Examples of antiquity no defence of suicide -- Causes of ancient suicides -- The suicides of Asdrubal, Nicocles, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Hannibal, Mithridates, the inhabitants of the city of Xanthus, Cato, Charondas, Lycurgus, Codrus, Themistocles, Emperor Otho, Brutus and Cassius, Mark Antony and Cleopatra, Petronius, Lucan, Lucius Vetus, Sardanapalus, M. Curtius, Empedocles, Theoxena -- Noble resistance of Josephus -- Scripture suicides: Samson, Saul, Ahitophel, Judas Iscariot, Eleazar, Razis -- Doctrines of the stoics, Seneca, Epictetus, Zeno -- Opinions of Cicero, Pliny, on suicide -- Ancient laws on 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 Staël’s recantation -- Robert of Normandy, Gibbon, Sir T. More, and Robeck’s opinions considered

The sin of suicide -- The notions of Paley on the subject -- Voltaire’s opinion -- Is suicide self-murder? -- Is it forbidden in Scripture? -- Shakspeare’s views on the subject -- The alliance between suicide and murder -- Has a x 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 courage -- Opinion of Q. Curtius on the subject -- Buonaparte’s denunciation of suicide -- Dryden’s description of the suicide in another world

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” or “Capitalism” 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

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?

Singular motives for committing suicide -- A man who delighted in torturing himself -- A dangerous experiment -- Pleasures of carnage -- Disposition xi 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

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

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-destruction -- Causes of French suicides -- Influence of physical pain -- Unnatural vices -- Suicide the effect of intoxication -- Influence of hepatic disease 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 derangement -- 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

Diseases of the brain not dissimilar to affections of other organs -- Early symptoms of insanity -- The good effects of having plenty to do -- Occupation -- 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 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

On the dependence of irritability of temper on physical disease -- Voltaire and an Englishman agree to commit suicide -- The reasons that induced Voltaire 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 -- Advantages of bloodletting, with cases -- Damien insane -- Cold applied to the head, of benefit -- Good effects of purgation -- Suicide caused by a tapeworm -- 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

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 xiii 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 insanity? -- 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

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 possibility of voluntary strangulation -- General Pichegru’s singular case -- The melancholy history of Marc Antonie Calas -- How to discover whether a person was dead before thrown into water -- Singular cases -- Admiral Caracciolo -- Drowning in a bath -- The points to keep in view in cases of suspicious death -- Was Sellis murdered? -- Death from wounds -- The case of the Earl of Essex

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

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

Introduction -- Contempt of death -- Eustace Budgel -- M. de Boissy and his wife -- Mutual suicides from disappointed love -- Suicide from mortification -- 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 -- Mutual 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

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 of 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 promoting religious education

FOOTNOTES

EPISTLE

Peaceful Death - A Human Right