain suspicions of certain people. An officer was sent for 
 from London. This man came down promptly, to the great 
 
 satisfaction of the Hon. Mr. ; and after searching the 
 
 house and their trunks, Rivett (the officer) addressed the 
 gentlemen, observing, that there was yet a duty unperformed, 
 and which was a painful one to him — he must search the 
 
 persons of all present, and as the Hon. Mr. 's trunks had 
 
 been the first to be inspected, perhaps he would allow him to 
 examine him at once. To this he agreed; but the next 
 moment he was observed to look very ill. Rivett was pro- 
 ceeding to search him, as a matter of course, when he 
 requested that everybody would leave the room, except the 
 officer and Mr. Bradbury, which request was immediately 
 complied with. He then fell upon his knees, entreated for 
 mercy, and placed Mr. Bradbury's box in his hand, begging 
 him to forgive him and spare his life. Rivett upon this pro- 
 ceeded to search him, but he resisted ; the object was effected 
 by force, and the greater part of the property found that had 
 been stolen in the house. The officer, conceiving that he 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 91 
 
 had not got the whole of the bank notes, inquired of Mr. 
 
 where the remainder was ; when he pointed to a pocket-book 
 which was under the foot of the bed; and while Rivett 
 relaxed his hold of him, and was in the act of stooping to 
 
 pick up the book, Mr. caught up a razor and cut his 
 
 throat. Rivett and Mr. Bradbury seized an arm each, and 
 forced the razor from him ; but he was so determined on self- 
 destruction, that he twisted his head about violently in dif- 
 ferent ways, in order to make the wound larger and more 
 fatal. To prevent him from continuing this, he was braced 
 up with linen round his neck so tightly that he could not 
 move it. A surgeon of the town, with two assistants, came, 
 and after seeing the wound, gave it as their opinion that it 
 was possible for him to recover, and by the assistance of some 
 powerful soldiers holding him, they dressed the wound. His 
 clothes were then cut off, and he was carried down stairs into 
 another room. During this operation he coughed violently ; 
 but whether naturally or by design, to make his wound worse, 
 was not ascertained. It had, however, the effect of setting 
 his wound bleeding again, and the dressing was obliged to 
 be repeated. 
 
 The sequel of this distressing case was of an equally melan- 
 choly character. 
 
 Poor Mr. Bradbury was standing close to the unfortunate 
 young man when he committed the sudden attempt upon his 
 own life. The horror of the act, and the shocking appear- 
 ance of his lacerated throat, the blood from which flowed out 
 upon Mr. Bradbury, in short, this heart-rending result of the 
 previous agitation and discovery, acted upon the sensibility of 
 Mr. Bradbury to such an extent as to deprive him of reason. 
 This fact was noticeable two days after the above scene, by 
 his entering a church, and after the service was ended, going 
 into the vestiy, and requesting the clergyman to pray for him, 
 as he intended to cut his throat ! This distemper of mind 
 was not too great at first to admit of partial control ; but it 
 
92 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 daily increased, and ultimately caused him to be placed under 
 restraint.* 
 
 A woman, about thirty-six years of age, who had been well 
 educated, but whose conduct had not been exempt from some 
 irregularities, in consequence of intemperance and manifold 
 disappointments, became affected with madness. She was 
 by turns furious and melancholic, and conceived she had 
 murdered one of her children, for which she ought to suffer 
 death. She detailed the manner in which she had destroyed 
 the child, and the motives which actuated her, so circum- 
 stantially, and with so much plausibility and feehng, that if it 
 had not been known that her child was living, the physician 
 under whose care she was placed might have been deceived. 
 By her own hands she had repeatedly endeavoured to termi- 
 nate her existence, but was prevented by constant vigilance 
 and due restraint. Her disposition to suicide was afterwards 
 relinquished ; but she still persisted that for the murder of the 
 child she ought to suffer death, and requested to be sent to 
 Newgate, in order to be tried, and undergo the sentence of 
 the law ; indeed, she appeared to derive consolation from the 
 hope of becoming a public example, and expiating her sup- 
 posed crime on the scaffold. While in this state, and with a 
 hope of convincing her of its safety, the child was brought to 
 visit her. When she beheld it, there was a temporary burst 
 of maternal affection ; she kissed it, and for a few moments 
 appeared to be delighted : but a look of suspicion quickly 
 succeeded, and this was shortly followed by a frown of indig- 
 nation, which rendered the removal of the child a measure of 
 wholesome necessity. Perhaps in no instance was the buoy- 
 ancy of madness more conspicuous over reason, recollection, 
 and feeling. She insisted they had attempted to impose on 
 her a strange child, which bore a faint resemblance to her 
 own; however, by such subterfuges she was not to be de- 
 
 * Vide Mathews' Life, by liis Widow, vol. ii. p. 158. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 93 
 
 ceived ; she had strangled the child until life had totally de- 
 parted, and it was not in the order of nature that it should 
 exist again. The effect of this interview was an exasperation 
 of her disorder: she became more cunning and malignant, 
 and her desire for an ignominous death was augmented. To 
 render this more certain, and accelerate her projected happi- 
 ness, she enticed into her apartment a young female patient 
 to whom she appeared to be attached, and having previously 
 platted some threads of her bed-quilt into a cord, she fixed it 
 round the neck of the young woman, and proceeded to 
 strangle her. Fortunately, some person entered the room and 
 unloosed the cord in time to save her. When this unhappy 
 maniac was questioned concerning the motive which induced 
 her to attempt the destruction of a person for whom she had 
 manifested kindness, she very calmly replied, that as the 
 murder of her own child was disbelieved, she wished to ex- 
 hibit a convincing proof of the ferocity of her nature, that she 
 might instantly be conveyed to Newgate and hanged, which 
 she desired as the greatest blessing. With considerable satis- 
 faction, we may add, that in a few months, notwithstanding her 
 derangement had been of three years' duration, this woman 
 perfectly recovered, and for a considerable time performed the 
 duties of an important and respectable office.* 
 
 The great increase of the crime of suicide has been referred 
 by many able physicians of the present day to the political 
 excitement to which the minds of the people have been ex- 
 posed of late years. In despotic countries, suicide and in- 
 sanity are seldom heard of: the passions are checked by the 
 nature of the government ; the imagination is not elevated 
 to an unhealthy standard ; every man is compelled to follow 
 the calling in life to which he is bom, and for which he has 
 capacity ; and on this account the evil and corrupt disposi- 
 tions of the mind are, to a certain extent, kept in abeyance. 
 
 * Dr. Haslam. 
 
94 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 In republican governments, the greatest latitude is allowed to 
 the turbulent passions ; all mankind are theoretically placed 
 on an equality ; the man whose " talk is of bullocks" con- 
 siders himself as fit to carry on the complicated business of 
 government as he whose education, associations, and experi- 
 ence tend to qualify him for the duties of a legislator. 
 
 In proportion as men are exposed to the influence of causes 
 which excite the passions, so will they become predisposed to 
 mental derangement in all its forms. The French and 
 American revolutions increased considerably the crime of 
 suicide. It has been said that during the " reign of terror" 
 statistical evidence does not shew that self-murder was more 
 common than at any other period. Perhaps the alleged un- 
 frequency of suicide may be attributed to the circumstance of 
 the French people having been so busy in killing others that 
 they had no time to think of killing themselves. More than 
 the average number of suicides may not have really occurred 
 during the crisis of the Revolution, but it is an undisputed 
 fact that, both before and after that political convulsion, self- 
 destruction prevailed to an alarming extent. Disappointed 
 hopes, wounded pride and vanity, blighted ambition, loss of 
 property, death of friends, disgust of life, all came into active 
 operation after the turbulence and bloodshed of the Revolution 
 had somewhat subsided : these passions, working upon minds 
 easily excited, and not under the benign influence of religion, 
 it was almost natural to expect that great recklessness of life 
 should be exhibited. Such facts demonstrate to us the folly 
 of uselessly exciting the passions of the people, and raising in 
 their minds exaggerated expectations from political changes. 
 
 The tendency of refined sensibility to become wound up in 
 a paroxysm, terminating in suicidal attempts, is strikingly 
 illustrated in a case reported by Dr. Burrows : — 
 
 " A gentleman of a family of rank, and distinguished for 
 talent, married early in life the object of his most ardent affec- 
 tions. He possessed extreme sensibility, with a most highly 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 95 
 
 cultivated and refined mind. It may be remarked, as a consti- 
 tutional peculiarity, that his natural pulse did not exceed forty 
 beats in a minute. When anything suddenly occurred to 
 agitate him, it produced an attack of fever, and his pulse was 
 accelerated in an astonishing degree. Though in ordinary 
 affairs he was a man of firm resolution and great spirit, yet 
 when this fit happened, he was seized with such a panic, or im- 
 pulse, that he knew not what he did, and he was unnerved 
 for days. His lady being well acquainted with the infirmities 
 of his constitution, rendered him, by her good sense and 
 soothing, a happier man than he had previously been. Most 
 unfortunately, she died in the first year of her marriage. His 
 grief at her loss was excessive; and even when time had 
 abated its poignancy, he continued very miserable. His 
 thoughts were always reverting to the virtues of her whom he 
 had lost, and the comparative happiness he had enjoyed in her 
 society. He tried everything to divert his melancholy ; but 
 these impulses would follow reflection ; and then his ideas 
 adverted to self-destruction. He reasoned with himself upon 
 the subject till, he confessed, he had become an infidel in 
 religion, and could no longer view the act as wicked. I had," 
 said Dr. Burrows, " an opportunity of knowing the exact state 
 of his mind during this struggle, from perusing some notes 
 which he had written, describing it. He expressed himself 
 with the utmost tenderness and affection with respect to his 
 departed wife, and of his intention of soon joining her by a 
 voluntary death ; not, however, in heaven, but in Elysium. 
 One night, after having been occupied in reading to some 
 dear relations, and apparently much enjoying the subject, he 
 retired to his chamber. He undressed, and dismissed his 
 valet. His gloomy reflections recurred. One of these 
 strange impulses came over him. He seized a pistol, and 
 discharged it : it failed of effect. He fired another : he 
 wounded himself severely, but not mortally ; neither was the 
 effusion of blood great. He then called for assistance. Little 
 
96 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 constitutional disturbance followed, and the wound readily 
 healed. It was during the time he was confined from the 
 effects of this wound that Dr. Burrows was consulted. He 
 could not detect the slightest aberration of the mind, nor was 
 there a trait in his countenance of a propensity to commit 
 suicide. He freely conversed on his past and present situa- 
 tion and opinions; was perfectly ready to submit to any 
 supervision Dr. Burrows might advise, or plan that might be 
 suggested, to bring him into a better and happier state of 
 mind. By degrees, he acquired more composure. He after- 
 wards travelled for a year and a half on the Continent. Upon 
 his return, he seemed much improved in general appearance. 
 Nothing, however, conquered his constitutional susceptibility." 
 
 That the love of notoriety often impels to suicide there 
 cannot be a doubt. The man who was killed by attaching 
 himself to a rocket, and he who threw himself into the crater 
 of Mount Vesuvius, were, no doubt, stimulated by a desire for 
 posthumous fame. Shortly after the suicide at the Monument, 
 a boy made an unsuccessful endeavour to poison himself; and 
 on being questioned as -to his motives, he said, ^' I wished to 
 be talked of, like the woman who killed herself at the Monu- 
 ment!" How strange and anomalous are the motives which 
 influence human actions ! 
 
 Many are induced to think of suicide from the circum- 
 stance of their being conscious that they labour under an 
 hereditary disposition to insanity. We know the case of a lady 
 whose mind has been dwelling upon the subject of suicide for 
 some time, and she has told her friends repeatedly that she 
 feels assured she shall commit some rash act. " The dispo- 
 sition to suicide and insanity is in the family, and how can I 
 fight against my physical organization ?" Such is the mode 
 of reasoning she adopts whenever urgently persuaded to 
 banish from her mind the horrid sensations which are emlnt- 
 tering her life. 
 
 A gentleman, in full possession of his reasoning faculties. 
 
I 
 
 IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 97 
 
 and a man of considerable powers of intellect, said to us one 
 day, in a conversation we had with him on the subject of sui- 
 cide, " You may probably smile when I tell you that, happ^ 
 and contented as I appear to be in my mind at this moment, 
 I feel assured I shall fall by my own hands." Upon our asking 
 him why he thought so, he replied, that a relation of his had 
 killed himself some years previously, and that he laboured under 
 an hereditary predisposition which nothing would subdue. 
 
 A woman, thirty-five years of age, placed herself, in 1821, 
 under the care of M. Falret, for symptoms of phthisis. When 
 nineteen years old, the death of an uncle, by his own hands, 
 made a deep impression on her mind. She heard that in- 
 sanity was hereditary, and the idea pursued her that she 
 should one day fall into this melancholy condition. She con- 
 fessed her apprehensions only to the priests, who endea- 
 voured to dissipate the mournful impression. In this state she 
 continued for two years, when the death of her reputed 
 father, also by suicide, riveted the conviction on her mind 
 that her own doom was sealed. She was convinced that her 
 blood was corrupted; and this idea appeared to be confirmed 
 by other circumstances. Tortured by this notion, she re- 
 solved to drown herself After leaving a letter in her cham- 
 ber, apprising her friends of the manner of her meditated 
 death, she plunged into the river ; but being immediately 
 taken out, she was restored to life. The night following this 
 attempt, she was harassed with a pain in her head, and after 
 a short sleep, awoke, incapable of recognising any of the 
 friends about her. She was evidently delirious, but made no 
 allusion to her former melancholy impressions. Although pre- 
 viously religious and well-behaved, she uttered nothing but 
 obscenities. This delirious excitement continued three days, 
 and was succeeded by melancholy and a disposition to suicide. 
 Headache again came on, with nausea and bilious vomitings, 
 which, however, soon subsided. She became considerably 
 emaciated after this, and looked the picture of despair ; in 
 
 H 
 
98 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 fact, she could not look into the glass at herself without terror. 
 Once more she wished the aid of religion, which afforded her 
 some consolation, but was insufficient to dissipate entirely her 
 sufferings. Meanwhile, her mother revealed to her the secret 
 that her real father was still alive; and, after considerable 
 scepticism on the point, she consented to an interview with 
 him. The physical resemblance was so striking, that all 
 doubt was instantly removed from her mind. From that mo- 
 ment all idea of suicide vanished; her spirits and health 
 became progressively re-established. Fourteen years, says 
 Falret, have now elapsed since the attempt at self-destruction. 
 She is the mother of three children, and, during her married 
 state, has been reduced to the greatest penury and distress ; 
 but has never, since the period alluded to, entertained the 
 remotest idea of suicide ; on the contrary, she has proved an 
 exemplary wife and affectionate parent, having the full pos- 
 session of her intellectual faculties.* 
 
 Everything that tends to throw the mind off its healthy 
 balance will, of course, predispose to suicide. Excessive de- 
 votion of the attention to any particular branch of study, or 
 to business, often originates cerebral disease and suicidal 
 mania. In alluding to the injurious effects of excessive study, 
 Marcilius Ficinus, as quoted by Burton, justly observes — 
 " Other men look to their tools ; a painter will wash his 
 pencils ; a smith will look to his hammer, anvil, and forge ; a 
 husbandman will mend his plough-irons and grind his hatchet, 
 if it be dull; a falconer or huntsman will have an especial care 
 of his hawks, hounds, horses, and dogs ; a musician will string 
 and unstring his lute, — only scholars neglect that instrument 
 (their brain and spirit, I mean) which they daily use, and by 
 which they range over all the world, and which by much study 
 is consumed." 
 
 The melancholy case of William Eyton Tooke, Esq., who 
 
 • '< Revue M^dicale," Dec. 1821. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 99 
 
 committed suicide some years ago, will illustrate the operation 
 of the cause referred to. 
 
 " This gentleman," says a relative, in a letter to the Times 
 newspaper, explanatory of the causes of Mr. T.'s death, " from 
 a very early period of life, devoted himself to the most ab- 
 struse inquiries into moral and political philosophy, and has 
 thus fallen a victim to the absorbing and exclusive nature of 
 the pursuit." One of the witnesses who was examined at 
 the inquest stated, that the deceased was of an exceedingly 
 studious turn, and had for many months past been directing 
 his attention particularly to commercial subjects. This sub- 
 ject was his constant study, and the theme of his conversa- 
 tion. It seemed to engross the whole of his attention, and 
 his health, both bodily and mentally, was evidently impaired 
 by it. A short period before his death, he was heard fre- 
 quently to say, placing his hand upon his head, " This sub- 
 ject is too much for me ; my head is distracted ! " It was 
 under the influence of this over-excited state of brain that he 
 committed suicide. 
 
 It has been observed, in another part of this work, that 
 many commit suicide from the notion that death from natural 
 causes is attended with considerable agony.* This is the 
 generally received notion, but it is an erroneous one. Those 
 who have often witnessed the act of dying allow that it is not 
 a painful process. In some delicate and irritable persons, a 
 kind of struggle is indeed sometimes excited when respiration 
 becomes difficult; but more frequently the dying obviously 
 suffer nothing, and express no uneasiness. Dr. Ferriar says, 
 " In those who die of chronic diseases, the gradation is slow 
 and distinct. Consumptive patients are sometimes in a dying 
 
 * Under the heathen mythology, it was believed that the struggles of death 
 continued till Proserpine had cropped the hair on the crown of the head, as 
 victims were treated at the altar. Virgil has preserved this opinion in the 
 fourth book of the ^neid, where he gives so fine a picture of the dying 
 agonies of Dido, 
 
 h2 
 
100 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 State for several days; they' appear at such times to sufFei 
 little, but to languish for complete dissolution ; nay, I have 
 known them express great uneasiness when they have been 
 recalled from the commencement of insensibility, by the cries 
 of their friends, or the efforts of the attendants to alleviate 
 pain. In observing persons in this situation, I have always 
 been impressed with an idea that the approach of natural 
 death produces a sensation similar to that of falling asleep. 
 The disturbance of respiration is the only apparent source of 
 uneasiness to the dying ; and sensibility seems to be impaired 
 just in proportion to the decrease of that function. Besides, 
 both the impressions of present objects and those recalled by 
 memory are influenced by the extreme debility of the patient, 
 whose wish is for absolute rest. I could never see the close 
 of life under these circumstances without recollecting those 
 beautiful lines of Spencer — 
 
 " Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, 
 Ease after war, death after life, doth greatly please." 
 
 Professor Hufeland, on the subject of death, observes, "that 
 many fear death less than the operation of dying." People, 
 he continues, " form the most singular conceptions of the last 
 struggle — the separation of the soul from the body, and the 
 like ; but this is all void of foundation. No man certainly 
 ever felt what death is ; and insensibly as we enter life, equally 
 insensibly do we leave it. The beginning and the end are 
 here united. My proofs are as follows : — First, man can have 
 no sensation of dying ; for to die means nothing more than 
 to lose the vital powers ; and it is the vital power which is the 
 medium of communication between the soul and the body. In 
 proportion as the vital power decreases, we lose the power of 
 sensation and consciousness ; and we cannot lose life without, 
 at the same time, or rather before, losing our vital sensation, 
 which requires the assistance of the tenderest organs. We 
 are taught also by experience that all those who ever passed 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 101 
 
 through the first stage of death, and were again brought to 
 life, unanimously asserted that they felt nothing of dying, but 
 sunk at once into a state of insensibility.* 
 
 " Let us not be led into a mistake by the convulsive throbs, 
 the rattling in the throat, and the apparent pangs of death, 
 which are exhibited by many persons when in a dying state. 
 These symptoms are painful only to the spectators, and not to 
 the dying, who are not sensible of them. The case here is 
 the same as if one, from the dreadful contortions of a person 
 in an epileptic fit, should form a conclusion respecting his 
 internal feelings : from what aifects us so much, he suffers 
 nothing. 
 
 " Let one always consider life, as it really is, a mean state, 
 which is not an object itself, but a medium for obtaining an 
 object, as the multifarious imperfections of it sufficiently prove : 
 as a period of trial and preparation, a fragment of existence, 
 through which we are to be fitted for, and transmitted to, 
 other periods. Can the idea, then, of really making this 
 transition — of ascending to another from this mean state, this 
 doubtful, problematical existence, which never affords complete 
 satisfaction — ever excite terror ? With courage and confidence 
 we may, therefore, resign ourselves to the will of that Supreme 
 
 * It is only by reasoning physiologically that we can conclude that the act 
 of dying is not a painful process. In proportion as death seizes its victim, so 
 must consciousness be suspended. What can be more painful to the beholder 
 than to witness the convulsive struggles, and the foaming at the mouth, of 
 a person in an epileptic fit, who, when restored to consciousness, has no 
 recollection of what has occurred ? He remembers the premonitory indica- 
 tions, and that is all. Death is but an epileptic struggle. A phenomenon 
 attends the dying moment which we do not recollect to have seen noticed. 
 A man who fell into the water, and who rose several times to the surface, had 
 a consciousness of the hopelessness and awfulness of his situation ; he felt 
 that death was inevitable. With this conviction on his mind, he saw pre- 
 sented to him a picture of his past life ; the minutest action in which he 
 had been engaged was brought in a kind of tableau before him. Circum- 
 stances that had long been forgotten were conjured from his brain, and he 
 had a bird's-eye view of his past career. Possibly, this may occur to every 
 person at the moment of dying. The expressions of those placed under such 
 circumstances would indicate as much. 
 
102 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 Being who, without our consent, placed us in this sublunary 
 theatre, and give up to his management the future direction 
 of our fate. 
 
 " Remembrance of the past, of that circle of friends who 
 were nearest, and always will be dearest to our hearts, and 
 who, as it were, now smile upon us with a friendly look of 
 invitation from that distant country beyond the grave, will 
 also tend very much to allay the fear of death." 
 
 We recoUect attending the case of a young lady labour- 
 ing under a disease which produced extreme mental and 
 physical suffering, who exhibited, a short period before her 
 death, some singular phenomena. This lady had not been 
 seen to smile, or to shew any indication of freedom from 
 pain, for some weeks prior to dissolution. Two hours be- 
 fore she died, the symptoms became suddenly altered in 
 character. Every sign of pain vanished ; her limbs, from 
 being subject to violent spasmodic contractions, became natural 
 in their appearance ; her face, which had been distorted, was 
 calm and tranquil. All her friends supposed that the crisis 
 of the disease had arrived, and that it had taken a favourable 
 turn, and delight and joy were manifested by all who were 
 allowed access to her chamber, and who were made acquainted 
 with the change which had taken place. She conversed most 
 freely, and smiled as if in a happy condition. We must con- 
 fess that the case puzzled us, and that we were for a short time 
 induced to entertain sanguine hopes of her ultimate recovery. 
 But, alas ! how fragile are all our best hopes ! For two hours 
 we sat by the bed, watching the patient's countenance with 
 great anxiety. Every unfavourable indication had vanished ; 
 her face was illuminated by the sweetest smile that ever played 
 on the human countenance. During the conversation we had 
 with her, she gave a slight start, and said, in a tone of great 
 earnestness, " Did you see that ? " Her face became sud- 
 denly altered ; an expression of deep anguish fixed itself upon 
 her features, and her eyes became more than ordinarily bril- 
 liant. We replied, " What ?" She answered, " Oh ! you must 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 103 
 
 have seen it. How terrible it looked as it glided over the bed. 
 Again I see it," she vociferated, with an unearthly scream, 
 " I am ready ! " and, without a groan, her spirit took its 
 flight! 
 
 Dr. Symonds recollects to have heard a young man, who 
 had been but little conversant with any but civic scenes, dis- 
 course most eloquently, a short period before his death, of 
 sylvan glen and bosky dells, purling streams and happy val- 
 leys, as if his spirit had been already luxuriating itself in the 
 gardens of Elysium. Nothing more frequently prognosticates 
 the approach of death than the appearance of a spectre at the 
 bedside of the patient. In some cases, the mind, when in a 
 happy frame, dwells with delight on the contemplation of the 
 last struggle, and has a foretaste of that heavenly joy which 
 is the reward of a well-spent life. The spirits of good men 
 and of angels are said to hover round the departing soul of 
 the Christian, as if waiting to bear it to the mansions of 
 bliss : — 
 
 " Saw you not even now a blessed troop 
 Invite me to a banquet, whose bright faces 
 Cast thousand beams upon me, like the sun ? 
 They promised me eternal happiness ; 
 And brought me garlands, Griffith, which I feel 
 I am not worthy yet to wear.'* 
 
 King Henry VIII. 
 
 Many have, under the notion that the fear of death is bene- 
 ficial to the mind, done their best to keep the idea constantly 
 before them. 
 
 " If I must die, I'll snatch at anything 
 
 That may but mind me of my latest breath; 
 
 Death's-heads, graves, knells, blacks, tombs, all these shall bring 
 
 Into my soul such useful thoughts of death. 
 
 That this sable king of fears 
 
 Shall not catch me unawares." 
 
 Young raised about him an artificial idea of death; he 
 darkened his sepulchral study, placing a skull on his table 
 by lamp-light. At the end of an avenue in his garden was 
 
104 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 placed on a seat an admirable chiaro-oscuro, which when 
 approached presented only a painted surface, with an in- 
 scription, alluding to the deception of the things of this 
 world. 
 
 Dr. J. Donne, the celebrated English divine and poet, is said 
 to have longed for the hour of dissolution. Previous to his death, 
 he gave instructions for a monument, which his friends had de- 
 clared their intention to erect to his memory. A carver made 
 him in wood the figure of an urn, and having secured the ser- 
 vices of a painter, the Doctor ordered the urn to be brought 
 into his chamber. Having taken off his clothes, he procured a 
 white sheet, which was put on him, and tied with knots at his 
 hands and feet. In this state he stood upon the urn, with his 
 eyes closed, and a portion of the sheet turned aside in order 
 to shew his lean, pale, and death-like face. In this posture, the 
 painter sketched him ; and when the monument was finished, 
 it was placed by his bed-side, and was hourly the source of 
 contemplation until his death. 
 
 The "lightening up before death," so often perceptible, is 
 but the result of venous blood beingsent to the brain. When 
 respiration becomes imperfect, the blood does not undergo 
 the proper chemical change in the lungs (arterialization), and 
 its effect on the sentient organ is such as is occasionally 
 witnessed prior to dissolution. Abernethy considers the sen- 
 sations of the dying similar to those experienced by persons 
 labouring under delirium. He relates the case of a man who 
 appeared, during his dehrious state, to meet with old acquaint- 
 ances. The companions of his youthful days flocked once 
 more around him — old associations were revived. " How 
 are you, my dear fellow ?" he exclaimed. " It is long since we 
 met. Give us your fist, my hearty. Now, that is a good joke; 
 I never heard a better. Ah ! ah ! ah !" 
 
 We had once the painful duty of watching the expiring 
 struggles of a man whose life had been one long career of vice 
 and debauchery. His death was truly apalling . It was 
 evident, from the expressions which escaped him when dying. 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 105 
 
 that his mind had a vivid conception of the scenes in which 
 he had played so conspicuous a part. " Now for the dice !" he 
 exclaimed, with the fury of a maniac. "That's mine ! No ! all, 
 
 all is gone ! More wine, d you ; more wine ! Oh ! how 
 
 they rattle ! Fiends, fiends, assail me ! I say, you cheat ! 
 the cards are marked! Now the chains rattle! O death! 
 O death !" and with a terrific groan he breathed his last. 
 
 Among the causes which operate in producing the disposi- 
 tion to commit suicide, we must not omit to mention those 
 connected with erroneous religious notions. M. Falret justly 
 remarks, that the religious system of the Druids, Odin, and 
 Mahomet, by inspiring a contempt for death, have made many 
 suicides. The man who believes that death is an eternal 
 sleep, scorns to hold up against calamity, and prefers annihi- 
 lation. The sceptic also often frees himself by self-destruction 
 from the agony of doubting. The maxim of the Stoics, that 
 man should live only so long as he ought, not so long as he is 
 able, is, we may observe, the very parent of suicide. The 
 Brahmin, looking on death as the very entrance into life, and 
 thinking a natural death dishonourable, is eager at all times to 
 get rid of life. The Epicureans and Peripatetics ridiculed 
 suicide, as being death caused by fear of death. M. Falret, 
 however, goes perhaps too far when he asserts that the noble 
 manner in which the gladiators died in public, not only fami- 
 liarized the Romans with death, but rendered the thoughts of 
 it rather agreeable than otherwise. 
 
 Misinterpretations of passages of scripture will sometimes 
 lead those who are piously inclined to commit suicide. M. 
 Gillet hung himself at the age of seventy-five, having left in 
 his own handwriting the following apology: — " Jesus Christ 
 has said, that when a tree is old and can no longer bear fruit, 
 it is good that it should be destroyed." (He had more than 
 once attempted his life before the fatal act.) Dr. Burrows 
 attended a nobleman who, for fear of being poisoned, though 
 he pretended it was in imitation of our Saviour's fast, took 
 
106 THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES 
 
 nothing but strawberries and water for three weeks, and these 
 in very moderate quantities. He never voluntarily abandoned 
 his resolution. He was at length compelled to take some 
 nutriment, but not until inanition had gone too far ; and he 
 died completely attenuated. When sound religious principles 
 produce a struggle in the mind which is beginning to aberrate, 
 the contest generally ends in suicide. 
 
 Some murder themselves to get rid of the horrid thoughts 
 of suicide; whilst others brood over them like Rousseau, 
 for months and for years, and at length perpetrate the very 
 action which they dread. A countryman of Rousseau's, who 
 advocated suicide as a duty, and who spent the greater part 
 of a long life in writing a large folio volume to prove the 
 soundness of his doctrine, thought it his duty, after he had 
 completed his work, to give a practical illustration of his 
 principles, and, accordingly, at the age of seventy, threw him- 
 self into the Lake of Geneva, and was drowned. 
 
 It may appear strange that religion, the greatest blessing 
 bestowed by Heaven on man, should ever prove a cause of one 
 of his severest calamities. But perhaps it would be more 
 accurate to impute such unhappy effects to fanaticism, or to the 
 total want of religion. 
 
 Instances very frequently occur in practice in which 
 patients have appeared, some suddenly, and others gradually, 
 to be seized with a species of religious horror, despairing of 
 salvation, asserting that they had committed sins which never 
 could be forgiven, who had never previously appeared to be 
 under religious impressions. Some of these have been visited 
 by divines of various denominations, and been induced to 
 hear sermons and read books well calculated to dispel gloomy 
 apprehensions, and excite religious hope and confidence. 
 With some this has succeeded, especially when conjoined with 
 medical aid ; but it has been observed, that in the cases of 
 those who have recovered, the patients have emerged precisely 
 as they immerged; for as they before were unconcerned about 
 
IN INDUCING THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE. 107 
 
 religious matters, so they remained after their recovery ; thus 
 the indisposition has been very erroneously imputed to religion 
 v^rhen it has no kind of affinity to, or concern w^ith it. Such 
 cases almost invariably exhibit the same symptoms, which 
 generally turn on these points — despair of temporal support, 
 or despair of final salvation. But the medical practitioner, 
 and not the divine, is the proper person to be consulted in 
 such cases ; and, hovi^ever the mind may be affected in them, 
 the patient is to be relieved by means of medicine. It may 
 be added, that the agonies of mind under which some persons 
 labour who are called fanatically mad arise from a sense of 
 moral turpitude, independent of any peculiar religious tenets 
 or opinions. 
 
 The true doctrines of Christianity, when properly inculcated, 
 never excite a gloomy state of mind. " To be religious," says 
 South, " it is not necessary to be dull." Cowper (perhaps, 
 however, the most miserable and melancholy of men) beauti- 
 fully says — 
 
 " True piety is cheerful as the day, 
 
 Will weep indeed, and heave a pitying groan, 
 For others' woes, but smile upon her own." 
 
108 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 IMITATIVE, OR EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. 
 
 Persons who act from impulse liable to be influenced — Principle of imitation, 
 a natural instinct — Cases related by Cabanis and Tissot — The suicidal 
 barbers — Epidemic suicide at the Hol^l des Invalids — Sydenham's 
 epidemic — The ladies of Miletus — Dr. Parrish's case — Are insanity and 
 suicide contagious ? 
 
 The most singular feature connected with the subject of 
 suicide is, that the disposition to sacrifice Hfe has, at different 
 periods, been known to prevail epidemically, from a perver- 
 sion, as it has been supposed, of the natural instinct of imita- 
 tion. This is not only the case with reference to suicide, but 
 is witnessed also in cases of murder. The atrocities of the 
 French Revolution are, to a certain extent, to be traced to 
 the influence of this imitative principle. Persons whose feel- 
 ings are not thoroughly under their command, who act from 
 impulse and not from reflection, are very prone to be 
 operated upon by the cause referred to. Man has been de- 
 fined an imitative animal ; and in many instances we witness 
 this propensity controlling almost irresistibly the actions of 
 the individual. Tissot relates the case of a young woman 
 in whom this faculty was so strongly developed that she 
 could not avoid doing everything she saw others do. Cabanis 
 gives the account of a man in whom the tendency to imitate 
 was so strongly marked, and active, from disease, that "he 
 experienced insupportable suffering" when he was prevented 
 
IMITATIVE, OR EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. 109 
 
 from yielding to its impulses. A woman, in the ward of an 
 hospital, will be seized with an epileptic fit ; in the course of 
 a short period, other cases will occur in the same ward. A 
 child was brought into one of our metropolitan hospitals, 
 labouring under a violent attack of convulsions. She had not 
 been in the house five minutes before three children who 
 were present were seized with spasmodic convulsions of a 
 similar character. The commission of a great and extra- 
 ordinary crime produces not unfrequently the mania of imi- 
 tation in the district in which it happened. A criminal was 
 executed at Paris, not many years ago, for murder. A 
 few weeks afterwards, another murder was perpetrated ; and 
 when the young man was asked to assign a reason for taking 
 away the life of a fellow-creature, he replied, that he was 
 not instigated by any feeling of malice, but, after having 
 witnessed the execution, he felt a desire, over which he had 
 no control, to commit a similar crime, and had no rest until 
 he had gratified his feelings. It is only on the same principle 
 that we can account for the following singular case of suicide. 
 It is related by Sir Charles Bell, in his " Institutes of Sur- 
 gery." The surgeon of the Middlesex Hospital who pre- 
 ceded Sir Charles Bell went into a barber's shop, in the 
 neighbourhood of the institution, to be shaved. As the 
 barber was operating upon his chin, the conversation turned 
 upon the case of a man who had been admitted the previous 
 day into the hospital, and who had attempted, unsuccessfully, 
 to kill himself, by cutting his throat. " He could easily have 
 managed it," said the surgeon, in rather a jocular strain, 
 " had he been acquainted with the situation of the carotid 
 artery. He did not cut in the proper place." "Where 
 should he have cut?" asked the barber, quietly. The sur- 
 geon, not suspecting what was passing through the barber's 
 mind, gave a popular lecture on the anatomy of the neck — 
 pointed out the exact position of the large vessels, and shewed 
 where they could easily be wounded. After the conversation, 
 the barber made some excuse for leaving the room ; and, not 
 
110 IMITATIVE, OR EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. 
 
 returning as soon as was expected, the surgeon went to look 
 for him, when he was discovered in the yard, behind the 
 house, with his head nearly severed from his body ! 
 
 The following case is, perhaps, more strange and inexpUcable 
 than the one just related. The brother of a hairdresser and 
 barber had killed himself by blowing out his brains. The 
 circumstance appeared to affect seriously the mind of his 
 relative. He left his business for a few days; and then 
 returned, apparently more tranquil in his mind. In the 
 morning, several persons came in to be shaved ; and, all at 
 once, he felt a strong, and almost overwhelming, inclination 
 to cut some one's throat. He fought manfully, however, 
 against this horrid desire. During the whole of the earlier 
 part of the day, he had been able to resist the gratification of 
 the feeling. Every time he placed the razor in contact with 
 the throat, he fancied he heard a voice within him exclaim, 
 " Kill him ! kill him ! " In the afternoon, an elderly gentle- 
 man came into the shop to be shaved ; and when the barber 
 had nearly concluded the operation, he was again seized with 
 the desire ; and, before he could summon courage enough to 
 suppress it, he gave the man's throat a tremendous gash; 
 fortunately, however, the wound was not fatal. 
 
 Gall informs us of a man who, on reading in the news- 
 papers the particulars of a case of murder, perpetrated under 
 circumstances of peculiar atrocity, w^as instantly seized with 
 a desire to murder his servant, and would have done so, had 
 he not given his intended victim timely warning to escape. 
 
 Some years ago, a man hung himself on the threshold of 
 one of the doors of the corridor at the Hotel des Invalids. 
 No suicide had occurred in the establishment for two years 
 previously ; but in the succeeding fortnight, five invalids 
 hung themselves on the same cross bar, and the governor was 
 obliged to shut up the passage. 
 
 Sydenham informs us that, at Mansfield, in a particular 
 year, in the month of June, suicide prevailed to an alarming 
 degree, from a cause wholly unaccountable. The same thing 
 
IMITATIVE, OR EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. Ill 
 
 happened at Rouen, in 1806; at Stuttgard, in the summer of 
 1811 ; and at a village of St. Pierre Montjean, in the Valais, 
 in the year 1813. One of the most remarkable epidemics of 
 the kind was that which prevailed at Versailles in the year 
 1793. The number of suicides within the year was 1300 — 
 a number out of all proportion to the population of the town. 
 
 In the olden time, the ladies of Miletus, in a fit of melan- 
 choly for the absence of their husbands and lovers, resolved 
 to hang themselves, and vied with each other in the alacrity 
 with which they did the deed. In the time of the Ptolemies, 
 a stoic philosopher pleaded so eloquently, one day, to an 
 Alexandrian audience on the advantages of suicide, that he 
 inspired his hearers with his principles, and a great number 
 voluntarily sacrificed their lives. 
 
 A clergyman, master of a very large and popular school, 
 the locality of which, for obvious reasons, it would not do to 
 specify, recently informed one of his friends that he had dis- 
 covered a new pupil in the act of practising a disgraceful 
 vice. " Send him home to his parents, and say nothing about 
 it," was the friend's judicious recommendation. The school- 
 master, however, placed great confidence in his own eloquence 
 and the corrective powers of the birch. He assembled his 
 boys, made an excellent harangue on the guilt of the delin- 
 quent, and gave him a sound flogging. The example of 
 crime proved more influential than the example of punish- 
 ment, and the vice spread so rapidly that the whole school 
 was broken up in consequence.* 
 
 The particulars of the following case are recorded in the 
 " American Journal of the Medical Sciences," by Dr. Parrish. 
 He says, " I was called to visit a child in the family of 
 J. S., a respectable gentleman residing in my neighbour- 
 hood. On my arrival, at 3 p. m., I found, on going into the 
 chamber of my patient, that death had occurred. The patient 
 was a girl in her fifteenth year, who had been carefully 
 
 ♦ Foreign Quarteil}' Review, vol. xvi. 
 
112 IMITATIVE, OR EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. 
 
 brought up bj a family with whom she had lived between 
 seven and eight years. She had generally enjoyed good 
 health, with the exception of occasional attacks of sickness of 
 the stomach, and head-ache. She had just passed the age of 
 puberty, and possessed a docile disposition. Her situation in 
 life, as far as could be ascertained, was in every respect agree- 
 able, and congenial to her wishes. 
 
 " On the morning of the day of her death, she was en- 
 gaged as usual in the domestic concerns of the family until 
 eight o'clock, when she was observed in the yard vomiting. 
 Upon inquiring into the history of the case, I found that 
 early in the morning on which the patient died, she had held 
 a conversation with a little girl residing in the next house, in 
 which she mentioned having lately read in a newspaper of a 
 man who had been unfortunate in his business, and had taken 
 arsenic to destroy himself; she also spoke of an apothecary's 
 shop near by, and said she frequently went there. 
 
 " The narration of this conversation afforded strong suspi- 
 cion to my mind that she had committed suicide ; a suspicion 
 which was strengthened by the fact, that a few months pre- 
 vious I had been called upon to visit a person residing in the 
 same house, who had suffered for some years under mental 
 derangement, and had recently been discharged from the 
 insane hospital near Frankford ; he had taken laudanum, with 
 the intent of destroying himself 
 
 " This circumstance would naturally produce a strong im- 
 pression upon the mind of the child, which was increased, no 
 doubt, by the reading of the case detailed in the newspaper. 
 In this way the desire to commit a similar act was kindled up 
 in the mind of the deluded girl, and thus, by that inexplicable 
 connexion which, in some instances at least, appears to exist 
 between the knowledge of such a horrible act and the desire 
 to perform it, she was almost irresistibly impelled to the deed. 
 
 " This case is stated as affording strong testimony in favour 
 of a principle which is now beginning to attract the attention 
 of medical men — viz., that the publicity which is given to 
 
IMITATIVE, OR EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. IIS 
 
 cases of suicide, in the newspapers and by other means, forms 
 one of the strongest incentives to the commission of the act, in 
 those who have a secret disposition to destroy themselves. 
 
 ** If this be the fact, a high responsibiHty rests upon phy- 
 sicians, so to influence pubhc opinion, and more especially 
 editors, as to prevent the narration of the circumstances con- 
 nected with the death of this unfortunate class. No good can 
 certainly arise (to the public) from the exposure of facts which 
 ought to remain concealed in the bosom of distressed families ; 
 while there is reason to believe the list of victims to suicide 
 is annually very much swelled from the course which is now 
 so generally pursued." * 
 
 It has been noticed that certain atmospherical phenomena 
 have attended or preceded the suicidal epidemics that have 
 prevailed at various periods. Whether these electrical condi- 
 tions of the air are in any way connected with this peculiar 
 form of contagious malady is a point not easily to be de- 
 cided. A certain degree of atmospherical moisture appears 
 to favour the spread of the suicidal disposition ; but this may 
 result from the well known influence of moist air on the dis- 
 position of the mind, and may operate by causing a degree of 
 mental despondency and lassitude, very favourable to the de- 
 velopment of the suicidal mania, particularly after the occur- 
 rence of any very remarkable case of self-destruction. It is 
 notorious that nothing is so likely to unsettle the mind, 
 especially if an hereditary disposition be present, than 
 constantly associating with lunatics, and allowing the mind 
 to dwell for any length of time on the subject of insanity. 
 If actual mental derangement does not result from an expo- 
 sure to the causes referred to, a certain degree of eccentricity 
 bordering on the confines of aberration is generally percep- 
 tible. With our present amount of knowledge of the subtle 
 principle of contagion, it is difficult to say whether an efflu- 
 vium may not be generated in such cases which, under certain 
 
 * Vol. xxi. for 1837. 
 
 I 
 
114 IMITATIVE, OR EPIDEMIC SUICIDE. 
 
 conditions of the system, may communicate disease. We 
 cannot possibly say that this is not the case. If we are justi- 
 fied, which we by no means are wilUng to admit, in the opinion 
 that the disposition to suicide and insanity may be propagated 
 by contagion, using this term in its usual acceptation, it is a 
 great consolation to the mind to think that only occasionally 
 does the disease exhibit the slightest approach to virulence, 
 and that, unlike many of the admitted contagious maladies, 
 we may approach the patient without much fear or appre- 
 hension. 
 
115 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SUICIDE FROM FASCINATION. 
 
 Singular motives for committing suicide — A man who delighted in torturing 
 himself — A dangerous experiment— Pleasures of carnage— Disposition 
 to leap from precipices — Lord Byron's allusion to the influence of fasci- 
 nation — Miss Moyes and the Monument — A man who could not trust 
 himself with a razor — Esquirol's opinion of such cases — Danger of as- 
 cending elevated places. 
 
 How strange, extraordinary, and inexplicable are the motives 
 which often lead to the commission of suicide ! Many have 
 been induced to rush into the arms of death in order to avoid 
 the pain which they fancy accompanies dissolution. ^^ Hie, 
 rogo, non furor est, ne moriare morif Others have been appa- 
 rently led to the perpetration of the crime by a desire to 
 ascertain what sensations attended the act of dying ; whilst 
 some have been influenced by a feeling of fascination, and 
 have stated that they experienced ecstatic delight at the idea 
 of self-immolation. 
 
 The case of a man is recorded who felt the most exquisite 
 delight in torturing himself He had often expressed a wish 
 to be hanged, from the notion that this Newgate mode of ter- 
 minating life must give rise to sensations of great pleasure. 
 The idea occurred to him one day of trying the experiment. 
 He procured a piece of cord, attached it to the ceiling, and sus- 
 pended himself from it; fortunately for the poor infatuated 
 man, the servant entered the room a few minutes afterwards, 
 
 i2 
 
116 SUICroE FROM FASCINATION. 
 
 and cut hini down. Life was not extinct. The man ex- 
 pressed that he felt, during the few moments that he was 
 hanging, a thriUing dehght, which no language that he could 
 use could convey anything like an adequate expression of. 
 There was no doubt that this man laboured under an abnormal 
 condition of the mind, which, if not amounting to insanity, 
 certainly approached very nearly the confines of that disease.* 
 
 A woman was admitted some years back into one of our 
 metropolitan hospitals who had a propensity to cut her 
 person with every sharp instrument that she could procure. 
 It was not her intention to kill herself; and when reasoned 
 with on the folly of her actions, she observed that she was im- 
 pelled by no other motive than the fascinating pleasure she 
 experienced whenever she succeeded in drawing blood. 
 
 A lady, a passenger on board of a ship bound for the East 
 Indies, was frequently heard to express a wish to know what 
 feeling a person experienced in the act of being drowned. 
 
 * It is related by Lord Bacon, in his " Historia Vitse et Mortis," that a 
 friend of his, who was particularly anxious to ascertain whether criminals suf- 
 fered much pain in undergoing the sentence of the law, on one occasion sus- 
 pended himself by the neck, having for that purpose thrown himself off a 
 stool, on which he supposed he could readily remount, when he had carried 
 his experiment sufficiently far to satisfy his curiosity. The report goes on to 
 state, that the loss of consciousness which followed would have led to a fatal 
 termination of the experiment, had not a friend accidentally entered the 
 apartment in time to save the life of the adventurous experimentalist. Fodere 
 relates a similar incident of one of his fellow-students. This young man, 
 after an argument respecting the cause of death in hanging, resolved person- 
 ally to gratify his curiosity, by passing a ligature round his neck, and attach- 
 ing it to a hook behind the door. To accomphsh this, he had raised himself 
 on tip-toe, and now gradually brought his heels to the ground. He soon lost 
 all consciousness, but was cut down by a companion, who discovered him, in 
 a state of insensibility, very soon after the commencement of the experiment, 
 and by the prompt application of remedial measures he was finally recovered. 
 From cases of this description we learn that the first effect experienced in 
 hanging is the appearance of a dazzling light before the eyes, accompanied 
 by tingling in the ears. These sensations are, however, momentary, for insen- 
 sibility and death rapidly close the scene. 
 
SUICroE FROM FASCINATION. 117 
 
 She fancied the sensations must be of a pleasurable character. 
 Her fellow-passengers laughed at her whenever she alluded 
 to the matter. Having introduced the subject again during 
 dinner, she observed, " Well, I intend to try the experiment 
 to-morrow morning." The threat only excited the merriment 
 of those who heard it. In the morning, whilst the passengers 
 were on deck, the lady plunged into the sea, to the astonish- 
 ment of everybody. Luckily for her, the ship was becalmed, 
 and her life was saved. 
 
 An extraordinary young man, who lived at Paris, and who 
 was passionately fond of mechanics, shut himself up one 
 evening in his apartment, and bound not only his chest and 
 stomach, but also his arms, legs, and thighs, with ropes full of 
 knots, the ends of which he fastened to hooks in the wall. 
 After having passed a considerable part of the night in this 
 situation, he wished to disengage himself, but attempted it 
 in vain. Some neighbouring females, who were up, heard 
 his cries, and, calling for assistance, they forced open the door 
 of his room, when they found him swinging in the air, with 
 only one arm extricated. He was immediately carried to the 
 lieutenant-general of the police for examination, when he de- 
 clared that he had often put similar trials into execution, as 
 he experienced indescribable pleasure in them. He confessed 
 that at first he felt pain, but that after the cords became tight 
 to a certain degree, he was soon rewarded by the most exqui- 
 site sensations of pleasure.* 
 
 " As the chill dews of evening were surrounding 
 our bivouac," says the author of the " Recollections of 
 the Peninsula," " a staff officer, with a courier, came 
 galloping into it, and alighted at the quarters of our gene- 
 ral. It was soon known amongst us that a severe and san- 
 guinary action had been fought by our brother soldiers at 
 Talavera. Disjointed rumours spoke of a dear-bought field, 
 a heavy loss, and a subsequent retreat. I well remember how 
 we all gathered round our fires to listen, to conjecture, and to 
 
 * Gazette Litteraire. 
 
118 SUICIDE FROM FASCINATION. 
 
 talk about this glorious, but bloody event. We regretted that 
 we had borne no share in the honours of such a day ; and we 
 talked with an undefined 'pleasure about the carnage. Yes ! 
 strange as it may appear, soldiers, and not they alone, talk of 
 the danger of battle fields with a sensation which partakes 
 of pleasure." 
 
 A watchmaker of Aberdeen, who had been looking over 
 the precipices of Loch-na-Gair, suddenly felt a desire to pre- 
 cipitate himself from the height, and having first taken a step 
 or two back for the purpose, he flung himself off. 
 
 A gentleman travelling through Switzerland, with his wife, 
 came to an eminence commanding an extensive and beautiful 
 view of the surrounding country. He went, accompanied by 
 his wife, to the edge of a mountainous cliff, and, turning 
 round to his lady, he observed — " I have lived long enough !" 
 and in a moment threw himself down the precipice. 
 
 It was a notion of this kind which induced Lord Byron to 
 observe that he believed no man ever took a razor into his 
 hand who did not at the same time think how easily he 
 might sever the silver cord of life. The noble poet evidently 
 alludes, in the following stanzas, to the strange and unac- 
 countable influence of fascination in exciting the mind to 
 commit suicide : — 
 
 " A sleep without dreams, after a rough day 
 Of toil, is what we covet most, and yet 
 How clay shrinks back from more quiescent clay ! 
 The very suicide that pays his debts 
 At once, without instalments, (an old way 
 Of paying debts, which creditors regret,) 
 Lets out impatiently his rushing breath. 
 Less from disgust of life than dread of death. 
 
 'Tis round him, near him, there, everywhere; 
 And there's a courage which grows out of fear. 
 Perhaps of all most desperate, which will dare 
 The wor^t to know it : — when the mountains rear 
 Their peaks beneath your human foot, and there 
 You look down o'er the precipice, and drear 
 The gulf of rock yawns, — you can't gaze a miiuite 
 Without an awful wish to plunge within it ! 
 
SUICIDE FROM FASCINATION. 119 
 
 'Tis true, you don't — but, pale and struck with terror, 
 
 Retire : but look into your past impression I 
 
 And you will find, though shuddering at the mirror 
 
 Of your own thoughts, in all their self-confession, 
 
 The lurking bias, be it truth or error. 
 
 To the unknoivn ; a secret prepossession. 
 
 To plunge with all your fears — but where ? You know not. 
 
 And that's the reason why you do — or do not." 
 
 A gentleman with whom we are acquainted, informed us 
 that, a few days after Miss Moyes had thrown herself from the 
 Monument, a friend of his had the curiosity to visit the spot, 
 and on looking down the awful height from which this poor 
 unfortunate girl had precipitated herself, he felt suddenly an 
 attack of giddiness, which was succeeded in a moment by one 
 of the most pleasurable sensations he had ever experienced, 
 accompanied with a desire to jump off. He was not in- 
 fluenced, apparently, by any other motive than that of a 
 wish to gratify a feeling of ecstasy which for a minute sus- 
 pended all the operations of the mind. A gentleman who 
 was by him asked him a question with reference to the height 
 of the Monument, and this circumstance recalling him to the 
 exercise of his reasoning faculties, he immediately left the 
 spot, shuddering at the recollection of the idea which had 
 momentarily flashed across his mind. 
 
 The case is related of a man who had this feeling so 
 strongly manifested that he never dared trust himself with 
 a razor. He was not devoid of religious feeling, and was 
 most happy in his domestic relations. On occasions which 
 required the exercise of moral resolution, he was never 
 found wanting. He declared his life would not be safe for a 
 day if he were permitted to shave himself. Such instances 
 are by no means uncommon, and require much ingenuity to 
 account satisfactorily for them, unless they be referred to the 
 effect of fascination. 
 
 Andral observes, " that there are many men perfectly 
 rational, and completely undisturbed by care or pain, who. 
 
120 SUICIDE FROM FASCINATION. 
 
 singular to state, have been suddenly seized by a headlong, 
 groundless inclination to destroy themselves. There are 
 hundreds who cannot approach the brink of a cHfF, or ascend 
 a lofty tower, without experiencing an almost invincible desire 
 to precipitate themselves to the bottom, from which fate they 
 only save themselves by an instantaneous effort to retire from 
 the temptation. I knew a gentleman who, while shaving 
 himself one day, alone, was three times so vehemently urged 
 to plunge the razor into his throat, that he was at length 
 compelled to throw the instrument from him, in absolute 
 horror and dismay. In rational men, however, these trying 
 and dangerous moments are but of very short duration." 
 
 A sailor informed us that he had often, when at the top of 
 the mast, felt disposed to precipitate himself from the giddy 
 eminence, influenced by no other motive than that of pleasure. 
 
 In such cases, what course is the medical man to pursue ? 
 It is difficult to give any instructions for the treatment of such 
 cases of mental idiosysncray. Persons who are subject to 
 feelings of this character should be advised to avoid ascending 
 elevated places. 
 
121 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 OF THE ENTHUSIASM AND MENTAL IRRITABILITY 
 WHICH, IF ENCOURAGED, WOULD LEAD TO SUICIDE. 
 
 Connexion between genius and insanity — Authors of fiction often feel what 
 they write — Metastasio in tears — The enthusiasm of Pope, Aifieri, Dry- 
 den — Effects of the first reading of Telemachus and Tasso on Madame 
 Roland's mind — Raffaelle and his celebrated picture of the Transfiguration 
 — ^The convulsions of Malbranche — Beattie's Essay on Truth — Influence 
 of intense study on Boerrhave's mind — The demon of Spinello and 
 Luther — Bourdaloue and liis violin — Byron's sensitiveness — Men do not 
 always practise what they preach — Cases of Smollett, La Fontaine, Sir 
 Thomas More, Zimmerman — Tasso's spectre — Johnson's superstition — 
 Concluding remarks. 
 
 It has been observed that the act of suicide may often 
 originate in a feehng analogous to the enthusiasm exhibited 
 by men of great genius and sensibiHty. This mental idiosyn- 
 crasy, which borders so closely on the confines of insanity, 
 has been compared to the narrow bridge of Al Sirat, which 
 leads the followers of Mahomet from earth to heaven, but by 
 so narrow a path that the passenger is in momentary danger 
 of falling into the dismal gulf which yawns beneath him. 
 This abnormal condition of the nervous system is, to a certain 
 extent, dependent on natural organic structure, aided ma- 
 terially by an unhealthy exercise of the imaginative faculty. 
 Fielding spoke but the history of his own sensations when he 
 declared that he " had no doubt but the most pathetic scenes 
 had been writ with tears." Metastasio was found weeping 
 
122 OF THE ENTHUSIASM AND MENTAL IRRITABILITY 
 
 over his Olympiad. He says : " When I apply with atten- 
 tion, the nerves of my sensorium are put into a violent tumult ; 
 I grov^r as red as a drunkard, and am obliged to quit my work." 
 Pope could not proceed with certain passages of his translation 
 of Homer without shedding tears. * Alfieri declares that, he 
 frequently penned the most tender passages in his plays 
 " under a paroxysm of enthusiasm, and whilst shedding tears." 
 Dryden was seized with violent tremors during the com- 
 position of his celebrated ode. Rousseau, in conceiving the 
 first idea of his Essay on the Arts, became almost delirious 
 with enthusiasm. 
 
 Madame Roland has thus powerfully described the ideal 
 presence in her first readings of Telemachus and Tasso: — 
 " My respiration rose, I felt a rapid fire colouring my face, 
 and my voice changing had betrayed my agitation. I was 
 Eucharis for Telemachus, and Emenia for Tancred. Having 
 my reason during this perfect transformation, I did not yet think 
 that I myself was anything for any one : the whole had no 
 connexion with myself. I sought for nothing around me ; I 
 was they ; I saw only the objects which existed for them ; it 
 was a dream without being awakened." 
 
