Chapter IV

ON THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN MENTAL STATES IN INDUCING
THE DISPOSITION TO SUICIDE.

Moral causes of disease—Neglect of psychological
medicine—Mental philosophy 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
Abbé de Rancé—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—Goëthe’s attempt at suicide—Influence
of his writings on Hackman—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 Hôtel
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 to leap from precipices—Lord Byron’s
allusion to the influence of fascination—Miss Moyes and
the Monument—A man who could not trust himself with a
razor—Esquirol’s opinion of such cases—Danger of ascending
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, Dryden—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