THE JOURNAL ? ] OF PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE AND MENTAL PATHOLOGY. OCTOBER 1, 1859. Art. I.??ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF SUICIDES IN ENGLAND AND WALES. (With a Map?) When Virgil consigned the souls of suicides to a special region of Hades, and Dante planted them in a particular division of Hell, each poet represented as being a law of the infernal, what is in no small degree a law of terrestrial regions. There is, unhappily, no segment of England that is not blurred by suicides; but the number of suicides predominates conspicuously in certain districts as compared with others, so that we may map out particular localities in which there appears to be an extraordinary tendency to the act of self-destruction, and which may perhaps not unfit- tingly be designated suicide-fields. The data at our disposal from which we may ascertain the dis- tribution of suicides in the are derived from the tabu- kingdom, " lated returns of inquests "touching the cause of death con- tained in Mr. SI. Redgrave's "Judicial Statistics," (Blue Book). These returns, made by the coroners throughout England and Wales, extend over a period of three years. In making use,, how- in so far as it ever, of Mr. Redgrave's tabulated arrangement, refers to counties, it is requisite to note that the boundaries of a county do not always represent the actual limits of a coroner's district; for it sometimes happens that the coroners of one county will, in cases of necessity, extend their jurisdiction into neighbouring counties, but the inquests so held are entered in the returns of the coroner who presides. There is no means of deter- mining whether the errors arising from this irregularity affect results of but it is materially or not the special the returns, pro- bable (as will appear subsequently) that they exercise but slight influence over the comparative results. NO. XVI.?NEW SERIES. I I 11 - ? 470 DISTRIBUTION OF SUICIDES IN ENGLAND AND WALES. According to the coroners' returns, the following were the numbers of suicides which were committed in England and Wales during the years 1850-57-58 :? 1856. 1857. 1S58. M. P. M. F. m. f. 919 395 960 389 909 366 These figures give an average of G'8 suicides of both sexes in every 100,000 of the population of England and Wales during the three years 1856-58. The average of the five years, 1852-50, was, according to returns made to the Registrar- General, 5*8. In accounting for the difference between the two averages (putting aside the fact that the periods do not corre- spond), Dr. Favr's statements have to be considered, that the suicides returned to the Registrar-General are probably one-tenth below the actual number ascertained to have occurred, (an opinion doubtless founded upon a comparison with the coroners' returns for 1850), and that a few should be deducted from Mr. Redgrave's tables for "the duplicate return," (19t/i Annual Report of the Registrar-General, p. 20-3). By a reference to the accompanying Table (I.), it will be seen that the proportion, of suicides in fifteen counties is above the average of the kingdom (G'8); in one it is about the average; while in the remaining counties it is, in different degrees, below. The counties in which the proportion is in excess of the average are as follows :? Westmoreland 11*1 Warwick 8.5 Middlesex ? 10'5 Lincoln 8'4 Surrey 10*4 Cumberland ... 8*4 Kent 9-9 Derby T7 Leicester 9'0 Southampton ... 7*7 Nottingham 9'5 Lancaster 7*0 Sussex 9*0 Chester 7*1 .Brecon 7'0 The average of Gloucestershire (0*5) is about that of the kingdom, and next in order of proportion to that county stand Northumberland (6*1) and Durham (0*1). The position of those will counties, the averages of which range below G'O, be most readily seen by a reference to the Map which accompanies this article, and to Table I. Lowest in the scale are the Welsh counties of Carmarthen (1'7) and Pembroke (L'O). DISTRIBUTION OF SUICIDES IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 471 I. Table showing the Distribution of Suicides in the different Counties of England and Wales during the Three Years 1856-57-58. 1856. 1857. 1858. cj cc?. "3 Bedford. 7-0 134,402 5-3 Berks . 9-2 175,045 5'4 Buckingham 100 168.091 5-9 Cambridge. 5"0 197,969 2'5 Chester . 360 492,085 7*1 Cornwall . 10-0 363,592 2-7 Cumberland 173 205,962 8-4 Derby . 240 310,412 7-7 Devon . 343 587,576 5-8 Dorset . 86 189,697 4-5 Durham 270 440,815 6-1 Essex . 