 Raffaelle says, alluding to his celebrated picture, the Trans- 
 figuration — " When I have stood looking at that picture, from 
 figure to figure, the eagerness, the spirit, the close unaffected 
 attention of each figure to the principal action, my thoughts 
 have carried me away, that I have forgot myself, and for that 
 time might be looked upon as an enthusiastic madman ; for I 
 could really fancy the whole action was passing before my 
 eyes." 
 
 Malbranche was seized with violent palpitations of the heart 
 when reading Descartes's Treatise on Man : — 
 
 " With curious art, the brain too finely wrought 
 Preys on itself, and is destroyed by thought ; 
 Constant attention wears the active mind, 
 Blots out her powers, and leaves a blank behind." 
 
 Intense occupation of mind to any particular branch of 
 
WHICH, IF ENCOURAGED, WOULD LEAD TO SUICIDE. 123 
 
 study, often brings the mind on the verge of madness. " Since 
 the ' Essay on Truth ' was printed in quarto," says Dr. Beattie, 
 " I have never dared to read it over. I durst not even read 
 the sheets to see whether there were any errors in the print, 
 and was obliged to get a friend to do that office for me. 
 These studies came, in time, to have dreadful effects upon my 
 nervous system ; and I cannot read what I then wrote without 
 some degree of horror, because it recals to my mind the 
 horrors that I have sometimes felt after passing a long evening 
 in these severe studies." 
 
 Boerrhave has related of himself that, having imprudently 
 indulged in intense thought on a particular subject, he did 
 not close his eyes for six weeks afterwards. 
 
 Spinello, having painted the fall of the rebellious angels, 
 had so strongly imagined the illusion, and more particularly 
 the terrible features of Lucifer, that he was himself struck 
 with such horror as to have been long afflicted with the 
 presence of the demon to which his genius had given birth. 
 Swedenburg saw a terrestrial heaven in the glittering streets 
 of his New Jerusalem. 
 
 Malbranche declared he heard the voice of God distinctly 
 within him. Pascal often was seen to rush suddenly from his 
 chair at the appearance of a fiery gulf by his side. Luther 
 maintained that during his confinement the devil used to visit 
 him. 
 
 Hudibras says — 
 
 " Did not the devil appear to Martin 
 Luther, in Germany, for certain ? " 
 
 He declares that he had many a contest with his satanic 
 majesty, and that he had always the best of the argument. At 
 one time, the devil so enraged Luther that he threw the ink- 
 stand at him, an action which the German commentators 
 greatly applaud, from a conviction that there is nothing which 
 the devil abhors more than ink. 
 
 Descartes, after long confinement, was followed by an in- 
 visible person, calling upon him to pursue the search of truth. 
 
124 OF THE ENTHUSIASM AND MENTAL IRRITABILITY 
 
 Mozart's sensibility to music was connected with so sus- 
 ceptible a nervous system that, in his childhood, the sound of 
 a trumpet would turn him pale, and almost induce convulsions. 
 Dr. Conolly relates an amusing anecdote of the celebrated 
 Bourdaloue. It is said that the composition of his eloquent 
 sermons so excited his mind that he was unable to deliver 
 them until he discovered some mode of allaying his excite- 
 ment. " His attendants one day were both scandalized and 
 alarmed, on proceeding to his apartment, for the purpose of 
 accompanying him to the cathedral, by hearing the sound of a 
 fiddle, on which was played a very lively tune. After their 
 first consternation, they ventured to look through the key- 
 hole, and were stiU more shocked to behold the great divine 
 dancing about, without his gown and canonicals, to his own 
 inspiring music. Of course, they concluded him to be mad. 
 But, when they knocked, the music ceased ; and after a short 
 and anxious interval, he met them with a composed dress and 
 manner; and, observing some signs of astonishment in the 
 party, explained to them that without his music and his 
 exercise he should have been unable to undertake the duties 
 of the day." 
 
 In the character of Lord Byron we have an apt illustration 
 of the kind of mental irritability and morbid sensitiveness of 
 feeling that so often incites to acts of desperation. It has been 
 said that the noble poet was the child of passion, born in 
 bitterness and " nurtured in convulsion." The true state of 
 his mind can best be divined from the delineation of his own 
 sensations as given in Childe Harold : — 
 
 '* I have thought 
 
 Too long and darkly, till my brain became 
 
 In its own eddy boiling, and o'erwrought 
 
 A whirling gulf of phantasy and flame : 
 
 And thus untaught in youth my heart to tame. 
 
 My springs of life were poisoned." 
 
 Byron was subject to attacks of epilepsy ; and perhaps this 
 fact may account for much of the spleen and irritability which 
 he manifested through life, and which made him so many 
 
WHICH, IF ENCOURAGED, WOULD LEAD TO SUICIDE. 125 
 
 enemies. It also teaches us an important lesson. We are too 
 apt to form our estimate of character without taking into con- 
 sideration all those circumstances which are known materially 
 to influence human thought and actions. The state of the 
 organization and the health ought to be maturely weighed 
 before we pronounce authoritatively as to the motives of indi- 
 viduals, or denounce them for not acting or thinking accord- 
 ing to what our preconceived opinions have taught us to 
 consider as orthodox. Byron's mind was morbidly alive to 
 impressions. The most trifling circumstance would cause him 
 to swoon. At Bologna, in 1819, he describes one of his con- 
 vulsive attacks : — " Last night I went to the representation of 
 Alfieri's Myrrha, the last two acts of which threw me into con- 
 vulsions ; I don't mean by that word lady's hysterics, but an 
 agony of reluctant tears, and the choking shudder which I 
 do not often undergo for fiction." He was seized in a similar 
 manner at seeing Kean in Sir Giles Overreach ; he was car- 
 ried out of the theatre in convulsions. From early life, Byron 
 exhibited this abnormal excitability. There can be no doubt 
 that it was but the natural effect of a peculiar condition of 
 nervous function ; but, instead of endeavouring to subdue the 
 feeling, he did his best to encourage it, and to fan the fire into 
 a flame. He appears to have been tortured by horrid dreams. 
 He says in his Journal — '' I awoke from a dream : well, have 
 not others dreamed ? Such a dream ! But she did not over- 
 take me ! I wish the dead would rest for ever. Ugh ! how 
 my blood is chilled ! I do not like this dream ; I hate its 
 foregone conclusion." 
 
 The " Bride of Abydos" was written to distract the poet's 
 mind from his dreams. He was in such a nervous state at this 
 period, that he says if he had not done something, he must 
 have gone mad, or have eat his own heart. 
 
 Stendhal, alluding to Byron's apparent remorse, asks, " Is it 
 not possible that Byron might have had some guilty stain on 
 his conscience, similar to that which wrecked Othello's fame ? 
 Can it be, have we sometimes exclaimed, that, in a frenzy of 
 
126 OF THE ENTHUSIASM AND MENTAL IRRITABILITY 
 
 pride or jealousy, he had shortened the days of some fair Gre- 
 cian slave, faithless to her vows ?"* 
 
 It is not just to form our opinions of the character of men by 
 their writings or actions. In the mass, we are ready to admit 
 that we have no other criteria by which to be guided ; but we 
 may charitably consider that Byron was not himself the " dark 
 original he drew." 
 
 " O memory ! torture rae no more : 
 The present 's all o'ercast — 
 My hopes of future bliss are o'er ; 
 In mercy, veil the past." 
 
 Such were his feelings at the age of seventeen. 
 
 La Fontaine penned tales fertile in intrigues, and yet he 
 was never known, says D'Israeli, to have been engaged in a 
 single amour. Smollett was anything but what his writings 
 would lead us to expect. Cowley boasted of his mistresses, and 
 wanted the courage to address one. Burton declaimed against 
 melancholy, and yet he was the most miserable of men. Sir 
 Thomas More preached in favour of toleration, yet in practice 
 was a fierce persecutor. Zimmerman, whilst he was incul- 
 cating beautiful lessons of benevolence, was by his tyranny 
 driving his son into madness, and leaving his daughter an 
 outcast from home. Goethe says, " Zimmerman's harshness 
 towards his children was the effect of hypochondria, a sort of 
 madness or moral assassination, to which he himself fell a 
 victim after sacrificing his offspring." 
 
 Byron occasionally fancied he was visited by a spectre, 
 which he confesses was but the effect of an overstimulated 
 brain. 
 
 Tasso, whose fine imagination the passions of hopeless love, 
 and of grief occasioned by ill treatment, disordered, was in 
 daily communication with a spirit. This circumstance is 
 alluded to in the following anecdote of him, prefixed to 
 Hoole's translation of his " La Gierusalemme LiberataJ'^ 
 
 * Foreign Literary Gazette. 
 
WHICH, IF ENCOURAGED, WOULD LEAD TO SUICIDE. 127 
 
 " In this place (at Bisaccio, near Naples) Manso had an 
 opportunity of examining the singular effects of Tasso's me- 
 lancholy, and often disputed with him concerning a familiar 
 spirit, with which he pretended to converse. Manso endea- 
 voured in vain to persuade his friend that the whole was the 
 illusion of a disturbed imagination ; but the latter was stre- 
 nuous in maintaining the reality of what he asserted ; and to 
 convince Manso, desired him to be present at one of these 
 mysterious conversations. Manso had the complaisance to 
 meet him next day; and while they were engaged in dis- 
 course, on a sudden he observed that Tasso kept his eyes fixed 
 upon a window, and remained in a manner immovable. He 
 called him by his name several times, but received no answer. 
 At last Tasso cried out, ' There is the friendly spirit, who is 
 come to converse with me. Look, and you will be convinced 
 of the truth of all that I have said.' Manso heard him with 
 surprise ; he looked, but saw nothing except the sunbeams 
 darting through the window : he cast his eyes all over the 
 room, but could perceive nothing, and was just going to ask 
 where the pretended spirit was, when he heard Tasso speak 
 with great earnestness, sometimes putting questions to the 
 spirit, and sometimes giving answers, delivering the whole in 
 such a pleasing manner, and with such elevated expressions, 
 that he listened with admiration, and had not the least incli- 
 nation to interrupt him. At last the uncommon conversation 
 ended with the departure of the spirit, as appeared by Tasso's 
 words, who, turning to Manso, asked him if his doubts were 
 removed ? Manso was more amazed than ever ; he scarce 
 knew what to think of his friend's situation, and waved any 
 further conversation on the subject." 
 
 Boswell says. Dr. Johnson mentioned a thing as not un- 
 frequent, of which he (Boswell) had never heard before, — 
 being called, that is, hearing one's name pronounced, by the 
 voice of a known person at a great distance, far beyond 
 the possibility of being reached by any sound, uttered by 
 human organs. An acquaintance, on whose veracity Boswell 
 
128 OF THE ENTHUSIASM AND MENTAL IRRITABILITY 
 
 says he could place every dependence, told him that, walking 
 home one evening to Kilmarnock, he heard himself called 
 from a vrood, by the voice of a brother who had gone to 
 America, and the next packet brought the account of that 
 brother's death. Macbean asserted that this inexplicable 
 calling was a thing very well known. Dr. Johnson said, that 
 one day at Oxford, as he was turning the key of his cham- 
 bers, he heard distinctly his mother call Sam ! She was then 
 at Lichfield ; but nothing ensued. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds gives an amusing instance of Dr. 
 Johnson's eccentricity. He says, " When he and I took a 
 journey into the west, we visited the late Mr. Banks, of Dor- 
 setshire. The conversation turning upon pictures, which John- 
 son could not well see, he retired to a corner of the room, 
 stretching out his right leg as far as he could reach before 
 him, then bringing up his left leg, and stretching his right 
 still further on. The old gentleman observing him, went up to 
 him, and in a very courteous manner assured him that, though 
 it was not a new house, the flooring was perfectly safe. The 
 Doctor started from his reverie, like a person waked out of a 
 sleep, but spoke not a word." 
 
 Dr. Johnson had one pecuUarity, says Boswell, of which 
 none of his friends dared to ask an explanation. This was an 
 anxious care to go out or in at a door or passage by a certain 
 number of steps from a certain point, so that either his right 
 or left foot should constantly make the first actual movement. 
 Thus, upon innumerable occasions, Boswell has seen him 
 suddenly stop, and then seem to count his steps with deep 
 earnestness ; and when he had neglected, or gone wrong in 
 this sort of magical movement, he has been noticed to go 
 back again, put himself in a proper posture to recommence 
 the ceremony, and having gone through it, break from his 
 abstraction, briskly walk on, and join his companions. 
 
 An inordinate cultivation of any one faculty of the mind, 
 but more particularly the imagination, will tend to produce 
 the peculiarities which have been illustrated in this chapter. 
 
WHICH, IF ENCOURAGED, WOULD LEAD TO SUICIDE. 129 
 
 A person who accustoms himself to Uve in a world created by 
 his own fancy — who surrounds himself with flimsy idealities — 
 will, in the course of time, cease to sympathize with the gross 
 realities of life. The imaginary intelligences which his own 
 morbid mind has called into existence will exercise a terrific 
 influence over him. A German poet commenced writing a 
 poem on the Deity. He allowed his mind to dwell so intensely 
 on the subject, that he fancied he was commanded to " flee 
 from a world of sin and iniquity ;" to effect which, he cut his 
 throat, and was found dead in bed, with the razor in one hand 
 and a portion of his poem in the other. The apparitions 
 which the monomaniac fancies to haunt him are as real and 
 sensible existences to him, as objects are to persons who 
 have a healthy use of the media through which ideas obtain 
 access to the mind. Mr. Calcraft, the late member of parlia- 
 ment, committed suicide. He imagined that a strange un- 
 earthly-looking being sat night and day perched at the top 
 of his bed, watching with earnestness his every movement. 
 This, which to all around him was an hallucination, to him 
 ivas a reality. It is possible for a person of vivid imagination 
 to conjure into apparent existence the most grotesque images 
 of the fancy, by allowing the mind to dwell with intenseness 
 on a particular train of thought, and by perfectly abstracting 
 the attention from all materiality. 
 
130 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Influence of climate — The foggy climate of England does not increase the 
 number of suicides — Average number of suicides in each month, from 
 1817 to 1826 — Influence of seasons — Suicides at Rouen — The English 
 not a suicidal people — Philip Mordaunt's singular reasons for self-de- 
 struction — Causes of French suicides — Influence of physical pain — Un- 
 natural vices — Suicide the effect of intoxication — Influence of hepatic dis- 
 ease on the mind — Melancholy and hypochondriasis, Burton's account 
 of— Cowper's case of suicide — Particulars of his extreme depression of 
 spirits — Byron and Burns's melancholy from stomach and liver derange- 
 ment — Influence of bodily disease on the mind — Importance of paying 
 attention to it — A case of insanity from gastric irritation — Dr. Johnson's 
 hypochondria — Hereditary suicide, illustrated by cases — Suicide from 
 blows on the head, and from moral shocks communicated to the brain — 
 Dr. G. Mantell's valuable observations and cases demonstrative of the 
 point — Concluding remarks. 
 
 The following are the physical causes which are commonly 
 found to operate in producing the suicidal disposition — viz., 
 climate, seasons, hereditary predisposition, cerebral injuries, 
 physical suffering, disease of the stomach and liver compli- 
 cated with melancholia and hypochondriasis, insanity, sup- 
 pressed secretions, intoxication, unnatural vices, and derange- 
 ment of the prim(B vice. These causes can only act by 
 influencing sympathetically the brain and nervous system, 
 and in that way interfering with the healthy operations of 
 the mind. Much will, of course, depend upon the physical 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 131 
 
 conformation of the individual exposed to such agents. 
 Should he labour under an hereditary predisposition to in- 
 sanity, or to suicidal delirium, a very trifling corporeal de- 
 rangement may call into existence the self-destructive pro- 
 pensity, and vice versa. It will be our object to consider 
 seriatim all the physical agents just enumerated. 
 
 Among the causes of suicide, the foggy climate of England 
 has been brought prominently forward. The specious and 
 inaccurate conclusions of Montesquieu on this point have 
 misled the public mind. The climate of Holland is much 
 more gloomy than that of England, and yet in that country 
 suicide is by no means common. The reader will perceive 
 from the following tabular statement that the popular notion 
 of the month of November being the " suicide's month" is 
 founded on erroneous data. 
 
 The average number of suicides in each month, from 1817 
 to 1826, was as follows: — 
 
 January 213 
 
 February 218 
 
 March 275 
 
 April 374 
 
 May 328 
 
 June 336 
 
 July 301 
 
 August 296 
 
 September 246 
 
 October 198 
 
 November 131 
 
 December 217 
 
 3133 
 
 It has been clearly established that in all the European 
 capitals, when anything approaching to correct statistical 
 evidence can be procured, the maximum of suicide is in the 
 
 k2 
 
132 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 montlis of June and Julj ; the minimum in October and 
 November. Temperature appears to exercise a much more 
 decided influence than the circumstances of moisture and 
 dryness, storms or serenity. M. Villeneuve has observed a 
 warm, humid, and cloudy atmosphere to produce a marked 
 bad effect at Paris ; and that so long as the barometer indicated 
 stormy weather, this effect continued.* Contrary, however, to 
 the opinion of Villeneuve, it appears that by far the fewer 
 number of suicides occur in the autumn and winter at Paris, 
 than in the spring and summer. 
 
 Number of suicides for seven years. 
 
 In Spring 997 
 
 In Summer 933 
 
 In Autumn 627 
 
 In Winter 648 
 
 When the thermometer of Fahrenheit ranges from 80° to 90° 
 suicide is most prevalent. 
 
 The English have been accused by foreigners of being the 
 beau-ideal of a suicidal people. The charge is almost too 
 ridiculous to merit serious refutation. It has clearly been 
 established that where there is one suicide in London, there 
 are five in Paris. In the year 1810, the number of suicides 
 committed in London amounted to 188 ; the population of 
 Paris being near 400,000 less than that of London. From 
 the year 1827 to 1830, no less than 6900 suicides occurred; 
 that is, an average of nearly 1800 per annum. Out of 120,000 
 persons who ensured their lives in the London Equitable 
 Insurance Company, the number of suicides in twenty years 
 
 * In 1806, upwards of sixty voluntary deaths took place at Rouen, during 
 June and July, the air being at that time remarkably humid and warm ; 
 and in July and August of the same year, more than three hundred were 
 committed at Copenhagen, the constitution of the atmosphere presenting the 
 same characteristics as it did at Rouen. The year 1793, presented in the 
 town of Versailles alone the horrible spectacle of thirteen hundred suicides. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 133 
 
 was only fifteen ; so much for the English being -par excellence 
 disposed to suicide. 
 
 The causes which frequently lead to self-destruction in 
 France are, defective religious education, ennui, and loss at dice 
 or cards. In considering the circumstances which produce this 
 disparity in the number of voluntary deaths in the two coun- 
 tries, we must bear in mind the moral and religious habits of 
 the people. When Christianity is not acknowledged as a 
 matter of vital importance in the affairs of man ; when mo- 
 rality is considered only as a conventional term, conveying no 
 definite idea to the mind, it is natural that there should exist, 
 co-relative with this tone of feeling, a marked recklessness of 
 human life. Some notion may be formed of the state of reli- 
 gious feeling in Paris, when our readers are informed of the 
 existence in the French metropolis of a " society for the 
 mutual encouragement of suicide," all the members of which, 
 on joining it, swear to terminate their existence by their own 
 hands, when life becomes insupportable. 
 
 Dr. Schlegel dwells at much length on the abandoned 
 state of Paris, and after giving us some important statistical 
 evidence, he alludes to the gross immorality of the people, and 
 denounces the French capital as " a suffocating boiling caul- 
 dron, in which, as in the stew of Macbeth's witches, there 
 simmer, with a modicum of virtue, all kinds of passions, vices, 
 and crimes." 
 
 Alluding to the peculiarities of the French people, particu- 
 larly their indifference to human life, an eminent writer 
 observes, speaking of their notions of suicide, that a French- 
 man asks you to see him " go off," as if death were a place in 
 the malle poste, " Will you dine with me to-day ? " said a 
 Frenchman to a friend. " With the greatest pleasure ; — yet, 
 now I think of it, I am particularly engaged to shoot myself; 
 one cannot get off such an engagement." This is not the sui- 
 cide a la mode with us. We ape at no such extra civilization 
 and refinement. We can be romantic without blowing out our 
 brains. English lovers do not, when " the course of true love" 
 
134 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDR. 
 
 does not run smooth, retire to some sequestered spot, and 
 rush into the next world by a brace of pistols tied with cherry- 
 coloured ribbons. When we do shoot ourselves, it is done 
 with true English gravity. It is no joke with us. We have no 
 inherent predilection for the act; no "hereditary imperfection 
 of the nervous juices," as Montesquieu, with all the impudence 
 and gravity of a philosopher, asserts, forcing us to commit 
 suicide. " Life," said a man who had exhausted all his exter- 
 nal sources of enjoyment, and had no internal ones to fly to, 
 *' has given me a headache ; and I want a good sleep in the 
 church^^ard to set me to rights," to procure which, he delibe- 
 rately shot himself.* 
 
 A late French writer thus attempts to account for the pre- 
 valence of suicide in France : — " The external circumstances 
 which tend to suggest the idea of suicide are very numerous, 
 at the present day, in France ; but more particularly so in the 
 capital. The high development of civilization and refine- 
 ment which prevails here — the clash of interests — the repeated 
 political changes — all contribute to keep the moral feelings in 
 a perpetual state of tension. Life does not roll on among us 
 in a peaceful and steady current ; it rushes forward with the 
 force and precipitation of a torrent. In the terrible melee, it 
 often happens that the little minority, which has obtained a 
 footing high above the multitude for a time, falls down as 
 suddenly as they have risen. The struggles of life are full of 
 miscalculations, disappointments, despair, and disgust. Hence 
 the general source of our frequent suicides. But there are 
 
 * This was Philip Mordaunt, cousin-german to the celebrated Earl of 
 Peterborough, so well known to all European courts, and who boasted of 
 having seen more postillions and kings than any other man. Mordaunt was 
 young, handsome, of noble blood, highly educated, and beloved by those who 
 knew him. He resolved to die. Preparatory to his doing so, he wrote to his 
 friends, paid his debts, and even made some verses on the occasion. He said 
 his soul was tired of his body, and when we are dissatisfied with our abode, 
 it is our duty to quit it. He put a pistol to his head and blew out his brains. 
 An uninterrupted course of good fortune was the only motive that could be 
 assigned for this suicide. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 135 
 
 Other causes in operation ; and not the least, the strange turn 
 that plays and spectacles have lately taken. The public taste 
 has undergone a complete revolution in this respect. No- 
 thing is more patronized now at the theatre than the display 
 of crime unpunished, human misery unconsoled, and a low 
 literature, impregnated by a spurious philosophy, declaiming 
 against society, against domestic life, against virtue itself; 
 applauding the vengeance of the assassin, and recognising 
 genius only as it is seen in company with spleen, poison, and 
 pistols. We appeal to all who read the novels of the present 
 day, and who visit the theatres, whether what we say is not 
 the fact." 
 
 It has been questioned whether physical suffering often 
 originates the desire for suicide. Too many lamentable cases 
 are on record to prevent us from coming to an opposite con- 
 clusion. Esquirol has justly observed, that " He who has no 
 intervals of ease from corporeal pain ; who sees no prospects 
 of relief from his cruel malady, fails at length in resignation, 
 and destroys his life in order to put a period to his sufferings. 
 He calculates that the pain of dying is but momentary, and 
 commits the act in a cool and meditated despair. It is the 
 same in respect to moral condition, that drives the hypochon- 
 driac to suicide, who is firmly persuaded that his sufferings 
 are beyond imagining; that they are irremediable, either 
 from some fatal peculiarity in his own constitution, or the 
 ignorance of his physicians. It is a remarkable feature in 
 hypochondriasis, and in no other disease, that there is such a 
 fear of death and a desire to die combined. Both fears proceed 
 from the same pusillanimity. Finally, it may be remarked 
 thatthe hypochondriac talks most of death ; often wishes his 
 attendants to perform the friendly office ; even makes attempts 
 on his own life, but rarely accomplishes the act. The most 
 trifling motive, the most frivolous pretext, is a sufficient 
 excuse for procrastinating, from day to day, the threatened 
 catastrophe." 
 
 The following case occurred in a provincial mad-house, in 
 
136 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 France. An apothecary who was confined there was haunted 
 with ennui, and was always begging his companions to put 
 him to death. At length, an insane patient was admitted, 
 who instantly compHed with the apothecary's request. They 
 both watched an opportunity, got out of a window in the 
 back yard, and from thence into the kitchen. They pitched 
 upon the cook's chopper, and the apothecary laying his head 
 on a block, his companion deliberately and effectually severed 
 it from his body. He was seized, and examined before a tri- 
 bunal, where he candidly confessed the whole transaction, and 
 observed that he would again perform the same friendly office 
 for any unhappy wretch who was tired of his existence ! * 
 
 Lucinius Caecinius, the praetor, subdued by the pain and 
 ennui of a tedious disease, swallow^ed opium. Dr. Haslam 
 relates the case of a gentleman who destroyed himself to 
 avoid the tortures of the gout. It is recorded that the pain 
 of the same disease drove Servius the grammarian to take 
 poison. Pliny informs us that one of his friends, Corellius 
 Rufus, having in vain sought relief from the pangs of a dis- 
 ease under which he was labouring, starved himself to death 
 at the age of sixty-seven. It is related of Pomponius Atticus 
 and the philosopher Cleanthes, that they both starved them- 
 selves to death in order to get rid of physical pain. In the 
 course of these attempts, the corporeal sufferings were re- 
 moved—probably in consequence of the great exhaustion and 
 attenuation; but both individuals persevered till death took 
 place, observing that as this final ordeal must one day be 
 undergone, they would not now retrace their steps or give up 
 the undertaking. 
 
 Few, perhaps, are aware how frequently suicide results 
 from the habit of indulging, in early youth, in a certain secret 
 vice which, we are afraid, is practised to an enormous extent 
 in our public schools. A feeling of false delicacy has operated 
 with medical men in inducing them to refrain from dwelling 
 
 * M. Falret. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 137 
 
 upon the destructive consequences of this habit, both to the 
 moral and physical constitution, as openly and honestly as 
 the importance of the subject imperatively demands. 
 
 Medical men are, in the most enlarged acceptation of the 
 term, guardians of the public health ; and no fastidious de- 
 sire to avoid saying what might possibly offend the taste of 
 some, ought to keep them from discharging what may be 
 termed a sacred duty. The physical disease, particularly 
 that connected with the nervous system, engendered by the 
 pernicious practice alluded to, frequently leads to the act of 
 self-destruction. We have before us the cases of many suicides 
 in whom the disposition may clearly be traced to this cause. 
 This habit most seriously affects the brain and nervous system ; 
 and insanity, hypochondriasis, and melancholia, in their worst 
 forms, are frequently the baneful consequences. 
 
 If disease, structural or functional, of the abdominal viscera 
 gives rise to the disposition to commit suicide, it will not re- 
 quire much ingenuity to establish the fact that the habitual 
 indulgence in intoxicating liquors may originate a similar 
 feeling. 
 
 It has been already established by statistical evidence, that, 
 in a very large proportion of the cases of insanity admitted 
 into the asylums and hospitals devoted to the reception of 
 this unhappy class of patients, the mental impairment can 
 clearly be traced to habits of intemperance. 
 
 The brain and nervous system become materially affected 
 in those who indulge frequently in " potations pottle deep." 
 Delirium tremens, softening of the cerebral substance, palsy, 
 epilepsy, extreme hypochondriasis, are daily witnessed as the 
 melancholy effects of intoxication. 
 
 M. Falret knew the case of a man who always felt disposed 
 to cut his throat when under the influence of spirits. No 
 reasoning could induce him to abstain from his favourite 
 draught. The inevitable consequences were pointed out to 
 him ; he was reasoned with, and threatened with confinement 
 in a madhouse ; but nothing had the desired effect. One 
 
138 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Sunday evening, after having drunk several glasses of spirits, 
 although not sufficient to produce complete inebriation, he 
 stabbed himself to the heart, and died in a few minutes. 
 
 Incurable indigestion and organic disease of the liver are 
 very commonly met with in habitual drunkards. In such 
 persons, the constitution of the mind appears to undergo a 
 complete change. At first it may not be perceptible, and 
 the patient may not be conscious of it himself, but the mental 
 disease will, sooner or later, unequivocally evince itself. 
 
 In such cases, the medical man has fearful odds to contend 
 against. 
 
 A young man, who had become insane in consequence of 
 long continued intoxication, made violent efforts to maim him- 
 self, and especially to pull out his right eye, which appeared 
 to give him great offence. Rest, temperance, seclusion, the 
 application of half a dozen leeches to the temple, and a few 
 doses of opening medicine, restored him, in about a fortnight, 
 to the full possession of his faculties. 
 
 Many cases of suicide, in those who have a natural predis- 
 position to it, arise from the brain sympathizing with the 
 liver ; nor can this be a matter of surprise to any one who 
 has felt the depression of spirits incident to disease of that 
 organ. So many cases have occurred from this cause, that 
 some writers, from not finding, on subsequent dissection, any 
 organic lesion of the brain, have referred it to diseased vis- 
 cera only. But as we find that the insanity ceases when the 
 liver is restored to health, there is no reason for supposing 
 that the mental alienation is, in these instances, any other 
 than the effect of disease of the brain. 
 
 J. C, about fifty years of age, was insane for two years. 
 He was formerly in respectable circumstances, and employed 
 in the situation of writer in an office. He made several at- 
 tempts on his life. He had been in the habit of drinking 
 spirits very freely, and had a disease of the liver which ap- 
 peared of some standing. At the time of his admission into 
 Hanwell asylum, under the care of Sir W. ElUs, he was in a 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 139 
 
 most emaciated state ; his legs scarcely able to support him. 
 His face and body also were covered with an eruption ; tongue 
 furred; his stools very dark: he was much depressed, and 
 always moaning most piteously; complained of heat and 
 numbness in his head, and pain in all his limbs. Leeches and 
 cold lotions were applied to his head, his bowels opened by 
 calomel and colocynth, and he went into the warm bath every 
 other day. He was much relieved by these means. He still 
 continued, however, to moan as before. His tongue remained 
 furred, and stools unhealthy. He took five grains of blue pill 
 every alternate night for some time. These were then left oft 
 awhile ; no improvement taking place, he began the pills again, 
 and continued them for two months, with evident advantage. 
 His tongue was clean ; he was less depressed ; became strong, 
 and gained flesh ; the biliary secretions were much improved. 
 He is now occupied in the office ; and every day, as the action 
 of the liver seems to improve, his mind makes a correspond- 
 ing advance. 
 
 There is no more frequent cause of suicide than visceral 
 derangement, leading to melancholia and hypochondriasis. 
 It has been a matter of dispute with medical men whether 
 hypochondriacal affections have their origin in the mental or 
 physical portion of the economy. Many maintain that the 
 mind is the seat of the disease ; others, that the liver and sto- 
 mach are primarily affected, and the brain only secondarily. 
 In this disputed point, as in most others, truth will generally 
 be found to lie between the two extremities. That cases of 
 hypochondria and melancholia can clearly be traced to purely 
 mental irritation cannot for one moment be disputed ; and that 
 there are many instances in which the derangement appears 
 to have commenced in one of the gastric organs, is as equally 
 self-evident. Whatever may be the origin of these affections, 
 there can be no doubt of their producing most disastrous con- 
 sequences. Burton's account of the horrors of hypochon- 
 dria is truly graphic. " As the rain," says Austin, " pene- 
 trates the stone, so does this passion of melancholy penetrate 
 
140 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 the mind. It commonly accompanies men to their graves. 
 Physicians may ease, but they cannot cure it ; it may lie hid 
 for a time, but it will return again, as violent as ever, on slight 
 occasions, as well as on casual excesses. Its humour is like 
 Mercury's weather-beaten statue, which had once been gilt; the 
 surface was clean and uniform, but in the chinks there was still 
 a remnant of gold : and in the purest bodies, if once tainted 
 by hypochondria, there will be some rehcs of melancholy 
 still left, not so easily to be rooted out. Seldom does this dis- 
 ease produce death, except (which is the most grievous cala- 
 mity of all) when these patients make away with theinselves — 
 a thing familiar enough amongst them, when they are driven 
 to do violence to themselves to escape from present insuffer- 
 able pain. They can take no rest in the night, or, if they 
 slumber, fearful dreams astonish them. Their soul abhorreth 
 all meat, and they are brought to death's door, being bound in 
 misery and in iron. Like Job, they curse their stars, for Job 
 was melancholy to despair, and almost to madness. They are 
 weary of the sun, and yet afraid to die, vivere nolunt et mori 
 nesciunt. And then, like ^sop's fishes, they leap from the 
 frying pan into the fire, when they hope to be cured by means 
 of physic — a miserable end to the disease ; when ultimately left 
 to their fate by a jury of physicians, are furiously disposed ; and 
 there remains no more to such persons, if that heavenly phy- 
 sician, by his grace and mercy, (whose aid alone avails,) do 
 not heal and help them. One day of such grief as theirs is as 
 a hundred years : it is a plague of the sense, a convulsion of 
 the soul, an epitome of hell ; and if there be a hell upon 
 earth, it is to be found in a melancholy man's heart. No 
 bodily torture is like unto it ; all other griefs are swallowed 
 up in this great Euripus. I say the melancholy man then is 
 the cream and quintessence of human adversity. All other 
 diseases are trifles to hypochondria ; it is the pith and marrow 
 of them all! A melancholy man is the true Prometheus, 
 bound to Caucasus ; the true Tityrus, whose bowels arc still 
 devoured by a vulture." 
 
 I 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 141 
 
 " Dull melancholy 
 
 She'll make you start at ev*ry noise you hear, 
 
 And visions strange shall to your eyes appear. 
 
 Her voice is low, and gives a hollov^r sound ; 
 
 She hates the light, and is in darkness found ; 
 
 Or sits by blinking lamps, or taper small, 
 
 Which various shadows make against the wall. 
 
 She loves nought else but noise which discord makes, 
 
 As croaking frogs whose dwelling is in lakes ; 
 
 The raven hoarse, the mandrake's hollow groan, 
 
 And shrieking owls, that fly i'th' night alone ; 
 
 The tolling bell, which for the dead rings out, 
 
 A mill, where rushing waters run about. 
 
 She loves to walk in the still moonshine light, 
 
 And in a thick dark grove she takes delight ; 
 
 In hollow caves, thatch'd houses, and low cells. 
 
 She loves to live, and there alone she dwells." 
 
 " There are individuals who, from various physical or moral 
 causes," says Esquirol, " fall into a state of corporeal torpor 
 and mental depression. They complain of want of appetite, 
 dull pain in the head, sense of heat in the stomach and 
 viscera, borborygmi, and constipation of the bowels ; while 
 they exhibit little or no indication of disease. In the female 
 sex, the natural secretions become suspended. As the com- 
 plaint advances, the features alter, and the countenance exhi- 
 bits anxiety ; the complexion becomes pale or sallow ; there 
 is a sense of tightness, or even pain, in the epigastrium ; a 
 kind of compression in the head, which prevents them from 
 fixing their attention, or arranging their thoughts ; a general 
 torpor or lassitude, which keeps them inactive. They dislike 
 to move out, and love to loll about on a sofa ; they are irri- 
 tated if you advise them to take exercise ; they abandon their 
 ordinary avocations, neglect their domestic concerns, become 
 indifferent to their nearest connexions; in short, they will 
 neither converse, nor study, nor read, nor write, shunning so- 
 ciety, and being impatient of the inquiries and importunities 
 of friends. In this state they become filled with gloomy ideas 
 {idees noires), despair of ever being better, desire or even 
 
142 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 invoke death, and sometimes destroy themselves, from a con- 
 viction that they are no longer capable of fulfilling their duties 
 in society. These people are perfectly sane on all subjects of 
 conversation; their impulse to suicide being strong in pro- 
 portion to the activity of their former avocations, and the 
 importance of their former duties. I have seen their disease 
 (for it is a disease) continue for months, and even years. I 
 have seen it alternate with mania and with perfect health. 
 I have seen patients who would be six months of the year 
 maniacal or in sound health, and the other six months tor- 
 mented with these gloomy ideas and impulses to suicide." 
 
 In confirmation of this view of Esquirol's, the following cases 
 are related : — A gentleman of apparently sound constitution, 
 aged 32, was married to a woman whom he affectionately 
 loved. His affairs became deranged a few years after his 
 marriage, which greatly discouraged him, and rendered him 
 inactive, but without apparently affecting his health. He 
 now embarked in a speculation which promised much advan- 
 tage, and at first applied himself to business with unremit- 
 ting assiduity. In the course of a month he encountered 
 some difficulties, which depressed him beyond measure. He 
 considered himself ruined, refused to quit his bed, and 
 would not superintend his workmen, from a conviction that 
 he was no longer capable of directing their operations. He 
 complained of head-ache, heat in his stomach, &c. His 
 affection for his wife and children, his pecuniary interests, all 
 failed to rouse him from this moral and physical prostration. 
 He reasoned sanely on the critical state of his affairs, and yet 
 made no effort to rescue himself from his difficulties. Eight 
 days passed in this way, when all at once he sprung from his 
 bed in perfect integrity of mind and body. He resumed in- 
 stantaneously all his activity for business, all his affection for 
 his family. The same state, however, recurred ten or twelve 
 times since, at irregular intervals, caused in general by trifling 
 contrarieties of business, which, under other circumstances, 
 
 * Diet, des Sciences Med., vol. liii. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 143 
 
 would be considered as nothing. During several of these 
 paroxysms he has impulses to suicide ; but this dreaded catas- 
 trophe has not yet taken place. 
 
 A female was admitted into the Salpetriere on the 23d of 
 September, 1819, in the 34th year of her age, and fourteen 
 years after marriage. At the age of 21 she had a child, after 
 which she was affected with an ulcer in the foot, which was 
 healed in six months. From this time she was troubled with 
 cardialgia, at first slight, but afterwards with intense pain and 
 vomiting of her food. At the age of 33 she became irresolute 
 in her ideas and actions. She expressed an aversion for 
 those things which she had been previously pleased with, and 
 was occasionally incoherent. After suffering from other de- 
 rangements of her general health, she abandoned her house- 
 hold affairs, became quite despondent, and tried more than 
 once to commit suicide. In this state she was admitted into 
 the hospital, and was put upon diluents, low diet, &c. As 
 she shewed indications of having recovered, she was allowed 
 to return to her family ; but in a short period she was harassed 
 with gloomy ideas, despaired of recovery, and expressed a 
 desire to quit life, the duties of which she said she was no 
 longer able to fulfil. 
 
 In the case of Cowper, we have a melancholy instance of 
 hypochondriasis leading to suicidal mental derangement. 
 That the poet's mind was unsound when he attempted to 
 kill himself, must be evident to those who are conversant with 
 the history of his life. He never appears to have been free 
 from hypochondriacal disorder. In a letter to Lady Hesketh, 
 he says, " Could I be translated to paradise, unless I could 
 leave my body behind me, my melancholy would cleave to 
 me there." A friend procured him the situation of reading 
 clerk to the House of Lords, forgetting that the nervous 
 shyness which made a public exhibition of himself " mortal 
 poison," would render it impossible for him ever to discharge 
 the duties of his office. This difficulty presented itself to the 
 mind of the poet, and gloom instantly enveloped his facul- 
 
144 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 ties. At his request, his situation was changed to that of 
 clerk of the journals ; but even before he could be installed 
 into office he was threatened with a public examination 
 before the House. This made him completely wretched ; he 
 had not resolution to decline what he had not strength to do : 
 the interest of his friend, and his own reputation and want of 
 support, pressed him forward to an attempt which he knew 
 from the first could never succeed. In this miserable state, 
 like Goldsmith's traveller, 
 
 " To stop too fearful, and too faint to go," 
 
 he attended every day for six months at the office where he 
 was to examine the journals in preparation for his trust. His 
 feelings were like those of a man at the place of execution, 
 every time he entered the office door ; and he only gazed 
 mechanically at the books, without drawing from them the 
 least portion of information he wanted. As the time of his 
 examination approached, his agony became more and more 
 intense ; he hoped and believed that madness would come to 
 relieve him ; he attempted also to make up his mind to sui- 
 cide, though his conscience bore stern testimony against it ; 
 he could not by any argument persuade himself that it was 
 right ; but his desperation prevailed, and he procured from 
 an apothecary the means of self-destruction. On the day 
 before his public appearance was to be made, he happened to 
 notice a letter in the newspaper, which to his disordered mind 
 seemed like a malignant libel on himself. He immediately 
 threw down the paper, and rushed into the fields, determined 
 to die in a ditch ; but the thought struck him that he might 
 escape from the country. With the same violence he pro- 
 ceeded to make hasty preparations for his flight ; but while 
 he was engaged in packing his portmanteau his mind changed, 
 and he threw himself into a coach, ordering the man to drive 
 to the Tower wharf, intending to throw himself into the river, 
 and not reflecting that it would be impossible to accomplish 
 his purpose, in that public spot, unobserved. On approaching 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 145 
 
 the water, he found a porter seated upon some goods; he 
 then returned to the coach, and drove home to his lodgings 
 in the Temple. On the way, he attempted to drink the lau- 
 danum, but as often as he raised it, a convulsive agitation of 
 his frame prevented its reaching his lips ; and thus, regretting 
 the loss of the opportunity, but unable to avail himself of it, 
 he arrived half dead with anguish at his apartments. He 
 then closed the door and threw himself on the bed, with the 
 laudanum near him, trying to lash himself up to the deed ; 
 but a voice within seemed constantly to forbid it ; and as 
 often as he extended his hand to the poison, his fingers were 
 contracted, and held back by spasms. At this time some of 
 the inmates of the place came in, but he concealed his agita- 
 tion ; and as soon as he was left alone, a change came over 
 him, and so detestable did the deed appear, that he threw 
 away the laudanum, and dashed the phial to pieces. The 
 rest of the day was spent in heavy insensibility, and at night 
 he slept as usual ; but on waking at three in the morning, 
 he took his penknife and laid with his weight upon it, the point 
 being directed towards his heart. It was broken, and would 
 not penetrate. At day-break he rose, and passing a strong 
 garter round his neck, fastened it to the frame of his bed. 
 This gave way with his weight ; but on securing it to the door, 
 he was more successful, and remained suspended until he 
 had lost all consciousness of existence. After a time, the 
 garter broke, and he fell to the floor, so that his life was 
 saved ; but the conflict had been greater than his reason 
 could endure. He felt a contempt for himself not to be ex- 
 pressed or imagined. Whenever he went into the street, it 
 seemed as if every eye flashed upon him with indignation and 
 scorn. He felt as if he had offended God so deeply that his 
 guilt could never be forgiven, and his whole heart was filled 
 with pangs of tumultuous despair * 
 
 * Previous to Cowper's attempt at suicide, he had fallen into the com- 
 pany of two sophists, who both advanced claims to the right of self-destruc- 
 tion, and whose fallacious arguments won him to their pernicious views, 
 
 L 
 
146 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 When Cowper had once admitted the thought of self-de- 
 struction, he could not go into the street without meeting 
 with something to tempt or drive him to the act. It seemed to 
 him as if the whole world had conspired to make death by his 
 own hand inevitable. When he ventured into the streets, after 
 the failure of all his efforts, a ghastly shame and alarmed 
 suspicion were his torments ; and perhaps nothing in Cowper's 
 autobiography goes deeper into the heart than the following 
 description of his sufferings. 
 
 " I never went into the street but I thought the people 
 stood and laughed at me, and held me in contempt; and could 
 hardly persuade myself but that the voice of conscience was 
 loud enough for any one to hear it. They who knew me, 
 appeared to avoid me, and if they spoke to me, seemed to 
 do it in scorn. I bought a ballad of one who was singing 
 it in the street, because I thought it was written on me. 
 I dined alone, either at a tavern, where I went in the dark, 
 or at the chop-house, where I always took care to hide myself 
 in the darkest corner of the room. I slept generally an hour 
 in the evening, but it was only to be terrified in dreams ; and 
 when I awoke, it was some time before I could steadily walk 
 through the passage into the dining-room. I reeled and 
 staggered like a drunken man. The eyes of man I did not 
 fear ; but when I thought that the eyes of God were upon me, 
 (which I felt assured of,) it gave me the most intolerable 
 anguish. If, for a moment, a book or a companion stole away 
 my attention from myself, a flash from hell seemed to be 
 thrown into my mind immediately ; and I said within myself, 
 * What are these things to me, who am damned?'" 
 
 Cowper is not the only instance, however, of a man of ex- 
 quisite taste and genius whose life has been rendered mise- 
 rable by hypochondria. We have alluded elsewhere to Byron's 
 morbid sensitiveness, and the reader's attention is now called to 
 
 which were, besides, aided by his recollection of a certain book containing 
 similar reasoning, which, however weak in itself, now seemed to his dis- 
 ordered mind irrefragable. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE, 147 
 
 the influence of hypochondriasis on the poet's mind. He says 
 in his journal, " What can be the reason I awake every 
 morning in actual despair and despondency ?" He had a great 
 apprehension of insanity. In order to overcome his melan- 
 choly, considering that his diet had much to do with it, he 
 put himself under a strict regimen, avoiding most scrupulously 
 all animal food. He states that his diet for a week consisted 
 of tea and six dry biscuits per diem. After having indulged 
 in an ordinary dinner, he writes, ^^ I wish to God I had not 
 dined now ; it kills me with heaviness ; and yet it was but a 
 pint of bucellas, and fish. Oh, my head ! how it aches ! — the 
 horrors of indigestion ! " Again he says, " This head was 
 given me to ache with." After a severe fit of indigestion, he 
 writes, " I've no more charity than a vinegar cruet. Would 
 that I were an ostrich, and dieted on fire-irons ! O fool ! I 
 shall go mad ! " 
 
 Burns suffered much from indigestion, producing hypochon- 
 dria. Writing to his friend, Mr. Cunningham, he says, 
 " Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased ? Canst thou 
 speak peace and rest to a soul tost on a sea of troubles, with- 
 out one friendly star to guide her course, and dreading that 
 the next surge may overwhelm her ? Canst thou give to a 
 fi-ame tremblingly ahve to the tortures of suspense the stability 
 and hardihood of a rock that braves the blast ? If thou canst 
 not do the least of these, why wouldst thou disturb me in my 
 miseries with thy inquiries after me?" From early life, the 
 poet was subject to a disordered stomach, a disposition to 
 head- ache, and irregular action of the heart. 
 
 He describes, in one of his letters, the horrors of his com- 
 plaint: — "I have been for some time pining under secret 
 wretchedness. The pang of disappointment, the sting of 
 pride, and some wandering stabs of remorse, settle on my life 
 like vultures, when my attention is not called away by the 
 claims of society, or the vagaries of the muse. Even in the 
 hour of social mirth my gaiety is the madness of an intoxi- 
 cated criminal under the hands of an executioner. My con- 
 
 l2 
 
14S PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 stitution was blasted ah origine with a deep incurable taint of 
 melancholy that poisoned my existence." 
 
 Nothing can be more interesting to a physician who is en- 
 dowed with only a moderate share of the spirit of observation 
 than to watch the progress of hypochondriasis in a number of 
 patients, especially in regard to its effect on the mind. They 
 always struggle, more or less in the beginning, with the lowness 
 and dejection which affect them ; and it is not until many a 
 severe contest has taken place between their natural good sense 
 and the involuntary suggestions which arise from the obscure 
 and painful feelings of the diseased nerves, that a firm belief 
 in the reality of such thoughts gains a full conquest over their 
 judgment. A firm belief in any one perception never takes 
 place until it has acquired a certain degree of force ; and as all 
 impressions which arise from the viscera of the abdomen are 
 naturally obscure, we see the reason why these must continue 
 for a great length of time, or be often repeated, before they can 
 withdraw a person's attention from the ordinary impression of 
 external objects, which are clear and distinct, and before they 
 acquire such a degree of vividness as to destroy the operations 
 of reason. 
 
 We meet every day with hypochondriacs in whom the dis- 
 ease is just beginning to be formed, and who, being possessed 
 of a good understanding, seem unwilling to tell, even to 
 their medical friends, the singular, and often melancholy, 
 thoughts with which they are tormented. They acknow- 
 ledge them to be unreasonable, and yet insist that they 
 cannot help believing in them. A very curious display of 
 this kind of struggle between the habitudes of reason and the 
 approach of delirium is to be found in the diary of an hypo- 
 chondriac, from which we make the following extract : — 
 
 " On the 14th of November, the idea that some person 
 intended to kill me sprung up suddenly and involuntarily in 
 my mind, and yet, I must confess, there was no reason why I 
 should have harboured this thought, for I am convinced that 
 no one ever formed such a cruel design against me. People 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 149 
 
 who had a stick in their hands I looked on as murderers. As 
 I was walking out of town, a countryman happened to follow 
 me, and I was instantly filled with the greatest apprehension, 
 and stood still to let him pass. I asked the fellow in a 
 threatening voice, and with a view of intimidating him from 
 his purpose, what was the name of the town before us. The 
 man answered my question and walked on, and I found great 
 relief^ because he was no longer behind me. 
 
 " In the evening, I observed some water in the glass out of 
 which I commonly drink, and I instantly believed it was 
 poisoned. I therefore washed it carefully out, and yet I 
 knew, at the same time, that I myself had left the water in it. 
 
 " 18th November. — At particular periods I believe all 
 mankind have conspired to murder me. I think I am de- 
 prived of my office ; that I am doomed to die of hunger ; and, 
 to add to all this, I am tormented with horrid doubts con- 
 cerning futurity, and these thoughts persecute me like furies. 
 Those whom I used to love most, I now hate. I avoid my 
 best friends, and my dear wife appears to me a much worse 
 kind of woman than she really is. 
 
 " I cannot describe the exertion it requires to conquer in 
 society the aversion I feel to my fellow-creatures, and to 
 prevent my ill-humour from breaking out against the most 
 innocent people. When it really does so, I spare no one. I 
 am sorry for it afterwards, but then I am too proud to 
 acknowledge my error. 
 
 *' I find myself so enraged on seeing a stupid, vacant coun- 
 tenance, that I have almost an irresistible inclination to box 
 the person's ears to whom it belongs : the refraining from it 
 is a severe effort. 
 
 " 20th November. — A boy with a face like a satyr met me, 
 and occasioned me the greatest uneasiness. Although he 
 did nothing to displease me, I was forced to go to him, and 
 tell him that I was sure he would die on the gallows. 
 
 " 23rd November. — My sensibility is often extreme, and 
 then my best friends become insupportable to me. To their 
 
150 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 expressions of regard I am either purposely cold or else I 
 answer by rude and offensive speeches. I can seldom explain 
 to myself the reason of this too great sensibility. If two 
 people whisper to each other in my presence, I grow uneasy, 
 and lose all command of mind, because I think they are 
 speaking ill of me ; and I often assume a satirical manner in 
 company, in order to frighten them. Anxiety, dreadful 
 anxiety, seizes me, if a person overlooks my hand at cards, or 
 if a person sits down beside me when I am playing the harp- 
 sichord." 
 
 " From numerous facts which have come within my own 
 observation," says a distinguished living medical authority,* " I 
 am convinced that many strange antipathies, disgusts, caprices 
 of temper, and eccentricities which are considered solely as ob- 
 liquities of intellect, have their source in corporeal disorder. 
 
 " The great majority of these complaints, which are considered 
 as purely mental, such as irascibility, melancholy, timidity, 
 and irresolution, might be greatly remedied, if not entirely 
 removed, by a proper system of temperance, and with very 
 little medicine. There is no accounting for the magic-like 
 spell which annihilates for a time the whole energy of the mind, 
 and renders the victim of dyspepsia afraid of his own shadow, 
 or of things, if possible, more unsubstantial than shadows. 
 
 " It is not likely that the great men of the earth should be 
 exempt from these visitations any more than the little ; and if 
 so, we may reasonably conclude, that there are other things 
 beside * conscience' which ^ make cowards of us all,' and 
 that, by a temporary gastric irritation, many an ' enterprise 
 of vast pith and moment' has had ' its current turned away,' 
 and * lost the name of action.' 
 
 " The philosopher and the metaphysician, who know but 
 little of these reciprocities of mind and matter, have drawn 
 many a false conclusion from, and erected many a baseless 
 hypothesis on, the actions of men. Many a happy thought 
 
 * Dr. J. Johnson. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 151 
 
 has sprung from an empty stomach ; many a terrible and mer- 
 ciless edict has gone forth in consequence of an irritated gastric 
 nerve. Thus health may make the same man a hero in the 
 field whom dyspepsia may render imbecile in the cabinet." 
 
 The following case will shew how powerfully indigestion 
 may affect the mind's operations : — 
 
 A young lady, after eating some heavy paste, was attacked 
 by a sensation of burning heat at the pit of the stomach, 
 which increased till the whole of the upper part of the body, 
 both externally and internally, appeared to her to be all in 
 flames. She rose up suddenly, left the dinner table, and ran 
 into the street, from which she was immediately brought back. 
 She soon came to herself, and thus described her horrible 
 fdeas. She declared that she had been very wicked, and had 
 been dragged into the flames of hell. She continued in a 
 precarious situation for some time. Whenever she experi- 
 enced the burning sensation of which she first complained, 
 the same dreadful thoughts occurred to her mind. She seized 
 hold of whatever was nearest to prevent her from being 
 forced away ; and such was her alarm that she dreaded to be 
 alone. This lady had long been distressed by family con- 
 cerns, and harassed by restless and sleepless nights, which 
 greatly affected her health. 
 
 Dr. Johnson used to declare that he inherited ^' a vile 
 melancholy" from his father, which made him " mad all his 
 life, or, at least, not sober." Insanity was his constant 
 terror. Boswell says that, at the period when this great 
 philosopher was giving to the world proofs of no ordinary 
 vigour of understanding, he actually fancied himself insane, 
 or in a state as nearly as possible approaching to it. 
 
 Murphy says, " For many years before Johnson's death, so 
 terrible was the prospect of final dissolution that when he was 
 not disposed to enter into the conversation which was going 
 forward, he sat in his chair, repeating the well-known lines of 
 Shakspeare — 
 
 *' To die, and go we know not where." 
 
152 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Like Metastasio, he would not, if he could help it, permit 
 the word death to be pronounced in his presence. Boswell 
 once introduced the topic in the course of conversation, which 
 made Johnson highly indignant. He observed, that he never 
 had a moment in which it was not terrible to him. 
 
 Three or four days before he died, he declared that he 
 would give one of his legs for a year more of life. The 
 ruling passion was exhibited strong in death. At Dr. John- 
 son's own suggestion, the surgeon was making slight punc- 
 tures in the legs, with the hope of relieving his dropsical 
 affection, when he cried out, " Deeper ! deeper ! I want length 
 of life, and you are afraid of giving me pain, which 1 do not 
 value." If we had not a thorough conviction that this fear 
 of death was but the result of physical disease, which no moral 
 and religious principles could subdue. Dr. Johnson's conduct 
 towards the end of his life would excite a feeling in our mind 
 towards him very opposite to that of respect. 
 
 With reference to suicide, there is no fact that has been 
 more clearly established than that of its hereditary charac- 
 ter. Of all diseases to which the various organs are subject, 
 there are none more generally transmitted from one gene- 
 ration to another than affections of the brain. It is not 
 necessary that the disposition to suicide should manifest 
 itself in every generation ; ' it often passes over one, and 
 appears in the next, like insanity unattended with this 
 propensity. But if the members of the family so predis- 
 posed are carefully examined, it will be found that the 
 various shades and gradations of the malady will be easily 
 perceptible. Some are distinguished for their flightiness of 
 manner, others for their strange eccentricity, likings and dis- 
 likings, irregularity of their passions, capricious and excitable 
 temperament, hypochondriasis and melancholia. These are 
 often but the minute shades and variations of an hereditary 
 disposition to suicidal madness. A gentleman suddenly, and 
 without any apparent reason, cut his throat. The father had 
 always been a man of strong passions, easily roused, and when 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 153 
 
 SO, was extremely violent. The brother was a man of im- 
 pulse ; he always acted by fits and starts, and therefore never 
 could be depended upon. The sister had a strange, unnatural, 
 and superstitious horror of particular colours and odours. A 
 yellow dress caused a feeling approaching to syncope, and the 
 smell of hay produced great nervous excitement. The grand- 
 father had been convicted of homicide, and had been confined 
 for two years in a mad-house. 
 
 Andral relates the case of a father who died from the 
 effects of disease of the brain ; the mother died sane. They 
 had six children, three boys and three girls. Of the boys, the 
 eldest was a man of original mind ; the second was very ex- 
 travagant in his habits, and was ultimately confined in a mad- 
 house ; the third was extremely violent in his temper. Of the 
 girls, one had fits of apoplexy, and became insane ; the other 
 died at her accouchement, with symptoms of derangement ; 
 the third died of cholera, not, however, until she exhibited 
 indications of mental aberration. 
 
 A case more singular than the last is recorded. All the 
 members of a particular family, being hereditarily disposed, 
 exhibited, when they arrived at a certain age, a desire to 
 commit self-destruction. It required no exciting cause to 
 develope the fatal disposition. No wish was expressed, or 
 attempt made, to overpower the suicidal inclination, and the 
 greatest industry and ingenuity were exercised by the parties 
 in order to effect their purpose. In two cases, the propensity 
 was subdued by proper medical and moral treatment ; but, just 
 in proportion to its being suppressed, did the idea of suicide 
 appear to fix itself resolutely in the mind. The desire came 
 upon the individuals like the attacks of intermittent fever. 
 
 A. K., a man aged 57, was twice married. He was a shoe- 
 maker by trade ; but not having received any education, his 
 wife was compelled to attend to all his accounts. He had 
 experienced, when young, a blow on the head, which occa- 
 sionally gave him pain. He became very intemperate in his 
 habits, and at particular intervals he exhibited an uncontrol- 
 
154 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 lable temper, quarrelled with everybody, neglected his busi- 
 ness, abused his wife, and became extravagant and melancholy. 
 During the paroxysm he would exclaim — " Oh, my unlucky 
 head! I am again a lost manP^ When the attack subsided, he 
 returned to his business, was affectionate to his wife and 
 family, most humbly begged her pardon for having ill-treated 
 her, and expressed the greatest contrition for his conduct. 
 These attacks came on at regular intervals. He procured a 
 piece of rope for the purpose of hanging himself, and for some 
 months carried it about with him in his pocket for that pur- 
 pose. During one of his fits he effected his object. His 
 grandfather had strangled himself, and his brother and sister 
 had attempted suicide. 
 
 Dr. Gall knew several families in which the suicidal pro- 
 pensity prevailed through several generations. Among the 
 cases he mentions is the following very remarkable one: — 
 "The Sieur Ganthier, the owner of various houses built 
 without the barriers of Paris, to be used as entrepots of goods, 
 left seven children, and a fortune of about two millions of 
 francs to be divided among them. All remained at Paris, or 
 in the neighbourhood, and preserved their patrimony ; some 
 even increased it by commercial speculations. None of them 
 met with any real misfortunes, but all enjoyed good health, 
 a competency, and general esteem. All, however, were pos- 
 sessed with a rage for suicide, and all seven succumbed to it 
 within the space of thirty or forty years. Some hanged, some 
 drowned themselves, and others blew out their brains. One 
 of the first two had invited sixteen persons to dine with him 
 one Sunday. The company collected, the dinner was served, 
 and the guests were at the table. The master of the house 
 was called, but did not answer ; he was found hanging in the 
 garret. Scarcely an hour before, he was quietly giving orders 
 to the servants, and chattering with his friends. The last, 
 the owner of a house in the Rue de Richelieu, having raised 
 his house two stories, became frightened at the expense, 
 imagined himself ruined, and was anxious to kill himself. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 155 
 
 Thrice they prevented him ; but soon after, he was found dead, 
 having shot himself. The estate, after all the debts w^ere paid, 
 amounted to three hundred thousand francs, and he might 
 have been forty-five years old at the time of his death." 
 
 Falret, whose researches have thrown much light on this 
 affection, believes that it is more disposed to be hereditary 
 than any other kind of insanity. He saw a mother and 
 her daughter attacked with suicidal melancholy, and the 
 grandmother of the latter was at Charenton for the same 
 cause. An individual, he says, committed suicide in Paris. 
 His brother, who came to attend the funeral, cried out on 
 seeing the body — "What fatality! My father and uncle 
 both destroyed themselves; my brother has imitated their 
 example; and twenty times during my journey hither I 
 thought of throwing myself into the Seine !" 
 
 Gall also relates the case of a dyer, of a very taciturn humour, 
 who had five sons and a daughter. The eldest son, after 
 being settled in a prosperous business with a family around 
 him, succeeded, after many attempts, in killing himself by 
 jumping from the third story of his house. The second son, 
 who was rather taciturn, had some domestic troubles, lost part 
 of his fortune at play, and strangled himself at the age of 
 thirty-five. The third threw himself from the window into 
 his garden, but did not hurt himself; he pretended he was 
 trying to fly. The fourth tried one day to fire a pistol down 
 his throat, but was prevented. The fifth was of a bilious, 
 melancholic temperament, quiet, and devoted to business ; he 
 and his sister shewed no signs of being affected with their 
 brothers' malady. One of their cousins committed suicide. 
 
 Among the physical causes of self-destruction, insidious 
 affections of the brain must stand prominently forward. It is 
 not often that the physician is permitted to examine after death 
 the state of this organ ; but there can be no doubt that, in the 
 great majority of instances, the brain will be found to have 
 undergone a serious structural alteration. " During the last 
 
156 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 twentj-five years," says Dr. G. Mantell, " many cases of sui- 
 cide have come under my notice in which the mental hallu- 
 cination which led to self-destruction has depended on lesions 
 of the brain, occasioned by slight or neglected injuries of the 
 head, to which neither the patient nor his friends attached 
 any importance. In several instances of self-destruction, 
 without any assignable moral cause, and in which no previous 
 signs of fatuity or insanity were manifested, I have found, 
 upon a post mortem examination, either circumscribed in- 
 duration or softening of the brain, or thickening and adhe- 
 sions of some portions of its membranes. The conviction 
 was forced upon my mind that very many of the so called 
 nervous or hypochondriacal affections, which are generally 
 considered as imaginary and dependent on mental emotions, 
 are ascribable to physical causes, and frequently originate 
 from slight lesions of the brain." 
 
 The learned doctor relates the following cases in illustration 
 of his views: — 
 
 " A respectable tradesman, between fifty and sixty years of 
 age, of temperate habits, was knocked down during an elec- 
 tioneering contest, and struck his head on the ground. He 
 was stunned for a few minutes by the shock, and slightly 
 bruised above the right temple, but experienced no further 
 inconvenience, and the circumstance was considered of no 
 consequence. 
 
 '^ About six months after the event, he was seized, one 
 evening, with rigors and a pain over the right brow ; a smart 
 re-action took place, which terminated in perspiration, and 
 the following morning, the symptoms disappeared. A similar 
 paroxysm came on daily for five or six days ; the attack was 
 considered intermittent, and, I believe, bark was freely admi- 
 nistered. At the end of a week, the patient was well. After 
 this period, he was subject to occasional pain over the right 
 brow, accompanied with great mental despondency, the pre- 
 vailing apprehension being that of eternal damnation. This 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 157 
 
 state would continue for an uncertain time, the duration 
 varying from a few days to three weeks ; and by slow degrees 
 he would lose all trace of disease, regain his accustomed 
 cheerfulness, and be able to transact the affairs of an extensive 
 business. 
 
 "About two years from the occurrence of the accident, I 
 saw him, at the request of his friends, while he was labouring 
 under great despondency, which his relations assured me 
 arose from some religious opinions he had imbibed ; and I 
 found that the medical treatment had been in accordance 
 with such a notion. My inquiries led to the detection of the 
 injury he had received two years previously, but neither the 
 patient nor his friends would allow that there was any con- 
 nexion between the blow and the symptoms under which he 
 now suffered. Both general and local bleeding appeared to 
 me necessary ; a strict regimen was adopted, and he regained 
 his usual flow of spirits, and expressed himself much better 
 than he had been for years. The occasional use of leeches, 
 and a rigid abstinence from fermented liquors, spirits, and 
 stimuli of all kinds, maintained this favourable condition for 
 a considerable time ; but his occupation led him to occasional 
 excess in diet, and a moderate quantity of wine or beer 
 invariably brought on despondency and its accompanying 
 hallucination ; in other words, when the system was kept in a 
 tranquil state, the cerebral functions were not impaired; but 
 when excited, the morbid manifestations of the mind were 
 produced. 
 
 "During one of these attacks he cut his throat, and expired 
 in the course of a few hours. A short time previous to his 
 death, when greatly exhausted by the loss of blood from his 
 wound, his intellect was unclouded, and he expressed to me 
 his astonishment at what he had done, and assured me he had 
 no reason for acting thus ; but it was an impulse which he 
 could not resist. 
 
 " The only abnormal appearance upon inspecting the body 
 after death was, a circumscribed adhesion of the dura mater 
 
158 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 to the pia mater, to the extent of about two inches in diame- 
 ter, over the upper and anterior portion of the right hemi- 
 sphere of the brain, opposite to the spot where the blow of the 
 head had been inflicted some years previously. 
 
 " I will not presume to offer any comment on a case which I 
 am well aware presents nothing unusual, my only object being 
 that of calling particular attention to those slight injuries of 
 the head which, although unmarked by any striking symptoms 
 at the moment of their occurrence, may give rise to the most 
 distressing results years after their infliction, and when the 
 original cause of disordered action is forgotten, and can no 
 longer be detected ; and of pointing out the possibility that 
 many cases of suicide, apparently referrible to moral causes 
 only, may be found to result solely from physical derangement 
 of the organ through which the manifestations of the mind 
 must be displayed. It is under circumstances of this kind 
 that the medical philosopher, in his painful duty of exploring 
 the relics of mortality, may have the high gratification of pro- 
 tecting the memory of an unfortunate individual from the 
 censure of a world but too apt to judge harshly, and thus 
 afford a lasting consolation to those by whom that memory 
 will be cherished and revered." 
 
 No complaints can be more insidious than those connected 
 with the brain. An apparently slight blow on the head in 
 early life has been known, if not to give rise at the time to 
 actual disease of the sentient organ, to predispose the person 
 to attacks of cerebral derangement when exposed to the influ- 
 ence of causes so trivial as to be incapable, under any other 
 circumstances, of producing any effect. The following case 
 will demonstrate that moral irritation may derange the struc- 
 ture of the brain as effectually as any physical injury: — 
 
 A gentleman in early life was exposed for a few weeks to an 
 amount of mental excitement almost sufficient to bring on a 
 severe maniacal attack. He complained for some time of a 
 sensation in his head as if some person was hammering on his 
 brain. In the course of a few years he apparently recovered. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 159 
 
 During a tour through Italy, he had a renewal of his old sen- 
 sation, and became liable to head-aches, giddiness, and se- 
 vere attacks of indigestion. He placed himself under the 
 care of an Italian physician of eminence, who did his best 
 to restore him to health. Instead of improving, the symptoms 
 of his disease became more apparent ; and one morning he 
 was found dead on the floor of his dressing-room, having with 
 a penknife effectually divided the carotid artery. On ex- 
 amining the brain, extensive ramollissement was discovered. 
 In this case the structural disease originated in a moral shock, 
 the effects of which remained suspended for some years, and 
 then gave rise to the train of symptoms that drove the unfor- 
 tunate man to terminate his life. It is one of the most im- 
 portant facts connected with this subject, that mental excite- 
 ment may produce as extensive and serious organic disease as 
 that which so commonly follows the receipt of physical injury. 
 With a knowledge of this fact, how cautious we ought to be in 
 pronouncing an opinion as to the absence of disease of the 
 brain in cases of suicide resulting from an apparently trifling 
 departure from mental quietude, without being intimate with 
 the previous history of the individual. 
 
 " The English," says Montesquieu, '' frequently destroy 
 themselves without any apparent cause to determine them to 
 such an act, and even in the midst of prosperity. Among 
 the Romans, suicide was the effect of education ; it depended 
 upon their customs and manner of thinking : with the English, 
 it is the effect of disease, and depending upon the physical 
 condition of the system." A young man, twenty-two years 
 of age, was intended by his parents for the church. He dis- 
 liked the profession exceedingly, and absolutely refused to 
 take orders. For this act, at once of integrity and disobe- 
 dience, he was forced to quit his father's house, and to exert 
 his inexperienced energies for a precarious subsistence. He 
 turned his thoughts to several different employments ; and, 
 at length, he went to reside with a family, where he was 
 treated with great kindness, and where he appeared to enjoy 
 
160 PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 a degree of tranquillity. His enjoyment, however, was not 
 of long continuance, for his imagination was assailed by 
 gloomy and distressing reflections. His life became more and 
 more burdensome to him, and he considered by what method 
 he should put an end to it. He one day formed the reso- 
 lution of precipitating himself from the top of the house, 
 but his courage failed him, and the execution of the project 
 was postponed. Some days after, he took up a pistol with 
 the same design of self-destruction. His perplexities and 
 terrors returned. A friend of this unhappy youth called 
 upon Pinel one day to inform him of the projected tragedy. 
 Every means of prevention were adopted that prudence could 
 suggest, but the most pressing solicitations and friendly re- 
 monstrances were in vain. The propensity to suicide unceas- 
 ingly haunted him, and he precipitately quitted the family 
 from whom he had experienced so many proofs of friend- 
 ship and attachment. Financial considerations prohibited the 
 suggestion of a distant voyage or a change of climate. He 
 w^as therefore advised, as the best substitute, some constant 
 and laborious employment. The young melancholic, sensibly 
 alive to the horror of his situation, entered fully into Pinel's 
 views, and procured an engagement at Bled Harbour, where 
 he mingled with the other labourers with a full determination 
 to deserve his stipulated w^ages. But, completely fatigued 
 and exhausted by the exertion of the first two days of his 
 engagement, he was obliged to have recourse to some other 
 expedient. He entered into the employment of a master- 
 mason, in the neighbourhood of Paris, to whom his services 
 were peculiarly acceptable, as he devoted his leisure hours to 
 the instruction of an only son. No situation, apparently, 
 could have been more suitable to his case than one of this 
 kind, admitting of alternate mental and bodily exercise. 
 Wholesome food, comfortable lodgings, and every attention 
 due to misfortune, seemed rather to aggravate than to divert 
 his gloomy propensities. After the expiration of a fortnight, 
 he returned to his friend, and, with tears in his eyes, ac- 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE. 161 
 
 quainted him with the internal struggles which he felt, and 
 the insuperable disgust of life, which bore him irresistibly 
 to self-destruction. The reproaches of his friend affected 
 him exceedingly, and, in a state of the utmost anxiety and 
 despair, he silently withdrew, probably to terminate a hated 
 existence by throwing himself into the Seine. 
 
 When laying down rules for the physical treatment of suicide, 
 we have developed our view as to the influence of derangement 
 of the primce vice, suppressed secretions, &c., on the healthy 
 state of the mind ; and we have only to refer the reader to that 
 portion of the work for information on these points. In dis- 
 cussing the important question whether suicide invariably 
 results from mental derangement, numerous instances have 
 been brought forward that may be undoubtedly traced to that 
 cause, therefore it will not be necessary to recapitulate in this 
 chapter what has been there advanced. 
 
162 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 Diseases of the brain not dissimilar to affections of other organs — Early 
 symptoms of insanity — The good effects of having plenty to do — Occu- 
 pation — Dr. Johnson's opinion on the subject — The pleasure derived 
 from cultivating a taste for the beauties of nature — Effect of volition on 
 diseases of the mind — Silent grief injurious to mental health — Treatment 
 of ewnwi— -The time of danger, not the time of disease — The Walcheren 
 expedition — The retreat of the ten thousand Greeks under Xenophon — 
 Influence of music on the mind in the cure of disease — Cure of epidemic 
 suicide — Buonaparte's remedy — How the women of Myletus were cured 
 of the disposition to suicide, and other illustrations — Cases shewing how 
 easily the disposition to suicide may be diverted — On the cure of insanity 
 by stratagems — On the importance of removing the suicidal patient from 
 his own home — On the regulation of the passions. 
 
 In treating this most important class of affections, we must 
 dismiss from our minds all those pre-conceived notions which 
 we have been led to form of what constitutes mental derange- 
 ment. We must view the subject as medical philosophers in 
 the most liberal acceptation of the term, and not as nisi prius 
 barristers ; we must consider ourselves at the bed-side of a 
 suffering patient, demanding from our skill that relief which 
 he is led to believe we have in our power to afford, and not 
 as in a court of justice, undergoing an examination at the 
 hands of a lawyer anxious to establish his case ; and, above all, 
 we must apply to the disease of the brain and its disordered 
 manifestations those pathological principles which guide us in 
 the elucidation of the affections of other organs. If we con- 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 163 
 
 sider insanity not as a specific disease invariably exhibiting 
 the same phenomena, but as it really is, the effect of a disor- 
 dered condition of the sentient organ, having an incipient, as 
 well as an advanced stage, we may, by a judicious application 
 of the principles of therapeutics, succeed in many cases in 
 crushing the disposition to suicide before it has taken a formi- 
 dable hold of the constitution. In the great majority of cases 
 the premonitory indications are well marked and unequivocal. 
 The experienced physician and accurate observer will be able 
 to detect, before the mental alienation becomes apparent to 
 others, the early dawnings of derangement. He knows that 
 it is frequently manifested by some change in the person's 
 usual healthy habits of thinking and acting, — by the exhibition 
 of odd fancies and whims. Although surrounded by everything 
 calculated to contribute to his happiness, he is the most miser- 
 able of human beings. Trifles annoy and irritate him ; he 
 sees in his dearest friends his deadliest enemies ; talks of con- 
 spiracies, of plots, and stratagems; becomes suspicious of 
 everything and everybody; his former objects of pleasure 
 afford him no delight ; he avoids society, and is occasionally 
 heard muttering strange things to himself. In the majority of 
 cases these are the early dawnings of cerebral disease leading 
 to unequivocal insanity, and yet so tied down are we to defini- 
 tions, arbitrary standards and poetical tests, that we will not 
 admit derangement of mind to be present until the symptoms 
 are so self evident and glaring that the condition of the mind 
 becomes apparent to the most superficial observer. When this 
 view of insanity is recognised as orthodox, and moral treat- 
 ment adopted in the early stages of the disease, much good 
 may be expected to result. 
 
 How often do we see in society, and during the intercourse 
 of private friendship, individuals complaining of the severest 
 mental sufferings, the effect of morbid alterations of feeling 
 almost in every respect similar to insanity, dependent upon 
 the same causes, manifesting the same symptoms, and removed 
 by the same remedial agents. How are these mental ailments 
 
 M 2 
 
164 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 treated ? The poor sufferer is perhaps smiled at ; he is consi- 
 dered to be fanciful, and no regard is paid to the cerebral 
 affection. The disease is allowed to advance until other 
 faculties of the mind are implicated, and then the mental 
 alienation exhibits itself so unequivocally that no one doubts 
 its existence. 
 
 The success of the mental treatment of suicide will be 
 mainly dependent on our paying strict attention to those 
 apparently trifling alterations of temper and disposition, 
 those deviations from the usual mode of thinking and acting, 
 which so often predicate the presence of the incipient stage 
 of insanity. An invincible love of solitude exhibited in a 
 patient considered as laboinring under an hypochondriacal 
 affection, and who, when induced to converse, complains 
 of being constantly pestered with one or two trains of ideas 
 from which he cannot for a moment escape, although his 
 efforts are great and unremitting, let his friends beware. 
 These changes are, however, but rarely noticed, until some 
 alarming event causes every friend to lament the want of timely 
 attention. 
 
 Occupation is an infallible specific for many of the imagi- 
 nary and real ills of life. In cases where the mind is sinking 
 under the influence of its own weight, and the fancy is allowed 
 to dwell uninterruptedly on the ideas of its own creation, until 
 the individual believes himself to stand apart from all the 
 world, the very personification of human misery and wretched- 
 ness, the physician can recommend no better remedy than 
 constant and steady occupation for the mind and body. Bur- 
 ton concludes his able work on Melancholy with this valuable 
 piece of advice : — " Be not solitary ; be not idle." Dr. Reid 
 recommended a patient, labouring under great mental depres- 
 sion, to engage in the composition of a novel, which, during 
 the time he was occupied in the task, effected much good. 
 By interesting himself in the distresses of fictitious beings, he 
 diverted his attention from sufferings which were no less the 
 offspring of the imagination. 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 165 
 
 It has been suggested with great truth that the habit of 
 gaming, prevalent as it is among persons in the upper ranks 
 of life, is not to be attributed exclusively to a feeling of ava- 
 rice. The man who is surrounded by everything to make his 
 condition in life happy, as far as wealth is concerned, does not 
 fly to dice for the purpose of aggrandisement, but he does so 
 to seek refuge from the miseries of indolence and vacuity ; 
 from the gnawings of his own mind ; from an eager desire to 
 expose himself to that mental agitation which nature tells him 
 is so necessary to make life supportable. " A woman is hap- 
 pier than a man," says Dr. Johnson, " because she can hem a 
 pocket-handkerchief." 
 
 Our faculties, like the vulture of Prometheus, devour our 
 souls, if they have no action beyond ourselves. " Real lassi- 
 tude is always mingled with grief," says an eminent female 
 genius ; and Madame de Stael considers the observation a 
 profound one. 
 
 " The man in the Spectator who hanged himself to avoid 
 the intolerable annoyance of having to tie his garters every 
 day of his life, is but a satire on the misery of many who, 
 having no useful occupation, find the flight of time marked 
 only by the swift repetition of petty troubles. 
 
 " The restlessness of Rousseau, his discontented and mor- 
 bidly irritable disposition, was closely allied to insanity; 
 and the painful struggles of Lord Byron, when ' came the 
 fit again,' are detailed in words which shew too plainly how 
 they disturbed and threatened the integrity of his judgment. 
 In such natures, every strong emotion, or the occurrence of 
 disease, may destroy the delicate balance, and make a ruin of 
 a mind which even in ruins continues to excite a mournful 
 admiration. The diversion of social intercourse, which to 
 other men is necessary to prevent mental torpor, becomes to 
 them a source of irritation by impeding the workings of their 
 imagination : they find that, when alone, all the nobler aspira- 
 tions of the soul are free, and images of beauty, and virtue, 
 and wisdom, occupy the mind. Society transforms them into 
 
166 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 a being they despise, deprives them of all their high and 
 valued thoughts, and it enables them to feel what slight cir- 
 cumstances, acting on the man without, may affect the man 
 within. But the pleasures of solitude are transient ; their 
 train is followed by baseless fancies, by fears undefined, by 
 griefs unexpressed, and black despondency, from which so- 
 ciety can alone relieve. We learn, from observing such effects, 
 arising from such causes, the advantage of mixed and varied 
 occupations, suited to a being not made solely for contempla- 
 tion or for action ; and we may gather rules from these obser- 
 vations, the application of which to minds in a morbid state is 
 very direct." * 
 
 With no less beauty than truth has the author of Rasselas 
 depicted the insanity of the astronomer as gradually declining 
 under the sanative influence of society and mental gratifica- 
 tion. The sage confesses, that since he has mixed in the 
 gay scenes of life, and divided his hours by a succession of 
 amusements, he found the notion of his influence over the 
 skies gradually fade away, and began to trust less to an 
 opinion which he could never prove to others, and which 
 he now found subject to variations from causes in which 
 reason had no part. " If," says he, " I am accidentally left 
 alone for a few hours, my inveterate persuasion rushes upon 
 my soul, and my thoughts are chained down by an uncon- 
 trollable violence ; but they are soon disentangled by the 
 prince's conversation, and are instantaneously released by the 
 entrance of Pekuah. I am like a man habitually afraid of 
 spectres, who is set at ease by a lamp, and wonders at the 
 dread which harassed him in the dark." 
 
 It is difficult to lay down general rules for the treatment of 
 particular cases of melancholia with a tendency to suicide. 
 Travelling, agreeable society, works of light literature, should 
 be had recourse to, in order to dispel all gloomy apprehensions 
 from the mind. 
 
 * Vide Dr. ConoUy. 
 
I 
 
 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 167 
 
 In persons predisposed to insanity, or who manifest some 
 slight indication of disease, how important it is to endeavour 
 to call into exercise the higher faculties of the mind, — the 
 judgment and reasoning powers, — and thus preserve the intel- 
 lectual faculties in a healthy state of equilibrium. There is 
 much wisdom in Lord Bacon's advice, that " if a man's wits 
 be wandering, he should study the mathematics." The pa- 
 tient should be taught to derive a pleasure from the contem- 
 plation of those objects that afford variety, and that are always 
 within his reach. A beneficent Creator has wisely placed 
 around us endless sources of the purest and most elevating 
 enjoyments. In a ratio to our intellectual attainments, so are 
 we enabled to derive pleasure from circumstances that appear 
 trifling and foolish to others. Mungo Park could, in the soli- 
 tude of an African desert, when exposed to the most distress- 
 ing circumstances, derive a most exquisite pleasure from the 
 sight of a small flower. How fully can we enter into the 
 feelings of the man who, after being prostrated to the earth 
 by an accumulation of worldly disappointments, yet spoke in 
 a tone of noble triumph at his having retained, amidst the 
 wreck of all his hopes, a perception of the beauties of nature ! 
 
 " I care not, Fortune, what you me deny ; — 
 
 You cannot rob me of free Nature's grace ; 
 You cannot shut the windows of the sky. 
 
 Through which Aurora shews her bright'ning face ; 
 
 You cannot bar my constant feet to trace 
 The woods and hiwns by living stream at eve : 
 
 Let heahh my nerves and finer fibres brace, 
 And I these toys to the great children leave : 
 Of fancy, reason, virtue, nought can me bereave." 
 
 A devotion to the common pleasures of sense is better than 
 a state of absolute indifference ; for even if these give no kind 
 of pleasure, whilst all higher pursuits are neglected, there is 
 danger lest a man become of the same opinion as Dr. Dar- 
 win's patient, " that all which life affords is a ride out in the 
 morning, and a warm parlour and a pack of cards in the 
 
168 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 afternoon ; " and, like him, finding these pleasures not in- 
 exhaustible, should shoot himself because he has nothing 
 better to do ! 
 
 The miserable man should endeavour to make himself 
 practically acquainted with the distresses of others. How- 
 ever desperate the circumstances of a person may be, he 
 may still have it in his power to whisper a word of conso- 
 lation to one whose situation may be more humiliating than 
 his own. 
 
 Human nature is accused of much more selfishness than it 
 has any just claim to ; a thousand kindly emotions break in 
 upon and redeem our daily and interested life. 
 
 " The poorest poor 
 Long for a moment in a weary life 
 When they can know and feel that they have been 
 Themselves the fathers and the dealers out 
 Of some small blessings ; iiave been kind to such 
 As needed kindness ; for this single cause, 
 That we have all one human heart." * 
 
 How few have anything like a proper conception of the 
 power which the will can be made to exercise over the physical 
 and mental ailments. f The stimuli which we all more or 
 less have at command, if properly directed, will often subdue 
 the early dawnings of disease, which, if permitted to take its 
 own course, would have assumed a most formidable character. 
 It is our duty to combat with the first menace of disordered 
 feeling. Once the enemy is allowed to take up a favourable 
 position, it will be fruitless to enter single-handed into the 
 contest. " I will be good," says the child, when he sees the 
 rod ready to direct the will into the way of goodness ; and 
 ** I will be cheerful," ought the dull and dyspeptic to say, who 
 observes a cloud of hypochondriacal fancies ready to burst 
 upon his head. It may be said it is useless to struggle against 
 
 * Wordsworth. 
 t The possunt quia posse videuntur feeling is not sufficiently encouraged 
 by medical philosophers in treating mental affections. 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 169 
 
 the natural tendencies of the mind and body, or to declare 
 war with habits which have become firmly rooted in the con- 
 stitution. In reply to this we would say, let not the patient 
 yield to the influence of those causes which have formed 
 the habit; let him not hug to his bosom the viper which 
 is preying upon his mind ; let him not exclaim to gloom, 
 " Henceforth be thou my god." 
 
 The hypochondriac may say, when advised to rouse him- 
 self from his state of mental despondency, and to exhibit the 
 attributes of a free agent — 
 
 " Go, you may call it madness, folly; 
 
 You shall not chase my gloom away : 
 There's such a charm in melancholy, 
 I would not, if I could, be gay." 
 
 But it is exercising a conscientious duty to resist the encroach- 
 ments of those ideal pleasures which sap the foundation of our 
 moral constitution. 
 
 I am inclined to concur in the opinion expressed by the 
 late Dr. Uwins, that when melancholy is stripped of all its 
 ornamental and poetical accompaniments, it will be found to 
 be based in a great measure upon pride, selfishness, and in- 
 dolence. This benevolent physician observes — " I cannot 
 conceive a more delightful spectacle than that of an individual, 
 whose constitutional cast is melancholy, warring against his 
 temperament, and determining to enter with hilarity into the 
 scenes and circumstances of social life." 
 
 Dr. Haindorft, in his German translation of Dr. Reid's 
 " Essay on Hypochondriasis," in alluding to the possibility of 
 the patient labouring under hypochondria being able, by an 
 exercise of the power of volition, to control his morbid sen- 
 sations, justly observes — " We should have fewer disorders of 
 the mind if we could acquire more power of volition, and en- 
 deavour, by our own energy, to disperse the clouds which oc- 
 casionally arise within our own horizon ; if we resolutely tore the 
 first threads of the net which gloom and ill-humour may cast 
 
170 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 around us, and made an effort to drive away the melancholy 
 images of a morbid imagination by incessant occupation. 
 How beneficial would it be to mankind if this truth were uni- 
 versally acknowledged and acted upon — viz., that our state of 
 health, mental as well as bodily, principally depends upon 
 ourselves !" 
 
 " By seeming gay, we grow to what we seem." 
 
 It was the remark of a man of great observation and know- 
 ledge of the world — " Only wear a mask for a fortnight, and 
 you will not know it from your real face." 
 
 " I am determined to believe myself a happy man," said a 
 poor fellow, sunk in the lowest stage of melancholy, to Es- 
 quirol ; and he did endeavour to triumph over his gloomy ap- 
 prehensions, and for a short period he enjoyed the sunny 
 aspect of life ; but not having sufficient resolution to continue 
 this effort of volition, he again gave way to despair. 
 
 A thousand years before the Christian era, there were, at 
 the two extremities of Egypt, temples devoted to Saturn, to 
 which those labouring under hypochondriasis resorted in quest 
 of relief Some cunning priests, profiting by the credulity 
 of these patients, associated with the pretended miracles 
 of their powerless divinities and barren mysteries, natural 
 means by which they always solaced their patients, and suc- 
 ceeded often in effecting cures by amusing the mind, and 
 withdrawing the attention from the contemplation of physical 
 suffering. The patients were religiously subjected to a variety 
 of diversions and recreative exercises. Voluptuous paintings 
 and seducing images were exposed to their view ; agreeable 
 songs and melodious sounds perpetually charmed their ears ; 
 gardens of flowers and ornamental groves furnished delightful 
 walks and delicious perfumes. Every moment was conse- 
 crated to some diverting scene and amusement, which had a 
 most beneficial result on the diseased mind, interrupted the 
 train of melancholy thought, dissipated sorrow, and wrought 
 the most salutary changes on the body through the agency 
 
I 
 
 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 171 
 
 of the mind. The Egyptian physicians recommended their 
 patients to repair to these famous temples, as the faculty of 
 the present day suggest a trip to a fashionable spa. 
 
 That many suicides result from an indulgence in long-con- 
 tinued and corroding grief must be apparent to all who have 
 given this subject any consideration. The medical man will 
 find it difficult to manage such patients. Everything should 
 be done to rouse the person from his state of mental abstrac- 
 tion. The immortal poet had a just conception of the baneful 
 influence of silent grief on the mind and body ; he makes 
 Malcolm say, imploringly, to Macbeth, 
 
 " Give sorrow words ; the grief that does not speak 
 Whispers the o'er-wrought heart, and bids it break." 
 
 An eminent London physician communicated to me the 
 particulars of the following case : — A young lady, connected 
 with a family of rank, and possessing great accomplishments, 
 had formed, unknown to her parents, a secret attachment to a 
 gentleman who often visited the house. When it was dis- 
 covered, he was requested to abandon all notions of the lady, 
 as it was the determination of her relations to refuse their 
 consent to an alliance with him. Both parties took it much 
 to heart. The lady suffered from a severe attack of nervous 
 disorder, which terminated in suicidal mania. She endea- 
 voured several times to jump out of the window, and would 
 ave done so had she not been most carefully watched. Her 
 symptoms were most distressing. The mind appeared to be 
 weighed down to the earth by an accumulation of misery and 
 wretchedness, which she was unable to shake off. " Oh ! 
 could I but be happy !" she would exclaim. " Will no one 
 come to my relief? What can I do ?" She would walk about 
 the room, occasionally giving utterance to expressions similar 
 to those just quoted. More than once she observed, that, 
 could she cry, she felt assured her mind would be relieved ; 
 but not a tear could she shed. After a fearful struggle for 
 
172 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 some time, one evening, as she was retiring to rest, she burst 
 into a flood of tears. The effect was most beneficial ; from 
 that moment she began to recover. The copious lachrymal 
 secretion had the effect of relieving the cerebral congestion, 
 and in this way the brain was restored to the performance of 
 its healthy functions. 
 
 It is difficult to lay down any particular instructions for the 
 treatment of ennui. How is it possible to restore enjoyment 
 to a man who has quite exhausted it? In such cases the ad- 
 vice which Fenelon gives to Dionysius the tyrant, by the 
 mouth of Diogenes, will naturally apply, — " To restore his 
 appetite, he must be made to feel hunger ; and to make his 
 splendid palace tolerable to him, he must be put into my 
 tub, which is at present empty." 
 
 A lady became insane in consequence of a sudden and un- 
 expected acquisition of wealth. In a few months she was re- 
 duced, by the failure of the house in which all her property 
 was embarked, to complete indigence. Being compelled to 
 work for her daily bread, her reason was soon restored. The 
 great preservative from tedium vitcB is, in keeping the mind 
 and body in a state of healthy activity. How true it is — 
 
 " That many ills o'er which man grieves, 
 And still more woman, spring from not employing 
 Some hours to make the remnant worth enjoying." 
 
 Byron. 
 In the army, it is proverbial that the time of fatigue and 
 danger is not the time of disease ; it is during the inactive and 
 listless months of a campaign that crowds of patients pass to 
 the hospitals. In both these cases it is the active exercise of 
 the mind giving strength to the brain, and through it, healthy 
 vigour to the body, which produces the effect. Shakspeare 
 has not been unobservant of the consequences of excitement 
 of mind on the bodily functions. In King Henry IV., when 
 Northumberland is told of the fatal tidings from Shrewsbury, 
 and is informed of the death of his son Percy, he breaks out, — 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 173 
 
 " For this I shall have time enough to mourn. 
 In poison there is physic ; and these news 
 That would, had I been well, have made me sick, 
 Being sickj have in some measure made me well : 
 And as a wretch whose fever- weakened joints, 
 Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life, 
 Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire 
 Out of his keeper's arms ; even so my limhs. 
 Weakened with grief, being now enraged with grief, 
 Are thrice themselves." 
 
 In illustration of the same principle, we have only to refer 
 our readers to the ever-memorable Walcheren expedition. It 
 has been stated that while our troops and seamen were 
 actively engaged in the siege and bombardment of Flushing, 
 exposed to intense heat, heavy rains, and poisonous exhala- 
 tions from the malarious soil, inundated by the turbid waters 
 of the Scheldt, scarcely a man was on the sick list ; the ex- 
 citement of warfare, the prospects of victory, and the expect- 
 ation of booty, completely fortifying the body against all the 
 potent causes of disease that environed the camp and the 
 fleet. 
 
 In the celebrated retreat of the "Ten thousand Greeks" 
 under Xenophon, the troops were subjected to great mental 
 despondency. They had to cross rapid rivers, penetrate 
 gloomy forests, drag their weary way over vast and burning 
 deserts, scale the summits of rugged mountains, and wade 
 through deep snows and pestilent morasses, in continual fear 
 of death or capture. It was a sense of the despondency which 
 misfortune was producing among the troops that induced 
 Xenophon, in his address to his companions on the fearful 
 night which preceded the murder of Clearchus, to say, *^ The 
 soldiers have at present nothing before their eyes but mis- 
 fortune. If any one can persuade them to turn their thoughts 
 into action it would greatly encourage them." It was to effect 
 this purpose that the consummate general ordered everything 
 in the camp, except the sword, to be abandoned. He in- 
 spired the hopes of his soldiers, roused their minds into 
 
174 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 activity, and thus prevented the development of serious dis- 
 ease among the troops. 
 
 Lord Anson says, in speaking of the ravages which the 
 scurvy made under his command, that " whatever discouraged 
 the seamen, or damped their hopes, never failed to add new 
 vigour to the distemper ; for it usually killed those who were 
 in the last stages of it, and confined those to their hammocks 
 who before were capable of some kind of duty." 
 
 In certain diseases of the nervous system, particularly when 
 associated with morbid conditions of the mind leading to 
 suicide, the influence of music may be had recourse to with 
 great advantage to the patient. The ancients, who paid more 
 attention to the moral treatment of disease than the moderns 
 have done, had a just appreciation of the beneficial effect of 
 music on the nervous system. The learned Dr. Bianchini 
 has collected all the passages found in ancient authors relative 
 to the medical application of music ; and from these it appears 
 that it was used as a remedy by the Egyptians, Hebrews, 
 Greeks, and Romans, not only in chronic, but in acute cases 
 of disease. 
 
 M. Burette, in his able and scientific work on music, allows 
 it to be possible, and even probable, that music, by the im- 
 pressions it makes upon the nerves, may be of use in the 
 cure of certain maladies ; yet he by no means supposes the 
 music of the ancients possessed this power in a greater de- 
 gree than that of the moderns. Homer attributes the cessa- 
 tion of the plague among the Greeks, at the siege of Troy, to 
 music : — 
 
 " With hymns divine the joyous banquet ends, 
 The paeans lengthened till the sun descends : 
 The Greeks, restored, the grateful rites prolong; 
 Apollo listens and approves the song." 
 
 Pope. 
 
 In the Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciences, for 
 1707 and 1708, there are many accounts of cases of disease 
 which, after having long resisted and baffled the most effi- 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 175 
 
 cacious remedies, had yielded under the influence of the 
 soft impressions of harmony ; and M. de Mairan, in the same 
 records, pubUshed in 1735, has entered very fully into the 
 consideration of the modus operandi of music on the body 
 in health and disease. 
 
 The effect of music on the system is explained in two dif- 
 ferent ways. The monotony of the sound is supposed to have 
 a soothing influence over the mind, similar to what is known 
 to result from the gurgle of a mimic cataract of some moun- 
 tain rill, or to a distant waterfall. How often has the music 
 caused by the waves gently dashing upon the beach excited 
 sleep, when all our narcotics have failed in producing a simi- 
 lar effect. This soporific effect of the repetition or monotony 
 of sound is beautifully alluded to by Mackenzie, in his Man 
 of Feeling. When his hero, Mr. Harley, arrives in London, 
 he finds that the noise and varied excitement of the metro- 
 polis increase his nervous state of habit, and prevent him 
 from sleeping. Ordinary narcotics produce no effect upon 
 him, and he must have continued to suffer from watchfulness 
 if he had not happily touched his shoe-buckle, which lay 
 upon the table, when the vibration produced a monotonous 
 sound so closely resembling the voice of his good aunt, who 
 nightly read him asleep in the country, that from that time 
 he regularly applied to the same narcotic, and always slept 
 soundly. Music acts, secondly, by causing an association of 
 agreeable ideas. A lady who was confined in an asylum in 
 the vicinity of London, and who had been separated for some 
 months from her home, and from all she held dear, was pro- 
 nounced partially convalescent. She was, however, still 
 melancholy ; and it was suggested by her father that a piece, 
 of which she was passionately fond, and which was associated 
 with the happiest period of her life, should be played within 
 her hearing. This wish was complied with ; the effect pro- 
 duced was highly gratifying. For the first few minutes, no 
 notice was taken of the music ; in a short period, however, a 
 smile was seen to play upon a countenance where all had 
 
176 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 been dark and gloomy for months. As the music proceeded, 
 the effect became more sensible and powerfiil ; ideas of a most 
 pleasurable kind appeared to rush upon a mind which had 
 previously been a blank ; a chord had been touched which 
 thrilled through her, until she appeared absorbed in the pleas- 
 ing associations which the favourite air had conjured to her 
 recollection. The past was no longer forgotten, and she for 
 the first time gave evidence of being conscious of the situation 
 in which she was in. A fatal blow had been given to the 
 disease, and in a short period she was considered sufficiently 
 recovered to be allowed to return home to the bosom of her 
 family. 
 
 The disease of Saul was alleviated by David's harp. 
 Aristotle maintains that actual madness in horses may be 
 cured by the melody of lutes. " Experience has proved," 
 says Gibbon, " that the mechanical operation of sounds, by 
 quickening the circulation of the blood and spirits, will act on 
 the human machine more forcibly than the eloquence of 
 reason and honour." In illustration of the above observation 
 the following fact may be adduced : — At the battle of Quebec, 
 in April, 1760, while the troops were retreating in great con- 
 fusion, the general complained to a field-officer of Eraser's 
 regiment of the bad behaviour of his corps. "Sir," he 
 answered, in great warmth, ^'you did very wrong in forbid- 
 ding the bagpipes to play this morning ; nothing encourages 
 Highlanders so much in the day of action, — nay, even now 
 the pipes would be of use." " Let them blow, then, like the 
 devil," replied the General, " if it will bring back the men." 
 The bagpipes were ordered to play a favourite martial air. 
 The Highlanders, the moment they heard the music, re- 
 turned and formed with alacrity, and fought like infuriated 
 lions. 
 
 The influence of music over animals is known to be very 
 great. Burney says that an officer, being shut up in the 
 Bastille, had his lute allowed him ; upon which, after a trial 
 or two, the mice came issuing from their holes, and the 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 177 
 
 spiders, suspending themselves from their threads, assembled 
 round him to enjoy the melody.* 
 
 Falret alludes particularly to the benefit which often accrues 
 from music in peculiar disorders of the nervous system at- 
 tended with a disposition to suicide. So exalted an idea 
 had M. Appert of its effects on the mind, that he has ob- 
 served, alluding to criminals, "that the man sensible to the 
 influence of harmony is not irretrievably lost." A young lady 
 passionately fond of music manifested an inclination to kill 
 herself; she was sent by her family to an hospital, where she 
 was carefully watched. The idea of suicide was not, however, 
 removed until she was allowed the use of her favourite in- 
 strument, the harp. The good effect was soon perceptible ; 
 her melancholy gradually subsided, and with it the suicidal 
 disposition. She expressed to her friends how grateful she 
 felt that she was allowed to indulge in her favourite amuse- 
 ment, and was conscious of the benefits which she had derived 
 from it. 
 
 The progress of epidemic suicide has been stayed by having 
 recourse to measures which have powerfully affected the 
 imagination. 
 
 The young women of Marseilles, at one period, were seized 
 with a propensity to commit suicide. In order to prevent 
 the contagion from spreading, a law was passed to the effect 
 that the body of every female who was guilty of self-murder 
 should be publicly exposed after death. The beneficial result 
 of this law became immediately apparent ; the epidemic was 
 stopped; the sense of shame prevailed over the recklessness 
 of human life. 
 
 In the French army, during the reign of Napoleon Buona- 
 parte, a grenadier killed himself This suicide was followed 
 hj another case, and it was feared that the disposition would 
 assume an epidemic character. Buonaparte saw the necessity 
 of prompt and decisive measures, and with a view of striking 
 
 * History of Music. 
 
 N 
 
178 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 teiTor in the minds of the soldiers, and putting a stop at once 
 to the spread of what appeared to be a contagious malady, he 
 issued the following "order of the day," dated St. Cloud, 
 22 Floreal, an X. : — 
 
 " The grenadier Groblin has committed suicide, from a 
 disappointment in love. He was, in other respects, a worthy 
 man. This is the second event of the kind that has hap- 
 pened in this corps within a month. The First Consul directs 
 that it shall be notified in the order of the day of the guard, 
 that a soldier ought to know how to overcome the grief and 
 melancholy of his passions; that there is as much true 
 courage in bearing mental affliction manfully as in remaining 
 unmoved under the fire of a battery. To abandon oneself 
 to grief without resisting, and to kill oneself in order to 
 escape from it, is like abandoning the field of battle before 
 
 being conquered. 
 
 " Signed, " Napoleon, 
 
 " Bessieres." 
 
 The effect of this masterly appeal to the courage of the 
 French soldiery was truly magical. The disposition was 
 completely quelled, and no case of suicide occurred for a 
 considerable time afterwards. The course which Napoleon 
 adopted shewed his great knowledge of human nature, as well 
 as the thorough insight he had obtained into the character of 
 the people over whose minds he exercised so tremendous an 
 influence. 
 
 An account of the punishment inflicted on the women of 
 Miletus, a city of Ionia, who were seized with an epidemic 
 suicide, is transmitted to us in the writings of Plutarch. 
 He says, '* The Milesian virgins were at one time pos- 
 sessed with an uncommon rage for suicide. All desire of life 
 seemed suddenly to leave them, and they rushed on death 
 (by the help of the halter) with an impetuous fury. The tears 
 and entreaties of parents and friends were of no avail ; and if 
 they were prevented by force for awhile, they evaded all the 
 attention and vigilance of their observers, and found means to 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA, 179 
 
 perpetrate the horrid deed. Some ascribed this extraordinary 
 species of desperation and frenzy to certain occult and mad- 
 dening qualities of the air at that season, somehow or other 
 peculiarly injurious to the female frame and texture, both of 
 body and mind, (since the men were not visibly affected by it ;) 
 while the superstitious considered it as a calamity sent from 
 the gods, and therefore beyond the power of human remedy. 
 But whatever was the cause, the effect was visible and im- 
 portant, and could not be suffered to rage long without mani- 
 fest injury to the state. While speculative men, therefore, 
 were attempting to account for the phenomena, the active 
 magistrate was endeavouring to arrest the progress of the 
 contagion, for which purpose the following decree was is- 
 sued ; — " That the body of every young woman who hanged 
 herself should be dragged naked through the streets by the 
 same rope with which she committed the deed." This wise 
 edict had in a short time the desired effect. Plutarch adds — 
 ** The fear of shame and ignominy is an argument of a good 
 and virtuous mind; and they who regarded not pain and 
 death, which are usually esteemed the most dreadful of evils, 
 could not, however, endure the thoughts of having their dead 
 bodies exposed to indignity and shame." 
 
 In the Magdalen Asylum, at Edinburgh, a girl was seized 
 with typhus fever, at the time that it was raging in the city, and 
 though she was instantly removed, as well as all her bed-clothes 
 &c., two more were seized next day, and an alarm or panic 
 was soon spread over the whole house. Next day, no fewer 
 than sixteen were in the sick-room, and in the course of four 
 days, out of a community of less than fifty individuals, twenty- 
 two were apparently labouring under decided fever. It now 
 struck Dr. Hamilton that there was mad delusion in all this, 
 and that the disease arose as much from panic and irritation 
 as from any other causes. Acting on this belief, he went to 
 the sick-room, and told the girls that such a rapid spread of the 
 disease was entirely unprecedented ; that they were under the 
 delusion of yielding to their fears, and of imitating others who 
 
 n2 
 
180 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 were now undergoing all the tortures of bleeding, blistering, 
 and purging, in Queensbury Hospital. He assured theni that 
 the fumigation and other precautions must have destroyed the 
 contagion, and that if they would only keep a good heart and 
 dismiss their fears, he would pledge himself the fever would 
 soon disappear. The effect of the Doctor's speech was magical. 
 All apprehension was instantly banished from the mind, the 
 cheering influence of hope was inspired, moral courage was 
 developed, and the progress of the pestilence stopped. Not 
 one case of fever occurred afterwards, and those who had the 
 fever at the time perfectly recovered.* 
 
 It is only on the same principle that we can account for the 
 success which Dr. A. T. Thompson met with in the treatment 
 of the following case of hooping-cough, which had been kept 
 up by habit. The patient, a young boy, was threatened with 
 the application of a large blister ; although it was not applied, 
 but merely placed within his view, yet the dread of it com- 
 pletely removed the cough. Boerrhave cured epilepsy in a 
 whole school, by marching into it at the moment of the ex- 
 pected attack with a red-hot poker, which he threatened to 
 thrust down the throats of those who should have a fit. 
 
 A remarkable instance of epidemic suicide occurred as far 
 back as the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, which as it required, 
 so it received, an effectual check by the spirited introduction 
 of an extraordinary mode of punishment. After this king 
 had employed the Roman people in successful wars abroad, he 
 filled up their leisure at home in works of less apparent 
 honour, though of greater utility. These were to cut drains 
 and common sewers of immense size and durability. When 
 the soldiers disdained these servile offices, and saw no end to 
 their labours, many of them committed suicide by throwing 
 themselves off the Capitoline Hill. Others followed their 
 example, until the contagion spread through the whole of the 
 men. The king, in order to strike terror into the minds of 
 
 * Edinburgh Medical Trans. 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 181 
 
 those who might contemplate self-destruction, issued an order 
 commanding the bodies of those who should commit suicide 
 to be nailed on crosses, and then exposed as spectacles to the 
 rest of the citizens, and left a prey to the fowls of the air. 
 The feeling of shame and horror had the effect of checking 
 the disposition to sacrifice life, and thus the king's purpose 
 was effected. 
 
 Whether any measures of a similar character could be 
 adopted in cases where the disposition to suicide has a ten- 
 dency to assume an epidemic form is a matter of considerable 
 doubt. 
 
 Experience has established the effect of some simple remedies 
 in preventing the return of paroxysms of melancholia with a 
 propensity to suicide. But it has likewise, and not unfre- 
 quently, evinced their insufficiency, and at the same time the 
 influence of a strong and deeply impressed emotion in pro- 
 ducing a solid and durable change. A man who worked at 
 a sedentary trade consulted Pinel, about the end of October, 
 1783, for dyspepsia and great depression of spirits. He knew 
 of no cause to which he could ascribe his indisposition. His 
 unhappiness at length increased to such a pitch that he felt 
 an invincible propensity to throw himself into the Seine. 
 Unequivocal symptoms of a disordered stomach induced Pinel 
 to prescribe some opening medicines, and for some days occa- 
 sional draughts of whey. His bowels were effectually opened, 
 and he suffered but little from his propensity to self-destruc- 
 tion during the remainder of the winter. Fine weather 
 appeared to restore him completely, and his cure was con- 
 sidered as perfect. Towards the decline of autumn, however, 
 his melancholia returned. Nature assumed to him a dark and 
 dismal aspect, and his propensity to throw himself into the 
 Seine returned with redoubled force. The only circumstance 
 that in any degree restrained the horrid impulse was, the idea 
 of leaving unprotected a wife and child, whom he tenderly 
 loved. This struggle between the feelings of nature and his 
 delirious frenzy was not permitted to continue long ; for the 
 
182 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICmAL MANIA. 
 
 most unequivocal proofs soon after appeared of his having 
 executed his fatal project. 
 
 A literary gentleman, devoted to the pleasures of the 
 table, and who had lately recovered from a fever, experienced 
 in the autumnal season all the horrors of the propensity to 
 suicide. He weighed with shocking calmness the choice 
 of various methods to accomplish the deed of death. A visit 
 which he paid to London appears to have developed, with a 
 new degree of energy, his profound melancholy, and his im- 
 movable resolution to abridge his term of life. He chose an 
 advanced hour of the night, and went towards one of the 
 bridges of that capital for the purpose of precipitating himself 
 into the Thames; but at the moment of his arrival at the 
 destined spot, he was attacked by some robbers. Though he 
 had little or no money about him, he felt extremely indignant 
 at this treatment, and used every effort to make his escape, 
 which, however, he did not accomplish before he had been 
 exceedingly terrified. Left by his assailants, he returned to 
 his lodgings, having forgot the original object of his sally. 
 This rencontre seems to have caused a thorough revolution 
 in the state of his mind. His cure was complete. 
 
 A watchmaker was for a long time harassed by the pro- 
 pensity to suicide. He once so far gave way to the horrid 
 impulse, that he withdrew to his house in the country, where 
 he expected to meet no obstacle to the execution of his 
 project. Here he took a pistol, and retired to an adjoin- 
 ing wood, with the full intent of perpetrating the fatal deed ; 
 but missing his aim, the contents of the piece entered his 
 cheek. Violent haemorrhage ensued. He was discovered, 
 and conveyed to his own house. During the healing of the 
 wound, which was long protracted, an important change took 
 place in the state of his mind. Whether from the agitation 
 produced by the above tragic attempt, from the enormous loss 
 of blood which it occasioned, or from any other cause, he 
 never afterwards shewed the least inchnation to put an end to 
 his existence. This case, though by no means an example 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 183 
 
 for imitation, is well calculated to shew that sudden terror, or 
 any other lively or deep impression, may divert, and even 
 destroy, the fatal propensity to suicide. 
 
 A few years ago, an officer went into Hyde Park with an 
 intention of shooting himself. He applied a pistol to his 
 forehead ; the priming flashed, but no discharge followed. A 
 man of poor appearance, whom the officer had not observed, 
 or perhaps thought unworthy of his notice, instantly ran up, and 
 wrested the pistol from his hands. The other drew his sword, 
 and was about to stab his deliverer, who, with much spirit, 
 replied, " Stab me. Sir, if you think proper ; I fear death as 
 little as you, but I have more courage. More than twenty 
 years I have lived in affliction and penury, and I yet trust in 
 God for comfort and support." The officer was struck with 
 these spirited words, continued speechless and motionless for 
 a short time, and then, bursting into tears, gave his purse to 
 the honest man. He then inquired into his story, and became 
 his private friend and benefactor ; but he made the poor man 
 swear that he would never make inquiries concerning himself, 
 or seem to know him, if chance should ever bring them in 
 sight of each other. 
 
 A female patient, who had often threatened to destroy her- 
 self, one day assured M. Esquirol that she was about to do it. 
 " Very well," he answered ; " it is nothing to me ; and your 
 husband will be delivered of a great torment." She instantly 
 ceased the preparations she was making to accomplish the act, 
 and never spoke of committing it again. 
 
 How easily lunatics may be diverted from their purpose by 
 presence of mind, an intimacy with their character, and the 
 tact to employ the destructive feeling by which they are 
 actuated as the means of protection, is well exemplified in an 
 anecdote related by Dr. Fox. He had accompanied a suicidal 
 and furious maniac, who was at the time calm, to the upper 
 story of his asylum to enjoy the prospect beyond the walls. 
 In returning, the spiral staircase struck the eye of the patient ; 
 the opportunity roused the half-slumbering propensity, and a 
 
184 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 fit of frenzy ensued. His eyes glared, his teeth ground against 
 each other ; he panted like a bloodhound for his prey, and 
 seizing the Doctor by the collar, howled into his ears, " You 
 jump down, and I will jump after you." The Doctor for the 
 moment was petrified with horror; he was alone with a 
 powerful man, frenzied by insanity ; to escape was out of the 
 question ; to attempt to overcome him by force was still more 
 futile ; in a moment he hit upon a stratagem. Turning to the 
 infuriated madman, he exclaimed, with a look of coolness and 
 coUectedness, " Bah ! my child could jump from this place ; it 
 requires no nouse to do that; the thing is to jump up — that is 
 the difficulty." The madman listened with attention to what 
 the Doctor said, and then observed, " But you cannot do so, 
 can you ?" The Doctor replied, he could, and they both hur- 
 ried down to put the boast to the proof, and the sanguinary 
 threat was forgotten before they reached the lobby. 
 