21-6 383,916 5-6 Gloucester . 31-0 475,191 6-5 Hereford . 5-6 116,755 4-7 Hertford 8-6 173,676 4-9 Huntingdon 30 67,561 4-4 Kent. 650 655,612 Lancaster . 171-6 2,249,744 Leicester . 230 238,972 Lincoln . 361 427,994 Middlesex . 2196 2,072,540 10-5 Monmouth. 76 171,248 4-4 Norfolk . 27-0 460,744 5-8 Northampton. 130 220,270 5-9 Northumberland 200 326.092 6-1 Nottingham 270 232,733 9'5 Oxford . 9-0 174,825 5-1 Rutland. 1-3 23,991 5-4 Salop. -. 11-6 231,453 5-0 Somerset . 18-0 418,902 4'2 Southampton 33-6 435,778 7-7 Stafford . 283 664,260 4-2 Suffolk . 17-6 350,499 5-0 Surrey . 77-3 742,506 10-4 Sussex . 32-6 358,900 9-0 Warwick . 44-6 518,999 8 5 Westmoreland 6-6 59,385 111 Wilts . 11-0 252,991 4-3 Worcester . 12-6 294,002 4-2 York. 111-6 1,921,553 5-8 3-2 Anglesey . 2-0 61,185 Brecon . 46 64,996 7-0 26 3-6 Cardigan . 72,014 Carmarthen 20 113,212 1-7 36 3-9 Carnarvon . 91,932 21 . 2-0 95,013 Denbigh 2-9 Flint . 20 68,894 120 268,245 4-4 Glamorgan 10 2-6 Merioneth . 38,555 2-6 65,973 39 Montgomery 1-0 Pembroke . 97,791 1-0 1-0 Badnor . 24,272 41 England and') 389 19,108,508 Wales . j If the foregoing figures be regarded as a measure of tendency to suicide, it would appear that in the three years, 1856-58, the maximum disposition to self-destruction was manifested in West- moreland ; that next in rank, and hardly inferior to Westmoreland, I I 2 4,72 DISTRIBUTION OF SUICIDES IN ENGLAND AND WALES. stood the metropolitan counties of Middlesex and Surrey; while the minimum disposition was shown in Carmarthen and Pembroke. From the general distribution of suicides throughout the kingdom, we learn that there are three districts in which the tendency to suicide is in excess. For the convenience of de- scription we propose to designate these districts suicicle-fields, and to distinguish the one from the other by their relation to the metropolis, the midland, and the northern counties. I. The London Suic'ule-field.?The metropolitan counties of Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent, and the adjoining counties of Sussex and Hampshire, form a well-defined district in which the proportion of suicides is considerably in excess of that of the whole kingdom. If (as in the case of the departments adjoining Paris) the excess of suicides in this district is to be ascribed mainly to the influ- ence of the metropolis, it is remarkable that that influence should be manifested only in the counties south of the metropolis, being confined on the north, north-east, and north-west, within the limits of Middlesex, and on the west not extending beyond the boundaries of Surrey. Paris forms the centre of a vast suicide field, and M. Guerry has remarked, and his remark has been confirmed by subsequent writers, that, generally speaking, from whatever point of France we start, the number of suicides increases regularly in proportion as we approach the capital.?(Essai sur la Statistique Morale de France, p. G5. 1838.) M. Brierre de Boismont states that, "It appears certain that the moral action of the radiates from a central towards the capital " point surrounding districts." And again, It may be regarded as a fact perfectly established, that the number of suicides increases regularly and ill all directions, in proportion as Paris is neared."? (Du Suicide et de la Folie Suicide, pp. 356-357.) Marseilles appears to affect Provence and Dauphine much in the same manner as Paris affects the rest of France. It can hardly be doubted that the excess of suicides in the metropolitan counties?Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent,?is due to the metropolis; and probably the peculiarity of the social rela- tions of London to Sussex, and even Hampshire, may account for the excessive suicidal tendency manifested in those counties, as well as for the southerly extension of the baneful influence of the metropolis. The sea-board of Sussex is one of the most favoured places of resort, and one much frequented, for its readiness of access, by Londoners ; and it is a suggestive fact that of ninety-eight suicides which were committed in Sussex in the three years, 185Q-58, thirty- nine, that is to say, considerably more than one-third (in fact, 40'8 per cent.) occurred within the boroughs of Brighton and Hastings, I DISTRIBUTION OF SUICIDES IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 473 and the rape of Hastings,?Brighton numbering twenty suicides, and Hastings and'its rape eighteen.