 Physicians not practically acquainted with the treatment of 
 insanity are too much inclined to believe that it is fruitless 
 to attempt to reason a madman out of his morbid delusion, 
 and that to have recourse to a trick in order to dispel the 
 mental illusion is a species of practice unbecoming the dignity 
 of a professional gentleman. Numerous cases are recorded in 
 which patients have been cured of monomania by a well- 
 contrived artifice ; and in many cases of suicidal insanity, 
 when other treatment fails, the medical man may have re- 
 course to this mode of cure without any danger of sinking 
 himself in public or professional estimation. The following 
 cases are illustrations of the foregoing remark : — 
 
 A celebrated watchmaker, at Paris, was infatuated with the 
 chimera of perpetual motion, and to effect this discovery he 
 set to work with indefatigable ardour. From unremitting 
 attention to the object of his enthusiasm coinciding with the 
 influence of revolutionary disturbances, his imagination was 
 greatly heated, his sleep was interrupted, and, at length, a 
 complete derangement of the understanding took place. His 
 case was marked by a most whimsical illusion of the imagin- 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 185 
 
 ation. He fancied that he had lost his head on the scaffold ; 
 that it had been thrown promiscuously among the heads of 
 many other victims ; that the judges, having repented of their 
 cruel sentence, had ordered them to be restored to their owners, 
 and placed upon their respective shoulders ; but that, in 
 consequence of an unfortunate mistake, the gentleman who 
 had the management of the business had placed upon his 
 shoulders the head of one of his unhappy companions. 
 The idea of this whimsical exchange occupied his thoughts 
 night and day, on account of which his relations sent 
 him to the Hotel Dieu ; and from thence he was trans- 
 ferred to the Asylum de Bicetre. Nothing could equal the 
 extravagant overflowings of his heated brain. He sung, 
 cried, or danced incessantly ; and as there appeared no pro- 
 pensity in him to commit acts of violence or disturbance, he 
 was allowed to go about the hospital without control, in order 
 to expend, by evaporation, the effervescent excess of his 
 spirits. " Look at these teeth," he constantly cried ; " mine 
 were exceedingly handsome ; these are rotten and decayed. 
 My mouth was sound and healthy ; this is foul and diseased. 
 What a difference between this hair and that of my own 
 head !" To this state of delirious gaiety, however, succeeded 
 that of furious madness. He broke to pieces, or otherwise 
 destroyed, whatever was within the reach or power of his mis- 
 chievous propensity. Close confinement became indispens- 
 able. Towards the approach of winter, his violence abated ; 
 and, although he continued to be extravagant in his ideas, he 
 was never afterwards dangerous. He was therefore permitted, 
 whenever he felt disposed, to go to the inner court. The 
 idea of perpetual motion frequently recurred to him in the 
 midst of his wanderings; and he chalked on all the walls 
 and doors as he passed the various designs by which his 
 wondrous piece of mechanism was to be constructed. The 
 method best calculated to cure so whimsical an illusion ap- 
 peared to be that of encouraging his prosecution of it to 
 satiety. His friends were accordingly requested to send him 
 
186 
 
 his tools, with materials to work upon, and other requisites, 
 such as plates of copper and steel, watch-wheels, &c. The 
 governor permitted him to fix up a work-bench in his apart- 
 ment. His zeal was now redoubled ; his whole attention was 
 rivetted upon his favourite pursuit. He forgot his meals. 
 After about a month's labour, which he sustained with a con- 
 stancy that deserved better success, our artist began to think 
 that he had followed a false route. He broke into a thousand 
 fragments the piece of machinery which he had fabricated at 
 so much expense of time, thought, and labour ; entered on 
 the construction of another upon a new plan, and laboured 
 with equal pertinacity for an additional fortnight. The various 
 parts being completed, he brought them together, and fancied 
 that he saw a perfect harmony amongst them. The whole 
 was now finally adjusted ; his anxiety was indescribable ; mo- 
 tion succeeded ; it continued for some time, and he supposed 
 it capable of continuing for ever. He was elevated to the 
 highest pitch of enjoyment and triumph, and ran as quick as 
 lightning into the interior of the hospital, crying out, like an- 
 other Archimedes, " At length I have solved this famous 
 problem, which has puzzled so many men celebrated for their 
 wisdom and talents." But, grievous to say, he was discon- 
 certed in the midst of his triumph. The wheels stopped ; the 
 perpetual motion ceased ! His intoxication of joy was suc- 
 ceeded by disappointment and confusion. But to avoid a 
 humiliating and mortifying confession, he declared that he 
 could easily remove the impediment ; but tired of that kind 
 of employment, he was determined for the future to devote 
 his whole time and attention to his business. There still re- 
 mained another maniacal impression to be counteracted, — 
 that of the imaginary exchange of his head, which unceas- 
 ingly recurred to him. A keen and an unanswerable stroke 
 of pleasantry seemed best adapted to correct this fantastic 
 whim. Another convalescent, of a gay and facetious humour, 
 instructed in the part he should play in this comedy, adroitly 
 turned the conversation to the subject of the famous miracle 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 187 
 
 of Saint Denis. Our mechanician strongly maintained the 
 possibility of the fact, and sought to confirm it by an appli- 
 cation of it to his own case. The other set up a loud laugh, 
 and replied, with a tone of the keenest ridicule, " Madman 
 as thou art, how could Saint Denis kiss his own head ? Was it 
 with his heels ?" This equally unexpected and unanswerable 
 retort forcibly struck the maniac. He retired confused, 
 amidst the peals of laughter which were provoked at his ex- 
 pense, and never afterwards mentioned the exchange of his 
 head. Close attention to his trade for some months com- 
 pleted the restoration of his intellect. He was sent to his 
 family in perfect health, and has now for more than five 
 years pursued his business without a return of his complaint. 
 
 Mr. Cox recollects a singular instance of a deranged idea in 
 a maniac being corrected by a very simple stratagem. The 
 patient asserted that he was the Holy Ghost ; a gentleman 
 present immediately exclaimed, " You the Holy Ghost ! 
 What proof have you to produce ?" " I know that I am," was 
 his answer. The gentleman said, " How is this possible ? 
 There is but one Holy Ghost, is there ? How then can you 
 be the Holy Ghost, and I be so too?" He appeared sur- 
 prised and puzzled, and, after a short pause, said, " But are 
 you the Holy Ghost ?" When the other observed, " Did you 
 not know that I was ?" his answer was, " I did not know it 
 before. Why, then, I cannot be the Holy Ghost." 
 
 A Portuguese nobleman became melancholy, and fancied 
 that God would never forgive his sins. Various means were 
 tried to subdue this morbid impression, but in vain, until the 
 following artifice was adopted, which proved successful in 
 restoring the lunatic to reason. During midnight, a person 
 dressed as an angel was made to enter his bed-room, having a 
 drawn sword in its right hand, and a lighted torch in the 
 other. The imaginary angelic being addressed the mono- 
 maniac by name, who, rising from his bed, spoke to the supposed 
 angel, beseeching it to tell him whether his sins would ever 
 be forgiven ; upon which the angel replied, " Be comforted. 
 
188 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 your sins are forgiven." The poor man's delight knew no 
 bounds. He rose from his bed, summoned every one in the 
 house to his presence, and explained to them all that had 
 passed. From that moment the man rapidly recovered in 
 bodily health, and his delusion has completely vanished. 
 
 A man fancied he was dead, refused to eat, and impor- 
 tuned his parents to bury him. By the advice of his physi- 
 cian, he was wrapped in a winding-sheet, laid upon a bier, 
 and in this way he was carried on the shoulders of four men 
 to the churchyard. On their way, tw^o or three pleasant 
 fellows (appointed for that purpose) meeting the hearse, 
 demanded in a commanding tone of voice to know whose body 
 they had in the coffin. They replied it was a young man's, 
 and mentioned his name. " Surely," said one of them, " the 
 world is well rid of him ; for he was a man who led a bad and 
 vicious life, and his friends have good reasons to rejoice that 
 he has thus ended his days, otherwise he would have died an 
 ignominious death on the scaffold." The young man over- 
 heard this observation, at which he felt extremely indignant; 
 but feeling that it was not consistent with propriety or the 
 laws of nature for a dead man on his way to his last home to 
 exhibit any indications of passion, he satisfied himself by 
 coolly replying, " That they were wicked men to do him 
 that wrong, and that if he had been alive he would teach them 
 to speak better of the dead." " It is well," said one of the 
 men in reply, " that you are no more ; both for yourself and 
 family. You were a mean, pitiful scoundrel, guilty of every 
 abomination, and the world is rejoiced that you no longer 
 live." This was too much for the patience of the dead man to 
 endure, and feeling that he could no longer suffer such unjust 
 aspersions to be cast on his character, he leaped from the 
 coffin, procured the first stick he could lay hands on, and com- 
 menced belabouring his vile accusers. As it may be supposed, 
 they gave him plenty to do, and by the time he had gratified 
 his indignation, and well chastised his calumniators, he had 
 become completely exhausted. In this state he was taken 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 189 
 
 home, and in a few days he was completely cured of the 
 morbid idea which had taken possession of his imagin- 
 ation. 
 
 Menecrates, as we learn from ^lian,* become so mad, as 
 seriously to believe himself the son of Jupiter, and to request 
 of Philip of Macedon that he might be treated as a god. 
 But it is not always that the man thus deranged falls into 
 such good hands as those of the Macedonian monarch ; for 
 Philip humorously determining to make the madman's dis- 
 ease work its own cure, gave orders immediately that his 
 request should be complied with, and invited him to a grand 
 entertainment, at which was a separate table for the new divi- 
 nity, served with the most costly perfumes and incense, but 
 with nothing else. Menecrates was at first highly delighted, 
 and received the worship that was paid to him with the 
 greatest complacency ; but growing hungry by degrees over 
 the empty viands that were offered him, while every other 
 guest was indulged with substantial dainties, he at length 
 keenly felt himself to be a man, and stole away from the court 
 in his right senses. 
 
 Many cases of suicidal insanity have been cured by remov- 
 ing the persons so unhappily afflicted from their own homes, 
 friends, and relations. In these cases the physician has no 
 little difficulty in persuading the friends of the invalid that a 
 separation from old associations is absolutely indispensable ; 
 that without it, a return to sanity cannot be reasonably ex- 
 pected. When Dr. Willis undertook the cure of George III., 
 he insisted, in the first instance, in dismissing all the old 
 servants, changing the furniture, and removing everything 
 from the king's sight that might tend to awaken in his mind 
 ideas of the past. The success that attended his treatment is 
 said mainly to have depended on this circumstance. 
 
 Mr. , forty-seven years old, of a neuro-sanguineous 
 
 temperament, was happy in his domestic circle, and his busi- 
 
 * Lib. xii. cap. 51. 
 
190 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 ness had prospered until the year, 1830, from which period he 
 was much harassed in the management of his affairs. In De- 
 cember, 1831, after a very trifling loss, he grew sorrowful and 
 melancholy ; his face was flushed, his eyes became blood-shot, 
 his breathing was difficult, and he shed tears, incessantly re- 
 peating that he was lost. On the next and following days, he 
 made several attempts to commit suicide, so that they were 
 obliged to cover his apartment with wadding. He wished to 
 strangle himself, tried to swallow his tongue, filled his mouth 
 with his fist in hopes of suffocating himself, and then refused 
 all nourishment. At the expiration of six days, the patient was 
 brought to Paris, and entrusted to Esquirol's care. From the 
 moment of his arrival all desire to commit suicide vanished, 
 and the patient appeared restored to reason. " The impres- 
 sion that I received," said he, " on finding myself transported 
 to a strange house cured me." In fact, sleep, appetite, and a 
 return of connected, and sometimes lively conversation, in- 
 duced the belief that a cure was effected. Three weeks seemed 
 enough for convalescence, when his wife and son came to fetch 
 him. They passed two days at Paris to finish some business 
 there, and then returned to the country. Scarcely had he 
 arrived at his home when he felt himself impelled by the same 
 desires, in consequence of which, he returned to Paris, trans- 
 acted some business whilst he remained there, and appeared 
 perfectly well. On returning to his home again, he made 
 fresh attempts to commit suicide, struck his son, and those 
 who waited upon him, and endangered the life of his wife. 
 Neither the grief of his family, the watch placed over him, 
 nor the pretended authority of those about him, could over- 
 come these feelings. The patient passed several days without 
 food ; he tore up his linen to make a cord to hang himself, 
 tied it round his neck, and got upon his bed in order to 
 throw himself upon the floor; and at last, deceiving the 
 watchfulness of his relations, escaped to throw himself into the 
 river. He was immediately put into a carriage, and accom- 
 panied by his wife ; but, nolwithstanding the strait-waistcoat. 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 191 
 
 he left no means untried to kill himself. On arriving at Paris, 
 and being again confined, he became perfectly reasonable, and 
 made no attempt to destroy himself during the six weeks that 
 his second confinement lasted. There was reason to believe 
 his cure complete. If he was asked why he did not overcome 
 his terrible impressions at his own house as he did at Paris, 
 he answered in an evasive manner, affirming that this time 
 the trial had been long enough, that he was cured, and that 
 he insisted upon returning home. " Deprived of my wife 
 and son," said he, " I am the most unhappy of men, and I 
 cannot live." " But if you are so unhappy here," said Esqui- 
 rol to him one day, " why do you not try to destroy yourself, 
 as it is very easy to do so ?" " I know not," he replied ; " but 
 I am cured, and I wish to live." This patient enjoyed the 
 greatest liberty, and although no apparent precaution was 
 taken to prevent his destroying himself, he never made the 
 least attempt. He afterwards ceased to talk unreasonably; 
 but Esquirol was never able to obtain an avowal of the motives 
 which induced him to commit suicide at his own house, 
 whilst he thought no more of it as soon as he came amongst 
 strangers. On returning to his home for the fourth time, 
 although he was able to transact important business, the same 
 phenomena returned with equal violence. 
 
 M. , twenty-seven years old, after experiencing 
 
 some reverses of fortune, became maniacal, with a tendency 
 to commit suicide. The elevated situation of the room which 
 he inhabited, the position of the staircase, the reiterated 
 visits of his friends, " who came to contemplate his misfor- 
 tunes," and the despair of his wife, were so many circum- 
 stances which induced him to terminate his existence ; and 
 although he avowed that he had no motive for so doing, and 
 that he was ashamed, and considered himself criminal for 
 having attempted it, he left no means untried for more than a 
 month to effect that end. When he was taken away from 
 his home, and lodged in a ground-floor which led into a 
 garden, the idea no longer harassed him. " It would be of no 
 
192 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 use," he said ; " I could never kill myself here ; every pre- 
 caution is taken to prevent me." 
 
 A baker's wife, of a lymphatic temperament, experienced a 
 violent fit of jealousy, which caused her much distress, and in- 
 duced her to watch her husband's steps, who vented his discon- 
 tent in threats and reproaches. At last, this unhappy woman, 
 being unable to bear the feeling any longer, threw herself out 
 of the window. Her husband ran to pick her up, and be- 
 stowed marks of the most attentive kindness upon her. " It is 
 useless," she said ; " you have a wife no longer." She refused 
 every kind of nourishment, and neither the solicitations, 
 tears, prayers of her relations, and those of her husband, 
 who never quitted her room, were able to overcome her reso- 
 lution. After seven days of total abstinence, Esquirol was 
 called in. They hid from him the cause of the disease, but he 
 observed that every time her husband approached the bed, her 
 face became convulsed. The patient was told that she was 
 about to be sent into the country, but that it was necessary 
 for her to take a little nourishment in order to support the 
 journey, A little broth which was offered her was accepted ; 
 but notwithstanding her attempts, she could only swallow a 
 few drops. She tried again the following morning, but she 
 expired in the course of the day. " Had this woman," says 
 Esquirol, " been removed from her home immediately after 
 the accident, there is little doubt but she would have been 
 restored. How could she desire to live, her distress being 
 continually aggravated by the presence of her husband ?" 
 
 The chief means of controlling the passions, and of keeping 
 them within just bounds, is to form a proper estimate of the 
 things of this life, of the relation of our present to a future 
 state of existence, and of the influence which our actions in 
 this world will have upon our happiness hereafter. Such a 
 right estimate every rational man will labour to attain. He 
 will endeavour, by correcting error, and acquiring such habits 
 as are consistent with just sentiments, to withdraw the nourish- 
 ment from the very root of passion, rather than be for ever 
 
MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 193 
 
 fruitlessly occupied in merely pruning the luxuriance of some 
 of its branches. 
 
 It may be useful to impress strongly upon the minds of 
 those who have not sufficient command over their feelings, the 
 persuasion that the indulgence of any passion to excess, and 
 especially of the selfish and malevolent ones, is likely to be in- 
 jurious to health, will certainly be destructive of serenity and 
 comfort ; and of course, by diminishing happiness, will frus- 
 trate its own aim and intention, and may, by repetition, ac- 
 quire accumulated force and facility of excitement, become 
 at length unconquerable and habitual, and according to its 
 nature, violence, and frequency, will, in a greater or less de- 
 gree, be subversive of happiness, and leave them more or less 
 open to the attacks of insanity. 
 
 Such persons will therefore see it highly expedient, while 
 under the influence of these impressions, to do all in their 
 power to avoid them ; to compare their urgent and apparent 
 importance when they occur, with the probable diminution 
 of the comfort and health of body and mind which they 
 might induce ; and to lay it down as a rule never to indulge 
 any passion whatever, till, independently of moral considera- 
 tions, and the notions of duty and obligation, they have deli- 
 berately reflected, whether the importance of the cause will 
 be a sufficient counterbalance to the certain pain inflicted 
 and the injury which may be thence derived to their health of 
 body and ease and soundness of mind. A habit of such 
 deliberation once acquired, — and it may be acquired by dili- 
 gence and resolution, — will entirely put an end to exorbitant 
 excitement, since by checking the very beginnings of emotion, 
 its growth and progress will be altogether prevented. 
 
 And as every one has some weak point on which he is more 
 open to a successful attack, some constitutional or habitual 
 feeling, the approaches of which he cannot easily withstand, all 
 persons who are convinced of the expediency and necessity of 
 subduing their passions, if they would consult their own ease, 
 will be aware of the importance of keeping a diligent watch. 
 
194 MORAL TREATMENT OF SUICIDAL MANIA. 
 
 and placing a strong guard, upon the one that most easily 
 and successfully besets them. 
 
 And whoever would secure a reasonable portion of present 
 happiness will be sensible of the necessity of learning the art 
 of contentment, which, difficult as it may seem to those who 
 have not used themselves to check the wanderings of imagina- 
 tion, and to keep their desires within prudent bounds, not 
 only appears indispensable, but easy, to the man who feels a 
 lively and practical conviction of its wonderful tendency to 
 multiply the sum of actual enjoyment. 
 
 With the same view of promoting and securing their own 
 present felicity, such persons will see the propriety of acquiring 
 habits of good nature, and of cultivating the emotions of be- 
 nevolence. And as virtue seldom fails to bring her own 
 dowry, contentedness and benevolence will infallibly introduce 
 habits of cheerfulness, which, while they improve our happi- 
 ness, act as powerful preservatives against disease, and as 
 determined enemies of insanity. 
 
195 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 
 
 On the dependence of irritability of temper on physical disease — Voltaire and 
 an Englishman agree to commit suicide — The reasons that induced Vol- 
 taire to change his mind — The ferocity of Robespierre accounted for — 
 The state of his body after death — The petulance of Pope dependent on 
 physical causes — Suicide from cerebral congestion, treatment of — Ad- 
 vantages of bloodletting, with cases — Damien insane — Cold applied to the 
 head, of benefit — Good effects of purgation — Suicide caused by a tape- 
 worm — Early indications of the disposition to suicide — The suicidal eye — 
 Of the importance of carefully watching persons disposed to suicide- 
 Cunning of such patients — Numerous illustrations — ^The fondness for a 
 particular mode of death — Dr. Burrows' extraordinary case — Dr. Conolly 
 on the treatment of suicide — Cases shewing the advantage of confinement. 
 
 Medical men have not considered with that degree of atten- 
 tion commensurate with its importance the relationship be- 
 tween physical derangement and those apparently trifling 
 mental ailments which so often, if not subdued, lead to the 
 commission of suicide. The origin of self-destruction is more 
 frequently dependent upon derangement of the primcB vies 
 than is generally imagined. Every one must, in his own 
 person, be aware of the influence of indigestion, and what is 
 termed bilious disorder, upon the spirits. An inactive condi- 
 tion of the bowels is a common cause of mental disquietude. 
 Voltaire, who was a man of great observation, appears to have 
 paid considerable attention to this connexion. He advises a 
 person who intends to ask a favour of a prime minister, or a 
 minister's secretary, or a secretary's mistress, to be careful to 
 
 o2 
 
196 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 approach them after they have had a comfortable evacuation 
 from the bowels. Dryden invariably dosed himself before 
 sitting down to compose. He says — " If you wish to have 
 fairy flights of fancy, you must purge the belly." Carneades, 
 the celebrated disputant of antiquity, was in the habit of 
 taking white helebore, (a purgative,) preparatory to his refuting 
 the dogmas of the Stoics. Lord Byron says, in one of his let- 
 ters, " I am suffering from what my physician terms ' gastric 
 irritation,' and my spirits are sadly depressed. I have taken 
 a brisk cathartic, and to-morrow * Richard will be himself 
 again.' " The following anecdote is recorded of Voltaire : — 
 **An English gentleman of fortune had been sitting many hours 
 with this great wit and censurer of human character. Their 
 discourse related chiefly to the depravity of human nature, 
 tyranny and oppression of kings, poverty, wretchedness, and 
 misfortune, the pain of disease, particularly the gravel, gout, 
 and stone. They worked themselves up to such a pitch of 
 imaginary evils that they proposed next morning to commit 
 suicide together. The Englishman, firm to his resolution, 
 rose, and expected Voltaire to perform his promise, to whom 
 the genius replied, " Ah ! monsieur, pardonnez moi, fai bien 
 dormi, mon lavement a bien opere, et le soleil est tout-a-fait clair 
 aujourd'hui,'*^ 
 
 We knew a gentleman whose temper was not controllable if 
 he allowed himself to pass a day without his accustomed eva- 
 cuation from the bowels. Pinel records the particulars of the 
 case of a man who had fits of mental derangement whenever 
 the action of the bowels became irregular. 
 
 The blood-thirsty miscreant Robespierre is said to have 
 been of a " costive habit, and to have been much subjected to de- 
 rangement of the liver.'''' After death, it is said that "his 
 bowels were found one adherent mass." It is indeed interest- 
 ing to consider, both morally and medically, how far these 
 morbid ailments influenced this monster in the bloody career 
 in which he was engaged. 
 
 There can be no question but that the morbid irritability 
 
THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 197 
 
 which many of our men of genius have manifested was but 
 the effect of a derangement of the physical frame acting upon 
 a mind naturally sensitive to such impressions. 
 
 Much of the petulance, personality, and malignity of Pope 
 was dependent upon causes over which he had no control — 
 viz., disease of the stomach and liver, producing hypochon- 
 driasis. It has been well observed by Madden, " Who knows 
 under what paroxysms of mental irritation caused by that dis- 
 ease (indigestion), which more than any other domineers over 
 the feelings of the sufferer, he might have written those bitter 
 sarcasnjs which he levelled against his literary opponents? 
 Who knows in what moment of bodily pain his irascibility 
 might have taken the form of unjustifiable satire, or his 
 morbid sensibility assumed the sickly shape of petulance and 
 peevishness ? Who knows how the strength of the strong 
 mind might have been cast down by his sufferings, when * he 
 descended to the artifice' of imposing on a bookseller, and 
 of ' writing those letters for effect which he published by 
 subterfuge ? ' Who that has observed how the vacillating 
 conduct of the dyspeptic invalid imitates the vagaries of this 
 proteiform malady can wonder at his capriciousness, or be 
 surprised at the anomaly of bitterness on the tongue, and be- 
 nevolence in the heart, of the same individual ? " * 
 
 That Pope was a severe sufferer from bodily disease will 
 appear evident from the following account given by Dr. 
 Johnson of the poet. He says, " Pope's constitution, which 
 was originally feeble, became so debilitated that he stood in 
 perpetual need of female attendance ; and so great was his 
 sensibility of cold that he wore a fur doublet under a shirt of 
 very coarse warm linen. When he rose, he invested himself 
 in a bodice made of stiff canvass, being scarcely able to hold 
 himself erect till it was laced ; and he then put on a flannel 
 waistcoat. His legs were so slender that he enlarged their 
 
 * When Pope was on his death-bed, Bolingbroke observed to the weeping 
 attendants, " I have known Pope these thirty years ; he was the kindest- 
 hearted man in the world." 
 
198 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 bulk with three pairs of stockings, which were drawn off and 
 on by the maid, for he was not able to dress or undress him- 
 self, and he neither went to bed nor rose without help." 
 
 His frequent attacks of indigestion made him at times a 
 perfect picture of misery and wretchedness. It clothed every- 
 thing with a gloomy aspect, made him quarrel with his friends 
 and domestics, and he has been known to say that he sighed 
 for death as a reprieve from mental and bodily agony. Sir 
 Samuel Garth was frequently consulted when he had these 
 attacks ; and it was only by exacting a strict attention to diet 
 and exhibiting medicine that he was enabled to restore the 
 mind of the poet to a healthy tone. 
 
 This physical ailment, as it often does when long conti- 
 nued, ultimately affected the cerebral functions. At times he 
 had symptoms of pressure on the brain, or at least of an un- 
 equal and imperfect distribution of blood to that organ. Spence 
 says, he frequently complained of seeing everything in the 
 room as through a curtain, and on other occasions, of seeing 
 false colours on certain objects. At another period, on a sick- 
 bed, he asked Dodsley what arm it was that had the appear- 
 ance of coming out from the wall. 
 
 When the disposition to suicide is present, the physician 
 should carefully ascertain whether the patient is not labouring 
 under cerebral congestion, or a determination of blood to the 
 head. The loss of a small quantity of blood has frequently 
 been known to remove the propensity to self-destruction. A 
 case is referred to by Schlegel of a woman who was liable to 
 periodical fits of suicidal mania whenever she allowed a re- 
 dundancy of blood to accumulate in the system. On two 
 occasions she attempted suicide. On the first indications of a 
 return of her delirium, she was generally bled, and relief was 
 instantaneously afforded. 
 
 A gentleman who had received, during the peninsular cam- 
 paign, a sabre cut in the head, felt for some years, whenever 
 he was exposed to great mental excitement, or allowed him- 
 self to over-indulge in the use of spirits, a kind of suicidal 
 
THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 199 
 
 delirium. Twice he was detected in the act of attempting to 
 commit suicide, and was fortunately prevented from doing so. 
 The local abstraction of blood from the neighbourhood of the 
 head was the only remedy which appeared to subdue the dis- 
 position. 
 
 The cases which are related in another chapter of indivi- 
 duals who were insane at the moment when the act of self- 
 destruction was attempted, but who recovered the use of their 
 reasoning after having inflicted a wound attended with loss of 
 blood, fully testify the importance of general and local deple- 
 tion in certain cases of cerebral disease attended by this un- 
 fortunate propensity. 
 
 A blow on the head has been known to develope this feel- 
 ing. The affection of the sentient organ may remain latent 
 for many years, and then suddenly manifest itself. A man 
 had received, when young, a kick from a horse, which pro- 
 duced at the time no very urgent symptoms. Six years after 
 the accident, he, without giving any indications of previous 
 derangement of mind, cut his throat. Upon examining the 
 brain, it was found extensively diseased. ^. 
 
 A man, feeling the suicidal disposition, bled himself from 
 the arm, and recovered. 
 
 It will not be proper in all cases to abstract blood ; for the 
 destructive propensity has been known to exist where there 
 has been a deficiency of blood in the brain. The practitioner 
 should examine the condition of the patient thoroughly before 
 he recommends active depletion. Sixty per cent, of the cases 
 of suicide will, however, be found with cerebral disease either 
 of a primary or secondary nature ; and to that organ the me- 
 dical man's attention should be particularly directed. 
 
 The following case happily illustrates the benefits which 
 are sometimes derived from the local abstraction of blood in 
 certain cases of temporary insanity, accompanied with a dis- 
 position to commit suicide. " A gentleman," says Dr. Bur- 
 rows, " of a very irascible and impetuous disposition, with 
 whom I was intimate, experienced in a public meeting a re- 
 
200 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 buke which exceedingly mortified him, and made so deep an 
 impression upon his mind, that he was quite miserable. At 
 night, instead of going to bed, he roamed abroad ; and at 
 length, early in the morning, without knowing whither he 
 went, he found himself near a sheet of water. The view of 
 it at once determined him to drown himself, and he accord- 
 ingly plunged in. The action was perceived, and he was 
 rescued from the water, insensible, and immediately con- 
 veyed to a place where means of resuscitation were adopted. 
 As his address was found in his pocket, a communication was 
 directly made to his family, and Dr. Burrows was called in to 
 see the patient. He found him in a state of insensibility. 
 As soon as consciousness returned, he was dressed, put into 
 a coach, and Dr. B. accompanied him to his residence. As 
 yet, he had not spoken, neither did he appear to observe any- 
 thing. The motion of the carriage on the stones seemed to 
 rouse him, and he looked about. He took no notice of those 
 who were in the carriage with him. He soon became vio- 
 lent ; his ej'es were wild, and rolled in their sockets ; his face 
 became flushed ; the vessels of the forehead were excessively 
 distended, and all the symptoms of genuine delirium came on.* 
 Dr. Burrows ascribed the symptoms to a violent reaction in 
 the vascular system from the state of collapse it had sustained, 
 and ordered the oppressed vessels of the head to be relieved 
 by the application of cupping glasses, and the abstraction of 
 sixteen ounces of blood; the head to be kept cool, and 
 enemata to be administered until the bowels were well 
 cleansed out- After these operations, he soon became pas- 
 sive and disposed to sleep. He slept six hours, and awoke 
 tolerably composed, but not quite coherent. He took light 
 nourishment, and at night awoke perfectly collected, but ex- 
 ceedingly low. The next day he was well, but languid. An 
 explanation was given him, which removed the impression 
 
 * Prior to the more urgent symptoms developing themselves, he appeared 
 to be endeavouring to recollect Dr. B., and addressed him as Dr. Death. 
 
THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 201 
 
 that the offensive part of the speech had given him, and he 
 by degrees recovered his usual state of mind." 
 
 We are inclined to believe, with D'Israeli, " that there are 
 crimes for which men are hanged, but of which they might 
 easily have been cured by physical means." Damien, who 
 attempted the assassination of Louis XV., and who in conse- 
 quence was subjected to the most refined tortures, persisted 
 to the last in declaring that if he had been bled, as he wished 
 and implored to be, the morning previously, he never would 
 have endeavoured to take the life of the king. 
 
 Gaubius relates the case of a lady of a too inflammable con- 
 stitution, whom her husband had reduced to a model of de- 
 corum by phlebotomy. 
 
 In the month of April, M. Delormel was called to Madame 
 Chatelain, at the Chateau de Armanvillers, who, according to 
 the statement of the physician in attendance, was "melan- 
 cholic, hypochondriacal, and insane." She had made several 
 attempts to commit suicide, and was carefully guarded. She 
 had been bled, purged, and well dosed with anti-spasmodics, 
 but to no purpose. M. Delormel examined the patient very 
 carefully, and came to a conclusion respecting her case very- 
 different firom that which had been formed by the other phy- 
 sicians who had seen her. The lady was thirty-seven years 
 of age, of a very neuro-sanguineous temperament, active in 
 body, and most amiable in disposition. For more than two 
 years she had complained of burning heat in her stomach and 
 bowels ; digestion was painful, and constipation habitual. The 
 catameniae were irregular ; she was much emaciated, and the 
 symptoms of melancholia and hypochondriasis were well 
 marked. 
 
 Madame C. could not bear to see her husband and children, 
 to whom she had, when in good health, been affectionately 
 attached. Her chief desire was solitude, and the predominant 
 idea was the conviction of approaching death. From an at- 
 tentive examination of the case, it was pronounced one of 
 chronic gastro-enteritis. Eighty leeches were applied to the 
 
202 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 abdomen, proper medicines were administered, her diet regu- 
 lated, and in less than a month she was completely restored to 
 health of body and mind. 
 
 When it is evident that the patient is suffering from cere- 
 bral congestion, and yet general bleeding is inadmissible, 
 the application of cold to the head by means of a shower bath 
 has often been productive of much good. A young lady who 
 laboured under the disposition to suicide consulted an eminent 
 living physician, communicating to him the particulars of her 
 malady, bitterly lamenting the unfortunate feeling that was 
 undermining her health. After trying various remedies with- 
 out effecting much relief, a cold shower bath was recommended 
 every morning. In the course of ten days, the desire to 
 commit self-destruction was entirely removed, and never after- 
 wards returned. 
 
 A timely-administered purge has been known to dispel the 
 desire of self-destruction. Esquirol knew a man who was de- 
 cidedly insane whenever he allowed his bowels to be in an 
 inactive condition. 
 
 A patient of Falret had well-marked suicidal delirium. So 
 urgent were the symptoms, that he was placed under restraint 
 and carefully watched. Active cathartics were administered, 
 and Falret states that the largest tape-worm he ever saw was 
 evacuated. The idea of suicide soon vanished, and the man 
 was restored in perfect health to his friends and family.* 
 
 Fodere examined the bodies of three persons in one family 
 who fell by their own hands, and in the three cases consider- 
 able disease was discovered in the intestinal canal, which had 
 been irritating the brain and disturbing its manifestations. 
 
 * A medical student, twenty years of age, was seized with mania, arising 
 from the presence of worms in the intestines. He felt the most acute pains 
 in the different regions of his body, appearing to him as if persons were 
 driving arrows into him, more particularly in the palms of his hands and soles 
 of his feet. This caused him to utter most distressing cries, to seek to be 
 alone, and prevented him from walking. The intolerable pains and madness 
 left him as soon as the worms were expelled. 
 
I 
 
 THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 203 
 
 In the instances just referred to, the indication of physical 
 disease of the primae viae were but trifling during Hfe. 
 
 Disease of the stomach and Hver frequently incite to sui- 
 cide ; hepatic affections notoriously disturb the equilibrium of 
 the mind. Many a case exhibiting an inclination to suicide 
 has been cured by a few doses of blue pill. The physician 
 should direct his attention to the condition of the uterine 
 function and the state of the skin. During the puerperal 
 state, a tendency to suicide is often manifested. 
 
 A lady, shortly after her accouchement, expressed, with great 
 determination, her intention to kill herself. Her bowels had 
 not been properly attended to, and a brisk cathartic was 
 given. This entirely removed the suicidal disposition. 
 
 Any irregularity in the action of the uterine organ may 
 give rise to the same inclination. Under such circumstances, 
 emmenagogues will do much good. 
 
 German writers dwell much upon the connexion between 
 suicide and derangement of the cutaneous secretion. That 
 this function should also be attended to there cannot be a doubt, 
 although we cannot call to mind any cases of suicide which 
 could be directly traced to suppressed perspiration. 
 
 In some cases, a blister applied and kept open in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the head has effected much good. In other in- 
 stances, issues have been beneficial, particularly in persons 
 subject to cerebral congestion. There is, however, a condi- 
 tion of brain accompanying the suicidal disposition which may 
 be denominated a state of cerebral irritation, in which bleeding 
 or depletion would be injurious. In such cases, friction on the 
 spine, and the administration of anti-spasmodics, gentle ape- 
 rients, and alteratives, will be serviceable. 
 
 Sufficient attention is not paid to those precursory symptoms 
 which indicate the existence of a disposition to suicide. In 
 two-thirds of the cases that occur, the act is preceded by pre- 
 monitory signs, which, if attended to, will prevent the de- 
 velopement of the propensity. 
 
 With very few exceptions, the mental symptoms are those 
 
204 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 which are principally manifested in these cases. Lowness of 
 spirits, a love of solitude, an indisposition to follow any occu- 
 pation which requires exercise of the mind, are generally ex- 
 hibited. The person's suspicions become roused ; he fancies 
 his dearest friends are regardless of his interests, or are plot- 
 ting against his life. He takes no pleasure in the family 
 circle. He may be suffering from some evident physical 
 malady, acting through sympathy on the brain, and deranging 
 its functions ; and then he will often refer to his disease, and 
 express his utter hopelessness of ever being cured. There is 
 an expression of countenance generally present in a person 
 who meditates suicide, which, if once seen, cannot easily be 
 forgotten. Suicidal mania is easily recognised by the experi- 
 enced physician. The surgeon of a large establishment in the 
 environs of the metropolis informed me, that in six cases out 
 of ten he could detect, by the appearance of the eye, the ex- 
 istence of the desire to commit self-destruction. A young 
 gentleman, a few days previously, had been admitted into the 
 house as a patient. The surgeon, after examining and pre- 
 scribing for the lunatic, said to one of the keepers, " You must 
 
 watch Mr. carefully, for I feel assured he will attempt his 
 
 life." Everything with which he might injure himself, were 
 he so disposed, was taken from him ; but it appears that he had 
 resolved to make away with himself, and had carefully con- 
 cealed a pen-knife in his boot. On the evening of the day on 
 which he was admitted he made a dreadful gash in his throat, 
 but failed in injuring any large vessel. He confessed that he 
 had determined to sacrifice his life ; he said, " It has been 
 pre-ordained that I should fall by my own hands, and I am only 
 fulfilling my destiny by cutting my throat !" Shortly after 
 this he was removed ; and as we have been subsequently in- 
 formed, sufficient care not being taken of him, he eventually 
 succeeded in killing himself. 
 
 How difficult it is for the medical man to persuade the 
 friends of a person who has evinced a disposition to suicide, of 
 the absolute necessity of his being confined and carefully 
 
f 
 
 THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 205 
 
 watched ! A physician, dining with a friend, met by acci- 
 dent a young lady who had exhibited, for a few days pre- 
 viously, a shrewdness of manner that attracted the notice of 
 those with whom she associated. He also observed a wiid- 
 ness and incoherence about her ideas ; but what particularly 
 struck his attention was, the peculiar expression of counte- 
 nance which so often denotes the presence of suicidal mania.* 
 He felt convinced in his own mind that the lady meditated 
 self-destruction ; and so firmly persuaded was he of the fact, 
 that he seriously spoke to the gentleman at whose table he 
 was dining on the subject, and urged him, as he was inti- 
 mately acquainted with the young lady's family, to suggest 
 the propriety of having medical advice, and of carefully watch- 
 ing the movements of the lady. This suggestion was treated 
 with ridicule, and of course the subject was not broached 
 again. Two days after the conversation took place, intelli- 
 gence was brought that the lady had taken a large dose of 
 laudanum, and had died from its effects ! A little prudent 
 caution might have saved the life of this poor unfortunate beino'. 
 In cases in which the disposition to suicide has been 
 evinced, the patient ought to be carefully watched, and, under 
 some circumstances, placed under restraint. Men who talk 
 loudly of the effects of moral coercion, and who repudiate the 
 
 * " When powerful feelings or passions are in active operation, in the insane 
 or in the sane, they draw the muscles of the face into particular forms; and, 
 if they continue for a length of time to be greatly predominant, they impress 
 upon the countenance an appearance indicative of the character. This is 
 felt and acted upon unconsciously in the common intercourse of life. A 
 good countenance is a letter of recommendation ; and we have, in spite of 
 ourselves, an unfavourable feeling towards a stranger where this is absent. 
 Now in the generality of suicidal cases, the desponding feelings are in con- 
 stant and active operation ; hence there is usually a melancholy and gloomy 
 expression of countenance. This arises from no mysterious cause peculiar to 
 insanity, but is perfectly intelligible on common physiognomical principles ; 
 but there are numerous instances where the most experienced physician would 
 be unable to detect, by inspection only, the slightest mark of either a dispo- 
 sition to suicide or insanity. The absence of this expression must not, there- 
 fore, induce us to suppose that this disposition does not exist." — Sir W. 
 Ellis. 
 
206 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 idea of strait-waistcoats &c., have had but little practical 
 experience of the treatment of the insane. Moral discipline 
 has done much good. Deeply should we regret to see the sys- 
 tem which has been in force within our own recollection 
 again introduced into our lunatic asylums. In endeavouring 
 to avoid Scylla we have fallen into Charybdis. How many 
 lives are lost in consequence of the patients not being pro- 
 perly secured when they have exhibited a desire to commit 
 self-destruction. 
 
 A lady who had attempted to destroy herself was very pro- 
 perly sent to an asylum. Having expressed a determination to 
 avail herself of the first opportunity for carrying her intentions 
 into execution, she was most carefully guarded. She was never 
 allowed to be out of sight ; a trustworthy nurse always kept 
 by her side ; and in the course of time she was pronounced 
 recovered. But as it was not considered prudent to send her 
 home at once, she was separated from the other inmates of 
 the house, and allowed to reside with the surgeon and 
 matron of the establishment. Even under these circum- 
 stances it was thought better not to allow her to be wholly by 
 herself, fearful that the disposition might again suddenly de- 
 velope itself. She resided with the surgeon for some weeks, 
 and appeared completely well. She expressed much astonish- 
 ment when told that she had attempted her own life ; she was 
 apparently horrified at the idea. She was sitting with the 
 matron one morning after breakfast ; the surgeon was going 
 round the asylum, when a child was heard to cry up stairs, as 
 if it had received some injury. The matron immediately left 
 the room ; she was not absent three minutes, and when she 
 returned she was astonished to find the young lady had 
 vanished. Immediate search was made for her, but she was not 
 to be found, when, looking behind the curtain in the parlour, 
 the lady was discovered hanging to the cornice ! In that short 
 space of time she had succeeded in suspending herself, and 
 was quite dead. Of course we cannot determine whether she 
 had recovered, and this was but a sudden recurrence of the 
 
THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 207 
 
 suicidal mania, or whether she had cunningly concealed her 
 ailment for the purpose of throwing her attendant off her 
 guard, and thus being enabled to effect her dreadful purpose. 
 We should be more disposed to accede to the latter solution of 
 the question, knowing the extreme cunning of such lunatics, 
 and the ingenious stratagems they often have recourse to in 
 order to accomplish any mischievous object they have in view. 
 A person who manifested indications of mental aberration 
 was found in the act of hanging himself Upon being de- 
 tected, he promised most solemnly to abandon his rash reso- 
 lution. He attempted a second time to kill himself by cut- 
 ting his throat, but the wound was not fatal. He was now 
 placed under the care of a gentleman who had devoted much 
 attention to the treatment of insanity ; and, knowing his pro- 
 pensity, the keeper received strict injunctions to watch his 
 movements carefully. Everything by which he could injure 
 himself was removed from his room, he was shaved every day 
 by a barber, and no instrument of any kind was allowed to 
 be in his possession. He was confined for nine months ; and 
 it appeared, from what afterwards occurred, that he had, 
 during the whole of this period, been absorbed in the one idea 
 of how he should contrive to commit suicide. He was dis- 
 covered one morning hanging by the neck from the bed- 
 stead, quite dead. How he got possession of the cord which 
 suspended him, puzzled everybody acquainted with the his- 
 tory of the case. At last the enigma was solved. It appears 
 that parcels of books and newspapers had occasionally been 
 sent to him by his family, tied with twine ; and he had care- 
 fully, and unknown to the keeper, concealed each piece, 
 until he had collected a quantity to constitute a cord suffi- 
 ciently strong with which to hang himself. For nine months 
 this idea had exclusive possession of his mind ; and although 
 he exhibited no apparent symptoms of insanity, he had 
 evidently been contemplating suicide for the period already 
 specified. 
 
 A female had made repeated attempts, during her residence 
 
208 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 in the asylum at Wakefield, to hang herself, but had been so 
 watched that she had not succeeded. One evening, the 
 servant, on going to remove all her clothes out of her bedroom, 
 thought she saw something bright on the top of one of her 
 under garments ; upon examination, this was found to be a 
 pin. She had contrived just before bed- time to take off her 
 garter ; and, knowing that her pockets as well as her clothes 
 would all be removed, she contrived to pin it within her dress, 
 so high up that it would not easily be perceived. Very pro- 
 videntially, the brightness of the metal discovered it, and she 
 was again prevented from accomplishing her purpose. By 
 degrees the propensity wore off; and after a residence of 
 eighteen years in the Hanwell Asylum, Sir W. Ellis found 
 her a few years ago, living, though upwards of eighty years of 
 age, in a comparatively tranquil state, waiting her removal in 
 the ordinary course of nature. 
 
 When persons determined on suicide find that they are 
 unceasingly watched, and so carefully secured that they have 
 no opportunity of executing their design, they will assume a 
 most cheerful manner for days and weeks together, in order to 
 lull suspicion ; and when a favourable opportunity offers, it is 
 never neglected. 
 
 A man who had long been in a state of despondency, and 
 had made many attempts to hang himself, but had always 
 been prevented, very suddenly appeared much better. He 
 became apparently cheerful, and being desirous of employ- 
 ment, was sent out with a large party into the hay-field. He 
 continued in this and other out-door occupations for some 
 time, gradually improving. One evening, on returning from 
 the field, when the rest of the party went in to tea, (which 
 they were allowed when hay-making,) he told the farming 
 man that he did not feel thirsty, and as it was very warm he 
 would rather remain at the door. He was left there. A 
 short time afterwards his keeper came down to inquire for 
 him, and being told where he had been left, immediately 
 exclaimed, " Then he has hung himself!" It was also 
 
THE SUICroAL DISPOSITION. 209 
 
 singularly impressed upon his mind, that it was in one par- 
 ticular out-house that he had done it. There he went, and 
 found him suspended and dead, as he expected. 
 
 " A noble lord, (says Dr. Rowley,) whose family I had the 
 honour to attend, had received, it is said, some little reproof 
 from a great personage, concerning a military omission. It 
 seized his lordship's mind so seriously, that on examination it 
 was evident to me that suicide was intended. All weapons 
 and dangerous means whatever were removed. It being a 
 circumstance of delicacy, I sent for his lordship's son, then 
 about eighteen, from Westminster school, communicated my 
 apprehensions, and requested his constant attendance on his 
 noble parent. This the young man executed for several days, 
 and prevented the commission of the crime apprehended. In 
 my absence a few hours in the country, a very eminent, 
 learned, and indeed remarkably sagacious physician, but my 
 mortal and vindictive enemy, was called in. I had, contrary 
 to medical etiquette^ enforced the necessity of promptly 
 bleeding a most noble lady in an apoplexy, which saved life, 
 but brought down invectives, hatred, and vengeance on me. 
 Whether out of opposition to my vigilance, or from malicious 
 motives, it would be difficult to determine, but the noble lord 
 was liberated from all restraint, and my apprehensions treated 
 by injurious insinuations and with contempt. Thirty-six 
 hours had scarcely elapsed before the noble lord put a period 
 to his existence, by a sword he had concealed, which had been 
 a present from Prince Ferdinand : he wounded his breast in 
 two places, but the third thrust pierced his heart. Thus 
 perished a nobleman, whose liberality, feelings, and many 
 virtues, did honour to human nature, and who might, in all 
 probability, have been now living, had not medical arrogance 
 and illiberality, merely from personal ambition, dictated 
 error, at the risk of human destruction ! Horridum ! valde 
 horridum /" 
 
 The physician should constantly bear in mind this important 
 fact connected with the suicidal disposition — viz., that those 
 
 p 
 
210 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 determined upon self-destruction often resolve to kill them- 
 selves in a particular manner, and how^ever anxious they may 
 be to quit life, they have been known to wait for months and 
 years, until they have had an opportunity of effecting their 
 purpose according to their own preconceived notions. A 
 man who has attempted to drown himself will not readily be 
 induced to cut his throat, and vice versa. A morbid idea is 
 frequently associated in the maniac's mind with a particular 
 kind of death, and if he be removed from all objects likely 
 to awaken this notion, the inclination to suicide may be 
 removed. 
 
 An old man, upwards of seventy years of age, who had 
 a market garden, near the asylum at Wakefield, consulted 
 the late Sir W. Ellis as to the best mode of destroying him- 
 self, as he had made up his mind not to live any longer. He 
 said he had thought of hanging himself, if Sir William could 
 not recommend an easier death. The physician talked to him 
 some time upon the heinousness of the crime he contemplated, 
 and endeavoured to shew him that hanging was a most hor- 
 rible death, from the suffocation that must be felt. His con- 
 versation was attended with little success. Finding that the 
 chylopoietic viscera were a good deal disordered, he prescribed 
 for him, and sent to inform his wife that he ought never to be 
 left alone. The medicine had the effect of restoring the 
 secretions to a healthy action, and he got better. Sir William 
 heard no more of him for some time, when he was at length 
 informed that he was discovered dead in a little shed in his 
 garden, where he used to keep his tools. But so fixed was 
 the mode in his mind, by which he was determined to accom- 
 plish his death, that, though the place was so low he could 
 not stand upright in it, and he had not a rope or a string with 
 which he could suspend himself, he contrived to effect his 
 purpose by getting a willow twig, and making it into a noose, 
 which he fastened to one of the rafters. He stooped to put 
 his head through it, and then pushing his feet from under 
 him, suspended himself until he died. Now, if he had not 
 
THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 211 
 
 made up his mind to destroy himself in this particular way, 
 he might have accompliished it with much greater ease by 
 drowning himself in the pond in his garden, or by cutting his 
 throat with his garden knife, which he always had about him ; 
 but neither of these was the mode he previously intended. 
 
 It may be practically useful to all who have the immediate 
 care of suicidal patients to bear this in mind ; and if the me- 
 dical man can find out that any particular plan is contemplated, 
 he ought to be especially careful to remove the means of ac- 
 complishing it out of the patient's reach, and to prevent him 
 having an opportunity of carrying it into execution.* 
 
 " A medical friend," says Dr. Burrows, " who had much 
 enjoyed life, and never met with any circumstances to occasion 
 him particular disquietude, when at the age of forty-five 
 became very dyspeptic, low-spirited, and restless. He gra- 
 dually shunned society; but still, though with great reluc- 
 tance, pursued his professional avocations. This depression 
 increased so much that he often told his wife that he should 
 consult me. (He knew very well that both his father and 
 grandfather had destroyed themselves.) 
 
 " One morning he kept in bed much longer than usual, and 
 a relation calling, went up, without being announced, to see 
 him. He seemed composed, at length complained of being 
 very faint, and upon raising him up, blood was perceived on 
 his hands. Upon examination it was discovered, at the 
 moment his friend entered the chamber, he was employed M 
 opening the femoral artery; that there had been consider- 
 able hemorrhage from the small vessels he had divided. I 
 saw him within an hour afterwards. He had recovered firom 
 the syncope, and expressed great sorrow for what he had 
 done ; described with minuteness his case ; lamented he had 
 not seen me sooner, but that he could not muster sufficient 
 resolution ; consented to place himself under my superinten- 
 dence ; and, in fact, to follow all my directions. 
 
 * Ellis on Insanity, 
 p2 
 
212 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 " I placed him in charge of a careful keeper. It was agreed 
 that he should be removed into lodgings in the environs of 
 town ; and he therefore submitted to the necessary medical 
 treatment. 
 
 « He remained two days at home, till lodgings could be 
 procured, during which he was calm and rational ; but there 
 existed the suicidal eye, which sufficiently denoted that he 
 was not to be trusted. 
 
 " On the third morning, his keeper, having a violent attack 
 of rheumatism in his right arm, could not shave him, and 
 another person was obliged to be trusted. This person, un- 
 fortunately, laid the razor on the dressing-table ; and, while 
 his face was turned away, and the keeper was heating some 
 water a few feet from the table, the patient suddenly jumped 
 up, seized the razor, and in a moment applied it to his throat, 
 and effectually divided the carotid artery." 
 
 A case somewhat similar we find recorded by the same 
 
 authority. Major had been wounded at the battle 
 
 of Waterloo. He had since recovered his health, but a great 
 depression of spirits followed. The maniacal diathesis was 
 hereditary. By degrees he became more desponding, his ideas 
 wandered, and at length a suicidal propensity was evident. 
 On visiting him, Dr. Burrows strongly urged the necessity of 
 placing him under the supervision of an experienced keeper ; 
 but here, as in too many cases, his family opposed this ad- 
 vice, and would not permit proper restraint, but put him 
 under the care of a nurse only. In the evening, he retired 
 early to bed. The nurse went to tea in his chamber, sup- 
 posing her charge to be asleep. The patient watched the 
 opportunity, jumped out of bed, seized a knife on the table, 
 wounded, and would have effectually cut his throat, had not 
 the nurse interposed. 
 
 ^* A clergyman in Warwickshire told me," says Dr. Conolly, 
 " that he was requested, some years ago, to interfere respect- 
 ing certain measures proper for securing a neighbour who had 
 exhibited unquestionable symptoms of insanity. His neigh- 
 
I 
 
 THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 213 
 
 bour, however, was not to be met with on the day when it 
 was intended to remove him, and when he reappeared, which 
 was either the next day or in a day or two afterwards, he was 
 quite in a sound state, in which condition he has lived with 
 great comfort up to the present time. On the other hand, an 
 instance came under my own observation in which a gentle- 
 man had shewn many proofs of disordered mind for the space 
 of three or four months, and his actions becoming dangerous, 
 it was resolved to remove him. About two hours before I 
 was to call for him, he was so quiet and orderly in a con- 
 versation with the old family-apothecary, that the latter 
 gentleman rode off to the relations of the patient, relenting 
 all the way concerning the proposed restraint, and purposing 
 to solicit its postponement; in which attempt he was only 
 prevented by being overtaken by a messenger before he had 
 ridden half a mile, who came to inform him that his apparently 
 tranquil patient had nearly blown up his house and his whole 
 family with gunpowder, having for that purpose thrown a 
 pound and a half of it into the fire, sitting by to see it ex- 
 plode. In another case, a gentleman had made repeated 
 attempts at self-destruction, but seemed to have got well, and 
 was no longer much looked after ; yet after living comfortably 
 at home for a little while, and having passed a cheerful even- 
 ing in reading to his wife, he concluded it, when she had 
 retired, by hanging himself in the parlour. 
 
 " These lamentable accidents are, of course, always pro- 
 ductive of disagreeable feelings in the mind of a practitioner ; 
 but never more so than when he has been too confident of 
 the absence of danger. It is questionable, perhaps, whether 
 there are not, in all these cases, certain means of which pru- 
 dence might avail itself, for the purpose of ascertaining the 
 exact state of the supposed convalescent's mind, as well as the 
 existence of such intentions in a lunatic as are inconsistent 
 with the safety of other persons, or with the preservation of 
 his own existence. The lunatic may maintain a very guarded 
 silence on these matters so long as they remain quite unsus- 
 
214 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 pected, but is not very well able, in general, to prevent his 
 intentions becoming visible to those who have begun to 
 suspect him. These intentions, too, are generally associated 
 with certain recollections, or certain topics, or certain anti- 
 pathies or prepossessions, which may be found out and 
 brought into the conversation ; in which case, the lunatic can 
 seldom conceal his agitation, his superstitious belief, his anger, 
 or his inly-cherished hope of full revenge. Indeed, he is 
 often in no degree solicitous to conceal his feelings. There 
 cannot be anywhere a more harmless person than Jonathan 
 Martin; his manners are mild, his occupations are of the 
 most peaceful description, his language is strikingly simple 
 and unassuming ; but take up the Bible, and you have touched 
 the chord of his insanity ; you find that, to destroy the noblest 
 monuments of ancient piety and munificence seems to him a 
 work to which God has especially called him. The effect of 
 possessing a key to the excited feelings of a lunatic is, indeed, 
 always surprising to those unaccustomed to their peculiarities. 
 You walk with a man who seems to delight in the simplest 
 pleasures of a state of innocence ; he admires the flowers of 
 the field and the beauty of the sky, or he dwells with satis- 
 faction on the contemplation of whatever is generous and 
 good ; nothing can exceed the mildness of his manner : but 
 a single word calculated to rouse a morbid train of ideas, a 
 name, the reminiscence of a place, or any trifling inad- 
 vertency, will convert this placid being into a demon; the 
 tones of his voice, his gestures, his countenance, his language, 
 assume, in a moment, the expression of a fiend; and you 
 discover that opportunity alone is wanting to effect some 
 dreadful crime. The discovery of such a design is certainly 
 not always so easy, but wherever suspicion exists, strict 
 superintendence is warranted, or various degrees of restraint 
 must be determined upon, and steadily adhered to."* 
 
 The following cases will shew the necessity of guarding 
 
 * Indications of Insanity. 
 
I 
 
 THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 215 
 
 a person by the strictest surveillance from the moment that 
 he evinces the slightest symptom of mental alienation, when 
 it manifests itself by incongruous expressions or attempts at 
 self-destruction. This precept should be engraven on the 
 mind of every medical man, and no feeling of false delicacy 
 should prevent his communicating his suspicions and wishes 
 the moment he considers measures of precaution necessary. 
 In these cases, the loss of an hour may make all the difference 
 between life and death. 
 
 M. Piorry was called to the Hotel de Bibliotheque, where 
 he found a man of athletic form and military appearance in a 
 state of complete insensibility. He manifested all the indi- 
 cations of apoplexy or epilepsy. Some time elapsed before 
 the physician could ascertain what was the matter ; he could 
 not obtain any satisfactory answers to his repeated questions. 
 At last the patient made Piorry understand that he had 
 swallowed a key. Professor Roux was sent for, who, after 
 considerable difficulty, succeeded in extracting the foreign 
 body from the oesophagus, along with an oblong piece of 
 copper attached by a chain to the handle of the instrument. 
 On the succeeding night he made fresh attempts to destroy 
 himself; first by hanging with the bed-clothes, and, on that 
 mode not proving successful, he endeavoured to strangle him- 
 self by squeezing two chairs against his neck. Thwarted in 
 effecting his design, he again swallowed the key, and he was 
 nearly dead when he was discovered, and the key extracted 
 from his throat. He was now confined in a strait-waistcoat, 
 and was subjected to proper medical treatment. In the course 
 of a short period, all disposition to suicide was removed, and 
 his mind was restored to perfect integrity.* 
 
 A soldier, who was greatly beloved in his regiment for his 
 exemplary conduct and amiable qualities, became affected 
 with suicidal melancholy, and fired a pistol into his mouth. 
 
 * Journ. Gen. de Medecine, Juillet, 1822. 
 
216 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 The havoc made was dreadful ; but by great exertions on the 
 part of M. Petit, who attended the case, his Ufe was preserved. 
 During his confinement, he manifested great anxiety for his 
 recovery, and expressed himself horrified that he should ever 
 have attempted to commit self-destruction. The surgeon and 
 his fiiends entertained every hope that all suicidal tendency 
 was dissipated. The result, however, proved that the whole 
 was a manoeuvre on the part of the patient to lull suspicion 
 to rest, and when he had succeeded by this dissimulation in 
 throwing his friends off their guard, he put an effectual period 
 to his existence whilst in the wards of the hospital. 
 
 The following case exhibits some practical points exceed- 
 ingly worthy of record, and displays besides, in a remarkable 
 degree, the control a lunatic disposed to suicide acquires over 
 himself, his conversation, and conduct, when he wishes to lull 
 suspicion to sleep. In this instance, says Dr. Burrows, who 
 relates the particulars of the case, a most judicious physician, 
 and those in whom he had confidence, all experienced in 
 the phases of this wonderful malady, insanity, and its no less 
 wonderful concomitant, suicide, were completely deceived. 
 
 A medical friend of the Doctor's, travelling over Shooter's 
 Hill, observed a gentleman walking up it, his carriage fol- 
 lowing him. When opposite to each other, the stranger sud- 
 denly fell on his knees in the dirt, and lifted up his hands, as 
 if in earnest prayer. The firiend stopped his post-chaise at so 
 extraordinary a sight, and soon found by his looks and man- 
 ners that the poor gentleman was insane. He immediately 
 accompanied him back to London, and placed him under Dr. 
 B.'s care till his relations were informed of his state. 
 
 The history of the case was this: — The patient was a 
 cavalry officer of rank, aged thirty-five, and had particularly 
 distinguished himself at the recent battle of Waterloo. On 
 that occasion he had two horses killed under him, and was 
 himself wounded in four places. He was first struck on the 
 crown of his helmet by the splinter of a shell, wliich wounded 
 
UNIVERSITY J 
 
 OF J 
 
 ^^""fHE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 217 
 
 the scalp and stunned him ; he was next shot through the 
 fleshy part of the thigh by a grape shot, which at the same 
 time killed his first horse; from these two wounds he lost 
 much blood. Whilst lying under his second horse, he was 
 pierced in the groin by a lance ; and in this helpless condition 
 he received from a French drummer, who was rifling the dead 
 and dying, a violent blow on the temple from the butt-end of 
 a musket, from the effects of which, he remained some time 
 insensible. He was afterwards conveyed in a most deplorable 
 state as a prisoner within the French lines, and though 
 released the same evening by the victorious allies, a long while 
 elapsed before his wounds and exhausted condition received 
 any attention. 
 
 He inherited a predisposition to insanity, and was natu- 
 rally reserved, diffident, and taciturn, but affectionate and 
 generous. 
 
 When he recovered from his wounds, he often complained 
 of pains in his head ; and it was observed that his temper 
 became fretful and suspicious ; that he slept ill, was depressed 
 in spirits, and courted solitude. These symptoms increased 
 latterly. At length he imagined himself the sport of his 
 brother officers, and many other delusions arose. 
 
 There was a moral cause likewise operating which, on a 
 constitution that had recently received so severe a shock, no 
 doubt greatly influenced his disorder. He had applied for 
 promotion in consequence of his sufferings in the service. 
 This was withheld, as he thought, ungraciously, and too 
 long ; and when he was raised a step, his mind was already 
 too much disturbed duly to appreciate it. The anniversary 
 of the glorious battle of Waterloo was just passed, and the 
 recollection of it was painful to him. In this state he came 
 to town. 
 
 He was exceedingly sober and temperate by habit; but 
 during the day before, with a brother officer, he was persuaded 
 to commit an unusual excess in wine, with the hope of raising 
 his spirits. 
 
218 PHYSICAL TREATMENT OF 
 
 This proved a match to the mine. It exploded, and his 
 intellects became completely deranged. 
 
 Dr. Burrows found him with his countenance very wild, the 
 eyes injected and pupils contracted, pulse quick and weak, 
 tongue white, and great thirst. He had had no sleep for five 
 nights. Sometimes exalted, violent, and loquacious; some- 
 times depressed and taciturn. He was rather languid, which 
 was imputed to his having lost full twenty ounces of blood 
 from the rupture of an haemorrhoidal vessel. 
 
 It is not necessary to detail the medical treatment adopted, 
 but we will proceed to those points in the case which are 
 relevant. 
 
 He was placed in lodgings with a careful attendant. In 
 about three weeks he was nearly well, when unluckily a whit- 
 low formed on his finger, and as one of his delusions was that 
 he was rotten in every part, it was the cause, besides pain, of 
 considerable irritation, and it broke his rest ; other delusions 
 returned, but subsided with the pain of the whitlow, and he 
 again greatly improved. 
 
 In six weeks he was so well that the Doctor took his leave, 
 advising him to travel during the remainder of the autumn. 
 The next day some domestic occurrence occasioned violent 
 irritation, and he again relapsed into despondency, unattended 
 by paroxysms of violence ; but he shortly recovered. 
 
 However, instead of going into the country and varying the 
 scene, his lady brought him into town and permitted unre- 
 stricted intercourse with his relations, &c. He grew quarrel- 
 some, suspicious, and very low-spirited, and began to abuse 
 his wife. It was then earnestly recommended that he should 
 be completely separated from all intercourse with her and his 
 connexions, but the advice was disregarded. 
 
 A boil now formed on his body. This irritated him more 
 than the whitlow, and his delusions about his rottenness were 
 more prominent than ever ; but when the boil suppurated and 
 discharged, his mind again improved. 
 
 No persuasion could induce his friends to give him exercise 
 
THE SUICIDAL DISPOSITION. 219 
 
 or diversion, or change the scene. He therefore sat all day 
 brooding over his fantasies, and reading religious books ; for 
 now there was added to his delusions an impression that he 
 was very wicked, and had neglected his religious duties. His 
 face, too, assumed the suicidal expression. 
 
 A month afterwards, a consultation with two eminent phy- 
 sicians confirmed Dr. Burrows' opinion of the treatment to be 
 pursued. But, notwithstanding this consultation, all reme- 
 dial aid was neglected, and he was allowed to follow his own 
 inclinations, both in religious matters and in totally secluding 
 himself. In about three weeks all the symptoms were so much 
 increased that he was sent to a private asylum. A few days 
 afterwards, while walking out, he tried to drown himself, but 
 was rescued by his keeper. He continued in this desponding 
 state some months, when, rather suddenly, he appeared much 
 better ; and continuing to improve, his physician thought him 
 well, and he returned home. Two days only had passed, 
 when he called on the same physician, acknowledged that he 
 was as bad as ever, and entreated earnestly that he might 
 again be received into his house. He was so on that day. 
 The next day he poisoned himself and died. 
 
 It proved, that he had never abandoned the desire of com- 
 mitting suicide ; but he so well concealed it, and otherwise 
 conducted himself, as to lead to the conclusion that he had 
 recovered. It was, in fact, a scheme, the sole object of which 
 was to get out and buy laudanum. Having procured a suffi- 
 cient quantity, but anxious- to save his wife the agony of wit- 
 nessing the act he meditated, he preferred returning to the 
 asylum to execute it. 
 
 A few general principles have been laid down in this 
 chapter to direct the practitioner in the management of 
 certain cases of suicidal insanity. The success of the treat- 
 ment will in a great measure be dependent on the physician 
 making himself acquainted with the minute history of each 
 case submitted to his professional care. No particular rules 
 can be adduced that will be applicable to all cases of this 
 
220 PHYSICAL TREATMENT, ETC. 
 
 description ; much must be left to the judgment of the medi- 
 cal man. The physician should, however, never forget that 
 v^hatever apparently may be the physical disturbance going 
 on in the system, the brain, and the brain alone, is the seat of 
 the disease in all cases of suicide, and to the condition of that 
 organ most particular attention ought to be paid. 
 
221 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE THE RESULT OF INSANITY? 
 
 The instinct of self-preservation — The love of life — Dr. Wolcott's death-bed — 
 Anecdote of the Duke de Montebello — Louis XI. of France — Singular 
 death of a celebrated lav^^yer — Dr. Johnson's horror of dying — The 
 organ of destruction universal — Illustrations of its influence — Sir W. Scott, 
 on the motives that influence men in battle — Have we any test of in- 
 sanity ? — Mental derangement not a specific disease — Importance of 
 keeping this in view — Insanity not always easily detected — Is lowness of 
 spirits an evidence of derangement ? — The cunning of lunatics — Esquirol's 
 opinion that insanity is always present — Moral insanity — The remarkable 
 case of Frederick of Prussia — Suicide often the first symptom of insanity — 
 Cases in which persons have been restored to reason from loss of blood, 
 after attempting suicide — The cases of Cato, Sir Samuel Romilly, Lord 
 Castlereagh, Colton, and Chatterlon examined — Concluding remarks. 
 
 Nature has ordained no law more universal in its influence 
 than the desire which all animated beings display, and which 
 is indeed the governing principle in the greater part of their 
 actions, to preserve their existence, and to secure themselves 
 from the influence of circumstances that bring it into danger. 
 That " no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth it 
 and cherisheth it," is an axiom laid down in scripture, and one 
 founded on reason and observation.* 
 
 * " Pain is an evil ; death, the deprivation of every hope or comfort in this 
 life. No man in his senses will burn, drown, or stab himself; for these all 
 produce what are called evils ; neither can any of these actions be executed 
 
222 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 One of our poets, in alluding to this subject, after declaring 
 life to be the dream of a shadow, " a weak-built isthmus be- 
 tween two eternities, so frail that it can neither sustain wind 
 nor wave," yet avers his preference of a few days', nay, a few 
 hours' longer residence upon earth to all the fame that wealth 
 and honour could bestow — 
 
 ^' Fain would I see that prodigal 
 Who his to-morrow would bestow 
 For all old Homer's life, e'er since he died till now." 
 
 " Is there anything on earth I can do for you ?" said Taylor 
 to Walcott, as he lay on his death-bed. The passion for life 
 dictated the answer, " Give me back my youth ?" These were 
 the last words of the celebrated Peter Pindar. 
 
 Dr. Johnson had a superstitious fear of death. Boswell 
 asked him whether we might not fortify the mind for the ap- 
 proach of death. Johnson answered in a passion, " No, Sir, 
 let it alone ! It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. 
 The act of dying is not of importance ; it lasts so short a time." 
 But when Boswell persisted in the conversation, Johnson was 
 thrown into such a state of agitation that he thundered out, 
 " Give us no more of this ;" and turning to Boswell, he said, 
 with great earnestness, " Don't let us meet to-morrow !" 
 
 " O thou strong heart ! 
 There's such a covenant 'twixt the world and thee. 
 They're loath to break !" 
 
 There is an anecdote recorded of one of the favourite mar- 
 shals of Napoleon, the Duke de Montebello, which finely 
 illustrates the strength of this instinctive principle. During a 
 
 without the probability of pain in the convulsive action or struggles of death. 
 As no rational being will voluntarily give himself pain, or deprive himself of 
 life, which certainly, while human beings preserve their senses, must be ac- 
 knowledged evils, it follows that every one who commits suicide is indubitably 
 non compos mentis, not able to reason justly, but is under the influence of false 
 images of the mind ; and therefore suicide should ever be considered an act of 
 insanity.'* — Dr. Rowley. 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY ? 223 
 
 battle in the south of Germany, the duke was struck by a 
 cannon-ball, and so severely wounded that there was no hope 
 of his surviving. Summoning the surgeon to his side, he 
 ordered the wounds to be dressed ; and when help was de- 
 clared to be unavailing, the dying officer, excited into frenzy 
 by the love of life, burned with vindictive anger against the 
 medical attendant, threatening the heaviest penalties if his 
 art should bring no relief. The dying marshal demanded that 
 Napoleon should be sent for, as one who had power to save, 
 whose words could stop the effusion of blood from the wounds, 
 and awe nature itself into submission. Napoleon arrived in 
 time to witness the last fearful struggle of expiring nature, and 
 to hear his favourite marshal exclaim, as the lamp of life was 
 just being extinguished, " Save me. Napoleon !" 
 
 The following case, which occurred in humble life, illus- 
 trates the same principle : — A man on the point of death 
 vowed he would not die, cursing his physician, who announced 
 the near termination of his life, and insisted that he would 
 live in defiance of the laws of nature. 
 
 It is recorded of Louis XL of France, that so despe- 
 rately did he cling to life when everything warned him to pre- 
 pare for death, that he, in accordance with the barbarous phy- 
 siology of that age, had the veins of children opened, and 
 greedily drank their blood, hoping in that way to fan the 
 dying embers of life into a flame ! 
 
 A once celebrated member of the English bar, whose 
 strong original powers of mind had been obscured and en- 
 feebled by the gross sensuality of his habits, in the extre- 
 mity of his last illness, when the shadows of death were fast 
 coming over him, with a blasphemous audacity, swore by 
 his Creator that he would not die. In this state of morbid 
 and impious rage he struggled out of his bed, tottered down 
 the stairs, and fell lifeless in the passage. From the excla- 
 mation of this unfortunate man, it would seem as if he fancied 
 that he held the reins of life in his hands, and could arrest at 
 will the rapidity of its descending career. 
 
224 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 Spence says, that " Salvini was an odd sort of man, subject 
 to gross absences, and a very great sloven. His behaviour in 
 his last hour was as odd as any of his behaviour in all his 
 lifetime before could have been. Just as he was departing, 
 he cried out in great passion, " Je ne veux pas mourir, absolu- 
 ment ! " 
 
 " The weariest and most loathed worldly life 
 That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment, can lay on man, 
 Is paradise to what we fear of death." 
 
 It is not our intention to consider this subject phreno- 
 logically. That we have all certain good and evil propensities 
 inherent in our nature, developed in various degrees in dif- 
 ferent individuals, is admitted by the anti-phrenologist, as well 
 as by the most zealous advocate of that science. We need no 
 phrenology to tell us, that " the heart of man is deceitful above 
 all things, and desperately wicked :" scripture makes us ac- 
 quainted with this fact. It is useful to look at the dark as 
 well as the bright side of human nature. Without, then, using 
 terms which might be considered objectionable, there can be 
 no doubt of the existence in the human mind of a propensity 
 to destroy, varying in degree from the simple pleasure of 
 viewing the destruction of human life, to the most impassioned 
 desire to kill others or oneself. This is a natural propen- 
 sity, and, when not subdued by the higher faculties of the 
 mind, it exhibits itself in the form of unequivocal insanity. 
 This feeling to destroy may exist in conjunction with a con- 
 sciousness on the part of the individual that he is about to 
 commit a crime opposed to the laws of God and man. Dr. 
 Gall relates many particulars of cases in which this natural 
 propensity became morbidly developed. A student shocked 
 his fellow-pupils by the extreme pleasure he took in torment- 
 ing insects, birds, and brutes. It was to gratify this inclination, 
 he confessed, that he studied surgery. A man had so strong 
 an inclination to kill that he became an executioner; and a 
 Dutchman paid his butcher, who furnished ships with exten- 
 sives supplies of meat, for being allowed to slaughter the oxen. 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY ? 225 
 
 In these cases we see this natural feeling inordinately de- 
 veloped. Subject such persons to the operation of causes 
 likely to excite this extra-developed propensity, and they will 
 murder others or themselves. 
 
 Gall mentions the case of a person at Vienna who, after 
 witnessing an execution, was seized with a propensity to kill ; 
 at the same time, he had a clear consciousness of his situation. 
 He wept bitterly, struck his head, wrung his hands, and cried 
 to his friends to take care and get out of his way. Pinel 
 mentions the case of a man, exhibiting no apparent un- 
 soundness of intellect, who confessed that he had a propensity 
 to kill. He nearly murdered his wife, and then attempted 
 several times to destroy himself. 
 
 In 1805, a man was tried at Norwich for wounding his wife 
 and cutting his child's throat. He had been known to tie 
 himself with ropes for a week to prevent his doing mischief 
 to others and to himself A man exposed to a sudden reverse 
 of fortune was heard to exclaim, " Do, for God's sake, get me 
 confined ; for if I am at liberty I shall destroy myself and 
 wife ! I shall do it, unless all means of destruction are re- 
 moved ; and therefore do have me put under restraint. Some- 
 thing above tells me I shall do it ; and I shall !" 
 
 Whenever the mind is exposed to the influence of excited 
 feeling, and the operation of the reasoning powers are sus- 
 pended, we see the faculty alluded to developed according to 
 the constitution of the individual. On the field of battle, 
 striking examples occur of the various energies of this inclina- 
 tion. One soldier at the appearance of blood experiences the 
 intoxication of carnage ; another will swoon at the same sight. 
 Sir Walter Scott, in the poem in which he has referred to the 
 battle of Bannockburn, alludes to the various feelings that in- 
 fluence the mind in the heat of an engagement ; and it will be 
 perceived that he directs particular attention to those who 
 are influenced by no other motive than the pleasure they de- 
 rive from sacrificing human life : — 
 
 Q 
 
226 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 " But, oh ! amid that waste of life, 
 What various motives fired the strife ! 
 The aspiring noble hied for fame ^ 
 The patriot for his country's claim ; 
 This knight his youthful strength to prove. 
 And that to earn his lady's love ; 
 Some fought for ruffian thirst of blood ; 
 From habit some, or hardihood ; 
 But ruffian stern, and soldier good, 
 
 The noble and the slave, 
 From various cause the same wild road 
 On the same bloody morning trode 
 To that dark inn, the grave." 
 
 What conclusion are we justified in drawing from the facts 
 just related ? Certainly, that there is in us all a disposition to 
 destroy, which is in some wisely and providentially restrained. 
 If this view of the matter be correct, we do not think that we 
 should be wrong in concluding that by far the great majority 
 of cases of suicide result from a morbid development of this 
 natural feeling, consequent upon a primary or secondary affec- 
 tion of the brain. This subject is of great interest in a me- 
 dico-legal point of view, and is well deserving of serious con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Is the act of suicide an evidence of mental derangement ? 
 Before this question can be satisfactorily answered, it would 
 be necessary for us to consider that vexata questio — what is 
 insanity? Have we an unfailing standard to which to ap- 
 peal ; an infallible test by which we can ascertain, with any- 
 thing like a proximity to truth, the sanity of any mind ? Per- 
 haps, if we were to assert that we considered it impossible to point 
 out the line of demarcation which separates the confines of a 
 sane and insane condition of the mind, we might lay ourselves 
 open to an attack. Again, were we bold enough to proclaim 
 our non-adherence to what is considered as the orthodox faith 
 in this matter, and assert that we viewed every departure from 
 a healthy tone of mind, whether in its intellectual or moral 
 manifestations, as an evidence of insanity, we might still more 
 expose ourselves to the merciless lash of the critic; yet these 
 
 I 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY ? 227 
 
 are the opinions to which we should feel most disposed to give 
 our assent. We must make a marked distinction between in- 
 sanity considered as a legal and as a medical question ; and 
 it is greatly owing to our not keeping this essential differ- 
 ence in mind that so much useless reasoning and vitupe- 
 ration has arisen. The man who is daily exposed to the 
 kind and cheering influence of friendship, and who fancies 
 himself alone in the world, without one human being to sym- 
 pathize with him in his afflictions, is as essentially mad as he 
 is who imagines himself to be made of glass, and is fearful of 
 sitting down lest he should injure his brittle glutei muscles. 
 A poet of antiquity wrote a book describing the miseries 
 of the world, and destroyed himself at the conclusion of the 
 task. 
 
 " No man who is oppressed with grief," Crichton justly 
 observes, " and who is constantly preyed on by mental and 
 bodily pain, can be supposed capable of exercising his judg- 
 ment at all times correctly ; a fresh misfortune, imaginary or 
 real, excites an irresistible desire of relief. Tired out, hope- 
 less, dismayed by the threatening aspect of many a bursting 
 cloud ; discerning nothing, whichever way he looks, but a 
 dreary and comfortless life, how can he be supposed capable 
 of taking a clear, calm, and comprehensive view of the obli- 
 gations he owes to his Creator or society, or of reflecting 
 on the sudden vicissitudes which daily occur in human life, 
 and on which every man may safely form some hope, even in 
 the most distressed situation ? The wretchedness of life is 
 the only picture present to the mind of one in whom grief has 
 terminated in such a state of deep melancholy ; the only ob- 
 jects of comparison are the misery of existence on the one 
 hand, and the relief he can obtain by withdrawing himself 
 from it on the other." 
 
 Insanity results from a disease of the brain. Although 
 after death, in many cases, no appreciable structural lesion can 
 be detected in the cerebral mass, it would be illogical for us 
 to conclude that the sentient organ has not been physically 
 
 q2 
 
228 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 j affected. Derangement of mind is but the effect of physical 
 / disease, and, Hke all other diseases, it has an early as well as 
 V an advanced stage. Medical men have not paid sufficient 
 attention to the premonitory indications of mental alienation. 
 Having erected an arbitrary standard of derangement in their 
 own minds, they have been disposed to consider no deviation 
 from mental soundness as insanity, unless it exhibited the symp- 
 toms which their preconceived ideas had led them to suppose 
 necessary, in order to constitute that disease. They have 
 argued as if insanity were a specific disease invariably mani- 
 festing the same phenomena, and in this way definitions have 
 been framed, by which the soundness of the intellect has been 
 tested. It is hardly necessary to say how fallacious all such 
 tests must be. The brain, like every other organ, is liable to 
 a variety of diseases, in all of which the mental faculties are 
 more or less affected. The danger of attempting to erect an 
 arbitrary standard of insanity is this : it induces us to overlook 
 the incipient symptoms of mental derangement, and to consi- 
 der no deviation from soundness of intellect as insanity which 
 does not come within the scope of our definition. The early 
 symptoms of mental aberration are as much an evidence of the 
 presence of insanity, as when the disease is more advanced, 
 and the indications become so apparent that no one hesitates 
 in pronouncing the individual mad. Medical men who have 
 maintained that the act of suicide is not invariably the result 
 of insanity have argued as if the mental ailment was always 
 self-evident and easily detected; whereas, those who have 
 had any experience in the matter know full well, that occa- 
 sionally there are no diseases more difficult of detection than 
 those which relate to a morbid condition of the mind. If an 
 j act of suicide has been committed, and the individual at the 
 I moment of perpetrating it did not manifest evident symptoms 
 of insanity, the conclusion drawn is, that he was perfectly sane 
 at the time. That the facts of the case do not warrant this 
 inference must be apparent to those who consider the subject 
 in an enlarged point of view. If we examine attentively the 
 
I 
 
 THE RESULT OF INSANITY? 229 
 
 majority of cases of suicide, we shall find that the unfortunate 
 persons have laboured, either for some time previously or at the 
 very moment, under depression of spirits, anxiety of mind, and 
 other symptoms of cerebral derangement. Very few cases of 
 suicide take place in which you cannot trace the existence of 
 previous mental depression, produced either by physical or 
 moral agents. It may be said that lowness of spirits is not 
 insanity; certainly not, according to the %aZ definition of the 
 term ; but we may always be assured, that if mental anxiety 
 or perturbation be more than commensurate with the exciting 
 cause, it may be presumed that the individual is labouring 
 under the incipient indications of insanity.* This view of 
 the case is strengthened if an hereditary predisposition to the 
 disease should also be present. 
 
 " It will be said," says Esquirol, " that there are individuals 
 who, in the midst of affluence, grandeur, and pleasures, and in 
 the full enjoyment of reason, have suddenly put an end to their 
 existence, immediately after parting with their friends in good 
 spirits, or after having written letters on business with perfect 
 correctness. Can these be said to be insane when they commit 
 suicide ? Yes ; most undoubtedly. Do not monomaniacs ap- 
 pear perfectly sane on all other subjects, till the particular idea 
 is started which forms the burden of their hallucination ? Are 
 they not capable of curbing the expression of their delirium, 
 and dissembling their aberration of intellect ? It is the same 
 
 * Lowness of spirits ought to be regarded and treated as insanity, says Ellis, 
 and not dreaded as its forerunner. For it is at this stage that suicide is re- 
 sorted to. Should this not be the case, specific hallucinations may speedily 
 appear, and the agony of mind will be endured as a consequence of bankruptcy, 
 the unfaithfulness of a friend, the persecutions of enemies, or the ravages of an 
 incurable disease. No demonstration of the untenableness of such grounds, 
 no picture of brighter and happier circumstances, will avail to refute or en- 
 courage. The sufferer clings to his hoarded misery. There is generally great 
 loss of physical strength in cases of this kind, and the pale emaciated coun- 
 tenance, dull and sunken eye, and listless dejected form, tell as plainly as the 
 querulous complaint, or the long intricate description of sorrows and antici- 
 pated evils, to vvluit class the patient belongs. 
 
230 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 with sane individuals, over whom the suicidal idea tyrannizes. 
 A physical pain, an unexpected impression, a moral affection, a 
 recollection, an indiscreet proposition, the perusal of a passage 
 in writing, will occasionally revive the thought and provoke 
 the act of suicide, although the individual the instant before 
 should be in perfect integrity of mind and body." 
 
 In general, most persons actually insane wish not only to be 
 esteemed free from the malady, but to be considered as possess- 
 ing considerable intellectual endowments ; hence, real lunatics 
 seldom allow the existence of their lunacy ; but are always 
 endeavouring to conceal from observation those lapses of 
 thought, memory, and expression, which are tending every 
 moment to betray them, and of the presence of which they are 
 much oftener conscious than is generally apprehended or be- 
 lieved. Alexander Cruden, when suffering under his second 
 and last attack of mental aberration, upon being asked whether 
 he ever was mad, replied : " I am as mad now as I was for- 
 merly, and as mad then as I am now, that is to say, not mad 
 at any time."^^ 
 
 Again, medical men who have reasoned against this opinion 
 have forgotten entirely one peculiar, and a very remarkable 
 feature of insanity — viz., the singular cunning of lunatics ; 
 how extremely difficult it is in many cases where we know the 
 individual to be unquestionably mad, to make his delusion 
 apparent. The case of the lunatic who indicted Dr. Monro 
 for confining him in his asylum has often been cited. He 
 brought an action against the Doctor at Westminster ; and, 
 although the man was subjected to a most severe examination 
 and cross-examination, his insanity could not be detected. 
 The trial was on the eve of being concluded, when Dr. Sims 
 entered the court, and knowing the man's peculiar delusion, 
 he was requested to ask him a question. He did so, and his 
 insanity instantly became apparent. He brought another action 
 against Dr. Monro in the city of London, and, knowing that 
 he had failed before by acknowledging his love for an imaginary 
 princess, so remarkable a degree of cunning did he exhibit 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY ? 231 
 
 that one of the severest examinations to which a man was 
 ever subjected in a court of justice could not induce the 
 lunatic to disclose the delusion under which he was known to 
 labour. This curious feature of insanity must be taken into 
 consideration in forming an estimate of the presence of de- 
 rangement in cases of suicide, and we must not hastily con- 
 clude, because insanity is not self-evident, that it does not exist. 
 A merchant, fifty-five years of age, of a strong constitu- 
 tion, although of a lymphatic temperament, mild and gentle 
 in his disposition, the father of a numerous family, and who had 
 acquired a considerable fortune in business, experienced some 
 domestic troubles, not sufficiently serious, however, to affect 
 any one of a resolute character. About a year ago, he formed 
 a large establishment for one of his sons, and shortly after- 
 wards became very active, and expressed, contrary to his 
 usual habits, the delight which he felt at his increasing pros- 
 perity. He was also more frequently absent from his ware- 
 house and business than usual. But notwithstanding these 
 trifling changes, neither his family, nor any of his friends or 
 neighbours, suspected any disorder of his reason. One day, 
 whilst he was from home, a travelling merchant brought to 
 his house two pictures, and asked fifty louis for them, which 
 he said was the price agreed on by a very respectable gentle- 
 man who had given his name and address. His son sent 
 away both the pictures and the seller. On his return, the 
 father did not mention his purchase ; but the children began 
 the conversation, alluding to the roguery of the merchant, 
 and their refusal to pay him. The father became very angry, 
 asserting that the pictures were very beautiful, that they were 
 not dear, and that he was determined to purchase them. In 
 the evening, the dispute became warmer, the patient flew into 
 a passion, uttered threats, and at last became delirious. On 
 the next day, he was confided to Esquirol's care. His chil- 
 dren, frightened at their father's illness, and alarmed at the 
 purchase which he had made, looked through their accounts ; 
 and great was their astonishment at seeing the bad state of 
 
232 IS THE ACT OF suicmE 
 
 their books, the numerous blanks which they presented, and 
 the immense deficiency of cash. This irregularity had existed 
 for more than six months. Had this discussion not taken 
 place, one of the most honourable mercantile houses would 
 have been compromised in a few days ; for a bill of exchange 
 of a considerable amount had become due, and no means 
 had been taken to provide for it. 
 
 A patient has been known to weep, and affect the deepest 
 contrition for attempting suicide, when it has been proved 
 that all the time he was meditating on the means of accom- 
 plishing his design. A workman was admitted into a French 
 hospital, having a third time attempted his life. He appeared 
 deeply mortified and broken-hearted that he should have suf- 
 fered a relapse, and was much affected by the remonstrances 
 of his physician. He promised faithfully, in tears, to abandon 
 his rash resolve. Ten minutes afterwards, whilst on his road 
 home, he perceived a piece of cord ; he seized it, made a 
 noose, put his head into it, and suspended himself from the 
 branch of a tree, where he was found dead ! Cases illus- 
 trative of the same fact are mentioned in another part of this 
 work. 
 
 Again, we must bear in mind that insanity is often as much 
 a disease of the moral as of the intellectual faculties, and that 
 it is possible for the intellect to be perfectly sound, and yet 
 for insanity to be present. Moral derangement has not met 
 with that consideration from the profession which its im- 
 portance demands. Insanity often consists in a vitiated con- 
 dition of the moral principle, independently of any delusion 
 of the intellect ; and in many cases of suicide, if we investi- 
 gate their history, we shall find that the alienation has been of 
 this character. A man, whose disposition naturally disposed 
 him to vice, fancied that he had been guilty of committing 
 a nameless offence, and, whilst labouring under this idea, 
 blew out his brains. In this case, the intellect was unaffected ; 
 the derangement consisted in a perversion of the moral powers. 
 Senile insanity, which has been recognised in our courts of 
 
I 
 
 TUE RESULT OF INSANITY? 233 
 
 law, is a derangement of the moral constitution. In cases of 
 this description, it is possible for the person to be conscious 
 of his infirmity, and to confess, with great apparent regret, 
 his inability to control his feelings. " I am impotent, and not 
 fit to live," said a man, and accordingly cut his throat. If 
 we admit the existence of an insanity which consists solely 
 in a perversion of the moral powers, then we should hesitate 
 in pronouncing ex cathedra that insanity is not present be- 
 cause no derangement of the intellectual faculties can be per- 
 ceived. 
 
 Dr. T. Mayo observes, that " no intellectual delusion need 
 be present when self-destruction is coveted. But there must 
 be an extinction of that moral sense which revolts from it 
 on grounds independent of fear. Owing, however, to the 
 systematic neglect of moral symptoms, the suicide is seldom 
 recognised as possessing this destructive tendency until he has 
 made an attempt upon his life ; often, therefore, until all mea- 
 sures must be too late." 
 
 A very common feature of moral mania is a deep perversion 
 of the social affections, whereby the feelings of kindness and 
 attachment that flow from the relations of father, husband, and 
 child, are replaced by a perpetual inclination to tease, worry, 
 and embitter the existence of others. The ordinary scene of 
 its manifestations is the patient's own domestic circle, the 
 peace and happiness of which are effectually destroyed by the 
 outbreakings of his ungovernable temper, and even by acts 
 of brutal ferocity. Frederic William of Prussia, father of 
 Frederic the Great, undoubtedly laboured under this form of 
 moral mania; and it furnishes a satisfactory explanation of 
 his brutal treatment of his son, and his utter disregard of the 
 feelings or comfort of any other member of his family. About 
 a dozen years before his death, his health gave way under his 
 constant debauches in drunkenness ; he became hypochon- 
 driacal, and redoubled his usual religious austerities. He 
 forbade his family to talk of any subject but religion, read 
 them daily sermons, and compelled them to sing, punishing 
 
234 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 with the utmost severity any inattention to these exercises. 
 The prince and his elder sister soon began to attract a pro- 
 portionate share of his hostihty. He obliged them to eat and 
 drink unwholesome or nauseous articles, and would even spit 
 in their dishes, addressing them only in the language of 
 invective, and at times endeavouring to strike them with his 
 crutch. About this time he attempted to strangle himself, 
 and would have accomplished his design had not the queen 
 come to his rescue. His brutality towards the prince arrived 
 to such a pitch that he one morning seized him by the 
 collar as he entered his bed-chamber, and began to beat 
 him with a cane in the most cruel manner, till obliged 
 to desist from pure exhaustion. On another occasion, shortly 
 after, he seized his son by the hair, and threw him on the 
 ground, beating him till he was tired, when he dragged him 
 to a window, apparently for the purpose of throwing him out. 
 A servant hearing the cries of the prince, came to his assis- 
 tance, and delivered him from his hands. Not satisfied with 
 treating him in this barbarous manner, he connived at the 
 prince's attempts to escape from his tyranny, in order that he 
 might procure from a court-martial a sentence of death ; and 
 this even he was anxious to anticipate by endeavouring to 
 run him through the body with his sword. Not succeeding 
 in procuring his death by judicial proceedings, he kept him in 
 confinement, and turned all his thoughts towards converting 
 him to Christianity. At this time, we first find mention of 
 any delusion connected with his son, though it probably 
 existed before. In his correspondence with the chaplain to 
 whom he had entrusted the charge of converting the prince, 
 he speaks of him as one who had committed many and 
 heinous sins against God and the king, as having a hardened 
 heart, and being in the fangs of Satan. Even after he became 
 satisfied with the repentance of the prince, he shewed no dis- 
 position to relax the severities of his confinement. He was 
 kept in a miserable room, deprived of all the comforts and 
 many of the necessaries of life, denied the use of pens, ink, and 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY ? 235 
 
 paper, and allowed scarcely food enough to prevent starvation. 
 His treatment of the princess was no less barbarous. She 
 was also confined, and every effort used to make her situation 
 thoroughly wretched, and though, after a few years, he re- 
 laxed his persecution of his children, the general tenour of his 
 conduct towards his family and others evinced little improve- 
 ment in his disorder, till the day of his death.* 
 
 In considering this point it is important to remember that 
 the attempt at self-destruction is often the first distinct overt 
 act of insanity, A young lady of delicate constitution, but 
 previously in apparent health, started up one day from the 
 tea-table, rushed to the window, and endeavoured to throw 
 herself out. It required several persons to restrain her until 
 a strait-waistcoat could be procured. She remained insane 
 from that time until the day of her death, with very partial 
 glimmerings of reason. " Fortunately," says Mr. Chevalier, 
 who relates the case, " her life was not long protracted." 
 
 It has been inferred, that when an unsuccessful act of 
 suicide has been committed, and the person expresses his 
 regret for what he has been guilty of, that we are justified in 
 concluding that the mind was sane when the suicide was 
 attempted. The effort which Sir Samuel Romilly is said 
 to have made to stop the hemorrhage after having cut his 
 throat, has been cited by a celebrated living authority as an 
 evidence of his previous sanity, f We must bear in mind that 
 many cases of suicide result from derangement of mind 
 dependent on cerebral congestion. 
 
 In such cases, we can imagine a person insane when the 
 act of self-destruction is attempted, and sane immediately 
 afterwards. The loss of blood which a person would sustain 
 from an extensive wound of the throat, particularly when, as 
 is often the case, some large vessel is wounded, would instantly 
 relieve the brain of the superabundant blood which had been 
 oppressing it, and deranging its manifestations, and thus 
 
 * Vide Lord Dover's Life of Frederick, and Ray on Med, Juris, 
 f Dr. J. Johnson. 
 
236 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 producing a return of sanity. That this was the fact in Sir 
 Samuel Romilly's case is evident from its history. There 
 cannot be a shadow of doubt that he was insane when he cut 
 his throat ; and his apparent desire to live after the act was 
 committed, may be attributed to the relief which he had 
 derived from the loss of blood. 
 
 Mr. T. Miller, of Spalding, in a fit of delirium, cut his 
 throat so dreadfully that after languishing three days, he died, 
 lie manifested during this interval the utmost contrition for 
 his offence, declaring he knew not what he had done until he 
 found the blood streaming from his wound. He dictated his 
 will, and talked rationally with his friends till his dissolution.* 
 
 A merchant in the city, not many months back, met with 
 some losses in business. His mind became affected to a certain 
 extent; he felt a strong desire to kill himself; but being a 
 man of education and enlarged capacity, he fought most reso- 
 lutely against this inclination. He had been exposed during 
 one day to the influence of circumstances which caused great 
 mental depression. He said to his head-clerk, previously to 
 his leaving his counting-house, that his head felt heavy and 
 oppressed, and he had a presentiment that something would 
 happen before the morning. The clerk suggested the pro- 
 priety of his having medical advice, but he did not think 
 proper to do so. In this state he went to bed. In the middle 
 of the night he awoke in a state of extreme agitation ; no 
 language could convey an adequate idea of his feelings, 
 and suicide was the only act which held out the hope of 
 relief. In this state he rose from his bed, called up the 
 servants, and commanded them to run for the surgeon. A 
 professional gentleman who lived close by was soon in at- 
 tendance, and the moment he entered the room the patient 
 exclaimed, " Bleed me, or I shall cut my throat I" The opera- 
 tion was instantly performed, and as the blood flowed from 
 the vein the patient exclaimed, " Thank God ! I have been 
 
 * Hill on liibduity. 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY ? 237 
 
 saved from committing self-murder." Every disposition to 
 suicide was immediately removed. 
 
 The following is an extract of a letter found in the pocket 
 of Captain Aitkins, of the Pembroke Fusileers, who com- 
 mitted suicide : — " As some inquiry may be instituted as to 
 the cause of my death, I think it necessary to state that it was 
 inflicted by my own hand, partly from pecuniary embarrass- 
 ment, and partly from the effect of strong nervous malady, 
 which has fixed itself on my spirits so as to render life in- 
 supportable." In this case we have no hesitation in asserting, 
 that if the brain could have been relieved of the unnatural 
 weight which oppressed it, this poor man would not have 
 stained his hand with his own blood. 
 
 In many cases the delusion of the intellect is so self- 
 evident that no one questions the existence of insanity. A 
 respectable Scotch merchant, near Pimlico, committed suicide 
 by cutting his throat. He fancied the devil was in him ; he 
 asserted he could feel him in his throat. On examining his 
 room after his death, two wills were discovered, in one of 
 which he desires his executors to employ a surgeon to open 
 his body, that the devil might be found, secured, and de- 
 stroyed ; and in this way, he says, he will be prevented from 
 injuring any one else. 
 
 Many other cases could be cited in which the act of suicide 
 was clearly traceable to mental derangement, were it con- 
 sidered necessary further to illustrate this point. Much evil 
 has resulted from the opinions which the profession have en- 
 tertained relative to the absence of insanity in cases of those 
 who have exhibited a disposition to destroy themselves. In 
 this matter, the principle which the great Edmund Burke 
 applied to politics is equally applicable to medicine — " We 
 had better be blamed for too anxious apprehension, than be 
 ruined by too confident a security." 
 
 It is a safe doctrine always to presume the presence of in- 
 sanity in those who have exhibited a desire to commit suicide. 
 A person who has once attempted to take away his life cannot 
 
238 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 be trusted, notwithstanding he manifest the usual evidences 
 of a sane intellect. It is astonishing to consider the ingenious 
 tricks and stratagems to which a person whose mind is bent on 
 self-destruction will have recourse in order to effect his purpose. 
 We find recorded the case of a woman who was tried for her life, 
 and who, in order that she might escape from the hands of the 
 executioner, applied a hundred leeches to her body, hoping to 
 bleed to death. Another female exposed herself to a swarm 
 of bees ; and we read of an apothecary who endeavoured to 
 beat out his brains with his own pestle. 
 
 A builder, who had been found fault with by his employer, 
 became melancholy, and finally determined upon self-destruc- 
 tion. He hurried to a steep part of the high road, where 
 vehicles of all descriptions were compelled to put on the drag 
 in the descent. Here he waited until a heavily loaded wagon 
 reached the spot, when he seized hold of one of the wheels 
 that was not locked, and applying his body to the circumfer- 
 ence, was instantly crushed. 
 
 A woman cut her throat severely, but not fatally. Her 
 friends could not be prevailed on to believe that she was in- 
 sane. She recovered, but shewed such evidences of that un- 
 happy condition, through the whole progress of her cure, as 
 were sufficiently unambiguous to every competent judge. She 
 had speculated unsuccessfully in the lottery, and it was in- 
 sisted that the rash act was solely to be ascribed to her disap- 
 pointment in this venture. Soon after her recovery, and when 
 her affairs had assumed a more comfortable train, she went up 
 one day into her bed-room, and being thought to stay longer 
 than was necessary, a person went to see after her, and found 
 her sitting before a dressing-glass, with a basin under her chin, 
 and a knife in her hand, cutting her throat again, as delibe- 
 rately as a surgeon would have performed an operation. She 
 recovered this time also, and afterwards made a third and 
 successful attempt. 
 
 A maniac who was extremely turbulent, and had evinced 
 a strong propensity to destroy himself, was confined, and 
 
I 
 
 THE RESULT OF INSANITY? 239 
 
 everything taken from him which could be imagined in 
 any way capable of being instrumental for such a purpose. 
 He was remarked on one occasion to be unusually quiet, and 
 on his keeper looking through an aperture in his apartment, 
 he discovered him scooping out his eyes with a bit of broken 
 china found by him in the mattress, which he had torn to 
 pieces ; and with his face full in the glare of the sun, he had 
 completely accomplished this horrid act before the door 
 could be opened to secure him. 
 
 A gentleman of some political consequence in France had 
 an attack of apoplexy, from which he recovered by copious 
 bloodletting. Some years afterwards, he had a fall from his 
 horse, and was wounded severely in his head, the injury oc- 
 casioning fever and delirium of some weeks' duration. After 
 this accident, he evinced some marks of mental aberration. He 
 threw up his post under government, and retired to his 
 chateau in the country, for the purpose of concocting, as he 
 said, a scheme for uniting the people of all nations. To pre- 
 pare a suitable edifice for this philanthropic union, he began 
 to pull down his chateau ; but being interrupted by his friends, 
 he came to Paris, and one day jumped off the Pont-Neuf into 
 the middle of the Seine. He swam manfully, and reached 
 the shore in safety. He was so proud of this exploit that he 
 considered himself invulnerable, and began next day to run 
 in the way of carriages or fiacres he met in the street, calling to 
 the drivers that they need not mind him, as he could not be 
 injured ! He was seized and carried home, but in a day or 
 two jumped out of the chamber window into the street. He 
 was then placed in M. EsquiroFs establishment, and consi- 
 dered as an incurable maniac. 
 
 During the French revolution, a case of mania without 
 delirium gave rise to an extraordinary scene at the Asylum 
 de Bicetre. The mob, after the massacre of the prisons, 
 broke like madmen into the above hospital, under pretence of 
 emancipating certain victims of the old tyranny, whom it had 
 endeavoured to confound with the maniacal residents of that 
 
240 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 house. They proceeded in arms from cell to cell, interro- 
 gating the prisoners, and passing such of them as were mani- 
 festly insane. A maniac, bound in chains, arrested their 
 attention by the most bitter complaints which he preferred, 
 with apparent justice and rationality. " Is it not shameful," 
 said he, " that I should be bound in chains, and confounded 
 with madmen." He defied them to accuse him of any act of 
 impropriety or extravagance. '* It is an instance of the most 
 flagrant injustice !" He conjured the strangers to put an end 
 to such oppression, and to become his liberators. His com- 
 plaints excited amongst the armed mob loud murmurs and 
 imprecations against the governor of the hospital. They im- 
 mediately sent for that gentleman, and, with their sabres at 
 his breast, demanded an explanation of his conduct. When 
 he attempted to justify himself, they imposed silence upon 
 him. To no purpose did he adduce, from his own expe- 
 rience, similar instances of maniacs who were free from de- 
 lirium, but at the same time extremely dangerous from their 
 outrageous passions. They answered him only with abuse ; 
 and had it not been for the courage of his wife, who pro- 
 tected him with her own person, he would have been sacri- 
 ficed to their fury. They commanded him to release the 
 maniac, whom they led in triumph with reiterated shouts 
 of " Vive la Republique !" The sight of so many armed men, 
 their loud and confused shouts, and their faces flushed with 
 wine, roused the madman's fury. He seized with a vigorous 
 grasp the sabre of his next neighbour, brandished it about 
 with great violence, and wounded several of his liberators. 
 Had he not been promptly mastered, he would soon have 
 made them repent their ill-timed humanity. The savage mob 
 then thought proper to lead him back to his cell, and, with 
 shame and reluctance, yielded to the voice of justice and ex- 
 perience. 
 
 Many modern and ancient cases of suicide have been referred 
 to in support of the opinion that insanity is not necessarily pre- 
 sent under such circumstances. The conclusions drawn from the 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY? 241 
 
 history of ancient cases, such as Cato, Cleopatra, Cassius, &c., 
 cannot fairly be made use of in the present inquiry ; and yet 
 if we examine these instances, which have been so triumphantly 
 brought forward as incontrovertible proofs that it is possible 
 for a person with a mind perfectly unclouded and free from 
 even the semblance of aberration to commit suicide, we 
 shall discover that they are not such good illustrations in sup- 
 port of the doctrines which they who cite them are anxious 
 to uphold. 
 
 The suicide of Cato has often been referred to, and is con- 
 sidered a most apt and conclusive instance in point. We 
 admit this case is one of great importance, inasmuch as it has 
 been held up as an example to others of a man who sacrificed 
 his own life to promote the interests of his country. How 
 many have been induced to plunge recklessly into another 
 world in imitation of the conduct of the Roman hero ! 
 
 Was Cato perfectly sane when he sacrificed his life ? We 
 are disposed to think not. His whole conduct immediately 
 preceding the last fatal act of his life evinces the extreme 
 mental agitation under which he laboured ; despair had taken 
 possession of his faculties; the ambition and the hopes of 
 years were prostrated in a moment to the dust, and to escape 
 from a long life of tyranny, he perished on his own sword. 
 
 Many modern cases have been cited as evidence of the 
 coolness and coUectedness which many have exhibited in the 
 act of suicide. The Rev. Mr. Colton, the accomplished author 
 of " Lacon," is said to have been sane when he committed self- 
 destruction. He shot himself with a pistol after having written 
 the following apophthegm : " When life is unbearable, death is 
 desirable, and suicide justifiable." The last few weeks of 
 Colton's life were embittered by acute mental and physical 
 suffering. He was involved in great pecuniary difficulties, 
 and was dependent for the necessaries of life on the charity of 
 his friends. Independently of this, he laboured imder a very 
 painful disease, and it was when exposed to this combination 
 of misery that he committed suicide. His biographer states 
 
 R 
 
242 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 that there was no doubt of Colton's insanity at the time of his 
 death; it was evident to all who were about him. The 
 evidence in Sir Samuel Romilly's case is as strongly corrobo- 
 rative of his derangement as in that of poor Colton's. At the 
 time, he was suffering from the loss of a wife to whom he was 
 most dotingly attached, and the cerebral derangement was so 
 apparent that his physician ordered him to be cupped in the 
 nape of the neck a short period previously to his killing 
 himself. Lord Castlereagh's insanity was also clearly mani- 
 fested. His whole conduct on the day he cut his throat led 
 irresistibly to the conclusion that he was not in his right senses. 
 His strange manner was noticed some time previously in the 
 House of Commons. The Duke of Wellington saw the neces- 
 sity of medical advice, and had a physician sent to him; in fact, 
 the evidence was as strong as evidence could be, and no one 
 at the time questioned the correctness of the verdict. There 
 were many peculiar circumstances connected with his lordship's 
 early history which ought to be borne in mind before we con- 
 clude that he was of sane mind at the moment of his suicide. 
 It is now more than thirty-five years ago that the following 
 singular circumstance occurred to the Marquis of Londonderry: 
 He was on a visit to a gentleman in the north of Ireland. 
 The mansion was such a one as spectres are fabled to inhabit. 
 The apartment, also, which was appropriated to his lordship 
 was calculated to foster such a tone of feeling from its antique 
 character; from the dark and richly carved panels of its 
 wainscot ; from its yawning chimney, looking like the entrance 
 to a tomb ; from the portraits of grim men and women arrayed 
 in orderly procession along the walls, and scowling a con- 
 temptuous enmity against the degenerate invader of their 
 gloomy bowers and venerable halls ; and from the vast, dusky, 
 ponderous, and complicated draperies that concealed the win- 
 dows, and hung with the gloomy grandeur of funeral trap- 
 pings about the hearse-like piece of furniture that was 
 destined for his bed. Lord Londonderry examined his 
 chamber; he made himself acquainted with the forms and 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY? 243 
 
 faces of the ancient possessors of the mansion as they sat 
 upright in their ebony frames to receive his salutation ; and 
 then, after dismissing his valet, he retired to bed. His candle 
 had not long been extinguished when he perceived a light 
 gleaming on the draperies of the lofty canopy over his head. 
 Conscious that there v^as no fire in his grate ; that the cur- 
 tains were closed; that the chamber had been in perfect 
 darkness but a few minutes previously, he supposed that some 
 intruder must have entered into his apartment ; and, turning 
 round hastily to the side from whence the light proceeded, he, 
 to his infinite astonishment, saw not the form of any human 
 visitor, but the figure of a fair boy surrounded by a halo of 
 glory. The spirit stood at some distance from his bed. Certain 
 that his own faculties were not deceiving him, but suspecting 
 he might be imposed on by the ingenuity of some of the 
 numerous guests who were then inmates of the castle. Lord 
 Londonderry advanced towards the figure ; it retreated before 
 him ; as he advanced, the apparition retired, until it entered 
 the gloomy arch of the capacious chimney, and then sunk 
 into the earth. Lord Londonderry returned to his bed, but 
 not to rest ; his mind was harassed by the consideration of 
 the extraordinary event which had occurred to him. Was it 
 real, or the effect of an excited imagination ? The mystery 
 was not so easily solved. 
 
 He resolved in the morning to make no allusion to what 
 had occurred the previous night, until he had watched care- 
 fully the faces of all the family, to discover whether any 
 deception had been practised. When the guests assembled at 
 breakfast, his lordship searched in vain for those latent smiles, 
 those conscious looks, that silent communication between 
 parties, by which the authors and abettors of such domestic 
 conspiracies are generally betrayed. Everything apparently 
 proceeded in its ordinary course ; the conversation was ani- 
 mated and uninterrupted, and no indication was given that 
 any one present had been engaged in the trick. At last, the 
 hero of the tale found himself compelled to narrate the sin- 
 
 r2 
 
244 IS THE ACT OF SUICIDE 
 
 gular event of the preceding night. He related every parti- 
 cular connected with the appearance of the spectre. It 
 excited much interest among the auditors, and various were 
 the explanations offered. At last, the gentleman who owned 
 the castle interrupted the various surmises by observing that 
 '^ the circumstance which had just been recounted must 
 naturally appear very extraordinary to those who have not 
 been inmates long at the castle, and are not conversant with 
 the legends of his family ;" then, turning to Lord Londonderry, 
 he said, " You have seen the Radiant Boy. Be content ; it is 
 an omen of prosperous fortunes. I would rather that this sub- 
 ject should not again be mentioned." * 
 The case of Chatterton — 
 
 " The marvellous boy, 
 The sleepless soul that perish'd in his pride" — 
 
 has been adduced ; but nO one acquainted with the history 
 of this unfortunate youth would doubt for one moment that 
 he was insane. Chatterton possessed naturally acute sen- 
 sibilities; he was unquestionably a man of genius. When 
 the forgery of Rowley's poems was detected, his mind re- 
 ceived a severe shock ; friend after friend forsook him. All 
 his bright and cheering hopes were levelled to the earth ; his 
 character for integrity was gone ; the world, which had been 
 so eager to court his society and friendship, turned its back 
 upon him ; misfortunes followed in rapid succession, until he 
 was frenzied by mental agony and physical suffering. At the 
 time of his death he was in want of the common necessaries 
 of life, realizing the affecting picture of the poet — 
 
 " Homeless, near a thousand homes he stood, 
 And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food," 
 
 Under such circumstances, it is not surprising that poor 
 
 * This was no doubt an hallucination of the senses. On another occasion, 
 when in the House of Commons, Lord Castlereagh fancied he saw the same 
 " Radiant Boy." Does not this fact establish that his lordship's senses were 
 not always in a healthy condition ? It is possible that when impelled to suicide 
 he laboured under some mental delusion. 
 
THE RESULT OF INSANITY? 245 
 
 Chatterton's mind should have been overthrown, and that he 
 should have been led to commit suicide. A few days before 
 his death, he wrote to his mother in these terms : — " I am 
 about to quit for ever my ungrateful country. I shall ex- 
 change it for the deserts of Africa, where tigers are a thou- 
 sand times more merciful than man." A very important fact 
 connected with Chatterton's case ought to be borne in mind — 
 viz., that insanity was in his family. 
 
 We have entered at some length into the consideration of this 
 question, because we felt it to be one of great importance. 
 In forming an estimate of the condition of a person's mind 
 who has committed suicide, the coroner and jury should make 
 particular inquiries into the following points: — First, as to 
 state of mind for some time prior to the act. In many, and 
 in fact, in all cases, if proper evidence can be obtained, it will 
 be discovered that the person has laboured under depression 
 of spirits, either resulting from physical or mental causes. 
 Inquiry should be instituted as to the presence of any disease 
 of the stomach or liver which may have operated injuriously 
 on the mind. In many cases it will be found that the suicide 
 has received at some period of his life a blow on his head, 
 giving rise to cerebral injury, which may remain latent for a 
 great length of time, and suddenly manifest itself Is insanity, 
 particularly suicidal insanity, in the family ? What was the 
 person's natural character ? Was he liable to sudden bursts of 
 passion? Had his mind been dwelling on the subject of 
 suicide ? Was he monomaniacal, or remarkable for any pecu- 
 liar eccentricity ? All these various but important questions 
 should be carefully sifted, should the coroner entertain any 
 doubts as to the presence of mental derangement in such 
 cases. In another chapter we have considered the unjusti- 
 fiableness of a jury ever returning a verdict of felo-de-se. 
 
246 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH MEDICAL 
 JURISPRUDENCE. 
 
 The importance of medical evidence— The questions which medical men have 
 to consider in these cases — Signs of death from strangulation— Singular 
 positions in which the bodies of those who have committed suicide have 
 been found— The particulars of the Prince de Conde's case — On the pos- 
 sibility of voluntary strangulation — General Pichegru's singular case — 
 The melancholy history of Marc Antonie Galas — How to discover whe- 
 ther a person was dead before thrown into water — Singular cases — Admi- 
 ral Caracciolo — Drowning in a bath — The points to keep in view in cases 
 of suspicious death — Was Sellis murdered ? — Death fiom wounds — The 
 case of the Earl of Essex. 
 
 Medical men are frequently called upon in our courts of law 
 to give evidence in cases v^here it is doubtful whether persons 
 found dead were murdered or committed suicide. The ques- 
 tions involved in these judicial inquiries are of great public 
 importance, and it is the sacred duty of medical men, for the 
 sake of their own characters, and for a much higher consider- 
 ation — for the ends of justice, to make themselves thoroughly 
 conversant with all the evidence which can be brought to bear 
 in the elucidation of such important questions. Our criminal 
 annals are replete with illustrations in which individuals ac- 
 cused of the atrocious crime of murder have been saved from 
 a dreadful and ignominious death by medical evidence. Cases 
 also are recorded in which death has been ascribed to suicide, 
 but which after investigation have been proved to have been 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 247 
 
 effected by other hands. In doubtful cases of this de- 
 scription, the evidence of the medical man is of the highest, 
 importance ; without it, in the great majority of cases, justice 
 would be defeated. 
 
 In the cases of persons found hanging, two questions natu- 
 rally suggest themselves to the mind: — 1. Whether the indivi- 
 dual was suspended before or after death. 2. Whether it was 
 an act of suicide or murder. It is possible, and such cases 
 have occurred, that a person may have been hanged up after 
 having been nmrdered, or may have endeavoured to destroy 
 himself by firearms, or by cutting his throat, and suspend him- 
 self afterwards, not being able to effect his purpose in any other 
 way. In the first case we might mistake murder for suicide ; 
 and in the second, suicide for assassination. The following 
 are the signs of death from strangulation: — The countenance 
 is livid and distorted ; the eyes protrude, and are often suf- 
 fused with blood ; the tongue projects and is wounded by the 
 teeth. If the rope be placed below the cricoid cartilage, the 
 tongue will protrude; but if it presses above the thyroid carti- 
 lage, the tongue will not be seen in the position described. It 
 was formerly the generally received opinion that persons who 
 were hanged died of apoplexy ; but the experiments of Sir 
 B. Brodie and other physiologists clearly prove that death is 
 owing to suffocation. The livid or depressed circle which 
 the rope is said to make round the neck is pronounced by 
 M. Klein to be an uncertain sign; he saw fifteen cases of suicide 
 in which it was not discovered. Remer, of Breslaw, who has 
 recently directed his mind to the consideration of this impor- 
 tant point, found, out of one hundred cases of persons who 
 died from strangulation, eighty-nine with sugillation on the 
 neck in an evident manner. In addition to the signs men- 
 tioned, others have been enumerated. The fingers are said to 
 be found bent, the nails blue, hands nearly closed, with swell- 
 ing of the chest, shoulders, arms, and hands. 
 
 If the body be not suspended, but touches, more or less, the 
 ground or floor, while the cord is not tight enough for the pur- 
 
248 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH 
 
 pose of strangulation, and there be no manifestations of any 
 other means of death, there can hardly be room to doubt as to 
 self-murder. It is true that the mere resting of the toes 
 takes away but little of the character of suspension, but we 
 may meet with stronger cases. A few years ago, a man, aged 
 seventy-five, destroyed himself at Castle Gary, in the morn- 
 ing, by fixing a cord round his neck while sitting on the 
 bed-side, and leaning forward till his purpose was accom- 
 plished. His wife, who had for years been bedridden, and was 
 therefore not likely to have been very fast asleep, was in the 
 room during the transaction, and knew nothing of what was 
 going on. A prisoner hung himself in a gaol by fastening the 
 cord to one of the window-bars, and pushing himself away 
 from it with his arm. 
 
 Persons have both wounded and hung themselves. This 
 may be effected by placing the cord in a wrong position, which 
 would protract the person's sufferings, and compel him to strug- 
 gle and make violent efforts to kill himself. Ballard relates, 
 that a young priest, having first cut his throat to a certain 
 extent, hung himself with his robe.* In cases like these there 
 can be little difficulty in ascertaining the real cause of death. 
 
 In a memoir published in a French journal, f there are 
 related several instances of self-destruction by hanging, where 
 the bodies were found in the most extraordinary positions and 
 attitudes. A man was discovered in a granary hanging by a cot- 
 ton handkerchief, made fast to a rope which stretched across ; 
 the knees were bent, so that the legs formed a right angle back- 
 wards; the feet were suspended on a heap of grain, over 
 which the knees hung at a distance of a few inches. A pri- 
 soner was found suspended in a vertical position, with his 
 heels resting on a window-stool. An Englishman, a prisoner 
 in Paris, hung himself in his cell, which was an apartment 
 with an arched roof, and at the lower part of it was a grated 
 
 * Notes to Meizger. 
 I Annales de Ilyg. pub. et de Med. Leg. torn. v. p. 156. 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 249 
 
 window, the highest part of which was not near the height of 
 a man. Nevertheless, he hung himself to this grating, and was 
 found almost sitting down, with his legs stretched out before, 
 and his hips within a foot and a half of the ground. Another 
 case is related of a man whose attitude was similar to the case 
 first described. He had suspended himself to a large iron 
 pin driven into the wall to support the bed-curtains, and his 
 feet, bent at a right angle, rested on the bed, while his knees 
 approached it within a few inches. A female suspended her- 
 self so low that, in order to accomplish her purpose, she was 
 obliged to stretch out her legs, one before resting on the heel, 
 the other behind resting on the toes. A female was found 
 stretched at the foot of her bed, the legs, thighs, and left hip 
 lying on the floor ; the upper part of the body was raised, and 
 suspended by a cord fixed to the neck, and fastened to the 
 hospital bed. 
 
 A patient in La Charite was found one morning hanging by 
 the rope which was attached to the head of his bed. He had 
 fastened this by a loop round his neck, but his body was so re- 
 tained, that when discovered he was on his knees by the side 
 of his bed. 
 
 In 1832, at the west end of the town, a man was found 
 hanging in his room, with his knees bent forwards and his feet 
 resting upon the floor. He had evidently been dead for some 
 time, since cadaverous rigidity had already commenced. The 
 manner in which this man had committed suicide was as fol- 
 lows : — He had made a slip knot with one end of his apron, 
 (he was a working mechanic,) and having placed his neck in 
 this, he threw the other end of the apron over the top of the 
 door, and shutting the door behind him, he had succeeded in 
 wedging it in firmly. At the same moment he had probably 
 raised himself on tip-toeT, and then allowed himself to fall ; in 
 this way he died. The weight of his body had apparently 
 sufficed to drag down a part of the apron, for it seemed as if 
 it had been very nmch stretched. 
 
 In October, 1833, a gentleman who was employed as an 
 
 I 
 
250 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH 
 
 assistant in a respectable school in the neighbourhood of London, 
 was discovered by some of his pupils, one morning, in a sitting 
 posture, on a dark part of a staircase of the house. Upon exa- 
 mining further, it was ascertained that he was completely dead, 
 and that he was suspended to the banisters by a cravat firmly tied 
 round his neck. The deceased had evidently made two similar 
 attempts at self-destruction before he succeeded, as part of a 
 silk pocket-handkerchief and his braces were found suspended 
 to other parts of the banisters. It seemed scarcely possible to 
 those who discovered him that the deceased could really have 
 accomplished suicide by hanging in such a situation, for his 
 body was resting entirely on the stairs, and, making every 
 allowance for the slipping of the ligature by which he was 
 suspended, still his feet must have been throughout in con- 
 tact with the stair. 
 
 There have been few medico-legal investigations of late 
 years which have excited greater interest than the case of the 
 Duke de Bourbon, in France. 
 
 On the 27th August, 1830, the duke was found suspended 
 in his bed-room, in the chateau of St. Leu. An inquest was 
 held the same morning on the body, and from the evidence of 
 the witnesses, as well as from the reports of the physicians and 
 surgeons who examined it, a verdict was returned to the 
 effect that the duke had committed suicide in a fit of tem- 
 porary insanity. This event did not excite much notice until 
 the contents of his will were made public. 
 
 The deceased, it appears, had made his will in favour of the 
 Baroness de Feucheres, a female who had lived with him for 
 some years, bequeathing to her the whole of his immense estates, 
 and leaving the Duke d'Aumale, the youngest son of the king 
 of the French, residuary legatee. The Princes de Rohan, heirs 
 by collateral descent to the deceased, thus finding themselves 
 deprived of an expected inheritance, attempted to set aside the 
 will, alleging that undue influence had been exercised over 
 him. The cause came on for hearing before the First Cham- 
 ber of the Civil Tribunal of Paris, in December, 1831, and 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 261 
 
 excited considerable attention, not so much in consequence of 
 the dispute concerning the vaUdity of the will, as of the ques- 
 tion which was raised during the trial, — whether the duke had 
 committed suicide, or whether he had been murdered, and 
 afterwards suspended, in order to defeat the ends of justice. 
 
 The facts of the case, collected from the proces verbaux, 
 are as follows : — The deceased had naturally partaken of the 
 alarm which had diffused itself throughout France in conse- 
 quence of the events of the revolution of 1830. Some of his 
 most intimate friends declared that, for some time previously 
 to his death, his mind had been filled with the most gloomy 
 forebodings as to what this new order of things would bring 
 about. On the morning of the 27 th, his servant went, as 
 usual, to his bedroom door about eight o'clock ; but receiving 
 no answer on knocking, he became alarmed. Madame de 
 Feucheres then accompanied the valet to the door of the 
 room, which was fastened on the inside ; and receiving no 
 reply after calling to the duke in a loud voice, she ordered it 
 to be broken open. On entering the apartment, the body of 
 the deceased was found suspended from the fastening at the 
 top of the window-sash by means of a linen handkerchief, 
 attached to another which completely encircled the neck. 
 The head was inclined a little to the chest ; the tongue pro- 
 truded from the mouth ; the face was discoloured ; a mucous 
 discharge issued from the mouth and nostrils ; the arms hung 
 down ; the fists were clenched. The extremities of both feet 
 touched the carpet of the room, the point of suspension being 
 about six feet and a half from the floor ; the heels were ele- 
 vated, and the knees half bent. The deceased was partly 
 undressed ; the legs were uncovered, and had some marks of 
 injury on them. Among other points of circumstantial evi- 
 dence, it was remarked that a chair stood near the window to 
 which the deceased was suspended, and the bed looked as if 
 it had been lain on. 
 
 The medical witnesses, who examined the body soon after 
 its discovery, stated that they found it cold, and the extremi- 
 
252 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH 
 
 ties rigid, from which they inferred that the deceased had 
 been dead eight or ten hours. This would have fixed the 
 time of his death at midnight of August 26th. The body 
 underwent a second examination, a report of which was fur- 
 nished to the legal authorities, on the following day. Five 
 medical men were present at the inspection ; and they gave it 
 as their opinion, from the post mortem appearances — 1st, that 
 the deceased had died by hanging ; and, 2ndly, from the ab- 
 sence of all marks of violence or resistance about the person 
 or clothes of the deceased, and other facts, that he had des- 
 troyed himself. They considered that the contusion on one 
 arm, and the excoriations observed on both legs, must have 
 arisen from the rubbing of these parts against the projecting 
 rail of the chair near the window. The mark on the neck of 
 the deceased they described to be large, oblique, and extend- 
 ing upwards to the mastoid process. 
 
 General evidence was given to shew that the duke had me- 
 ditated self-destruction, and had conversed about it with some 
 of the witnesses. On the morning of the 28th, some frag- 
 ments of paper, which had been written on, were taken from 
 the grate of his chamber ; these were carefully put together 
 by one of the legal inspectors ; and among a few disjointed 
 sentences, indicating despair and a dread of impending 
 danger, were the following : — *' It is only left for me to die 
 in wishing prosperity to the French people and my country. 
 Adieu for ever !" Here followed his signature, and a request 
 to be interred at Vincennes, near the body of his son, the 
 Duke d'Enghien. It is necessary to observe, that no noise or 
 disturbance was heard in the bedroom on the night of the 
 deceased's death. 
 
 On the other side it was contended that the duke was not 
 unusually melancholy before his death ; that the supposition 
 of suicide was inadmissible in a moral point of view, and 
 indeed was physically impossible, from the circumstances. 
 One person argued that he could not have made the knots 
 seen in the handkerchiefs; another, that ho could not have 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 253 
 
 reached so high above his head to have suspended himself, 
 and that the chair could not have been used in any manner 
 to assist him ; while a third affirmed, that a person might be 
 suspended in the position in which the body was discovered, 
 without death ensuing. The circumstance of the door being 
 fastened on the inside, was accounted for by supposing that 
 the bolt had been pushed to from the outside. The duke had 
 been heard to condemn suicide ; he had made an appoint- 
 ment for the following day ; and had attended to many little 
 circumstances, such as winding up his watch the night pre- 
 viously, and noting his losses at play ; — facts which were 
 forcibly urged as being opposed to the supposition of his 
 having destroyed himself. 
 
 To combat the medical evidence, it was assumed that the 
 deceased was strangled or suffocated, and was afterwards 
 hanged, by assassins. Several schemes were devised by the 
 medical witnesses on this side of the question, to account for 
 the manner in which the supposed murder was committed. 
 According to some, a handkerchief might have been tightened 
 round the deceased's neck by one assassin, while another for- 
 cibly held his legs under the bed-clothes, by which the lesions 
 already described would have been produced ; or instead of 
 being strangled by a handkerchief, he might have been suffo- 
 cated by a pillow placed over his mouth. 
 
 The body might then have been dragged across the room 
 to be suspended ; and if during this time the hand of one of 
 the assassins had been rudely thrust between the cravat and 
 the neck, the excoriation and mark seen on the skin might be 
 easily accounted for. 
 
 The counsel for the appellants remarked, that the want of 
 a line in writing, to withdraw from all suspicion his attend- 
 ants, and even Madame de Feucheres, was remarkable, as 
 this latter precaution had suggested itself to almost every sui- 
 cide. He condemned those engaged in the anatomical exa- 
 mination of the body, as having been guilty of culpable 
 mismanagement. He ridiculed the idea that the duke, as 
 
254 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH 
 
 reported by the two physicians consulted, had probably come 
 to his death through asphyxia by strangulation. He con- 
 tended that all the appearances on the skin of the neck, 
 where no ecchymosis, as is usual in persons hung alive, was 
 visible, shewed that death had preceded the hanging of the 
 hody,^ 
 
 Conflicting as the evidence was in this case, we think no 
 impartial mind, after maturely considering all the physical 
 facts and moral circumstances connected with the Prince de 
 Conde's death, can entertain any other opinion than that he 
 sacrificed his own life. The case is one of great interest ; 
 and the minute particulars detailed in the French journal are 
 worthy of the perusal of every medical man. 
 
 It has been doubted whether voluntary strangulation was 
 possible, but we have too many cases on record to allow us 
 to question the probability of such an occurrence. An indi- 
 vidual was found strangled in a hay-loft by a handkerchief 
 which had been tightened by a stick. A Malay, who, on 
 board of a man-of-war in the East Indies, had made repeated 
 attempts to commit suicide, at last effected his purpose in the 
 following manner : — He tied a handkerchief round his neck, 
 and with a small stick twisted it several times, and then se- 
 cured it behind his ear, to prevent its untwisting. Jealousy 
 was the cause assigned for the suicide. 
 
 General Pichegru was found strangled in prison during the 
 consulate of Buonaparte. The case gave rise to various sus- 
 picions. The body was found lying in bed on the left side, 
 in an easy attitude, with the knees bent, and the arms lying 
 down by the side, with a black silk handkerchief twisted 
 tightly round the neck, by means of a stick passed under it. 
 The cheek was torn by the ends of the stick in its rotations. 
 It was established that he had been guilty of suicide. 
 
 * We have availed ourselves of Dr. Taylor's translation of the particulars 
 of the prince's death, which are recorded with much minuteness in the " An- 
 nales d'FIygiene Publique, et de Mddecine Legale." 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 255 
 
 A very important lesson is to be learned from the history 
 of the following case, which Dr. Beck has published in his 
 " Medical Jurisprudence." This is but one of many cases in 
 which the innocent have been accused, and have suffered for 
 crimes of which it has been subsequently proved they were 
 innocent. 
 
 Marc Antoine Galas was the son of John Galas, a mer- 
 chant of Toulouse, aged seventy years, of great probity, 
 and a Protestant. He was twenty-eight years of age, of 
 a robust habit, but melancholy turn of mind. He w^as a 
 student of law, and becoming irritated at the difficulties he 
 experienced (in consequence of not being a Gatholic) con- 
 cerning his licence, he resolved to hang himself This he 
 executed by fastening the cord to a billet of wood placed on 
 the folding doors which led from his father's shop to his store- 
 room. Two hours after, he was found lifeless. The parents 
 unfortunately removed the cord from the body, and never 
 exhibited it to shew in what manner his death was accom- 
 plished. No examination was made. The people, stimulated 
 by religious prejudice, carried the body to the town-house, 
 where it was the next day examined by two medical men, 
 who, without viewing the cord, or the place where the death 
 had been consummated, declared that he had. been strangled. 
 On the strength of this, the father was condemned by the 
 parliament of Toulouse, in 1761, to be broken on the wheel. 
 He expired with protestations to Heaven of his innocence. 
 
 Reflection, however, returned when it was too late. It was 
 recollected that the son had been of a melancholy turn of 
 mind ; that no noise had been heard in the house while the 
 deed was doing ; that his clothes were not in the least ruffled ; 
 that a single mark only was found from the cord, and which 
 indicated suspension by suicide ; and in addition to these, 
 that the dress proper for the dead was found lying on the 
 counter. Voltaire espoused the cause of the injured family, 
 and attracted the eyes of all Europe to this judicial murder. 
 The cause was carried up to the council of state, who, on the 
 
256 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH 
 
 19th May, 1765, reversed the decree of parliament, and vin- 
 dicated the memory of John Calas.* 
 
 Many cases occur in which it is impossible to decide 
 whether the person was dead before being thrown into the 
 water. The attention of the jurist ought to be directed to 
 the condition of the ground in the neighbourhood of the 
 pond, to ascertain whether any signs exist of a struggle 
 having taken place. In the case of Mr. Taylor, who was 
 murdered at Hornsey, in December, 1818, marks of footsteps, 
 deep in the ground, were discovered near the New River; 
 and on taking out the body, the hands mere found clenched, 
 and contained grass, which he had torn from the hank. The 
 appearance of wounds on the body will often lead to, or assist 
 in, the formation of a correct opinion, as to the cause of 
 death. These facts are, however, very often fallacious. 
 Instances have occurred in which persons determined upon 
 suicide have endeavoured to kill themselves with sharp in- 
 struments, and not effecting their purpose, have subsequently 
 thrown themselves into the water. Again, persons may, in 
 the act of drowning themselves, receive severe injuries, by 
 being propelled against rocks and stakes by the force of the 
 current. 
 
 A few years ago, a man, who had leaped from each of the 
 three bridges with impunity, undertook to repeat the exploit 
 for a wager. Having jumped from London Bridge, he sunk 
 and was drowned. When the body was discovered, it ap- 
 peared that both his arms were dislocated, in consequence of 
 having descended with them in an horizontal instead of a per- 
 pendicular position. Persons have been discovered drowned 
 with ligatures on their hands and feet, and the circumstance 
 has naturally excited a suspicion as to whether they had 
 committed suicide or had been murdered. Numerous cases 
 
 * Foder^, vol. iii. p. 167 ; from the Causes Celebres. See also Grimm's 
 Historical and Literary Memoirs, (from 1753 to 1769,) vol. ii. pp. 41, 117, 
 and 166. 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 257 
 
 prove that suicides do, occasionally, adopt such precautions, 
 in order to ensure death. In June, 1816, the body of a 
 gauging-instrument maker, who had been missing for some 
 days from his home, was discovered floating down the Thames. 
 On being taken out of the water, the wrists were found tied 
 together and made fast to his knees, which were in like manner 
 secured to each other. He had been deranged for two years. 
 The cord was recognised as one which had been attached to 
 his bed. He could swim well, and it was presumed that he 
 had so tied himself, in order to prevent his using his legs and 
 arms should his courage fail him after having plunged into 
 the water. 
 
 A man, with his wife and child, was reduced to great 
 distress. On a certain day, he took an affectionate leave of 
 his family, declaring he would not return until he had procured 
 some employment by which he should be able to buy bread 
 for them. On the following day, he was found drowned in 
 the New River, with his hands and legs tied. A card with 
 his address was found in his pocket. 
 
 A gentleman was found in the Seine, at Paris, having his 
 feet, wrists, and neck, tied with a cord. His neck, limbs, 
 and hands, were bound by means of a rope with slip-knots, in 
 order to put it out of his power to aid himself when in the 
 water, and thereby to render certain the execution of his 
 suicide. 
 
 In the year 1832, the body of Elizabeth Martin was found 
 dead in the water. A man of the name of Bayley was accused 
 of the murder. They had been quarrelling, and were seen 
 struggling with each other at the banks of the pond. He 
 declared that she had fallen in accidentally. Her face was 
 found turned downwards towards the bottom of the pond, 
 and one of her hands was found to he in her pocket. The judge 
 properly observed, that if the woman had fallen into the 
 water as the prisoner stated, that she would have, undoubt- 
 edly, taken her hand from her pocket for the purpose of 
 
258 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH 
 
 extricating herself. The man was convicted of the murder, 
 and executed. 
 
 There has been much discussion as to whether bodies sink 
 or swim when thrown into the water after having been killed. 
 Considerable discrepancy of opinion exists on this point. It 
 has been maintained that strangled persons will float more 
 readily than others, as many facts prove. Caracciolo, Admiral 
 of the Neapolitan navy, was hanged by sentence of a court- 
 martial. The body was committed to the deep in the usual 
 manner ; and thirteen days afterwards, while the king was 
 walking on the deck of Lord Nelson's ship, he suddenly ex- 
 claimed, with a yell of horror — " Viene ! viene ! " The admiral's 
 corpse, breast-high, was seen floating towards the ship. The 
 shot which had been attached to the feet for the purpose of 
 sinking not being sufficiently heavy. This phenomenon 
 may have arisen from the evolution of gaseous matter, after 
 the process of putrefaction had commenced, which notoriously 
 renders the body specifically hghter than water. 
 
 The apparitions that appeared at Portnedown Bridge, after 
 the Irish massacre, and which excited such commotion at the 
 time, were accounted for in a similar manner. It appears 
 that, about twilight in the evening, a number of spirits became 
 visible ; one assumed the shape of a naked woman, waist-high, 
 upright in the water, with elevated and closed hands, and 
 looking as awful a spectre as the most superstitious person 
 w^ould wish to behold. Various sounds were also heard pro- 
 ceeding from the river, which caused no little alarm. The 
 sounds were mere delusions, but that bodies were seen 
 floating upright in the water there cannot be a doubt. 
 
 " One day," says Clarke, "leaning out of the cabin-window, 
 by the side of an officer, who was employed in fishing, the 
 corpse of a man, newly sewed up in a hammock, started half 
 out of the water, and continued its course with the current 
 towards the shore. Nothing could be more horrible ; its head 
 and shoulders were visible, turning first to one side, then to 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 259 
 
 the other, with a solemn and awful movement, as if impressed 
 with some dreadful secret of the deep, which from its watery 
 grave it came upwards to reveal. Such sights became after- 
 wards frequent, hardly a day passing without ushering the 
 dead to the contemplation of the living, until at length they 
 passed without exciting much observation.* 
 
 In October, 1829, a female, who was an in-patient of St. 
 Luke's Hospital, was found dead in the bath of the institution. 
 It appears that, for some time previously, she had been 
 permitted the privileges allowed to patients exhibiting indi- 
 cations of convalescence, and had obtained access to the 
 nurse's room, in which the key of the bath was deposited. 
 One afternoon, she secretly possessed herself of this key, and 
 then immediately proceeded to make arrangements for the 
 accomplishment of her purpose. In order to deceive the 
 vigilance of the nurse, who was accustomed to lock the 
 patients up at bed-time, she took off her clothes and disposed 
 them about the room, in the usual manner, as if she had 
 undressed. She then made up a bundle to resemble the 
 human figure, and placed it inside the bed, filling her night- 
 cap with handkerchiefs. So accurate was the deception that 
 the other patients, who slept in the room with the deceased, 
 readily answered that they were all present. The lunatic, 
 after these preparations, must have stolen cautiously down to 
 the bath. She was found, the next morning, dead, lying 
 stretched out with her face downwards. The water of the 
 bath was not deep, and, indeed, it is presumed, she must 
 have forcibly maintained the position in which her body was 
 found, in order to have effected her purpose. The door of 
 the bath-room was locked inside, and the key was found in 
 the deceased's pocket. 
 
 In a small village of Warwickshire, in the year 1800, a 
 young gentleman suddenly disappeared on the evening pre- 
 vious to his intended marriage. After a lapse of some days, 
 
 * Travels in Asia, Africa, &c. 
 S 2 
 
260 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH 
 
 his body was found floating in a mill-stream, and it was 
 generally concluded that he had committed suicide, though 
 the cause for such a rash act could not be conjectured. Upon 
 stripping the body, some marks of a suspicious nature were 
 discovered upon the throat. A surgeon was sent for to decide 
 whether death had taken place from any other cause than 
 drowning, who, after a minute examination, gave it as his 
 opinion that he had died by strangulation. Suspicion now 
 fell upon a man of bad character, who had been seen the night 
 the gentleman was first missed, running in great haste from 
 the direction in which the body was afterwards found. He 
 was apprehended, but, no evidence of guilt being elicited by 
 the examination, was discharged, and the fate of the unfor- 
 tunate young man remained buried in mystery. Ten years 
 afterwards, the person suspected was convicted of sheep- 
 stealing, .and sentenced to transportation. While on board 
 the hulks, he made a voluntary confession of having de- 
 stroyed him, and declared that such was his remorse, and 
 the horror of his conscience, that he earnestly desired to 
 expiate his crime on the scaffold. He was tried for the 
 alleged offence entirely on his own evidence, which was as 
 follows : — 
 
 Upon the evening of the fatal event, he was stealing 
 potatoes from a field-garden belonging to the deceased, whom 
 he unexpectedly saw coming over the gate to secure him, 
 upon which he jumped over the hedge on the opposite side, 
 and ran across the field to make his escape. The gentleman 
 pursued him, and being an active young man, nearly overtook 
 him ; upon which he (the prisoner) attempted to leap the mill- 
 stream, but the bank on the other side giving way, he fell back 
 into the water. The young gentleman, instantly plunging 
 into the water after him, strove to secure him. A desperate 
 struggle now ensued, and the deceased had at one time got 
 the prisoner down under him in the water, by which he was 
 half drowned. At length he succeeded in overturning his 
 antagonist, and, seizing him by the throat, held him fast in 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 261 
 
 this manner under water, till he seemed to have no more 
 power. He then left him, sprang out, and made his escape. 
 
 The judge gave it as his opinion that the case amounted 
 only to excusable homicide, and the man was acquitted. 
 
 In forming an opinion as to the cause of death in doubtful 
 cases of suicide, the following important points ought to be 
 carefully kept in view : — 
 
 1. If the person had for some time laboured under melan- 
 cholia ; had met with losses, disappointments, or had suffered 
 any acute chagrin.* 2nd. If any of his family, associates, or 
 connexions, had any interest in his death. 3rd. The season 
 of the year should be taken into consideration ; for we have 
 observed, without being able to assign the reason, that suicide 
 is more frequent during the solstices and the equinoxes. 4th. 
 If the patient, instead of complaining, remains quiet, seeks for 
 solitude, and refuses medical aid. And 5th. If there be any 
 writing (as those who destroy themselves ordinarily express 
 their last opinions or will) it will be one of the most satisfac- 
 tory proofs that they have made away with themselves. 
 Remains of poison found in their pockets, or in the apart- 
 ment, are but an equivocal proof, and one which may attend 
 upon homicide as well as on suicide. f 
 
 In the course of judicial investigations, medical men are 
 frequently called upon to decide in cases of suspicious death 
 whether wounds discovered on the bodies of the deceased 
 were self-inflicted. Before deciding questions of this character, 
 the medical witness ought to take into consideration the 
 following points: — 1st, The situation of the wound; 2nd, its 
 nature and extent ; 3rd, the direction of the wound ; and 4th, 
 the moral circumstances connected with the case. 
 
 Generally speaking, those who commit suicide do not 
 wound themselves on the posterior parts of the body ; there- 
 fore injuries detected in such situations naturally excite 
 
 * To which may be added, anticipation of punishment, or disgrace from 
 misconduct. 
 
 t M^d. Legale, iv. § 948 ; and Smith on Med. Jurisprudence. 
 
262 SUICIDE IN CONNEXION WITH 
 
 suspicions as to the mode of death. The throat and chest 
 are commonly selected when cutting instruments are used. 
 When death has resulted from the discharge of a weapon 
 introduced into the mouth. Dr. Smith says it may be taken 
 for granted that the case is one of suicide. It is, how- 
 ever, possible, even under such circumstances, for a per- 
 son to be assassinated in this way. When death has been 
 caused by firearms, the fingers and hands of the deceased 
 should be carefully examined, in order to detect the presence of 
 discoloration. In several instances, a murder has been dis- 
 covered by a careful examination of the wadding. In two 
 cases on record, the wadding being examined, it was dis- 
 covered to have been torn from paper found in the possession 
 of the parties on whom suspicion had rested. 
 
 Some time back, the body of a man was found lying on the 
 high-road. The throat was severely cut, and he had evidently 
 died from hemorrhage. A bloody knife was discovered at 
 some distance from the body; and this, together with the 
 circumstance of the pockets of the deceased having been 
 rifled, led to a suspicion of murder. This idea was confirmed 
 when the wound was examined. It was cut, not as is usual 
 in suicide, by carrying the instrument from before back- 
 wards, but as the throats of sheep are cut. The knife had 
 passed in deeply under and below the ear, and had been 
 brought out by a semi-circular sweep in front, all the great 
 vessels of the neck, with the oesophagus and trachea, having 
 been divided from behind forwards. The nature of the 
 wound rendered it at once improbable that it could have 
 been self-inflicted ; and it further served to detect the mur- 
 derer, who was soon afterwards discovered, and executed. 
 
 With reference to the extent of the wound, the celebrated 
 Earl of Essex's case has often been quoted. He was found 
 dead in the Tower, in 1683, and it was the generally received 
 opinion that he had been murdered by persons hired by the 
 Duke of York, afterwards King James II. Upon examining 
 the wound, it was found that the jugular vessels, trachea, and 
 
MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 263 
 
 oesophagus, were cut through to the very neck-bone. The 
 verdict was suicide. In 1688, the matter was revived, and 
 before a committee of the House of Lords,* it was proved that 
 the razor with which the wound was inflicted was found on 
 the left side of the body, while it was known that the Earl 
 was left-handed. The edge of the razor was found notched ; 
 and it was also proved that the cravat worn by the deceased 
 was cut through, and his right hand was wounded in five 
 places. 
 
 As there was much political feeling mixed up with this case, 
 it was difficult to arrive at the truth. That many persons 
 who have cut their throats have divided the neck to the 
 vertebrae is a well-known fact. In the case of Mr. Calcraft, 
 all the large vessels in the neck were divided, and the throat 
 was cut through to the vertebral column. 
 
 In the case of Sellis, much stress was laid by Sir E. 
 Home on the wound being regular ; he observes, '^ ang struggle 
 uiould have made it irregular,'^'' Although there were points 
 connected with this remarkable case which naturally tended 
 to excite suspicion, we cannot but declare that the Duke of 
 Cumberland most clearly vindicated himself from the foul 
 charge which party feeling and private malevolence had 
 endeavoured to establish against him. 
 
 Many doubtful cases may be decided by taking into con- 
 sideration the moral circumstances connected with them. A 
 girl was discovered dead. Suspicion rested upon her mother, 
 who had severely beaten the child. It was, however, clearly 
 proved that the girl had been repeatedly heard to declare her 
 intention to commit suicide. Persons should be examined as 
 to the state of mind of the party found dead ; whether he or 
 
 * The committee made no report. Lord Delamere undertook to draw it up, 
 but before he did so, parliament was prorogued. Bishop Burnet, who has 
 given the particulars of the case with great minuteness, says, he had no doubt 
 that the Earl of Essex committed suicide. He was subject to fits of deep 
 melancholy, and maintained the lawfulness of suicide. This is also Hume's 
 opinion. 
 
264 SUICIDE AND MEDICAL JURISPRUDENCE. 
 
 she laboured under an hereditary predisposition to suicidal 
 insanity, or had been exposed to the influence of causes likely 
 to cause melancholy or a depressed state of feeling. If all 
 these points be carefully considered, a fair conclusion may be 
 arrived at in the majority of cases that occur, and which are 
 made the subject of judicial investigation. 
 
266 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Number of suicides in the chief capitals of Europe from 1813 to 1831 — 
 Statistics of death from violence in London from 1828 to 1832 — Number 
 of suicides in London for a century and a half — Suicides in Westminster 
 from 1812 to 1836 — Suicide more frequent among men than women — 
 Mode of committing — Influence of age — Effect of the married state — 
 Infantile suicides — M. Guerry on suicides in France — Cases — Suicide 
 and murder — Suicide in Geneva. 
 
 In Great Britain, owing to the neglect of statistical science, 
 much difficulty has been experienced in obtaining anything 
 like correct data respecting the number of suicides committed 
 annually. For the details given in this chapter we are indebted 
 to various authorities. Every work has been consulted which 
 it was supposed would throw some light on the subject. 
 
 Number of Suicides in the chief Capitals of Europe. 
 
 Places. 
 
 Periods. 
 
 Suicides. 
 
 Proportion 
 to Population. 
 
 Berlin . . . 
 
 1813—1822 . 
 
 360 . 
 
 1 in 750 
 
 Copenhagen 1804 — 1806 
 
 100 . 
 
 1 — 1,000 
 
 Naples . . . 
 
 1828 
 
 330 . 
 
 . 1 — 1,100 
 
 Hamburg.. 
 
 1822 
 
 59 . 
 
 1 — 1,800 
 
 Berlin . . . 
 
 1799—1808 . 
 
 60 . 
 
 1 — 2,300 
 
 Paris . . . 
 
 1836 
 
 341 . 
 
 1 — 2,700 
 
 Milan ... 
 
 1827 
 
 37 . 
 
 1 — 3,200 
 
 Berlin . . . 
 
 1788—1797 . 
 
 35 . 
 
 1 — 4,500 
 
 Vienna . . . 
 
 1829 
 
 45 . 
 
 1 — 6,400 
 
 Prague . . . 
 
 . 1820 
 
 6 . 
 
 1 — 16,000 
 
 Petersburg 
 
 1831 
 
 22 . 
 
 1 — 21,000 
 
 London . 
 
 1834 
 
 42 . 
 
 1 — 27,000 
 
 Naples . . . 
 
 1826 
 
 13 . 
 
 1 — 173,000 
 
 Palermo . 
 
 . 1831 
 
 2 . 
 
 1 — 180,000 
 
266 
 
 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Statistics of Suicide Sf Deaths from Violence in general, in London. 
 1828. 1829. 1830. 1831. 1832. 
 
 Suicide . . 
 Executed 
 Murdered 
 Poisoned 
 
 41 
 1 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 Found dead 15 
 
 Drowned 150 
 
 Burnt 47 
 
 From famine 1 
 
 From intoxication. . 7 
 
 From sufFocation . . 10 
 
 .. 35 . 
 
 25 .. 
 
 .. 26 . 
 
 7 .. 
 
 4 . 
 
 2 .. 
 
 7 . 
 
 4 .. 
 
 6 . 
 
 13 .. 
 
 .. 36 . 
 
 . 97 .. 
 
 .. 53 . 
 
 61 .. 
 
 . 
 
 .. 
 
 3 . 
 
 4 .. 
 
 .. 10 . 
 
 5 .. 
 
 48 . 
 
 52 
 
 6 . 
 
 10 
 
 5 . 
 
 2 
 
 7 . 
 
 4 
 
 5 . 
 
 5 
 
 131 . 
 
 . 149 
 
 35 . 
 
 36 
 
 1 . 
 
 1 
 
 . 
 
 1 
 
 5 . 
 
 5 
 
 Number of Suicides in London during a Century and a half 
 
 From 1690 to 1699 
 
 — 1700—1709 
 
 — 1710— 1719 
 
 — 1720 — 1729 
 
 — 1730 — 1739 
 
 — 1740 — 1749 
 
 — 1750 — 1759 
 
 236 
 278 
 301 
 478 
 501 
 422 
 363 
 
 From 1760 to 1769 
 
 351 
 
 — 1770—1779 . 
 
 339 
 
 — 1780 — 1789 
 
 224 
 
 — 1790 — 1799 . 
 
 274 
 
 — 1800 — 1809 
 
 347 
 
 — 1810 — 1819 
 
 363 
 
 — 1820—1829 
 
 381 
 
 Suicides in Westminster, from 1812 to 1836. 
 
 (Extract from Report of Medical Committee of the Statistical Society of 
 London. April, 1837.) 
 
 " The first statement to which the Committee will draw the 
 attention of the Council is an account of the number of per- 
 sons, male and female, who have committed suicide, and upon 
 whom inquests have been held, within the city and liberty 
 of Westminster, in each month, from January, 1812, to De- 
 cember, 1836, procured from Mr. Higg, the deputy coroner 
 of Westminster ; with other statements which the Committee 
 had prepared from it. 
 
 " The Committee deems it right to premise that caution 
 must be used in drawing too general inferences from these 
 statements, on account of the comparatively small number of 
 cases to which they refer. The average annual number of 
 suicides upon which inquests have been held in Westminster 
 
STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 267 
 
 does not probably exceed one per cent, of the total number 
 annually committed in Great Britain ; hence the number com- 
 mitted in Westminster during twenty-five years, amounting to 
 656, is only about twenty-five per cent, of the whole number 
 annually committed in Great Britain. 
 
 " For some conclusions, however, they afford sufficient data, 
 and these the Committee will proceed to notice. 
 
 " It appears from the following abstract. No. 1, that suicides 
 in Westminster are most prevalent in the three months of 
 June, July, and March ; but that the excess is on the part of 
 the males, as the greatest number of female suicides was in 
 January, September, and November. September, August, 
 and October exhibit the smallest number of male and of total 
 suicides ; but February, March, and April, the smallest number 
 among females. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 A Statement of the total number of Suicides of each Sex committed in West- 
 minster in each month during the twenty-jive years, from 1812 fo 1836 ; also 
 the per centage proportion of the whole number committed in each month ; 
 and the proportion which the number of each sex bears to the other. 
 
 Total Number of Suicides 
 
 Per Centage Proportion 
 
 Per Cent. Proportion 
 
 from 1812 to 1816. 
 
 
 committed in each Month. 
 
 of Male to Female. 
 
 Male. Female. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Male. Female. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Male and Female. 
 
 January.. 35 . . 20 
 
 . 55 
 
 7.3 .. 11.2 
 
 .. 8.4 
 
 64 . . 36 
 
 February. 39 .. 12 
 
 . 51 
 
 8.2 .. 6.8 
 
 .. 7.8 
 
 77 . 
 
 23 
 
 March ... 52 . . 11 
 
 . 63 
 
 10.9 .. 6 2 
 
 .. 9.6 
 
 83 . 
 
 17 
 
 April 40 . . 11 
 
 . 51 
 
 8.4 .. 6.2 
 
 .. 7.8 
 
 79 . 
 
 21 
 
 May .... 41 .. 15 
 
 . 56 
 
 8.5 .. 8.4 
 
 .. 8.5 
 
 73 . 
 
 27 
 
 June .... 60 . . 15 
 
 . 75 
 
 12.6 .. 8.4 
 
 ..11.4 
 
 80 . 
 
 20 
 
 July .... 50 .. 16 
 
 .. 66 
 
 10.5 .. 9.0 
 
 ..10.1 
 
 76 . 
 
 24 
 
 August. . . 30 . . 15 
 
 . 45 
 
 6.3 . . 8.4 
 
 .. 6.9 
 
 67 . 
 
 38 
 
 September 30 .. 18 
 
 . 48 
 
 6.3 .. 10.1 
 
 .. 7.4 
 
 62 . 
 
 38 
 
 October.. 28 . . 15 
 
 . 43 
 
 5.9 .. 8.4 
 
 .. 6.5 
 
 65 , 
 
 35 
 
 November 32 . . 17 
 
 . 49 
 
 6.7 .. 9.6 
 
 .. 7.4 
 
 65 . 
 
 35 
 
 December 41 . . 13 
 
 . 54 
 
 8.5 .. 7.3 
 
 .. 8.2 
 
 76 . 
 
 24 
 
 Total .. 478 178 
 
 656 
 
 100. 100. 
 
 100. 
 
 73 27 
 
 " The last two columns in the above account shew more 
 precisely the proportion of female to male suicides in each 
 month. 
 
268 
 
 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 " The following statement shews the number of times, 
 during the twenty-five years, that no suicide was committed 
 during each month : — 
 
 February. . Not once. 
 
 January 
 
 March . . !► Once. 
 
 June. 
 
 '■} 
 
 July Twice. 
 
 M»y-----| Three 
 
 Ancriisf . > 
 
 times. 
 
 December 
 
 April . 
 October 
 
 I [ V Four times. 
 
 September. I j..^^^.^^^^ 
 November . J 
 
 " From No. 2 it appears that the average annual number of 
 suicides in Westminster has been increasing in each quin- 
 quennial period ; but No. 3 shews that it has actually de- 
 creased with reference to the increase which has taken place 
 in the population. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 A Statement of the Average Annual Number of Suicides, Male and Female^ 
 in each Quinquennial Period ; also, the proportion per cent, which the two 
 Sexes bore to each other in each period. 
 
 Periods of Years. 
 
 Average Annual Number. 
 
 Proportion of each Sex. 
 
 1812 to 1816 
 1817 — 1821 
 1822 — 1826 
 1827 — 1831 
 1832 — 1836 
 
 Average of Total 
 
 Male. 
 18.2 
 15.0 
 16.4 
 22.0 
 24.0 
 
 Female. 
 7.6 
 5.2 
 7.4 
 7.8 
 7.9 
 
 Total. 
 25.8 
 20.2 
 23.8 
 29.8 
 31.6 
 
 Male. 
 70 
 74 
 69 
 78 
 76 
 
 Female. 
 30 
 26 
 31 
 22 
 24 
 
 19.1 
 
 7.1 
 
 26.2 
 
 73 
 
 27 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 A Statement of the Population of the City and Liberty of Westminster, ac- 
 cording to each census, and the proportion which the number of Suicides 
 in the Quinquennial Period immediately following each census bore to the 
 population. 
 
 Dates of 
 Census. 
 
 Population. 
 
 Suicides. 
 
 Proportion of Suicides 
 to the Population. 
 
 1811 
 1821 
 1831 
 
 Average 
 
 160,801 
 181,444 
 201,604 
 
 Quinquennial Periods. 
 
 1812 to 1816 
 1822 — 1826 
 1832 —1836 
 
 Average 
 Annual Number. 
 
 25.8 
 23.8 
 31.6 
 
 One in 
 
 6,232 
 7,623 
 6,379 
 
 181,283 
 
 •• 
 
 27.06 
 
 6,700 
 
STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 269 
 
 " It must, however, be taken into consideration that suicides 
 committed in Westminster may not belong to the population 
 of the district, for that the proximity of the river, and other 
 causes existing in Westminster, may attract persons residing 
 in other parts of the town. Hence an increase or decrease of 
 facilities for committing suicide in the surrounding districts, 
 such as the formation of a canal, &c., will naturally affect the 
 number of such deaths in Westminster.* 
 
 It has been clearly established that suicide is less frequent 
 among women than men. In early life, death by hanging is 
 preferred ; in middle life, firearms are had recourse to ; andfin 
 more advanced years, strangulation again becomes the fashion- 
 able mode of terminating life. 
 
 Years of Age. 
 
 Pistol. 
 
 Hanging 
 
 Between 10 and 20t . . 
 
 61 
 
 68 
 
 — 28—30 .. 
 
 .. 283 
 
 51 
 
 — 49—50 .. 
 
 .. 182 
 
 94 
 
 _- 60—70 .. 
 
 .. 150 
 
 188 
 
 — 80—90 .. 
 
 .. 161 
 
 256 
 
 * This is confirmed by the fact tliat within the jurisdiction of the metro- 
 politan police, the two districts in which the greatest number of suicides were 
 committed or attempted, in 1836 or 1837, were those of the Regent's Park 
 and Stepney, through both of which the Regent's Canal runs. This circum- 
 stance tends to shew that drowning is the mode of suicide most frequently 
 resorted to in London, and that a canal offers greater facilities for that pur- 
 pose than the river. 
 
 f The disposition to suicide may be manifested very early in life. M. Fal- 
 ret knew a boy, twelve years old, who hanged himself because he was only 
 twelfth in his class. A similar case occurred at the Westminster school 
 about seventeen years ago. Harriet Cooper, of Huden Hill, Rowly-Regis, 
 aged ten years and two months, upon being reproved for a trifling fault, went 
 upstairs, after exhibiting symptoms of grief by sighing and sobbing, and hung 
 herself with a pair of cotton braces from the rail of a tent bed. A girl named 
 Green, eleven years old, drowned herself in the New River, from the fear of 
 correction for a trifling fault. Dr. Schlegel states, on the authority of Casper, 
 that in Berlin, between the years 1812 and 1821, no less than thirty-one chil- 
 dren, of twelve years of age and under, committed suicide, either because 
 they were tired of existence or had suffered some trifling chastisement. 
 
270 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 In an analysis of 525 cases of suicide in Prussia, the follow- 
 ing was the result : — 
 
 Hanging 234 
 
 Shooting 163 
 
 Drowning 60 
 
 Cutting throat 17 
 
 Stabbing 20 
 
 Jumping out of window .. .. 19 
 
 Poison 10 
 
 Opening artery 2 
 
 525 
 
 Marriage is to a certain extent a preventive of suicide ; it 
 has been satisfactorily established that among the men two- 
 thirds who destroy themselves are bachelors. 
 
 In M. A. Guerry's able ** Essai sur la Statisque Morale de la 
 France," published in 1833, we find some valuable statistical 
 facts relating to suicide in France. 
 
 It appears on evidence of the most authentic description, 
 that, from the year 1827 to that of 1830, there were committed 
 throughout France no less than 6900 suicides ! that is to say, 
 an average of nearly 1800 per annum ! It should, however, 
 be remembered, that this calculation is founded only upon 
 judicial documents, in which are included merely those cases 
 of suicide in which death has followed, or in which legal pro- 
 ceedings were taken ; so that it is not improbable that many 
 more attempts were made to perpetrate this crime of which 
 the public is quite ignorant. 
 
 Taking up this fact, let. us consider that the number of 
 crimes against the person amounts yearly in France to 1900. 
 Now, it appears that more than 600 of these crimes consist of 
 attempts on the lives of others ; so that the conclusion cannot 
 be resisted, that every time an individual in France meets 
 with a violent death, in any other way but by accident or 
 mere homicide, there are three chances to one that he has 
 committed suicide. 
 
 M. Guerry makes a transition to the geographical position 
 
STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 271 
 
 of this crime throughout the several arbitrary divisions, and 
 he finds the state of the case to be as follows : — 
 
 Out of every hundred suicides which take place on the 
 average every year, there are committed in the 
 
 Suicides. 
 
 Northern division 51 
 
 -Southern — 11 
 
 Eastern — 16 
 
 Western — 13 
 
 Central — 9 
 
 Another view of the proportion of suicides in France is, 
 that which takes place in the number of them, as compared 
 with the amount of the population. It is as follows : — 
 
 Suicides in proportion to Population. 
 
 Northern division 
 Eastern — 
 Central — 
 Western — 
 Southern — 
 
 1 in 9,853 
 1 in 21,734 
 1 in 27,393 
 1 in 30,499 
 1 in 30,876 
 
 It is proper to bear in mind, that in the single department 
 of the Seine, there are perpetrated every year nearly the sixth 
 part of the whole number of suicides which take place in all 
 the eighty-six departments of France. It is said, however, 
 that the greater portion of those persons who commit suicide 
 in this department are altogether strangers to the capital. 
 We come, then, to this conclusion, that of the thousand in- 
 dividuals who are guilty of the crime of suicide, no less 
 than five hundred and five take place in the department of 
 the north ; one hundred and sixty-eight occur in the southern 
 division ; sixty-five in the western; and fifty-two in the central ; 
 a distribution which shews that there is, if not the same pro- 
 portion, certainly the same order, as the distribution of suicides 
 in the five divisions in respect of the amount of population. 
 
 In the explanation which is appended to the table just 
 alluded to, the author shews, that of the suicides committed 
 in the department of the Seine, where they are most nume- 
 rous, there appears to be one suicide for every 3600 inha- 
 
272 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 bitants ; whilst in the department of the Haute Soire, where 
 the crime is less frequent, this proportion does not amount to 
 more than one in 163,000 inhabitants. 
 
 A singularly curious inference is to be drawn from the consi- 
 deration of the facts presented in another of M. Guerry's gra- 
 phic illustrations — viz., that which arises from the circumstance, 
 that from whatever confine of France an inquirer proceeds to 
 the capital, he will find, as he approaches it, that the number 
 of suicides increases by a regular gradation ; so that in those 
 departments which are near the Seine and Maine, the traveller 
 will discover that more suicides have been committed than in 
 those more remote from the metropolis, such as the depart- 
 ments of the Lower Seine, of Aube and Soiret. The same 
 observation applies as forcibly to. Marseilles, which is in some 
 measure to be considered the capital of certain departments 
 in the south of France. The more these districts are in the 
 vicinity of Marseilles, the greater the amount is there of sui- 
 cides as compared with the number of the population. 
 
 A curious fact has been elicited in the examination of the 
 French registers of crime, from which it appears that those 
 divisions of the kingdom of France in which the most frequent 
 attempts have been made to commit murder are those divi- 
 sions exactly where the crime of suicide is most rare ; and it 
 has been further proved that precisely the reverse of this law 
 takes place in other departments ; namely, that where suicides 
 are numerous in proportion to the population, there the 
 number of murders committed by individuals on others is 
 considerably diminished. One peculiarity is mentioned by 
 M. Guerry as being connected with cases of suicide, which 
 is, that we are much oftener enlightened as to the cause of it 
 than we are upon the motives of most other crimes, and that 
 it is rarely the case that any person sets about the crime of 
 self-destruction without leaving in writing, or in some other 
 way, the expression of his last wishes, together with an expla- 
 nation of the causes of the rash act, which he most generally 
 seeks to justify. 
 
 Holcroft, in speaking- of the number of suicides in Paris, 
 
STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 273 
 
 observes, " I am not well informed on the subject, but^ 
 I doubt if as many suicides be committed through all 
 Great Britain in a year, as in Paris alone in a month. It 
 is the practice of the French police to stifle inquiry and con- 
 ceal facts, whenever they are of a disagreeable nature ; for 
 they tax its omnipotence, to something little short of which it 
 pretends : all things are under its protection ; its eye is every- 
 where ; the assaulted cannot sink ; the culprit cannot escape ; 
 its guardian arm is stretched out so effectually to save that 
 none are in danger. Such are its high claims and the daily 
 assertion it repeats ; they are the necessary results of despo- 
 tism, which, ever on the alarm, will in everything interfere. 
 
 "The Parisians are in general themselves so ignorant that the 
 things which they see produce only a momentary impression ; 
 none but men of superior minds collect facts and deduce 
 consequences ; the rest discern with great quickness, but they 
 forget with greater ; and it is chiefly from this forgetfulness 
 that their gaiety of heart is derived. 
 
 " In England, misfortunes, so far from being concealed, are 
 sought after with eagerness by people who are paid for the 
 bad news they bring, and by whom it is sometimes greatly 
 exaggerated. If the tale do not astonish, it is scarcely worthy 
 to be reported in our newspapers, and the tales in these news- 
 papers circulate through Europe. This is a benefit when 
 truth is not falsified. 
 
 " Of the suicides which are daily happening in France, 
 I, who read the daily journals, saw only two noticed ; and 
 these I was surprised to see. One was an officer in the army 
 who pistolled himself at the public office of the war minister ; 
 and the other a poor wretch who, at the moment before he 
 threw himself from the upper story of one of the high houses 
 in Paris, called out in mercy to the passengers. Garde Teau ! 
 the phrase used by the Parisians when they throw water out 
 of a window. I was told of another suicide of the same 
 kind, and with the same humane caution, while I was at Paris. 
 
 " I likewise saw the body of a man borne through the 
 
 T 
 
274 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Streets, who, after haying breakfasted at a hut in les Champs 
 Elysees, put an end to his existence. Before doing so, he 
 told the people that he had been a subaltern officer of a regi- 
 ment then reduced ; and that all means of procuring a liveli- 
 hood was lost. 
 
 " Nine conscripts who had for a time concealed themselves, 
 but who were at last discovered, being determined not to serve, 
 encouraged each other rather to die, and voluntarily ended 
 life by drowning themselves together. 
 
 " I was passing le Pont des Tuileries after dark, and saw a 
 man surrounded by other men. They had deterred him on the 
 bridge from jumping over ; but they could not prevail on him 
 to tell his name, or to go home. He appeared to be deter- 
 mined in his purpose ; the only resource they had was, at last, 
 to commit him to the guard ; but unless his state of mind 
 could be altered, safety like this was but merely temporary. 
 
 " Another evening, on the same bridge, and about the same 
 hour, a woman, standing near the centre parapet, attracted my 
 attention by her look, and manner in which she seemed to be 
 examining the river. I stopped ; she desisted, but did not 
 remove. I was uncertain what her intentions might be, and 
 she appeared to shun notice. Two other passengers, guessing 
 my doubts, halted ; but either their fears were not so strong as 
 mine, or their patience was less ; they stood a few minutes 
 and left. I felt as if I did not dare to go, yet could not 
 decide how to act, from the fear of doing wrong. At length 
 the woman moved towards the end of the bridge, and I was 
 obliged to leave her to her fate. I was not certain her inten- 
 tions were ill ; to have charged her with such might deeply 
 have insulted her. I walked home, however, in a most dis- 
 satisfied state of mind ; at one minute, proving to myself I 
 could not act otherwise, and at another, making self-accusations 
 for having deserted the duties of humanity. 
 
 " The number of suicides that really happen in Paris must 
 exceed, no man can say how much, those that are actually 
 known. The bodies exposed at La Morgue are most of them 
 
STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 27b 
 
 brought from St. Cloud; the distance to which by water 
 must be above three, perhaps four miles. At the bridge of 
 St. Cloud the fishermen nightly spread their nets ; and in 
 the morning, with the fish, these bodies are drawn up ; but 
 as an old inhabitant of St. Cloud, whom I strictly questioned 
 on the subject, assured me the nets were only suffered to be 
 down a stated number of hours, according to the season, cer- 
 tainly not upon an average half a day ; and in proof of what 
 he said, he observed to me that this regulation must take place, 
 or the navigation of the river would be impeded. Hence, by 
 the most moderate calculation, the number of bodies that 
 escape the nets must at least equal the number of those that 
 are caught. 
 
 " I was told that the government had lately refused the 
 accustomed fee to the fishermen for each corpse they brought, 
 and that they would not continue to drag up the dead bodies, 
 affirming that the money they had before received was insuffi- 
 cient to pay the damage their nets had sustained." 
 
 The following statistical facts with reference to suicide in 
 Geneva may be relied upon : — 
 
 By the laws of the canton, each case of violent death is 
 investigated by a police magistrate, and the documents are 
 sent to the " Procureur-Generale," and carefully preserved. 
 M. Prevost has examined these documents, collected between 
 1825 and 1834 inclusively, with a view to investigating the 
 causes of suicide, and of diminishing them if possible. The 
 following are the most important results : — 
 
 l.—Affe. 
 
 Ages. 
 
 No. 
 
 3f Cases in 
 
 10 years. 
 
 Men. 
 
 Women 
 
 From 50 to 60 
 
 
 . . 34 
 
 . . . . 
 
 25 .. 
 
 . 9 
 
 20 to 30 
 
 
 .. 30 
 
 
 22 .. 
 
 . 8 
 
 60 to 70 
 
 
 .. 19 
 
 
 10 .. 
 
 . 9 
 
 30 to 40 
 
 
 .. 18 
 
 
 15 .. 
 
 . 3 
 
 40 to 50 
 
 
 .. 15 
 
 
 13 .. 
 
 . 2 
 
 70 to 80 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 6 .. 
 
 . 3 
 
 10 to 20 
 
 . . 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 .. 
 
 .. 2 
 
 80 to 90 
 
 , . 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 .. 
 
 . 2 
 
 T 2 
 
276 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 From this table it appears that suicides are most frequent 
 between 50 and 60 years of age. The age when the passions 
 are the strongest (from 20 to 30) is, as might be expected, 
 high in the scale ; that of youth and old age low, from the 
 young being strangers to the cares of life, and the old few in 
 number when compared with the population. 
 
 2. — Sex, and State of Marriage or Celibacy, 
 
 There are more suicides among men than women, in the 
 proportion of 95 to 38, or about three to one; and more 
 unmarried than married, or in the state of widowhood, in the 
 proportion of 70 to 63, or about seven to six. Notwithstand- 
 ing this, the female suicides are more numerous among the 
 married and widows than among the unmarried, in the pro- 
 portion of 21 to 17. But among men the proportions are 
 reversed, — that is, 42 to 53 ; so that, on the whole, suicides are 
 more frequent among the unmarried than amongst those who 
 are or have been married. This will not surprise those who 
 know the energy, courage, and patience of women under 
 misfortune; men more readily give way to despair, and to 
 vices consequent upon it. Men also have means of destruc- 
 tion, as firearms, &c., more readily at hand. 
 
 3. — Occupations. 
 
 The number of suicides are in proportion to the number of the 
 individuals engaged in various trades, except among the agri- 
 cultural population, where the proportion is very small. Thus 
 the agricultural population of the canton is 18,000, among whom, 
 during ten years, there have been but ten suicides ; whereas, 
 if they had been in the same proportion to the whole number 
 as was found in other occupations, they would have amounted 
 to thirty-nine. Constant occupation and hard yet healthy 
 work render them less sensible to the cares of life. There 
 is also a somewhat larger proportion of suicides among the 
 educated classes, who are engaged in literary pursuits or the 
 higher branches of commerce. 
 
STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 277 
 
 4. — Religion, 
 The relative proportion of Protestants to Catholics in the 
 canton of Geneva is, according to the census of 1834, as 77 
 to ^^. Thus— 
 
 Of 133 inhabitants there are, 
 
 Protestants .... 77 
 Catholics 5Q 
 
 Of 133 cases of suicide there are, 
 Protestants .... 107 
 Catholics 26 
 
 133 133 
 
 This result should attract the attention of those who are inte- 
 rested in the moral and religious education of Protestants. 
 
 5. — Means of Destruction, 
 
 Drowning . . . 
 Firearms . . . 
 Strangulation . . . 
 Voluntary falls . . 
 Cutting instruments . 
 Poison .... 
 
 . . 55 
 
 . . 31 
 
 . . 18 
 
 . . 15 
 
 . . 7 
 
 . . 7 
 
 133 
 
 In a small province, with a lake and two rapid rivers, it is 
 not surprising that drowning should be the most frequent 
 mode of suicide ; next to this is death by firearms, which is 
 accounted for by all the men having firearms, as they are in 
 the militia. Whilst the men have used firearms and cutting 
 instruments, the women have almost alone had recourse to 
 poisons and voluntary falls. 
 
 6. — Seasons, 
 
 The seasons sensibly influence the number of suicides. 
 There are more almost constantly in April. Of 133 suicides 
 there were in — 
 
 April 19 
 
 June 17 
 
 August 17 
 
 July 15 
 
 October 14 
 
 May 13 
 
 March .... 
 
 . . 10 
 
 November . . . 
 
 . 9 
 
 September . . 
 
 . 6 
 
 January . . . 
 
 5 
 
 February . . . 
 
 5 
 
 December . . 
 
 3 
 
278 
 
 STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 
 
 The spring appears to have an unfavourable effect; and 
 during the great heats, there are more suicides than during 
 the cold weather. It is curious that many suicides happened 
 on the same day or week. Thus, on April 9th, 1830, there 
 were two suicides, and' several others on the previous and 
 subsequent days; on the 20th of May, 1830, there were two 
 suicides; on the 28th and 29th of March, 1831, two; and 
 the same on the 3rd and 4th of July of the same year. On 
 the 20th of April, 1833, there were two; and on the 5th of 
 July, 1833, two others. Some atmospheric changes may 
 account for this, though meteorological tables did not satis- 
 factorily explain them. 
 
 7. — Presumed Motives. 
 
 Physical disease .... 34 
 
 Insanity 24 
 
 Losses of property . . . . 19 
 
 Domestic grief 15 
 
 Melancholy without known 
 
 cause 13 
 
 Bad conduct. Drunkenness . 10 
 
 Fear of punishment. Remorse 6 
 
 Disappointment in love . . 6 
 
 Gambling 4 
 
 Mysterious 2 
 
 8. — Relation of Suicides to Population and to Deaths. 
 
 The number of suicides is to the whole number of deaths 
 as 1 to 90^ ; and to the whole population as 1 to 3*985 ; the 
 mean population of the canton during the last ten years 
 being 53,000— 
 
 des. 
 
 In 1825 
 
 
 
 
 6 Sulci 
 
 1826 
 
 
 
 
 6 „ 
 
 1827 
 
 
 
 
 9 „ 
 
 1828 . 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 1829 
 
 
 
 
 . 13 „ 
 
 1830 
 
 
 
 
 16 „ 
 
 1831 
 
 
 
 
 . 18 „ 
 
 1832 
 
 
 
 
 • 12 „ 
 
 1833 
 
 
 
 
 • 24 
 
 1834 
 
 
 
 
 16 „ 
 
 133 
 
STATISTICS OF SUICIDE. 279 
 
 From this table it appears that the number of suicides has 
 gradually increased from six as high as twenty-four in eight 
 years. The last year, it decreased to sixteen ; and it is fer- 
 vently hoped that this deduction may be maintained, and 
 that the increase may not be so frightfully rapid as it appears 
 to have been. It must, however, be taken into account, that 
 the population was, in 1822, 51,113, and in 1834, 56,655, 
 The police also are more active, and inquests are held more 
 regularly. 
 
280 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 APPEARANCES PRESENTED AFTER DEATH IN THOSE 
 WHO HAVE COMMITTED SUICIDE. 
 
 Thickness of cranium — State of membranes and vessels of brain — Osseous 
 excrescences — Appearances discovered in one thousand three hundred and 
 thirty-three cases — Lesions of the lungs, heart, stomach, and intestines — 
 Effect of long-continued indigestion. 
 
 As in cases of insanity, the morbid appearances discovered in 
 the bodies of suicides are varied and contradictory. Nothing 
 has yet been detected which can lead the pathologist to a cor- 
 rect conclusion as to the nature of the organic change w^hich 
 precedes and accompanies the suicidal mania. 
 
 The cranium has in many cases been found preternaturally 
 thick, and in others the reverse. Greeding and Gall give their 
 testimony in favour of the skull's thickness. Out of 216 exa- 
 mined, a preternatural thickness of cranium was found in 1 67. 
 Out of 100 who died of furious mania, 78 had the skull thick, 
 and 20 very thin. Out of 30 fatuous patients, 21 had thick 
 crania, and six thin. The thickness of the cranial bones in 
 melancholy and maniacal patients, and in old people, was 
 supposed by Dr. Gall to be connected with diminished size of 
 the brain, to which the inner table of the cranial bone accom- 
 modated itself; and together with this thickness, he considered 
 there was also thickness of the membranes, and ossification of 
 the blood-vessels. 
 
APPEARANCES PRESENTED AFTER DEATH. 281 
 
 Malformations of the cranium are often detected. Osiander 
 relates the case of an old man who had suffered for a con- 
 siderable time from dreadful headache, and who, weary of 
 life, hanged himself. On examining the head, small osseous 
 excrescences were found near the carotid foramen. Lancisi 
 refers to a case of hypochondriasis and suicide, in which, after 
 death, a sharp long excrescence was found near the apex of 
 the lambdoid suture. 
 
 From an examination of the particulars of 1333 cases of 
 persons who have committed suicide, and who have been exa- 
 mined after death, the following analysis is made. The par- 
 ticulars of the cases referred to are recorded in the works of 
 Pinel, Esquirol, Falret, Fodere, Arntzenius, Schlegel, Bur- 
 rows, Haslam, &c. 
 
 Thickness of cranium 150 
 
 No apparent structural change . . . 100 
 
 Bony excrescences 50 
 
 Tumours in brain ..... 10 
 
 Simple congestion 300 
 
 Disease of membranes . . . . 170 
 
 Disease of lungs 100 
 
 Softening of brain 100 
 
 Appearances of inflammation in brain . . 90 
 
 Disease of stomach 100 
 
 Disease of intestines 50 
 
 Disease of liver ...... 80 
 
 Suppressed natural secretions . . . .15 
 
 Disease of heart 10 
 
 Syphilitic disease 8 
 
 1333 
 
 Accretions of the membranes of the brain are often found in 
 suicides. The dura mater is often ossified, and the pia mater 
 inflamed, and the arachnoid thickened. Osiander considers 
 congestion of the vessels of the brain a frequent cause of 
 suicide. 
 
 Auenbrugger refers to the case of a man who had suffered 
 for a long duration severe headache, and who committed sui- 
 cide. After death, a fissure was found in the middle of the 
 pons varolii. 
 
282 APPEARANCES PRESENTED AFTER DEATH. 
 
 Lesions of the lungs are among the common morbid ap- 
 pearances in the bodies of lunatics. Esquirol states that one 
 fourth of the melancholic die of consumption. 
 
 The heart is sometimes found seriously disorganized. The 
 stomach, liver, and intestines, are the most frequent seats of 
 morbid phenomena in these cases. It is difficult, however, to 
 say vrhether they ought to be considered as the effect or cause 
 of the suicidal disposition. In many cases of gastric disease, 
 the brain is also found organically affected. How is it possible 
 for us to say which organ was primarily affected ? The sto- 
 mach, intestines, and liver, may be originally the seat of the 
 irritation, and the brain may be sympathetically deranged. 
 This is often the case. Again, the patient may have laboured 
 under a severe mental ailment, which may give rise to dis- 
 ease of the splanchnic viscera. Severe and long-continued 
 indigestion, from whatever cause it may originate, will, in 
 certain dispositions, produce the suicidal mania. Very few 
 cases are examined in which we are not able to detect some 
 disease of the gastric organ or its appendages. 
 
 It is not our wish to throw discredit on, or to underrate the 
 value of, morbid anatomy ; but, with reference to the peculiar 
 branch of inquiry now under investigation, we must confess 
 that very little practical importance can be attached to the 
 structural lesions which the industry and scalpel of the anato- 
 mists have enabled them to discover in the bodies of those 
 who have committed suicide. The morbid appearances are so 
 varied and capricious that they cannot lead to 8^ sound con- 
 clusion as to the exact seat of the disease. In many cases, the 
 brain is apparently free from structural derangement; and 
 yet, reasoning physiologically, we must believe that in every 
 case the sentient organ must be affected, either primarily or 
 secondarily. There are many instances in which there can- 
 not be a doubt but that the cerebral organ is the seat of the 
 disease, but in which, after death, no vestige of the malady 
 can be discovered ! 
 
283 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 Introduction — Contempt of death — Eustace Budge! — M. de Boissy and his 
 wife — Mutual suicides from disappointed love — Suicide from mortifica- 
 tion — Mutual suicide from poverty — A French lady while out shooting — A 
 fisherman after praying — Determination to commit if not cured — Extraor- 
 dinary case of suicide after seduction — Madame C. from remorse — M. de 
 Pontalba after trying to murder his daughter-in-law — Young lady in a pet — 
 Sir George Dunbar — James Sutherland while George III. was passing — 
 Lancet given by a wife to her husband to kill himself — Servant girl — 
 Curious verses by a suicide — Robber on being recognised — A man who 
 ordered a candle to be made of his fat — After gaming — Writing whilst 
 dying — From misfortune just at a moment of relief — Curious papers 
 written by a suicide — By heating a barrel in the fire — By tearing out the 
 brains — Sisters by the injunction of their eldest sister — Mutual from 
 poverty — Girl from a dream — Three servants in one pond — Indifference 
 as to mode — By starvation — A man forty-five days without eating — mu- 
 tual of two boys after dining at a restaurateur's — By putting head under 
 the ice — By a pair of spectacles — By jumping amongst the bears — Young 
 lady from gambling — Verses by a suicide — To obtain salvation — A lover 
 after accidentally shooting his mistress — Mutual attempt at suicide — 
 M. Kleist and Madame Vogle — Richard Smith and wife — Love and sui- 
 cide — Bishop of Grenoble — Suicide in a pail of water — Mutual of two 
 soldiers — Lord Scarborough — A man who advertised to kill himself for 
 benefit of family — The case of Creech, and the romantic history of 
 Madame de Monier — M — — , after threatening to kill his brother — Two 
 young men — Two lovers — Homicide and suicide from jealousy — Cure 
 of penchant for — Attempt to, prevented — Man in a belfry — Attempt at — 
 The extraordinary case of Lovat by crucifixion. 
 
 In the preceding chapters we have detailed the history of many 
 remarkable cases of self-destruction. It is melancholy to con- 
 
284 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 sider that the principle of life with which God has endowed 
 us for high and noble purposes should have been sacrificed 
 with that apparent coolness and self-possession which was 
 manifested in many of the instances recorded in this work. 
 
 " How we abuse that article our life ! Some people pluck it 
 Out with a knife ; some blow it up with powder; others duck it ; — 
 
 One thing is sure, and Horace 
 
 Has already said it for us, — 
 Sooner or later, all must kick the inevitable bucket." 
 
 A gladiatorial contempt of death is becoming one of the 
 most alarming features of the time ; in this respect we appear 
 ambitious to imitate the conduct of the French sophists, and 
 seek, in acts of desperation, a notoriety that nothing else 
 can give us. In investigating, as we have endeavoured to do, 
 the motives that have led to this heinous offence, we have in 
 many cases been unsuccessful in tracing the act to any defi- 
 nite principle. Either no reasons have been assigned or the 
 accounts of the cases transmitted to us have been imperfect. 
 These individuals stand apart from the rest of the world, and 
 exhibit an anomaly in the last act of life totally irreconcilable 
 to all acknowledged principles of reason and human action. 
 Eccentric in their lives, they have been desirous of manifesting 
 the ruling passion strong in death. This mental idiosyncracy 
 may be, and no doubt often is, the result of original consti- 
 tution, aided in its development by the moral atmosphere in 
 which the person is placed, as well as by education and other 
 circumstances which are known to influence the formation of 
 the mind and character. 
 
 The singular facts adduced in this chapter are only brought 
 forward as evidence of that anomalous condition of the mind 
 referred to which leads to suicide ; at the same time the 
 instances will afford to the metaphysician valuable materials to 
 assist him in his investigations into the philosophy of the 
 human imderstanding. Some of the cases related, of course, 
 admit of elucidation, but the majority will be found to puzzle 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 285 
 
 the ingenuity even of those who pride themselves on their ca- 
 pacity of understanding what is beyond the ken of ordinary 
 mortals. 
 
 Eustace Budgel was a man of much Hterary fame at the 
 beginning of the last century, the relation and friend of Ad- 
 dison, and a distinguished writer in the periodical publica- 
 tions of that day. He was born to a good fortune, and held a 
 considerable place under government whilst Addison lived, 
 who kept him in some order as to his political character. But 
 having lost all court favour after Addison's decease, and being 
 a man of great expense and vanity, having also sunk a large 
 sum of money in the South Sea scheme, and having involved 
 himself in a number of fruitless litigations, he became highly 
 distressed in his circumstances. This, added to the chagrin of 
 disappointed ambition and to other matters, determined him to 
 make away with himself. He had always thought but lightly 
 of revelation, and after Addison's death became an avowed 
 free-thinker, which laxity of principle strongly concurred in 
 disposing him to adopt this fatal resolution. Accordingly, 
 after having been visibly agitated and almost distracted for 
 several days, he took a boat, and ordered the waterman to go 
 through London bridge. While the boat was under the 
 bridge, Budgel threw himself overboard, having had the pre- 
 vious caution to fill his pockets with stones. This happened 
 in the year 1737. It was said to have been Budgel's opinion, 
 ** that when life becomes uneasy to support, and is over- 
 whelmed with clouds and sorrows, man has a natural right to 
 deprive himself of it, as it is better not to live than to live in 
 pain." A man of unsettled principles easily persuades himself 
 into the notion of suicide when he is actually suffering from 
 some violence of his passions, even though he had not imbibed 
 it before. For whenever the passions attempt to reason, it is 
 only on the delusive suggestions of their own perturbed feel- 
 ings. The morning before Budgel carried his deadly inten- 
 tions into execution, he endeavoured to persuade his daughter 
 to accompany him in his death. His only argument to her 
 
286 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 was, that her Hfe was not worth holding; but she thought 
 otherwise, and refused to concur in the sacrifice. A sHp of 
 paper was left on his writing-table, containing these few 
 words, as an apology for his rash act : — 
 
 " What Cato did and Addison approved 
 Cannot be wrong." 
 
 Monsieur de Boissy, a French dramatic writer and satirist, 
 being reduced to great indigence, resolved to commit suicide. 
 As he considered this action in no other light than as a friendly 
 relief from further misery, he not only persuaded his wife to 
 bear him company, but prevailed on her not to leave their 
 child of five yeai's old behind them, to the mercy of that 
 world in which they had experienced so little sympathy and 
 happiness. Nothing now remained but to fix on the mode of 
 their death. They at length agreed to starve themselves. 
 This not only seemed to them the most natural consequence 
 of their condition, but also saved them from committing a 
 violence either on their child, themselves, or each other, of 
 which perhaps neither Boissy nor his wife found themselves 
 capable. They determined therefore to wait with unshaken 
 constancy the arrival of death under the meagre form of 
 famine ; and accordingly they shut themselves up in the 
 solitude of their apartment, where, on account of their dis- 
 tresses, they had little reason to dread the interruption of 
 company. They began, and resolutely persisted in their plan 
 of starving themselves to death with their child. If any one 
 called by chance at their apartment, they found it locked, and 
 receiving no answer, it was concluded that nobody was at 
 home. A friend, however, from that kind of instinct perhaps 
 with which the spirit of friendship abounds, began to appre- 
 hend that something must be much amiss with Boissy, as he 
 could neither find him at home, nor get intelligence con- 
 cerning him. Under much anxiety he returned once more 
 to his apartment ; and, whether from hearing any groans 
 from within, or suspecting something was wrong, he ven- 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 287 
 
 tured to break open the door. Boissy and his wife had 
 been so much in earnest, that it was now three days since 
 they had taken any sustenance, and they were so far on their 
 way to their intended home, that they were in sight, as it 
 were, of the gates of death. The friend, entering into the 
 room where this scene of death was going forward, found the 
 miserable pair in such a situation as to be insensible of his in- 
 trusion. Boissy and his wife had no eyes but for each other, 
 and were not sitting in, but rather supported from falling on 
 the ground by two chairs set opposite to each other. Their 
 hands were locked together, and in their ghastly looks was 
 painted a kind of rueful compassion for their child, which 
 hung at the mother's knee, and seemed as if looking up to her 
 for nourishment, in its natural tenaciousness of life. This 
 group of wretchedness did not less shock than afflict his friend. 
 But soon collecting from circumstances what it must mean, his 
 first care was not to expostulate with Boissy or his wife, but 
 to engage them to receive his succours, in which he found no 
 small difficulty. Their resolution had been taken in earnest. 
 They had got over the worst, and were in sight of their port. 
 Their friend, however, took the right way of reconciUng them 
 to live by making the child join in the intercession. The child, 
 who could have none of the prejudices or reasons they might 
 have for not retracting, held up his little hands, and in con- 
 cert with him entreated his parents to consent to live. Nature 
 did not plead in vain. They were gradually restored to life, 
 and provided with everything that could make them in good 
 humour with its return. 
 
 Euphrosine Lemoine was the daughter of a bourgeoise of 
 the Faubourg St. Antoine. She loved, and had admitted to 
 secret interviews, a young cabinetmaker of the neighbourhood. 
 Her parents, however, had long intended her to marry Mr. 
 
 B , a man of some property. She reluctantly consented — 
 
 pronounced the ^^ fatal yes f and the young man prudently left 
 Paris for some years. In 1836 he yielded to the desire of 
 
288 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDK. 
 
 once more seeing her he liad loved. They met, and the 
 husband was dishonoured. This was followed by an elope- 
 ment; but the husband, who still loved his wife in spite of 
 her crimes, discovered their retreat, and by the intervention 
 of friends and of the police a reconciliation was effected — in 
 vain. They again eloped, but only to perish together ; and 
 they were found dead, eight days after, locked in each other's 
 arms, in a miserable apartment they had hired for the purpose. 
 Before the suicide, one of them had sketched with coal on the 
 wall of their retreat two flaming hearts, and beneath, this in- 
 scription — " We have sworn eternal love, and death, terrible 
 death, shall find us united." 
 
 A boatman discovered in the Seine a mass which the stream 
 seemed to roll along with difficulty; he found it was two 
 bodies, a young woman about twenty, tastefully dressed, and 
 a young man in the uniform of the eighth hussars. The left 
 hand and foot of one victim were laid to the right hand and 
 foot of the other. A bit of paper, carefully wrapped up in 
 parchment to preserve it from the water, told their names and 
 motives: — 
 
 " O you, whoever you may be, compassionate souls, who 
 shall find these two bodies united, know that we loved each 
 other with the most ardent affection, and that we have perished 
 together, that we may be eternally united. Know, compas- 
 sionate souls, that our last desire is, that you should place us, 
 united as we are, in the same grave. Man should not separate 
 those whom death has joined. 
 
 (Signed) " Florine. Goyon." 
 
 Some years ago, a light was observed in the church of 
 Rueil. This singular appearance occasioned a search ; on the 
 approach of the authorities the light was extinguished, but a 
 woman's stays were found on the pavement. The beadle of 
 the church was met, apparently much agitated. On a further 
 search, the proprietress of the stays was found concealed in a 
 press under the draps mortuaires, (the parish pall.) The un- 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 289 
 
 happy man, on the detection of this profanation, drowned 
 himself. 
 
 M. Malglaive, a half-pay officer, lately employed in a public 
 office, had suffered some unexpected pecuniary losses. One 
 of his friends received a note from him by the twopenny post, 
 requesting him to call at his lodgings, where he would find a 
 packet addressed to him. On proceeding there, and opening 
 the packet, he found a letter in these words : — 
 
 *^ When you shall have received this letter, my poor Eleanore 
 and I will be no more. Be so good as to have our door 
 opened ; you will find our eyes closed for ever. We are weary 
 of misfortunes, and don't see how we can do better than end 
 them. Satisfied of the courage and attachment of my excel- 
 lent wife, I was certain that she would adopt my views, and 
 take her share in my design." 
 
 These young people (for the husband was but thirty-four 
 and the wife twenty-eight) had taken the most minute pre- 
 cautions to render the effect of the fumes of charcoal certain ; 
 but a brace of loaded pistols was placed on the night table, 
 .to be used if the charcoal had failed. 
 
 Madame de F killed herself in the park of her cha- 
 teau, with her own fowling-piece, which she took out on pre- 
 tence of going shooting, as she was in the habit of doing. 
 She loaded it with six balls, and placing the muzzle to her 
 breast, discharged it. The only cause assigned is the vexation 
 
 she and M. de F felt at her having no children to inherit 
 
 their large fortune. 
 
 A fisherman with a large family, residing at Vellon d'Auffes, 
 near Marseilles, had been driven by domestic trouble to form 
 a design of suicide, which he had long announced. One 
 Sunday he climbed a high rock in the neighbourhood, where, 
 in the sight of his friends below, with a crucifix in his hands, 
 he was evidently saying his last prayer, preparatory to suicide. 
 One of the neighbours, guessing his intentions, reached the 
 spot suddenly, and seized him ; a struggle ensued on the edge 
 
 u 
 
290 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 of the precipice ; the unhappy man prevailed, and, escaping 
 from the arms of his friendly antagonist, flung himself over. 
 
 Voltaire relates the particulars of the following singular 
 case : — An Englishman of the name of Bacon Morris, a half- 
 pay officer, and a man of much intellect, called on Voltaire at 
 Paris. The man was afflicted with a cruel malady, for which 
 he was led to suppose there was no cure. After a certain 
 number of visits, he one day called on the philosopher, with a 
 purse and a couple of papers in his hand. " One of these 
 papers," he said, addressing Voltaire, " contains my will, the 
 other my epitaph ; and this bag of money is intended to de- 
 fray the expenses of my funeral. I am resolved to try for 
 fifteen days what can be effected by regimen and the remedies 
 prescribed, in order to render life less insupportable ; and if I 
 succeed not, I am determined to kill myself. You will bury 
 me in what manner you please ; my epitaph is short." He 
 then read it; it consisted of the following two words from 
 Petronius, " Valete, curse" — " Farewell, care." " Fortunately," 
 says Voltaire, " for him and myself, who loved him, he was 
 cured, and did not kill himself." 
 
 Two young people — Auguste, aged twenty-six, and Hen- 
 riette, aged eighteen — had long loved each other, but the 
 parents of the girl would not consent to the match. In this 
 difficulty the young man wrote to Henriette : — 
 
 " Men are inexorable. Well, let us set them at defiance. 
 God is all-powerful ; our marriage shall be celebrated in his 
 presence ; and to-morrow, if you love me, we will write, in 
 our blood, at the foot of the cross, our marriage vow." 
 
 This proposition turned the weak girl's head, and she con- 
 sented. They proceeded one night to a field near St. Denis, 
 where there was a cross. On their way they made incisions 
 in both their arms, to procure the blood in which the follow- 
 ing acte de mariage was written : — 
 
 " O great God, who governs the destinies of mankind, take 
 us under thy holy protection ! As man will not unite us, we 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 291 
 
 come on our knees to implore thy sanction to our indissoluble 
 union. O God, take pity on two of thy poor children ! As- 
 semble all thy heavenly choir, that on so happy a day they 
 may partake our transports, and be witnesses of the holy joy 
 that shines in our hearts. O God ! O ye angels of heaven 
 and saints of Paradise ! look down upon a happiness which 
 even the blessed may envy. 
 
 ^^ And you, shades of our parents, come to this affecting 
 ceremony, come and give us your approbation and your 
 blessing. It is in the presence of you all that we, Pierre 
 Auguste and Marie Henriette, swear to belong to each other, 
 and to each other only, and to be faithful to each other to the 
 hour of dissolution. Yes, we swear it — we swear it with one 
 voice. You are our witnesses, and we are united for life and 
 for death. 
 
 (Signed in letters of blood) " Pierre Auguste. 
 
 " Marie Henriette." 
 
 The very day after this visionary marriage it was dissolved 
 by the suicide of the unfortunate Henriette. The moment 
 her fault had become irreparable, her betrayer abandoned her, 
 and the poor creature threw herself into the Seine. On the 
 body was found the foregoing singular acte de mariage, to 
 which she had subjoined, with a feeble hand, the following 
 note : — 
 
 " He has dishonoured me — the monster ! He deceived me 
 by pretences which went to my heart ; but it is he who is to 
 be pitied — wretch that he is !" 
 
 A young woman, of a highly honourable commercial family, 
 put an end to herself, overwhelmed with the idea of having 
 forfeited the esteem of her husband. Rosalie had from her 
 
 youth been destined to be the wife of M. C , a gentleman 
 
 of her own station in life. Their union, though not dis- 
 tinguished by any transports of love, was soberly and rationally 
 happy, and they had two children. 
 
 Unfortunately, Madame C was obliged by affairs of 
 
 business to go into the country while her husband remained 
 
 u2 
 
292 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 in Paris. During this absence, she appears to have formed a 
 guilty passion, (the circumstances of which have not been re- 
 vealed ;) but on her return home, the remorse of her conscience 
 so preyed upon her spirits as to be at last unsupportable, and, 
 after a long and painful struggle, she resolved upon suicide. 
 Just before the fatal act, she w^rote a long letter to her sister, of 
 which we can only spare room for the most striking passages : — 
 
 " I have resolved to terminate my existence to-day ; but I 
 have not had, during the whole morning, resolution to leave 
 my poor little children, who are unconscious of their mother's 
 
 agony Forgive, my dear sister, the grief that my 
 
 death is about to cause you. If my excellent husband has 
 
 offended you, forgive him If I had appreciated his 
 
 worth, I should not be the wretch I am : my negligence 
 towards him began my misfortune, but I had nothing to 
 reproach myself with till mj fatal journey to Sarcelles — that 
 
 journey was my ruin ! If I had your virtues, I should 
 
 have been the happiest of women ; but I allowed myself to be 
 bewildered by a sentiment which I had not before known, 
 and in my culpable frenzy I was guilty before I intended it. 
 O, my God ! may my repentance be accepted, and may thy 
 goodness inspire my husband with a peculiar, an exalted degree 
 of parental affection for those unhappy and innocent children. 
 Protect them, O, my God, and grant that they may not 
 curse the memory of their unhappy mother, who was guilty 
 without intending it. 
 
 " And you, O my dearest Louis, forgive your wretched 
 wife, who offers you this her last farewell." 
 
 One may judge the consternation which this affecting letter 
 spread in the family. The sister, on receiving this letter, 
 
 hastened with Dr. Bouillet to Mr. C 's house : . it was too 
 
 late — they found the poor woman in the last agonies of death, 
 whilst her little children were playing about the adjoining 
 room, indulging in the sports of their age. 
 
 M. de Pontalba was one of the great proprietors of France. 
 His son had been a page of Napoleon's, and afterwards a dis- 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 293 
 
 tinguished officer, aide-de-camp to Marshal Ney, and a pro- 
 tege of the Duke of Elchingen. He married the daughter of 
 Madame d' Almonaster, and for some time they lived happily ; 
 but on the death of her mother, Madame de Pontalba began to 
 indulge in such extravagances that even the enormous for- 
 tune of the Pontalbas was unequal to it. This led to some 
 remonstrance on the part of her husband, on the morning 
 after which she disappeared from the hotel, and neither he 
 nor his children had any clue to her retreat. At last, after 
 an interval of some months, a letter arrived from her to her 
 husband, dated New Orleans, in which she announced that 
 she meant to apply for a divorce ; but for eighteen months 
 nothing more was heard of her, except by her drafts for 
 money. At last she returned, but only to afflict her family. 
 Her son was at the Military Academy of St. Cyr. She in- 
 duced him to elope, and the boy was plunged in every species 
 of debauchery and expense. This afflicted, in the deepest 
 manner, his grandfather, who revoked a bequest he had made 
 him of about £4,000 a-year, and seemed to apprehend from 
 him nothing but future ruin and disgrace. The old man, 
 eighty -two years of age, resided in his chateau of Mont 
 Leveque, whither, in October, 1834, Madame de Pontalba 
 went to attempt a reconciliation with the wealthy senior. 
 The day after her arrival she found she could make no im- 
 pression on her father-in-law, and was about to return to Paris, 
 when old M. de Pontalba, observing a moment when she was 
 alone in her apartment, entered it with a brace of double-bar- 
 relled pistols, locked the door, and, approaching his astonished 
 daughter-in-law, desired her to recommend herself to God, for 
 that she had but few minutes to live ; but he did not even 
 allow her one minute — he fired immediately, and two balls 
 entered her left breast. She started up and fled to a closet, her 
 blood streaming about, and exclaiming that she would submit 
 to any terms, if he would spare her. "No, no! You must die!'''' 
 and he fired his second pistol. She had instinctively covered 
 her heart with her hand ; the hand was miserably fractured by 
 
294 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 the balls, but it saved her heart. She then escaped to another 
 closet, where a third shot was fired at her without effect ; and 
 at last she rushed in despair to the door, and while M. de 
 Pontalba was discharging his last barrel at her, she succeeded 
 in opening it. The family, alarmed by the firing, arrived, and 
 she was saved. The old man, on seeing that she was beyond 
 his reach, returned to his apartment, and blew out his brains. 
 It seemed clear that he had resolved to make a sacrifice of the 
 short remnant of his own life, in order to release his son and 
 his grandson from their unfortunate connexion with Madame 
 de Pontalba. But he failed — none of her wounds were 
 mortal; and within a month after, Madame de Pontalba, 
 perfectly recovered, in high health and spirits, radient, and 
 crowned with flowers, was to be seen at all the fetes and con- 
 certs of the capital. 
 
 A wealthy inhabitant of St. Denis arrived from a long 
 journey, in which he had occasion to carry a brace of pistols ; 
 these he deposited, loaded, on a table in his bedchamber, and 
 sat down to dinner with his family and some friends, invited 
 to celebrate his return. Hardly had dinner begun when a 
 discussion arose between the father and his eldest daughter, 
 about twenty years of age. This young woman had always 
 shewn great jealousy of her younger sister, of whom she pre- 
 tended her father was fonder than of her. On this occasion 
 the same feeling broke out, and after some strong exhibition 
 of ill-temper on her part, her father said, " Nay, if you are 
 sulky, you had better go to bed." The girl got up immediately, 
 went to her father's bed-room, took one of the pistols, shot 
 herself, and expired in a few hours in great agony. 
 
 Sir George Dunbar, Baronet, Major in the 14th Light 
 Dragoons, quartered at Norwich, unhappily got involved in a 
 dispute with his fellow officers. He was a man of quick 
 sensibility, which may have betrayed him into error on the 
 occasion ; but whichever party was to blame, the quarrel was 
 of a most violent nature, and he returned home much bruised 
 from blows received in the scuffle. The next day, repairing 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 295 
 
 to the mess-room, he declared to the other officers, " That, if he 
 had oiFended any of them, he was ready to make an apology ; 
 or, if that was not thought sufficient, to give them honourable 
 satisfaction." This proposal was refused, and the officers 
 insisted " That he must sell out, for that, as he had abused the 
 whole regiment, nothing else would or could satisfy them." 
 To this. Sir George replied, " That he would live and die in 
 the regiment, of which he had been an officer for twenty years, 
 and that a pistol should end the dispute." Here ended all 
 communication, but the business made a most deep impression 
 on his mind. For two successive days he neither took food 
 nor slept; and his melancholy appearance filled his family 
 with the most lively apprehensions. Lady Dunbar locked up 
 his razors, pistols, &c., and watched him with unceasing 
 vigilance. Her distress at seeing him so wretched was very 
 great, and in the night she moaned very much, and was quite 
 restless. Sir George said, " Maria, you disturb me ; I will 
 get up;" which he immediately did, put on his watch-coat, and 
 laid down on the floor. Lady Dunbar then endeavoured to 
 conceal the anguish of her mind, in hopes to pacify him, and, 
 being overcome with watching, fell asleep. Sir George, as 
 soon as he perceived it, left the room, and at about five or six 
 in the morning walked out. Her ladyship, when she awoke, 
 being much alarmed at his absence, eagerly inquired for him, 
 and was told he had taken a morning walk, having a violent 
 headache, and thinking the air would do him good. This, 
 however, proved only a pretence ; for he had gone to piu-chase 
 a case of pistols, and stood by while the bullets were casting, 
 which, with the pistols, he brought home, concealed under his 
 watch-coat. On his return, he went to Lady Dunbar, who 
 took hold of his hand, observing at the same time, " How 
 cold you are ! " To which he answered, " Yes ; I shall be 
 better presently." She then proposed to make breakfast, but 
 he declined it, saying he had a letter to write first, and that 
 he would ring to let her know when he had finished it. He 
 then parted from her, after pressing her hand very hard ; went 
 
296 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 to his Study, wrote his will, and instantly after blew out his 
 brains. Lady Dunbar, who heard the report of the pistol, ran 
 down into the room, and fell insensible on his body, which 
 lay extended on the floor, and from which she was taken up 
 covered with his blood, and immediately removed to a friend's 
 house. They were a very happy couple, and she had accom- 
 panied him in all his campaigns. 
 
 As George III. was passing in his carriage through the 
 park to St. James's, a gentleman dressed in black, standing 
 in the green park, close to the rails, just as the carriage came 
 opposite to where he stood, was observed to pull a paper 
 hastily from his pocket, which he stuck on the rails, addressed 
 to the king, threw off his hat, discharged a pistol in his own 
 bosom, and instantly fell. Though surrounded with people 
 collected to see the king pass, the rash act was so suddenly 
 perpetrated, that no one suspected his fatal purpose till he had 
 accomplished it. He expired immediately. In his left hand 
 was a letter addressed " To the coroner who shall take an 
 inquest on James Sutherland." This unfortunate gentleman 
 was judge-advocate at Minorca during the governorship of 
 General Murray, with whom he had a law- suit which termi- 
 nated in his favour. The general, however, got him sus- 
 pended and re-called. This, and the failure of some applica- 
 tions to government, had greatly deranged his mind. He was 
 very genteelly dressed, but had only two-pence and some 
 letters in his pocket ; the letters were carried to the Secretary 
 of State's Office. He left a singular paper behind him, ex- 
 pressive of being in a sound mind, and that the act was 
 deliberate. 
 
 The following case is mentioned by Dr. A. T. Thomson, as 
 illustrative of the extraordinary determination often exhibited 
 by those resolved on self-destruction. A gentleman, who 
 had long enjoyed an unblemished reputation, was appointed 
 the treasurer of a society; but having unfortunately fallen into 
 pecuniary difficulties, he not only applied the funds of the 
 society to his own purposes, but forged some bills. As the 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. / 297 
 
 punishment of the latter crime was penal at tliat period, on 
 being arrested, he made an attempt upon his life, but did not 
 succeed. His prior good character, and the respect in which 
 he had been held, prevented him from being immediately sent 
 to jail ; and he was permitted to remain in the custody of the 
 officer of justice who arrested him. The attempt which he 
 had made upon his life rendered it requisit/e that every imple- 
 ment which could be employed by the suicide should be 
 withheld from him ; but in other respects, as much indulgence 
 was extended to him as possible, under the circumstances of 
 the case. His wife also was permitted to visit him, but she 
 was searched before entering his apartment He was locked 
 up every night, and he was awoke in the morning by an 
 officer, at a certain hour. On the third morning after his 
 arrest, the officer, as usual, entered his room, and called to him, 
 but received no answer; he then approached the bed, and 
 found that his prisoner was dead. A medical man was imme- 
 diately sent for. It appeared that this gentleman had studied 
 anatomy, and knew how to use a lancet ; and as he had a 
 thorough conviction that he should be hanged, he had per- 
 suaded his wife to bring a lancet to him in her mouth. After 
 being locked up for the night, he undressed himself, and 
 opened the femoral artery, the blood from which he allowed 
 to flow into the pan of the night chair, until, as was supposed, 
 he became faint. He then bound a handkerchief round the 
 upper part of the thigh, and placed himself in bed, in the 
 position in which he was discovered. Notwithstanding his 
 great loss of blood, he contrived so effectually to stem the 
 further flow, that none was seen on the floor of the room, and 
 only a few spots on the sheets of the bed." 
 
 A servant girl of Mursley, Bucks, committed suicide 
 while her master and his men were weeding in the field, by 
 taking a cord and tying it tight round the upper part of her 
 left thigh, and with a fleam and stick used in bleeding cattle, 
 making a deep incision through the artery. She bled to death 
 before any assistance could be procured. 
 
298 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 John Upson^ of Woodbridge, in Suffolk, a glover, who was 
 committed to the castle for felony a few days before, hanged 
 himself in his o wn room with a garter. The following verses 
 were written in a prayer-book lying by him : — 
 
 " Farewell, vain world, I've had enough of thee. 
 And now am careless what thou say'st of me; 
 Thy smiles I court not, nor thy frowns I fear, 
 My cares are past, my heart lies easy here. 
 What faults they find in me take care to shun, 
 And look at home : enough is to be done. 
 " June 26, 1774. Poor John the Glover." 
 
 Mr. Brower, a print-cutter, near Aldersgate-street, was 
 attacked on the road to Enfield by a single highwayman, 
 whom he recollected to be a tradesman in the city, and called 
 him by his name. The robber immediately shot himself 
 through the head. 
 
 The case of a man is recorded in a French paper who 
 burnt with one of the ^?trongest passions of which we ever 
 heard an account. His mistress having proved unfaithful to 
 him, he called up his servant, informed him that it was his 
 intention to kill himself, and requested that, after his death, 
 he would make a candle of his fat, and carry it lighted to his 
 mistress. He then wrote a letter, in which he told her that 
 as he had long burnt for her, she might now see that his 
 flames were real ; for the candle by which she would read the 
 note was composed of part of his miserable body. After this 
 he committed suicide. 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel Mautren, of the Prussian Hussars, 
 having been stripped, at the gaming table, of all his property, 
 even to his watch and the rings he wore, returned home. 
 Next day he disposed of his commission ; and having offered 
 marriage to a respectable feraale whom he had seduced, a 
 clergyman was sent for, and the ceremony performed. He 
 then retired to a private room, and while some friends were 
 felicitating the bride on her good fortune, the report of a 
 pistol announced the catastrophe that had taken place. The 
 
SINGTLAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 299 
 
 company hastened to the room ; but the Colonel was no more. 
 On the table was a letter to his wife, mentioning the cause of 
 his death and inclosing the amount of the sale of his com- 
 mission. 
 
 The particulars of the following case were read by M. 
 Gerard de Gray, at the Societe de Medecine. A young man, 
 having spent in the capital all his finances, returned home 
 to recruit his purse; but failing in his object, he resolved 
 to put an end to himself. He made no secret of his deter- 
 mination. On the 16 th of August he carried it into exe- 
 cution. His bed-room was about nine feet square, and a 
 little more than six in height. On every aperture in it by 
 which the air might possibly have admittance, he pasted paper, 
 and about five in the afternoon lighted a brazier of coals, 
 which he set on the floor close by his bed. He then left 
 the apartment, carefully closing the door after him. At six, 
 he said to an old lady, " My brazier is now ready — I go to 
 die." On the following morning, the family having become 
 alarmed, the door of the chamber was forced open. An in- 
 supportable vapour issued from the place, and the body of the 
 unfortunate youth was found stretched across the bed. On 
 the floor, the brazier still occupied the place already mentioned ; 
 it was of considerable capacity, and seemed to have been 
 lighted with paper. Near the body were placed two volumes 
 of an old Encyclopaedia ; one of them at the foot of the bed, 
 open at the article Ecstasy ; the other near the right hand 
 displayed the article Death. On the latter volume was a 
 pencil and a bit of paper, with the words, Je meurs avec 
 cahne et honheur, clearly written, with the date annexed ; but 
 beneath that there appeared, in characters very difficult to be 
 read, the following words ; Au moment de Vagonie faurais 
 votdu m'etre procure une sensation agreable. It would appear 
 that the deceased immediately on writing the scrawl, had 
 fallen into the position in which he was found. The attitude 
 did not betoken any struggle at the last moment ; yet it seems 
 probable, from the signs of sickness of the stomach, and the 
 
300 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 mention of agony in the last phrase, that life did not become 
 extinct without some painful sensations. 
 
 Madame Augine having been personally attached to the 
 late Queen of France, expected to suffer under the execrable 
 tyranny of Robespierre. She often declared to her sister, 
 Madame Campan, that she never would wait the execution of 
 the order of arrest, and that she was determined to die rather 
 than fall into the hands of the executioner. Madame Campan 
 endeavoured, by the principles of morality and philosophy, to 
 persuade her sister to abandon this desperate resolution ; and 
 in her last visit, as if she had foreseen the fate of this unfor- 
 tunate woman, she added, '* Wait the future with resignation ; 
 some fortunate occurrence may turn aside the fate you fear, 
 even at the moment you may believe the danger to be 
 greatest." Soon afterwards the guards appeared before the 
 house where Madame Augine resided, to take her to prison. 
 Firm in her resolution to avoid the ignominy of execution, 
 she ran to the top of the house, threw herself from the balcony, 
 and was taken up dead. As they were carrying her corpse to 
 the grave, the attendants were obliged to turn aside to let pass 
 the cart which conveyed Robespierre to the scaffold ! 
 
 In the year 1600, on the 10th of April, a person of the 
 name of William Dorrington threw himself from the top 
 of St. Sepulchre's church, in London, having previously left 
 on the leads or roof a paper of which the following is a 
 copy:— 
 
 " Let no other man be troubled for that which is my own 
 fault ; John Bunkley and his fellows, by perjury and other bad 
 means, have brought me to this end. God forgive it them, 
 and I do. And, O Lord, forgive me this cruel deed upon my 
 own body, which I utterly detest, and most humbly pray him 
 to cast it behind him ; and that of his most exceeding and 
 infinite mercy he will forgive it me, with all my other sins. 
 But surely, after they had slandered me, every day that I lived 
 was to me a hundred deaths, which caused me rather to die 
 with infamy than to live in infamy and torment. 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 301 
 
 " Oh, summa Deltas, quae coelis et superis presides, meis 
 medere miseris, ut spretis inferis, letis superis, reis dona 
 veniam.* 
 
 " Trusting in his only passion and merits of Jesus Christ, 
 and confessing my exceeding great sins, I say — ^Master, have 
 mercy upon me ! ' " 
 
 This paper was folded up in form of a letter, and indorsed, 
 " Oh, let me live, and I will call upon thy name !" 
 
 Thomas Davers, who built at a vast expense a little fort on 
 the River Thames, near Blackwall, known by the name of 
 Davers's Folly, after passing through a series of misfortunes, 
 chiefly owing to an unhappy turn of mind, put an end to his 
 miserable life. Some few hours before his death, he was seen 
 to write the following card : — " Descended from an ancient and 
 honourable family, I have, for fifteen years past, suffered more 
 indigence than ever gentleman submitted to; neglected by 
 my acquaintance, traduced by my enemies, and insulted by 
 the vulgar, I am so reduced, worn down and tired, that I have 
 nothing left but that lasting repose, the joint and dernier 
 inheritance of all. 
 
 *' Of laudanum an ample dose 
 Must all my present ills compose ; 
 But the best laudanum of all 
 I want (not resolution) but a ball. 
 " N. B. Advertise this. T. D.'* 
 
 A farmer near Allandale, in Northumberland, procured a 
 gun-barrel, which he loaded with powder and shot, and having 
 placed the stock end in the fire, he leaned with his belly 
 against the other. In this position he awaited the dreadful 
 moment. When the barrel became hot, an explosion took 
 place, by which he was shot through the body. He had, 
 some time before, been in the habit of excessive drinking, 
 
 * " Oh, supreme God, who inhabitest the highest heavens, heal my afflic- 
 tions ; as with the wretched in hell, the joyful in heaven, shew mercy to the 
 guilty." 
 
302 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 which had impaired his intellects, and probably produced a 
 derangement which led to the commission of the deed. 
 
 Mr. Henry Grymes, of Virginia, U. S., whilst labouring 
 under the influence of delirium, broke his skull with a stone. 
 After having shattered it, he took out a piece about three 
 inches long, and two broad. Concluding that this would not 
 put a period to his existence, he thrust his fingers into his 
 head, and tore out a considerable quantity of his brains. In- 
 stead of immediate death, he instantly returned to the full 
 exercise of reason! walked home, and lived to the second 
 evening following. He appeared very penitent and rational 
 to the last moment of his life ; and in the meantime gave to 
 his friends the above statement of the horrid transaction. 
 The cause of this derangement is believed to have been a 
 disappointment in marriage. Through the whole of his life 
 he supported an unsullied character. 
 
 " A blacksmith charged an old gun-barrel with a brace of 
 bullets, and, putting one end into the fire of his forge, tied a 
 string to the handle of his bellows, by pulling which he 
 could make them play whilst he was at a convenient distance, 
 kneeling down ; he then placed his head near the mouth of 
 the barrel, and moving the bellows by means of the string, 
 they blew up the fire, he keeping his head, with astonishing 
 firmness and horrible deliberation, in that position till the 
 further end of the barrel was so heated as to kindle the pow- 
 der, whose explosion instantly drove the bullets through his 
 brain. Though I know this happened literally as I relate 
 it, yet there is something so extraordinary, and almost incre- 
 dible, in the circumstance, that perhaps I should not have 
 mentioned it, had it not been well attested, and known to the 
 inhabitants of Geneva, and to all the English there."* 
 
 A Hanoverian, eighty years of age, resided at a country 
 house near Berne, with his five daughters, the eldest of whom 
 was aged thirty, and the youngest sixteen. The family were 
 
 * Dr. Moore's Travels through France, vol. i. let. 32. 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 303 
 
 of very retired habits, but were governed chiefly by the eldest 
 sister, who was noted for her imperious disposition, and op- 
 position to religion. A young Englishman, who had been for 
 some time an occasional visitor to the house, became smitten 
 with one of the daughters ; and one fine evening, as the five 
 sisters were taking the air in a carriage in the avenues of the 
 Eugi, they met him in his cabriolet, accompanied by a friend. 
 After parading up and down for some time, an exchange of 
 vehicles was proposed to and accepted by the young ladies, 
 one of whom accompanied the Englishman, and his friend 
 entered the carriage with the ladies. A similar change was 
 again effected, until the Englishman found himself with the 
 object of his affections, with whom he immediately decamped. 
 The others, thinking he had returned to the house by another 
 road, gave themselves no uneasiness, but continued their 
 road homewards. On arriving, however, they found he had 
 not returned. The eldest sister, becoming alarmed, sent and 
 informed the police that her sister had been run away with ; 
 and the next day, news having been received that the run- 
 aways were at Fribourg, she immediately set out for that 
 place, accompanied by one of her sisters. Before her de- 
 parture, she told the two who remained, that if she did not 
 return by a certain hour, it would be a proof that their family 
 was dishonoured ; in which case, it became the duty of them 
 all to renounce life. She required, and even extorted, from 
 them a solemn oath, that they would drown themselves if they 
 (the two elder sisters) did not return at the hour mentioned. 
 On arriving at Fribourg, and finding their sister, whom they 
 could not persuade to return home, they two resolved upon 
 putting their resolution into effect ; for which purpose they 
 repaired to the banks of the Sarine ; but the younger, on 
 arriving, finding her courage fail, exclaimed, " Kill me, sister ; 
 I can never throw myself into the river." The eldest drew 
 out a dagger, and was about to perpetrate the deed, when a 
 peasant coming up, interrupted the design. She immediately 
 despatched the peasant to prevent her other two sisters from 
 
304 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 putting their oath into effect; but the precaution was too 
 late. After having prepared every necessary for their aged 
 father during the day, they dressed themselves in their best 
 apparel, and, on arriving at the banks of the Aar, fastened 
 themselves with a shawl, and, embracing each other, precipi- 
 tated themselves into the river, in which position their bodies 
 were found some time afterwards. 
 
 The particulars of the following extraordinary case we find 
 recorded in the Annual Register for 1823. It appears that a 
 man of the name of Spring and his paramour, Mary Gooch, 
 had agreed to commit mutual suicide. For that purpose a 
 large dose of laudanum was purchased ; but the dose which 
 Spring took was not sufficient for his purpose, and he re- 
 covered. The poor woman was successful in killing herself. 
 The following is the evidence given by Spring at the coroner's 
 inquest : — 
 
 " John Spring said, that he was present with the deceased 
 in bed when she died, about seven o'clock on Friday morning ; 
 that she did not die in agony ; that on the Wednesday evening 
 the deceased and witness came to an agreement to buy some 
 laudanum to take together, that they might both be found 
 dead together in the same bed ; that on the Thursday morn- 
 ing, he (the witness) went to the chemist's and bought some 
 laudanum; he thinks four ounces; that when he came in, 
 Mary Gooch said, * Your heart has failed you; you have not 
 bought it for me ;' that she got up and felt witness's pocket. 
 The deceased said, ' You have got something here.' Witness 
 replied, ^ Oh, that will soon do our business, if we take it.' 
 She said, ' Have you any money left of what I gave you 
 to buy it with ? ' Witness said, ' Yes, there are some half- 
 pence.' The deceased said she would purchase some oranges 
 with them, to take after it, and would send for them ; that 
 she sent a boy of Webb's, who returned with two oranges ; 
 that the deceased peeled them ; that she took two wine 
 glasses off the shelf, and placed hers on the box, and said, 
 ' Now let us take it.' She poured half into one glass, and 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 305 
 
 half into another. One glass she kept to herself, and the 
 other she gave to witness. The deceased said, * Let us take 
 hold of each other's hands.' Witness said, * No, my dear ; 
 if we do, we shall not take it ; let us turn back to back, and take 
 it' Deceased and witness turned their backs to one another, 
 and drank the contents of the glasses. After they had drunk 
 the laudanum, the deceased said, ' What shall we do with 
 the bottle?' Witness said, he would go and throw it away. 
 She said, she would in the mean time wipe the glasses. 
 He threw away the bottle, and the deceased had wiped the 
 glasses by the time he came back. The deceased said, ' Let 
 us go to bed.' They both went to bed together. The de- 
 ceased afterwards got out of bed, placed a chair against the 
 door, to fasten it, and drew the window blinds. The de- 
 ceased then said, ' Now we shall die happily together.' This 
 was between two and three o'clock. He asked the deceased 
 how she came by the money she had given him ; the deceased 
 said, ' That is of no consequence, and does not signify ;' 
 the deceased and witness conversed together about various 
 things, till eight o'clock. She said, she had sent her gown 
 to her aunt's, and that the money came from her. The 
 laudanum did not take any effect till about two ; she then 
 began to sleep. The witness was sick about four, and the 
 deceased was awake at that time. The deceased was not sick 
 at all, and fell into a sound sleep at six. The witness awoke 
 her between six and seven ; the deceased then said, ' How 
 large your eyes look ! ' Witness said to her, ' Mary, I am 
 afraid my laudanum will take no effect' The deceased said, 
 ' Oh dear ! if I should die without you, and you are taken 
 before a court of justice, 1 shall not die easy.' Witness told 
 her she might be quite happy, for, if it did not take effect, 
 he would get up and buy some that would, as he would die 
 with her. The deceased said, * My dear, pray give me that 
 blue muslin handkerchief, that I may have it in my hand 
 when I die. Pray, don't you take anything ; but let me die, 
 and you will get over.' She then laid her head on the shoulder 
 
 X 
 
306 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 of the witness, and died almost immediately. The body began 
 to grow cold by the time he came in from the town, about 
 half-past eight. The deceased had been in a bad state of 
 mind ever since he had known her. She always appeared to 
 wish to die, and had attempted to destroy herself before, 
 when the witness was at a fair. About a month previous, the 
 deceased having come home in an unhappy state of mind, 
 got up about twelve at night, took a linen line, pinned her 
 cap over her head, and went out of the house, taking a small 
 chair with her. She had one end of a rope about her neck, 
 and was about to throw it over the arm of an apple-tree, when 
 he overtook her, brought her in, and took the rope from her. 
 The deceased, all Wednesday evening, was very anxious to die, 
 and wished witness to die with her. On Thursday, she ex- 
 pressed a desire that they should both die together. The 
 witness had known the deceased ever since Michaelmas Bury 
 fair. She had been very anxious about the payment of the 
 half-year's rent ; the witness said, he could go to his friends 
 and get it ; deceased said, ' If you go away, I shall be afraid 
 that you will not come back again.' It was not from want 
 that they committed the act ; it had been in contemplation 
 some time." 
 
 A young lady, at a boarding school near Birmingham, had 
 been set a task, and felt indignant at being obliged to leam 
 it out of an old book, while some of the other scholars were 
 indulged with new ones. She went next day to an old woman 
 in the neighbourhood, and told her " that she had had a 
 singular dream, — that she was dead, and had been carried 
 to her grave by such and such young ladies," naming some 
 of her companions and young friends ; and asked the old 
 woman what she thought of it ; who replied, " that she put 
 no faith in dreams." A few days after, when going a walk 
 with the other scholars, she loitered behind, and making her 
 escape from the party, drowned herself in a pool near the 
 school. She left her hat (or bonnet) on the edge of the pool, 
 wherein was pinned a letter for her parents, entreating their 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 307 
 
 forgiveness of such a rash act. She therein requested to have 
 for her bearers those whom she had said she dreamed had 
 carried her to her grave ; and enclosed some locks of her hair 
 as mementos of friendship. She was only about eleven years 
 of age, and the daughter of very respectable parents in the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Sophia Edwards and Mary West, two female-servants, in 
 the family of the Rev. John Gibbons, of Brasted, in Kent, 
 were left in care of the house for some weeks, in consequence 
 of the absence of their master and mistress. During this 
 time they had the misfortune to break some articles of fur- 
 niture, and to spoil four dozen of knives and forks, by incau- 
 tiously lighting a fire in an oven where they had been placed 
 to keep them from rust. The unfortunate girls, however, 
 bought other knives and forks. Upon the return of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Gibbons, the servants were severely reprimanded for 
 what had happened, and one of them received notice to leave 
 her place. They both appeared to be very uncomfortable for 
 two days afterwards; and, on the second day, the footman 
 heard them in conversation respecting Martha Viner, a late 
 servant in the same family, who had drowned herself in a 
 pond in the garden, and observing one to the other, that she 
 had done so through trouble. The elder then said to the 
 younger — " We will have a swim to-night, Mary ! " The 
 other replied — " So we will, girl." The footman thought 
 they were jesting, and said — "Ay, and I will swim with 
 you !" Sophia Edwards replied — " No you shan't ; but I will 
 have a swim, and afterwards I will haunt you." After this 
 conversation, they continued about their work as usual, and at 
 six o'clock asked the footman to get tea for them. While 
 he was in the pantry for that purpose, he heard the kitchen 
 door shut; and on his return into the kitchen, they were 
 both gone. The footman afterwards thought he heard them 
 upstairs, and therefore took no notice of their absence, 
 until eight o'clock, when he told his master and mistress. 
 Search was made for them about the house, garden, and 
 
 X 2 
 
308 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 neighbourhood, during the whole night; and early next 
 morning, the same pond was dragged which had so recently 
 been the watery grave of Martha Viner, when both their 
 bodies were found in it, lying close to each other. 
 
 The following whimsical instance of indifference as to the 
 mode of suicide is related in Sir John Hawkins's History of 
 the Science and Practice of Music, vol. v. 7 ; — " One Jere- 
 miah Clarke, organist of St. Paul's, an. dom. 1700, was at the 
 house of a friend in the country, from whence he took an 
 abrupt resolution of returning to London. His friend having 
 observed marks of great dejection in his behaviour, and 
 knowing him to be a man disappointed in love, furnished him 
 not only with a horse, but a servant to take care of him. A 
 fit of melancholy seizing him on the road, he alighted and 
 went into a field, in the comer whereof was a pond, and also 
 trees; where he began to debate with himself, whether he 
 should then end his days by hanging or drowning. Not 
 being able to resolve on either, he thought of making what he 
 looked on as chance, the umpire. He tossed a piece of 
 money into the air, which came down on its edge and stuck 
 in the clay. Though the determination answered not his 
 wishes, it was far from ambiguous, as it seemed to forbid both 
 methods of destruction ; and would have given unspeakable 
 comfort to a mind less disordered than his. Being thus in- 
 terrupted in his purpose, he returned, and mounting his 
 horse, rode on to London, where, in a short time after, he 
 shot himself. 
 
 Falret relates the case of an apothecary who, on receiving a 
 reproof from his sweatheart, went home and blew out his 
 brains, having first written the following sentence on his 
 door — '* When a man knows not how to please his mistress, 
 he ought to know how to die." 
 
 A German merchant, aged thirty-two, depressed by severe 
 reverses of fortune, came to the resolution of starving himself 
 to death. With this view he repaired, on the 15 th of Sep- 
 tember, 1818, to an unfrequented wood, where he constructed 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 309 
 
 a hut of boughs, and remained, without food, till the 3rd of 
 October following. At this period, he was found, by the 
 landlord of a public-house, still alive, but very feeble, speech- 
 less, and insensible. Broth, with the yolk of an egg, was 
 administered to him ; he swallowed some with difficulty, and 
 died immediately. 
 
 In the pocket of the unfortunate man was found a journal, 
 written in pencil, singular of its kind, and remarkable as a 
 narrative of his feelings and sentiments. It commences in 
 these words : — " The generous philanthropist, who shall one 
 day find me here after my death, is requested to inter me ; 
 and in consideration of this service, to keep my clothes, purse, 
 knife, and letter-case. Moreover observe, that lam no suicide, 
 but have died of hunger, because through wicked men I have 
 lost the whole of my very considerable property, and am 
 unwilling to become a burden to my friends." The ensuing 
 remark is dated September 17th, the second day of absti- 
 nence: — "I yet live; but how I have been soaked during 
 the night, and how cold it has been. O God ! when will my 
 sufferings terminate ! No human being has for three days 
 been seen here ; only some birds." The journal continues, 
 " And again, three days, and I have been so soaked during 
 the night, that my clothes to-day are not quite dry. How 
 hard this is no one knows, and my last hour must soon 
 arrive. Doubtlessly, during the heavy rain, a little water has 
 got into my throat ; but the thirst is not to be slaked with 
 water ; moreover, I have had none even of this for six days, 
 since I am no longer able to move from the place. Yesterday, 
 for the first time during the eternity which, alas! I have 
 already passed here, a man approached me within eight or 
 ten paces. He was certainly a shepherd. I saluted him in 
 silence, and he returned it in the same manner ; probably, he 
 will find me after my death !" 
 
 " Finally, I here protest before the all-wise God, that, not- 
 withstanding all the misfortunes which I have suffered from 
 my youth, I yet die very unwillingly, although necessity 
 
310 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 has imperiously driven me to it. Nevertheless, I pray for it. 
 Father, forgive him ; for he knows not what he does ! More 
 I cannot write for faintness and spasms ; and this will be the 
 last. Dated near the forest, by the side of the Goat public- 
 house. Sept. 29, 1818. J. F. N." 
 
 It is evident, from the above account, that consciousness 
 and the power of writing remained till the fourteenth day of 
 abstinence. The operation of famine w^as aggravated by 
 mental distress, and still more by exposure to the weather. 
 This, indeed, seems to have produced his most urgent suffer- 
 ings. Subsequent to the common cravings and debility of 
 hunger, his first physical distress appears to have been the 
 sensation of cold ; then cold and thirst ; lastly, faintness and 
 spasm. In this case we find no symptoms of inflammation. 
 A want of nervous energy, arising from the reduction in the 
 quantity or quality of the blood, appears to have been the 
 principal disease. The effort of swallowing, and the oppres- 
 sion of food on the exhausted stomach, completed the catas- 
 trophe.* 
 
 There is an extraordinary instance of suicidal design re- 
 corded, and which is worth noticing, were it only to shew the 
 extent to which the human powers can sustain life unaided 
 by proper nourishment, even though the intelligent principle 
 be subverted. 
 
 An officer, having experienced many mortifications, fell 
 into a state of deep melancholy. He resolved to die of 
 famine ; and he followed up his resolution so faithfully that 
 he passed forty-five days without eating anything, except on 
 the fifth day, when he asked for some distilled water, in which 
 was mixed a quarter of a pint of spirits of aniseed. This lasted 
 him three days. Upon being told that this quantity of spirit 
 was too much, he then took in each glass of water no more 
 than three drops of it, and the same quantity of fluid lasted 
 him thirty-nine days. He then ceased drinking, and took 
 
 * Hufeland's Journal. 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 3H 
 
 nothing at all during the last six days. On the thirty-sixth 
 day, he was obliged to recline on a couch. Every request to 
 induce him to break his resolution was useless, and he was 
 regarded as already lost, when chance recalled within him a 
 desire to live. Having seen a child with a slice of bread and 
 butter, the sight excited in him so violent an appetite that 
 he instantly asked for some soup. They gave him every two 
 hours some spoonsful of rice bouillie, and by degrees more 
 nourishing diet, and his health, though slowly, was esta- 
 blished.* 
 
 Two young men, mere youths, entered a restaurant, be- 
 spoke a dinner of unusual luxury and expense, and after- 
 wards arrived punctually at the appointed hour to eat it. 
 They did so, apparently with all the zest of youthful appe- 
 tite and glee. They called for champagne, and quaffed it 
 hand-in-hand. No symptom of sadness, thought, or reflec- 
 tion of any kind, was observed to mix with their mirth, 
 which was loud, long, and unremitting. At last came the 
 cafe noir, the cognac, and the bill ; one of them was seen to 
 point out the amount to the other, and then burst out afresh 
 into violent laughter. Having swallowed each a cup of 
 coffee to the dregs, the gargon was ordered to request the 
 company of the restaurateur for a few minutes. He came 
 immediately, expecting, perhaps, to receive the payment 
 of his bill, minus some extra charge which the jocund but 
 economical youths might deem exorbitant. 
 
 Instead of this, however, the elder of the two informed him 
 that the dinner had been excellent, which was the more for- 
 tunate, as it was decidedly the last that either of them should 
 ever eat ; that for his bill, he must of necessity excuse the pay- 
 ment of it, as, in fact, they neither of them possessed a single 
 sous ; that upon no other occasion would they have thus vio- 
 lated the customary etiquette between guest and landlord ; but 
 
 * Hist, de I'Acad. Roy., 1769. 
 
312 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 that finding this world, with its toils and its troubles, unworthy 
 of them, they had determined once more to enjoy a repast of 
 which their poverty must for ever prevent the repetition, and 
 then take leave of existence for ever ! For the first part of 
 this resolution, he declared that it had, thanks to the cook 
 and his cellar, been achieved nobly ; and for the last, it would 
 soon follow, for the cafe noir, besides the little glass of his 
 admirable cognac, had been medicated with that which would 
 speedily settle all their accounts for them. 
 
 The restaurateur was enraged. He believed no part of the 
 rhodomontade but that which declared their inability to dis- 
 charge their bill, and he talked loudly in his turn of putting 
 them into the hands of the police. At length, however, upon 
 their offering to give up their address, he was induced to 
 allow them to depart. 
 
 On the following day, either the hope of obtaining his 
 money or some vague fear that they might have been in 
 earnest in the wild tale that they had told him, induced this 
 man to go to the address they had left with him; and he 
 there heard that the two unhappy boys had been that morn- 
 ing found lying together, hand-in-hand, on a bed hired a 
 few weeks before by one of them. When they were dis- 
 covered, they were already dead and cold. 
 
 On a small table in the room lay many written papers, all 
 expressing aspirations after greatness that should cost neither 
 labour nor care, a profound contempt for those who were 
 satisfied to live by the sweat of their brow, sundry quotations 
 from Victor Hugo, and a request that their names and the 
 manner of their death might be transmitted to the news- 
 papers. 
 
 Many are the cases of young men, calling themselves 
 friends, who have thus encouraged each other to make their 
 final exit from life, if not with applause, at least with effect. 
 And more numerous still are the tales recounted of young 
 men and women found dead, and locked in each other's arms, 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 313 
 
 fulfilling literally, and with most sad seriousness, the destiny 
 sketched so merrily in an old song — 
 
 " GrI, gai, marions-nous — 
 Mettons-nous dans la misfere ; 
 Gai, gai, maiions-nous — 
 Mettons-nous lu corde au cou." * 
 
 A woman drowned herself by breaking a hole in the ice of 
 a pond sufficiently large to admit her head, which she put 
 into the water, so that her body remained quite dry. 
 
 A Greenwich-pensioner, who had his allowance stopped 
 from some misconduct, committed suicide by stabbing himself 
 with his spectacles, which he sharpened to a point for that 
 purpose. 
 
 A man, with a determination to sacrifice his life, threw 
 himself among the bears in the Jardin du Roi, in Paris. A bear 
 sprung immediately upon him, and before he could be rescued 
 from Bruin's grasp, he was so mutilated that he died a few 
 hours afterwards. Prior to his death he expressed much 
 pleasure at having effected his purpose. 
 
 A young lady, at the age of nineteen, was extremely 
 beautiful, in possession of a large fortune, and by no means 
 deficient in understanding or wit; but was immoderately 
 fond of play. She soon gambled away her whole fortune. 
 Reflections on the past became bitter; anticipation of the 
 future alarming ; melancholy increased, and weariness of life 
 succeeded. Being at Bath, in the year 1731, she was seen to 
 retire to her chamber wdtli her usual composure, and was 
 found in the morning hanging by a gold and silver girdle to 
 a closet door. Her youth, beauty, and distress, rendered her 
 an object of pity to every one but a near relation, who, on 
 hearing of her death, was inhuman enough to exclaim, in a 
 punning style — " Then she has tied herself up from play." 
 
 * Paris and the Parisians, by Mrs. Trollope. 
 
314 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 On the morning of her death she left these lines in the 
 window : — 
 
 ** O death, thou pleasing end of human woe ! 
 Thou cure for life ! thou greatest good below ! 
 Still mayst thou fly the coward and the slave, 
 And thy soft slumbers only bless the brave." 
 
 On reading which a gentleman wrote thus : — 
 " O dice, ye vain diverters of our woe ! 
 Ye waste of life ! ye greatest curse below ! 
 May ne'er good sense again become your slave, 
 Nor your false charms allure and cheat the brave." 
 
 A man whose name and connexions were unknown, was 
 found dead in his chamber at an inn, in Kent, with the 
 following paper lying beside him : — 
 
 Lost to the world, and by the world forsaken, 
 
 A wretched creature, 
 
 Who groaned under a weary life 
 
 Upwards of thirty years, without knowing 
 
 One happy hour. 
 
 And all 
 
 In consequence of one single error, 
 
 Committed in early days. 
 
 Though highly venial 
 
 As being the mere effects of juvenile folly, 
 
 And soon repented of. 
 
 But, alas ! 
 
 The poor prodigal 
 
 Had no kind father tliat would take him home, 
 
 And welcome back his sad repentant virtue 
 
 With fond forgiveness and the fatted calf. 
 
 Here 
 
 He sinks beneath his mighty load of ills, 
 
 And with 
 
 His miserable being lays them down, 
 
 Heart-broken, 
 
 At the age of fifty. 
 
 Tender reader, give him a little earth 
 
 For charity. 
 
 A middle aged Frenchman, decently dressed, hanged himself 
 in a public-house in Old Street Road. A letter written in 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 316 
 
 French was found in his pocket, setting forth that some years 
 ago, he dreamt he was to die that day, if not, he was to be 
 damned ; and therefore, for the salvation of his soul, he had 
 thought it necessary to put an end to his life. 
 
 A young gentleman, living in London, had paid his ad- 
 dresses to an agreeable young lady, won her heart, and 
 obtained the consent of her father, to whom she was an only 
 child. The old gentleman had a fancy to have them married 
 at the same parish church where he himself had been, at a 
 village in Westmoreland ; and they accordingly set out alone, 
 the father being at the time indisposed with the gout, in 
 London. 
 
 The bridegroom took only his man, and the bride her 
 maid ; and when they arrived at the place appointed, the bride- 
 groom wrote the following letter to his wife's father : — 
 
 '' Sir, — After a very pleasant journey hither, we are pre- 
 paring for the happy hour in which I am to be your son. I 
 assure you the bride carries it, in the eyes of the vicar who 
 married you, much beyond her mother; though he says, 
 your open sleeves, pantaloons, and shoulder-knot, made a 
 much better shew than the finical dress I am in. However, 
 I am contented to be the second fine man this village ever 
 saw, and shall make it very merry before night, because I 
 shall write from thence, Your most dutiful son, 
 
 "T. D." 
 
 " P. S. The bride gives her duty, and is as handsome as an 
 angel. I am the happiest man breathing." 
 
 The bridegroom's servant knew his master would leave the 
 place very soon after the wedding was over, and seeing him 
 draw his pistols the night before, took an opportunity of going 
 into his chamber and charged them. 
 
 Upon their return from the garden they went into that 
 room, and, after a little fond raillery on the subject of their 
 courtship, the bridegroom took up one of the pistols, which 
 he knew he had unloaded the night before, presented it 
 
316 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 to her, and said, with the most graceful air, whilst she looked 
 pleased at his agreeable flattery, " Now, madam, repent of all 
 those cruelties you have been guilty of towards me ; consider, 
 before you die, how often you have let a poor wretch freeze 
 under your casement. You shall die, you tyrant ! you shall 
 die with all those instruments of death about you, — with that 
 enchanting smile, those killing ringlets of your hair !" 
 
 " Give fire," said she, laughing. He did so, and shot her 
 dead. Who can speak his condition? But he bore it so 
 patiently as to call up his man. The poor wretch entered, and 
 his master locked the door upon him. " Will," said he, " did 
 you charge these pistols ?" He answered, " Yes ;" upon which 
 his master shot him dead with the undischarged instrument of 
 death. After this, amidst a thousand broken sobs, piercing 
 groans, and distracted motions, he wrote the following letter 
 to the father of his dead mistress : — 
 
 " Sir, — Two hours ago, I told you truly I was the hap- 
 piest man alive. Your daughter lies dead at my feet, killed 
 by my own hand through a mistake of my man's charging my 
 pistols unknown to me ! I have murdered him for it. Such 
 is my wedding-day. I will follow my wife to her grave ; but 
 before I throw myself upon my sword, I command my dis- 
 traction so far as to explain my story to you. I fear my 
 heart will not keep together till I have stabbed it. Poor, 
 good old man, remember that he who killed your daughter 
 died for it ! In death I give you thanks, and pray for you 
 though I dare not pray for myself. If it be possible, do not 
 curse me. Farewell for ever ! " T. D." 
 
 This being finished, he put an end to his life. The body of 
 the servant was interred in the village where he was killed ; 
 and the young couple, attended by their maid, were brought 
 to London, and privately interred in one grave, in the parish 
 in which the unhappy father resided. 
 
 The following case occurred in England not many years 
 ago. A young couple, the wife aged sixteen and the husband 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 317 
 
 nineteen, discovered, a few months after marriage, that money 
 was much more easily spent than procured ; and being unable 
 to live in the style they wished, they determined, after having 
 held a long consultation on the subject, that their best and 
 only remedy was at once to put an end to their imaginary 
 miseries by committing suicide. After dinner, the husband 
 attended his usual business, and brought home with him at tea- 
 time a quarter of a pound of sugar of lead, for the purpose of 
 executing their design. The whole of this poison was dis- 
 solved in a pot of coffee, and carefully strained and sweet- 
 ened, to render it more palatable. The young man then deli- 
 berately wrote a letter, explaining the circumstances to his 
 father, to whom he had previously sent a message, requesting 
 him to call in the evening. At the time appointed the 
 husband and wife drank off the poison, and then, embracing 
 each other, laid down to die. When they were discovered, 
 all that they could be induced to say was the word " poison." 
 Medical assistance was immediately procured, but no per- 
 suasions could induce them to take an antidote, both of them 
 heroically resolving to die. The young woman, however, 
 reconsidered the point, and began to think that death was not 
 so agreeable a thing as she first supposed ; but, retaining her 
 feelings of obedience strong in death, imploringly said to her 
 husband, when she was pressed to take the medicine offered, 
 ** Shall I take it, dear ?" To this he gave a direct negative, 
 enforcing it with an oath ; but her love of life triumphed over 
 her sense of obedience to the commands of her lord, and she 
 consented to swallow the antidote. The husband, however, 
 was not so willing to venture upon the cares and vexations of 
 the world, and obstinately persisted in dying ; but as this was 
 not thought prudent, he was made by physical force to swal- 
 low the medicine, and was restored to life, and is still in the 
 land of the living. 
 
 Instances of mutual suicide are by no means uncommon on 
 the Continent, and were not unknown in ancient times. The 
 inhabitants of England have not become as yet romantic 
 
318 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 enough for these exhibitions. The case of M. Kleist, the 
 celebrated Prussian poet, and Madame Vogle, may be fresh 
 in the minds of our readers. Madame Vogle, it is said, had 
 suffered long under an incurable disorder ; her physicians had 
 declared her death inevitable ; she herself came to a resolu- 
 tion to put an end to her existence. M. Kleist, the poet, and 
 a friend of her family, had also determined to kill himself. 
 These two unhappy beings, having confidentially communi- 
 cated to each other their horrible resolution, resolved to carry 
 it into effect at the same time. They repaired to the inn at 
 Wilhemstadt, between Berlin and Potsdam, on the borders 
 of the Sacred Lake. For one night and one day they were 
 preparing themselves for death, by putting up prayers, sing- 
 ing, drinking wine and rum, and concluded by drinking 
 sixteen cups of coffee. They wrote a letter to M. Vogle, to 
 announce to him the resolution they had taken, and to beg 
 him to come as speedily as possible, for the purpose of seeing 
 their remains devoutly interred. After having despatched 
 the letter to Berlin, they repaired to the bank of the Sacred 
 Lake, where they sat down opposite to each other. M. Kleist 
 then took a loaded pistol and shot Madame Vogle through 
 the heart, — she instantly fell back dead ; he then reloaded 
 the pistol, and applying the muzzle to his own head, blew out 
 his brains. 
 
 A horrid scene of mixed murder and suicide, accompanied 
 with great calmness in its execution, was exhibited in the year 
 1732, in the family of one Richard Smith, a bookbinder. This 
 man being a prisoner for debt within the walls of the King's 
 Bench, was found hanging in his chamber, together with his 
 wife ; and their infant of two years old lay murdered in a 
 cradle beside them. Smith left three letters behind him, one 
 of which was addressed to his landlord, in which he says : — 
 "He hopes effects enough will be found to discharge his 
 lodgings, and recommends to his protection his ancient dog 
 and cat." A second was addressed to his cousin Brindley, 
 and contained severe censure on the person through whose 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 319 
 
 means he had been brought into difficulties, with a desire also 
 that Brindley would make the third letter public, which was 
 as follows : — 
 
 " These actions, considered in all their circumstances, being 
 somewhat uncommon, it may not be improper to give some 
 account of the cause ; and that it was an inveterate hatred we 
 conceived against poverty and rags, evils that through a train 
 of unlucky accidents were become inevitable. For we appeal 
 to all that ever knew us, whether we were idle or extravagant, 
 whether or no we have not taken as much pains to get our 
 living as our neighbours, although not attended with the same 
 success. We apprehend the taking our child's life away to 
 be a circumstance for which we shall be generally condemned ; 
 but for our own parts we are perfectly easy on that head. We 
 are satisfied it is less cruelty to take the child with us, even 
 supposing a state of annihilation as some dream of, than to 
 leave her friendless in the world, exposed to ignorance and 
 misery. Now in order to obviate some censures which may 
 proceed either from ignorance or malice, we think it proper to 
 inform the world, that we firmly believe the existence of 
 an Almighty God ; that this belief of ours is not an implicit 
 faith, but deduced from the nature and reason of things. We 
 believe the existence of an Almighty Being from the consider- 
 ation of his wonderful works, from those innumerable celestial 
 and glorious bodies, and from their wonderful order and har- 
 mony. We have also spent some time in viewing those won- 
 ders which are to be seen in the minute part of the world, 
 and that with great pleasure and satisfaction. From all which 
 particulars we are satisfied that such amazing things could not 
 possibly be without a first mover, — without the existence of 
 an Almighty Being. And as we know the wonderful God to 
 be Almighty, so we cannot help believing that he is also good — 
 not implacable, not like such wretches as men are, not taking 
 delight in the misery of his creatures ; for which reason we re- 
 sign up our breath to him without any terrible apprehensions. 
 
320 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 submitting ourselves to those ways which in his goodness he 
 shall please to appoint after death. We also believe in the 
 existence of unbodied natures, and think we have reason for 
 that belief, although we do not pretend to know their way of 
 subsisting. We are not ignorant of those laws made in terro- 
 rerrif but leave the disposal of our bodies to the wisdom of the 
 coroner and his jury, the thing being indifferent to us where 
 our bodies are laid. From hence it will appear how little 
 anxious we are about a 'hie jaceV We for our part neither 
 expect nor desire such honours ; but shall content ourselves 
 with a borrowed epitaph, which we shall insert in this paper : 
 
 * Without a name, for ever silent, dumb ; 
 Dust, ashes, nought else is within this tomb ; 
 Where we were born or bred it matters not ; 
 Who were our parents, or have us begot. 
 We ' were, but are not.' Think no more of us, 
 For as we are, so you'll be turn'd to dust.' 
 
 " It is the opinion of naturalists, that our bodies are at cer- 
 tain stages of life composed of new matter ; so that a great 
 many poor men have new bodies oftener than new clothes. 
 Now, as divines are not able to inform us which of those seve- 
 ral bodies shall rise at the resurrection, it is very probable that 
 the deceased body may be for ever silent as well as any other. 
 (Signed,) "Richard Smith, 
 
 " Briget Smith." 
 
 A lady and gentleman visited an hotel in the neighbourhood 
 of Paris, and ordered dinner to be prepared in a private room. 
 The lady, who appeared only nineteen years of age, was most 
 magnificently attired. The gentleman was observed to pay 
 her marked attention, and addressed her with the most endear- 
 ing epithets. The dinner consisted of every luxury of the 
 season. After drinking a large quantity of wine, the gentle- 
 man requested that they should not be disturbed, and he was 
 heard to lock the door. Half an hour afterwards, a report 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 321 
 
 of a pistol was heard in the room. The master of the hotel 
 was alarmed. The assistance of the police was obtained, and 
 the door of the room in which the lady and gentleman had 
 dined forced open. The lady was found on the floor dead, 
 and the gentleman a short distance from her, in the last 
 struggle of death. Two pistols were found near the bodies. 
 It appeared that they had agreed to commit mutual suicide, 
 and each being provided with a loaded pistol, fired at and 
 killed each other. On the table was found a piece of paper, 
 on which were written with a pencil the following words : — 
 " We, H * * * d and Maria * *, were enamoured of each 
 other. Circumstances beyond the control of man prevent our 
 alliance. We have no alternative but separation or death ; 
 and believing death to be one eternal dream of bliss, we, after 
 much meditation, have determined to kill each other. We 
 affix our signatures to this document. 
 
 « H * * * D, 
 "Maria**." 
 
 Two devoted lovers, disappointed in obtaining the consent 
 of their parents to their union, resolved upon dying. They ex- 
 perienced some difficulty in deciding how to effect their pur- 
 pose. The lady expressed an abhorrence of pistols, and the 
 gentleman was equally repugnant to the rope. After much 
 hesitation, they agreed to throw themselves into the river, and 
 stated their intention to a friend, who, thinking they were 
 merely joking, observed — "Well, I think you will find the 
 water very cold ; I should advise you to put on warm clothing 
 before you jump in." In the evening they were missing, and 
 on searching the river, they were discovered, tied to each 
 other, quite dead. 
 
 The suicide of Sir R. Croft has often been alluded to. He 
 attended the late Princess Charlotte in her confinement, and 
 her much lamented death, although not owing to any want of 
 skill on his part, preyed much on his mind, and drove him to 
 the rash act. He fancied he saw the spirit of the princess 
 glide through his room. The sight of an open razor on the 
 
 Y 
 
322 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 table first suggested the idea of self-destruction to him. He 
 was a physician of great skill, and was much beloved by all 
 who knew him. 
 
 A bishop of Grenoble affords an instance of suicidal inge- 
 nuity. He took a rod on which his bed-curtains hung, 
 and suspended it across by a stick, which communicated with 
 the trigger of his fowling-piece. He then sat quietly down, 
 with his feet hanging over the rod, and placing the muzzle of 
 the gun in his mouth, held it fast. He had nothing more 
 now to do than to drop his leg upon the rod, when the gun 
 went off, and three bullets entered his brain. 
 
 The fortitude which suicides display is amazing. A servant 
 girl of the Dean of , who had always borne a most ex- 
 cellent character, was accused by the family of theft. She 
 immediately repaired to the wash-house, immersed her head 
 in a pail of water, and was found dead in that position. What 
 must have been the courage of this poor creature, who, when 
 writhing under the lash of a false accusation, kept her head 
 under water, despite the horrible sense of suffocation that must 
 have come on ! 
 
 A French soldier of the name of Bordeaux, being deter- 
 mined to put an end to his life, persuaded a comrade, called 
 Humain, to follow his example. They both repaired to an 
 inn at St. Denis, and bespoke a good dinner. One of them 
 went out to buy some powder and balls. They spent the day 
 (Christmas) together with great cheerfulness, called for more 
 wine ; and, about four o'clock in the evening, blew out their 
 brains, leaving some empty bottles, their will, a letter, and 
 half-a-crown, in addition to the amount of their bill. 
 
 The following letter was addressed by Bordeaux to the 
 lieutenant of his troop, and was as follows ; — 
 
 " Sir, — During my residence at Guise, you honoured me 
 with your friendship. It is time to thank you. You have often 
 told me that I appeared displeased with my situation. I was 
 sincere, but not absolutely true. I have since examined myself 
 more seriously, and acknowledge that I am disgusted with every 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 323 
 
 state of man, the whole world, and myself. From these disco- 
 veries a consequence should be drawn, — if disgusted with the 
 whole, renounce the whole. The calculation is not long, — I 
 have made it without the aid of geometry. In short, I am 
 about putting an end to the existence that I have possessed for 
 near twenty years, fifteen of which have been a burden to me ; 
 and from the moment that I have ended this letter, a few grains 
 of powder will destroy this moving mass of flesh, which we vain 
 mortals call the king of beings. I owe no one an excuse. I 
 deserted. That was a crime ; but I am going to punish it, 
 and the law will be satisfied. I asked leave of absence from 
 my superior officers, to have the pleasure of dying at my ease. 
 They never condescended to give me an answer. This served 
 to hasten my end. I wrote to Bord to send you some de- 
 tached pieces I left at Guise, which I beg you will accept. 
 You will find that they contain some well chosen literature. 
 These pieces will solicit for me a place in your remembrance. 
 Adieu, my dear lieutenant ! Continue your esteem for St. 
 Lambert and Dorat. As for the rest, skip from flower to 
 flower, and acquire the sweets of all knowledge, and enjoy 
 every pleasure. 
 
 ' Pour moi, j'arrive au tron, 
 Qui n'echappe ni sage ni fou, 
 Pour aller je ne sais ou.' 
 
 " If we exist after this life, and it is forbidden to quit it 
 without permission, I will endeavour to procure one moment 
 to inform you of it ; if not, I shall advise all those w^ho are un- 
 happy, which is by far the greater part of mankind, to follow 
 my example. When you receive this letter, I shall have been 
 dead at least twenty-four hours. With esteem, &c. 
 
 '^ Bordeaux." 
 
 Lord Scarborough exhibited the same nonchalance in the 
 act of killing himself as he did when he resigned his situ- 
 ation as master of the horse. He was reproached in the 
 House of Peers with taking the king's part because he had a 
 
 y2 
 
324 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 good place at court. " My Lords," said he, " to prove to 
 you that my opinion is independent of my place, I resign it 
 this moment." He afterwards found himself in a perplexing 
 dilemma between a mistress whom he loved, but to whom he 
 had promised nothing, and a woman whom he esteemed, and 
 to whom he had promised marriage. Not having sufficient 
 resolution to decide which to choose, he killed himself to 
 escape the embarrassment. 
 
 Perhaps the coolest attempt at self-destruction on record, 
 the chefd^ceuvre of a suicide, is one related by Fodere. An 
 Englishman advertised extensively that he would on a certain 
 day put himself to death in Covent Garden, for the benefit 
 of his wife and family. Tickets of admission a guinea each. 
 
 Voltaire states that Creech, the translator of Lucretius, 
 wrote on the margin of the manuscript, " Remember to 
 hang myself after my translation is finished," and he accord- 
 ingly did so.* Zimmerman asserts that he committed suicide 
 in order to escape from the contempt of his countrymen, in 
 consequence of the ill-success that attended the translation of 
 Horace, which followed Lucretius. Mr. Jacob, however, ob- 
 serves, in reply to the statement of Zimmerman, that Creech 
 did not hang himself until seventeen years after the appear- 
 ance of his Horace. His death was attributed at the time to 
 some love affair, or to his morose and splenetic temper. 
 
 The history of the unfortunate Madame de Monnier is full 
 of interest It has been asserted that her death was the 
 result of an ardent passion for Mirabeau ; but we think it has 
 clearly been established that, at the time of her suicide, she had 
 abandoned all claim to his affection, and had formed a strong 
 attachment to a person who, although highly respectable in 
 point of rank, was very inferior to herself It is well known 
 that Mirabeau had a liaison with Madame de Monnier, the 
 wife of the Marquis de Monnier, whom she abandoned. After 
 residing seven years with her seducer, mutual jealousies and 
 
 * Voltaire observes, that if Creech had been translating Ovid, he would 
 «ot have committed suicide. 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 325 
 
 suspicions arose, and all intercourse between them ceased. 
 After the death of her husband, the Marquis de Monnier, she 
 became enamoured of M. Edme. Benoit de Poterat, a re- 
 tired captain of cavalry, a widower, thirty-five years of age. 
 The lovers were mutually captivated, and they agreed to 
 marry. Before this happy event, however, could be arranged, 
 the ill health of M. de Poterat forced him to quit the country, 
 and Madame de Monnier resolved to terminate her own 
 existence. She often conversed with her intimate friend 
 Dr. Ysabeau on the effects of suffocation from charcoal wood. 
 She asked whether death necessarily ensued ? The doctor 
 replied, that when suffocation was gradual and incomplete, in- 
 stances had been known of persons saved by the instinctive 
 effort of introducing air into the room. On the death of 
 M. de Poterat, which took place on the 8th of September, 
 1789, Madame de Monnier was overcome with grief. Dr. 
 Ysabeau and his wife did all they could to console her, but 
 without effect. Being alone one day, she collected her 
 papers, tied them in bundles, sealed them, wrote a letter con- 
 taining her last directions, and entered a closet, the smallness 
 and closeness of which she considered well suited to the design 
 she had long resolved to carry into execution. She then 
 closed and carefully calked the door and the window. Two 
 chafing dishes full of charcoal, which she had just lighted, 
 were then placed by her, one on each side of the arm chair 
 upon which she seated herself. In order to prevent her pur- 
 pose from being counteracted by any instinctive effort of 
 nature, she bound her legs, first under and then above her 
 clothes. She then tied one of her arms to the chair, and 
 fixed the other, and in this position calmly awaited death. 
 When it was discovered that she had attempted suicide, 
 M. Bousseau, Procureur du Roi of the Bailliage, proceeded to the 
 house, attended by a surgeon, who, without adopting the most 
 simple means of resucitation, commenced opening the body, 
 on the supposition that she was enceinte. In the meanwhile, 
 a messenger was dispatched for Dr. Ysabeau, who rode full 
 
326 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 gallop towards Madame de Monnier's house ; but he arrived 
 too late ; the operation had been performed, and Ufe was ex- 
 tinct. From the symptoms which were present before the 
 ignorant and barbarous surgeon commenced the operation, 
 Dr. Ysabeau expressed a firm behef that he could have 
 restored her to animation.* 
 
 M. , aged twenty-seven, a native of Burgundy, who 
 
 was equally favoured by nature and by fortune, fell passion- 
 ately in love with a young lady. For a long time he solicited 
 in vain the consent of his parents to the match, but at length 
 love triumphed. Scarcely a month had elapsed after his mar- 
 riage, when he was seized with a lowness of spirits, a disgust 
 of life, and a frightful desire to commit suicide. Everything 
 which the tenderness of a young and loving wife, and the 
 solicitude of the whole family, by whom he was loved, could 
 suggest, was done to disperse these gloomy ideas, and recon- 
 cile him to life ; but the unfortunate fellow was too deeply 
 sunk in his melancholy. He at length quitted Burgundy, 
 and went to Paris with his brother to consult a physician. 
 The day after he had arrived, he went to M. Esquirol, made 
 known his sad state to him, assuring him that his weariness of 
 Hfe was not the result of any physical disease, of any disap- 
 pointment, or of any moral pain ; affirming, on the contrary, 
 that he was surrounded with nothing but subjects of content- 
 ment. His brother confirmed this declaration. He left 
 M. Esquirol, and promised to return the next day and com- 
 mit himself to his care in his establishment. The next day 
 arrived, the young man went out at six o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, purchased a pair of pistols, and returned at seven. He 
 then proposed to his brother to set out together for Rouen ; 
 but he reminded him of the promise he had given to 
 M. Esquirol, adding, to prevent his changing his mind, 
 
 • We refer our readers, for a minute and deeply interesting account of this 
 unfortunate woman's career, to a work from which we have gleaned the above 
 facts ; the particulars of her life will be perused with great interest. — Vide 
 " Memoirs of Mirabeau, by himself," vol. iii. chap. xi. 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 327 
 
 that he had months suitable to go. At that instant M. 
 
 took out his two pistols, and placing the mouth of one of them 
 at his brother's forehead, said, " If you do not consent to go 
 with me immediately, I will instantly blow out your brains 
 with this pistol, and afterwards kill myself with the other." 
 The brother, on hearing this, fell at his feet in a swoon, and 
 when he recovered, he no longer saw his unfortunate relative 
 who had threatened him, and he trembled lest he should have 
 gone to some secret place to terminate his life. He at 
 once gave notice to the police, and demanded that the most 
 active of their body should be sent in search of him. On his 
 part, he neglected nothing which could give him any clue to 
 his discovery ; he inquired of his friends and his acquaint- 
 ances, but heard nothing of him until the next day, when he 
 received intelligence from the police that the body of a man 
 shot through the head, had been found in the forest of Seuart. 
 It was that of his unfortunate brother. 
 
 M. Escousse, author of a drama called Faruck le Maure, 
 about twenty, and M. Lebras, about fifteen, both united by 
 the closest ties of friendship, and each of a melancholy turn of 
 mind, committed suicide at Paris. They had often complained 
 of the miseries of this world, and talked of the necessity of 
 quitting it. M. Escousse wrote the following note to his 
 friends : — " I shall expect you at half- past eleven o'clock ; the 
 curtain will be raised ; come, and we will at length arrive at 
 the denouement^ The young Lebras arrived at the appointed 
 time, the charcoal was ignited, and the two friends expired 
 together. 
 
 A young woman of Marseilles, remarkable for her beauty, 
 formed a connexion with a cabinetmaker, whose parents ob- 
 jected to their union. They were found quite dead, clasped 
 in each other's arms, having been suffocated by a quantity of 
 burning charcoal. They were both dressed in the most ele- 
 gant manner, and must have spent many hours at their toilet 
 preparing for their last adieu. 
 
 The following case related by Gall cannot easily be paral- 
 
328 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 leled. The first lieutenant of a company in which a man named 
 Prochaska served became enamoured of the wife of the latter ; 
 but she resisted all his entreaties. The officer, irritated by 
 this obstinacy, was guilty of some injustice to the husband. 
 Prochaska appeared dejected and morose, but the following 
 day he appeared at the dinner table and seemed quite tranquil. 
 A few days afterwards he and his wife attended the confes- 
 sional and took the sacrament. He dined in good spirits, and 
 took a few glasses of wine. In the evening, he and his wife 
 went out to walk, and he expressed himself in terms of great 
 affection for her. He asked her, however, if she had made 
 a candid and full confession to the priest; and on being 
 answered in the affirmative, he coolly plunged a poniard in 
 her breast ; seeing that she was not instantly dispatched, he cut 
 her throat across, in order to release her from her sufferings. 
 He now repaired to his house, and seizing his two children, 
 who were in bed asleep, he actually hacked them in pieces 
 with a hatchet. Having committed these three murders, he 
 repaired to the main guard, and with the most perfect cool- 
 ness and deliberation detailed the whole particulars of the 
 bloody deed. He concluded in these words : — " Let the lieu- 
 tenant now make love to my wife if he pleases .'" Shortly after 
 this, he stabbed himself to the heart. 
 
 A young lady threatened, without ceasing, to kill herself, 
 and made many attempts at it. An old uncle with whom she 
 lived, tired by her repeated menaces, proposed a walk in the 
 country ; and taking her to the brink of a piece of water, he 
 commenced undressing himself. " Now, niece," said he, 
 " throw yourself into the water, and I will follow after you." 
 He continued pressing her, and pushed her towards it ; but 
 after some struggling, she cried out that she was unwilling to 
 die, and would never more talk of killing herself. 
 
 A young woman, married to a churlish husband, and who, 
 although the mother of many children, was unhappy in do- 
 mestic life, determined to fall by her own hands. She threw 
 herself into a part of the river sufficiently deep for the exe- 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 329 
 
 cution of her project, but a man, passing by, drew her out, and 
 compelled her to go home. The necessary attentions were 
 paid her, and she recovered; but it was observed that she 
 stood in much dread of water, and felt a pain even in going 
 into a bath. She, besides, had a fit of melancholy at the time 
 in which she endeavoured to drow.^ herself. This fit lasted 
 two or three months ; it was follow* d by a month of great 
 excitement, and then she remained calm during the remainder 
 of the year. 
 
 The bell of the church at Fressonville, in Picardy, was heard 
 to sound at an unusual hour, and in a very extraordinary 
 manner. The people hastened to make inquiry, and found a 
 man suspended from the clapper. He was immediately cut 
 down, and after some time restored to life. No motives are 
 assigned for the act. 
 
 A person of melancholy temperament, and who detested 
 his parents on account of their injustice towards him, had re- 
 course to the chase as a diversion from his domestic sorrows. 
 One day, being weary, he lay down in the shade by the side 
 of his weapon and his dog, the faithful companion of his mis- 
 fortunes, and fell into a profound sleep. He awoke in an agi- 
 tated state of mind, and the idea occurred to him of making an 
 eternal sleep follow the temporary one he had so much en- 
 joyed. Pleased with this, he got up, increased the charge of his 
 fowling-piece, and was about to blow out his brains, when he 
 sensibly reflected in this manner — " What ! am I about to 
 shorten my days because my unjust and unnatural parents 
 deprive me of their property ? This is to give them their 
 utmost desire, and to abandon to them that which they cannot 
 take from me." 
 
 Matthew Lovat was born at Casale, a hamlet belonging to 
 the parish of Soldo, in the territory of Belluno. His father's 
 name was Mark, and being in poor circumstances, the son 
 was employed in the coarsest labours of husbandry. His edu- 
 cation and habits must have been in accordance with his 
 station ; but it appears that, being attracted by the comfort- 
 
330 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 able and easy circumstances of the rector and curate, the only- 
 persons in the parish who lived without manual labour, he 
 placed himself under the latter with the desire of entering the 
 priesthood. From him he learned to read and write a little, 
 but he was too poor to gratify this inclination, and betook 
 himself to the trade of a shoemaker. Whether this disap- 
 pointment had any effect on Lovat we cannot tell, but he 
 never became expert at his trade, and was distinguished for 
 his gloominess and silence. When he grew older, he became 
 subject to attacks of giddiness in the head in the spring, and 
 to eruptions of a leprous character. Except this gloominess 
 and his great attention to religious exercises, nothing remark- 
 able was noticed about Lovat until July, 1802. At this period 
 he performed an operation upon himself, which subjected him 
 so much to the ridicule of his neighbours that he was com- 
 pelled to remain within doors, and to refrain even from going 
 to mass. He left the village in November, and went to 
 Venice, where he had a younger brother, who recommended 
 him to a widow, with whom he lodged until the 21st of Sep- 
 tember in the following year, working regularly as a shoe- 
 maker, and without exhibiting any signs of insanity. On that 
 day he made his first attempt to crucify himself. Having 
 constructed a cross out of the wood of his bed, he proceeded 
 to nail himself to it in the middle of the street, called the 
 Cross of Biri, and was only prevented by some persons who 
 seized him as he was about to drive the nail through his left 
 foot. He was interrogated as to his motives, but would give 
 no answer, except on one occasion, when he said that the day 
 was the festival of St. Matthew, and that he could not explain 
 further. A few days after this had happened, he left Venice, 
 and went to his native village, but returned soon after, and 
 continued working at his trade for nearly three years without 
 exhibiting further signs of his malady. Having taken a room 
 in a third story in the street Delle Monadic, his old delusion 
 again seized him, and he commenced making at his leisure 
 hours the machine on which he intended to accomplish his 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 331 
 
 purpose, and providing the nails, ropes, bands, crown of thorns, 
 &c. He perceived that it would be difficult to nail himself 
 firmly to the cross, and therefore made a net, which he fastened 
 over it, securing it at the bottom of the upright beam a little 
 below the bracket he had placed for his feet, and at the ends 
 of the two arms. The whole apparatus was securely tied by 
 two ropes, one from the net, and the other from the place 
 where the beams intersected each other. These ropes were 
 fastened to the bar above the window, and were just sufficiently 
 long to allow the cross to lie horizontally upon the floor of his 
 apartment. Having finished these preparations, he next put 
 on his crown of thorns, some of which entered his forehead ; 
 and then, having stripped himself naked, he girded his loins 
 with a white handkerchief. He then introduced himself 
 into the net, and seating himself on the cross, drove a nail 
 through the palm of his right hand by striking its head against 
 the floor until the point appeared on the other side. He now 
 placed his feet on the bracket he had prepared for them, and 
 with a mallet drove a nail completely through them both, en- 
 tering a hole he had previously made to receive it, and fasten- 
 ing them to the wood. He next tied himself to the cross by 
 a piece of cord round his waist, and wounded himself in the 
 side with a knife which he used in his trade. The wound was 
 inflicted two inches below the left hypochondre, towards the 
 internal angle of the abdominal cavity, but did not injure any 
 of the parts which the cavity contains. Several scratches 
 were observed on his breast, which appeared to have been 
 done by the knife in probing for a place which should present 
 no obstruction. The knife, according to Lovat, represented 
 the spear of passion. 
 
 All this he accomplished in the interior of his apartment, 
 but it was now necessary to shew himself in public. To ac- 
 complish this, he had placed the foot of the cross upon the 
 window sill, which was very low, and by pressing his fingers 
 against the floor, he gradually drew himself forward, until the 
 
332 SINGULAR CASES OF SUICIDE. 
 
 foot of the cross overbalancing the head, the whole machine 
 tilted out of the window, and hung by the two ropes which 
 were fastened to the beam. He then, by way of finishing, 
 nailed his right hand to the arm of the cross, but could not 
 succeed in fixing his left, although the nail by which it was 
 to have been fixed was driven through it, and half of it came 
 out of the other side. 
 
 This took place at eight o'clock in the morning. Some 
 persons by whom he was perceived ran up stairs, disengaged 
 him from the cross, and put him to bed. A surgeon in the 
 neighbourhood who was called in ordered his feet to be put in 
 water, introduced some tow into the wound in the hypo- 
 chondre, which he said did not reach the cavity, and pre- 
 scribed some cordial. 
 
 Luckily, Dr. Bergierri, to whom we are indebted for the par- 
 ticulars of this case, was passing near, and came immediately 
 to the house. When he arrived, his feet, from which but a 
 small quantity of blood had flowed, were still in water; his 
 eyes were shut ; he gave no answer to the questions of those 
 around him ; his pulse was convulsive ; his respiration diffi- 
 cult; he was, in fact, in a state which required the most 
 prompt means of assistance. Having obtained permission of 
 the director of poHce, who had come to the spot to ascertain 
 what had happened, he had him removed by water to the 
 Imperial Clinical School at the Hospital of St. Luke and St. 
 John, of which he then had the superintendence. The only ob- 
 servation Lovat made while being conveyed was to his brother 
 Angelo, who was lamenting his extravagance ; he replied, 
 " Alas I I am very unfortunate^ His wounds were examined 
 afresh on his arrival at the hospital, and it was quite evident 
 that the nails had entered at the palm of the hand, and passing 
 between the bones of the metacarpus without doing them 
 much injury, had gone out of the back. The nail which 
 fastened the feet first entered the right foot between the 
 second and third bones of the metatarsus, and then passed 
 
SINGULAR CASES OF SUICmE. 333 
 
 between the first and second of the left foot, laying them open 
 and grazing them. The wound in the hypochondre was found 
 to extend to the point of the cavity. 
 
 The patient all this time was quite docile, and did every- 
 thing that was required of him. The wounds in the ex- 
 tremities were treated with fresh oil of sweet almonds and 
 bread and milk poultices, renewed several times a day. Some 
 ounces of the mixture cardiaca opiata and a little very weak 
 lemonade were taken at intervals during the first six days. 
 On the fifth day the wounds of the extremities suppurated, 
 and on the eighth, that in the hypochondre was perfectly 
 healed. 
 
 Dr. Bergierri frequently questioned him as to the motives he 
 had in crucifying himself, and always received the same an- 
 swer — " The pride of man must he mortified ; it must expire on 
 the cross.^^ Lovat seldom spoke ; he sat with his eyes closed, 
 and a gloomy expression of countenance. The impression on 
 his mind that he must crucify himself was very deep. He 
 seemed fully persuaded that this was an obligation imposed 
 on him by the will of the Deity, and wished to inform the tri- 
 bunal of justice that this was his destiny, in order that they 
 might not suspect that he had received his death from any 
 other hand than his own. He had expressed these ideas on a 
 paper which he wrote before his attempt, and which after- 
 wards fell into the hands of Dr. B. 
 
 He did not complain much of pain during the first seven 
 days, but on the morning of the eighth he suffered severely ; 
 this, however, was soon removed by the remedies had recourse to. 
 In the course of a short time Lovat was completely restored 
 to bodily health, but his mind retained until his death the 
 same melancholy caste, although he never had another oppor- 
 tunity of putting his sanguinary project into execution.* 
 
 * Vide Frontispiece. 
 
334 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 CAN SUICIDE BE PREVENTED BY LEGISLATIVE ENACT- 
 MENTS ?— INFLUENCE OF MORAL INSTRUCTION.— 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The legitimate object of punishment — The argument of Beccaria — A legal 
 solecism — A suicide not amenable to human tribunals — Evidence at 
 coroners' courts, ex-parte — The old law of no advantage — No penal law 
 will restrain a man fromthe commission of suicide — Verdict o{ felo-de-se 
 punishes the innocent, and therefore unjust — Are suicides insane, and 
 therefore not responsible agents? — The man who reasons himself into 
 suicide not of sound mind — Rational mode of preventing suicide by pro- 
 moting religious education. 
 
 The only legitimate object for which punishment can be 
 inflicted is the prevention of crime. " Am I to be hanged 
 for stealing a sheep?" said a criminal at the Old Bailey, 
 addressing the bench. '^ No," replied the judge ; " you are 
 not to be hanged for stealing a sheep, but that sheep may not 
 he stolenP Every punishment, argues Beccaria, which does 
 not arise from absolute necessity is unjust. There should be 
 a fixed proportion between crimes and punishments. Crimes 
 are only to be estimated by the injury done to society ; and 
 the end of punishment is, to prevent the criminal from doing 
 further injury, as well as to induce others from committing 
 similar offences. 
 
 The act of suicide ought not to be considered as a crime 
 
CAN SUICIDE BE PREVENTED, ETC. 335 
 
 in the legal definition of the term. It is not an offence that 
 can be deemed cognizable by the civil magistrate. It is to be 
 considered a sinful and vicious action. To punish suicide as a 
 crime is to commit a solecism in legislation. The unfortunate 
 individual, by the very act of suicide, places himself beyond 
 the vengeance of the law ; he has anticipated its operation ; 
 he has rendered himself amenable to the highest tribunal — 
 viz., that of his Creator; no penal enactments, however 
 stringent, can affect him. What is the operation of the law 
 under these circumstances ? A verdict oi felo-de-se is returned, 
 and the innocent relations of the suicide are disgraced and 
 branded with infamy, and that too on evidence of an ex-parte 
 nature. It is unjust, inhuman, unnatural, and unchristian, 
 that the law should punish the innocent family of the man 
 who, in a moment of frenzy, terminates his own miserable 
 existence. It was clearly established, that before the altera- 
 tion in the law respecting suicide, the fear of being buried 
 in a cross-road, and having a stake driven through the body, 
 had no beneficial effect in decreasing the number of suicides ; 
 and the verdict of felo-de-se, now occasionally returned, is 
 productive of no advantage whatever, and only injures the 
 surviving relatives. 
 
 When a man contemplates an outrage of the law, the fear 
 of the punishment awarded for the offence may deter him 
 from its commission ; but the unhappy person whose despe- 
 rate circumstances impel him to sacrifice his own life can be 
 influenced by no such fear. His whole mind is absorbed in 
 the consideration of his own miseries, and he even cuts 
 asunder those ties that ought to bind him closely and tenderly 
 to the world he is about to leave. If an affectionate wife and 
 endearing family have no influence in deterring a man from 
 suicide, is it reasonable to suppose that he will be influenced 
 by penal laws ? 
 
 If the view which has been taken in this work of the cause 
 of suicide be a correct one, no stronger argument can be urged 
 
336 CAN suicroE be prevented 
 
 for the impropriety of bringing the strong arm of the law to 
 bear upon those who court a voluntary death. In the majority 
 of cases, it will be found that some heavy calamity has fastened 
 itself upon the mind, and the spirits have been extremely 
 depressed. The individual loses all pleasure in society ; hope 
 vanishes, and despair renders life intolerable, and death an 
 apparent relief. The evidence which is generally submitted 
 to a coroner's jury is of necessity imperfect ; and although the 
 suicide may, to all appearance, be in possession of his right 
 reason, and have exhibited at the moment of killing himself 
 the greatest calmness, coolness, and self-possession, this would 
 not justify the coroner or jury in concluding that derangement 
 of mind was not present. 
 
 K the mind be overpowered by " grief, sickness, infirmity, 
 or other accident," as Sir Mathew Hale expresses it, the law 
 presumes the existence of lunacy. Any passion that power- 
 fully exercises the mind, and prevents the reasoning faculty from 
 performing its duty, causes temporary derangement. It is not 
 necessary in order to establish the presence of insanity to prove 
 the person to be labouring under a delusion of intellect — a 
 false creation of the mind. A man may allow his imagination 
 to dwell upon an idea until it acquires an unhealthy ascen- 
 dency over the intellect, and in this way a person may com- 
 mit suicide from an habitual belief in the justifiableness of the 
 act.* If a man, by a distorted process of reasoning, argues 
 himself into a conviction of the propriety of adopting a par- 
 ticular course of conduct, without any reference to the 
 necessary result of that train of thought, it is certainly no 
 evidence of his being in possession of a sound mind. A person 
 may reason himself into a belief that murder, under certain 
 circumstances not authorized by the law, is perfectly just and 
 proper. The circumstance of his allowing his mind to reason 
 
 * A singular case of this kind was brought under the notice of the West- 
 minster Medical Society by Dr. Stone, as an argument in favour of the 
 possibility of a person committing suicide when in possession of a sane 
 mind. 
 
BY LEGISLATIVE ENACTMENTS? 337 
 
 on the subject is o, prima facie case against his sanity; at least 
 it demonstrates a great weakness of the moral constitution. 
 A man's morale must be in an imperfect state of development 
 who reasons himself into the conviction that self-murder is 
 under any circumstances justifiable. 
 
 We dwell at some length on this subject, because we feel 
 assured that juries do not pay sufficient attention to the in- 
 fluence of passion in overclouding the understanding. If the 
 notion that in every case of suicide the intellectual or moral 
 faculties are perverted, be generally received, it will at once 
 do away with the verdict oi felo-de-se. Should the jury en- 
 tertain a doubt as to the presence of derangement, (and such 
 cases may present themselves,) it is their duty, in accordance 
 with the well-known principle of British jurisprudence, to 
 give the person the benefit of that doubt ; and thus a verdict 
 of lunacy may be conscientiously returned in every case of 
 this description. 
 
 Having, we think, clearly established that no penal law 
 can act beneficially in preventing self-destruction, — first, be- 
 cause it would punish the innocent for the crimes of the guilty; 
 and, secondly, that, owing to insanity being present in every 
 instance, the person determined on suicide is indifferent as 
 to the consequences of his action, — it becomes our province 
 to consider what are the legitimate means of staying the pro- 
 gress of an offence that undermines the foundation of society 
 and social happiness. 
 
 In the prevention of suicide, too much stress cannot be 
 laid on the importance of adopting a well-regulated, enlarged, 
 and philosophic system of education, by which all the moral 
 as well as the intellectual faculties will be expanded and 
 disciplined. The education of the intellect without any re- 
 ference to the moral feelings is a species of instruction cal- 
 culated to do an immense amount of injury. The tuition 
 that addresses itself exclusively to the perceptive and reflec- 
 tive faculties is not the kind of education that will elevate 
 the moral character of a people. Religion must be made the 
 
 z 
 
338 INFLUENCE OF MORAL INSTRUCTION. 
 
 basis of all secular knowledge. We must be led to believe 
 that the education which fits the possessor for another world 
 is vastly superior to that which has relation only to the con- 
 cerns of this life. We are no opponents to the diffusion of 
 knowledge ; but we are to that description of information 
 which has only reference " to the life that is, and not to that 
 which is to be." Such a system of instruction is of necessity 
 defective, because it is partial in its operation. Teach a man 
 his duty to God, as well as his obligations to his fellow-men ; 
 lead him to believe that his life is not his own ; that disap- 
 pointment and misery is the penalty of Adam's transgression, 
 and one from which there is no hope of escaping ; and, above 
 all, inculcate a resignation to the decrees of Divine Provi- 
 dence. When life becomes a burden, when the mind is 
 sinking under the weight of accumulated misfortunes, and no 
 gleam of hope penetrates through the vista of futurity to 
 gladden the heart, the intellect says, " Commit suicide, and 
 escape from a world of wretchedness and woe ; " the moral 
 principle says, " Live ; it is your duty to bear with resigna- 
 tion the afflictions that overwhelm you ; let the moral influ- 
 ence of your example be reflected in the characters of those 
 by whom you are surrounded." 
 
 If we are justified in maintaining that the majority of the cases 
 of suicide result from a vitiated condition of the moral principle, 
 then it is certainly a legitimate mode of preventing the commis- 
 sion of the offence to elevate the character of man as a moral 
 being. It is no legitimate argument against this position to main- 
 tain that insanity in all its phases marches side by side with 
 civilization and refinement ; but it must not be forgotten that 
 a people may be refined and civilized, using these terms in 
 their ordinary signification, who have not a just conception 
 of their duties as members of a Christian community. Let 
 the education of the heart go side by side with the education 
 of the head; inculcate the ennobling thought, that we live 
 not for ourselves, but for others ; that it is an evidence of true 
 
INFLUENCE OF MORAL INSTRUCTION. 339 
 
 Christian courage to face bravely the ills of life, to bear with 
 impunity " the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's 
 wrong, and the proud man's contumely;" and we disse- 
 minate principles which will give expansion to those faculties 
 that alone can fortify the mind against the commission of a 
 crime alike repugnant to all human and Divine laws. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 T. C. Savill, Printer, 107, St. Martin's Lane, Channg Cross. 
 
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