Ferrero has sought the explanation of the small part played by women in art, and their defective sense for purely aesthetic beauty, in their less keen sexual emotions. 2 This is doubtless an important 1 F. Galton, Natural Inheritance^ chap. lx.
■ G. Ferrero, " Woman's Sphere in Art," New Review y Nov. 1893.
Google THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE. 327 factor. The sexual sphere in women is more massive and extended than in men, but it is less energetic in its manifestations. In men the sexual instinct is a restless source of energy which overflows into all sorts of channels. At the same time, the rarity of women artists of the first rank is probably due to another cause which we shall be concerned with later on — the greater variational tendency of men.
Google CHAPTER XV.
MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA.
SUICIDE — FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE ITS FREQUENCY — SEXUAL PROPORTIONS IN EUROPE — THE INFLUENCE OF AGE — THE CAUSES OF SUICIDE — METHODS OF SUICIDE — MEN PREFER ACTIVE, WOMEN PASSIVE METHODS — RACIAL SEXUAL DIFFERENCES.
INSANITY — IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD — CAUSES OF INSANITY — FORMS OF INSANITY — ALCOHOLIC INSANITY AND GENERAL PARALYSIS INCREASING AMONG WOMEN —GENERAL PARALYSIS AS A TYPICALLY MASCULINE INSANITY — INSANITY AND CIVILISATION.
CRIMINALITY — DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF THE STUDY OF SEXUAL DIFFERENCES — WHY WOMEN ARE LESS CRIMINAL THAN MEN — THE SPECIAL FORMS OF WOMEN'S CRIMINALITY — CRIMINALITY AND CIVILISA- TION.
SUICIDE.
The suicidal impulse is not necessarily morbid. But there can be no doubt that in the majority of cases suicide implies a considerable degree of psychic abnor- mality, whether the lack of mental balance is the result of a sudden shock or is simply the last stage in a slow disintegration. Suicide is rarely the result of a deliberate weighing of evidence resulting in the decision that, as Marcus Antoninus expresses it, the house is smoky and must be quitted. The philoso- phers who have given this advice have rarely them- selves found that the house was smoky. And the proceedings at coroners' inquests show that in a very Google MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 329 large proportion of cases suicides are the eccentric, the perverse, the highly strung and the mentally unbalanced, who — under circumstances when all may have thought of suicide — have not preserved the mental integrity which enables men to see that beyond these circumstances life is still tolerable. The morbid nature of suicide, as it usually exists among us to-day, is shown by its curious parallelism with the pheno- mena of insanity. 1 There are, it is well known, many cosmic, racial, and social factors influencing the frequency of suicide. The maximum of suicide, as of insanity, occurs during the early heat of summer. Among Europeans suicide is more frequent than among negroes and other lower races; and in Europe it is more prevalent among the Teutonic than among the Latin races; in America these racial differences are to a large extent persistent There are more suicides in towns than in the country; the rate is much higher in manufactur- ing than in agricultural centres; among soldiers and sailors than among civilians; the liberal professions yield a higher proportion of suicides than any other class of occupations; they are only exceeded, and that greatly, by those who have no occupation at all. 2 The unmarried, whether men or women, commit suicide more often than the married, this immunity of the married being especially marked when there 1 The morbid character of suicide is usually recognised by juries in England, although it is not easy to justify the usual formula of " tempor- ary insanity," but the English law (and even the latest project for its reform), with that curious conservatism which makes English law so interesting to archaeologists, continues to regard the attempt to commit suicide as a crime. The man who succeeds in committing suicide is innocent; the man who fails is a criminal. As Sir Frederick Pollock remarks {Oxford Lectures): — " In our existing polity the latest mechanism of elaborate legislation may be found side by side with relics of a period of legal culture not less archaic than that of the twelve tables at Rome."
2 Westergaard points out that the economic factor in suicide is especially weU marked in England and Wales, the suicide-rate rising whenever the amount of imports and exports per head falls. ( Grundtiigt der Theoru dtr Statistik, Jena, 1890, p. 14.)
Google MAN AND WOMAN.
are children; young widowers and widows kill them- selves twice as often as the married of the same age, and in old age the suicidal tendency of the widowed is still more marked. The aged generally commit suicide far oftener than the young.
Suicide in Europe is from three to four times more frequent in men than in women. This was first shown some fifty years ago by the famous alienist, Esquirol. The chief variations in different countries during the present century will be found in the following table, which presents the proportions of the sexes per hundred suicides: — * England (1858-59) Ireland (1874-83) Scotland (1877-81) United States (i860).
Connection New York 1 Victoria (i£ Prussia (18 Saxony (181 M.
77 P. 23 M.
2 From 1858 to 1883, for equal numbers living, and having similar age-distribution, the male suicide-rate was to the female suicide-rate, according to Ogle, as 104 to 39, or 267 to 100. The varying annual proportion of suicides per million persons living during the years 1861- 1888 will be found in the very interesting and comprehensive article, " Suicide," by Dr. Hack Tuke, Diet. Psych. Med. While the rate per million has for males risen from 100 to 124, for females it has only risen from 35 to 39.
Google MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 33 1 It will be seen that Spanish women are more inclined to suicide than the women of any other country, the proportion being about 1 woman to 2.5 men. Morselli attributes this aptness of Spanish women to suicide to "the force of their passions, which brings them nearer to the male sex." This may possibly be so; it will be noted that the propor- tion of women is almost equally high in Hungary and Scotland. 1 In Switzerland the proportion of women suicides to men is lower than in any other European country, being (according to Morselli's figures) 12.2 per cent as against 28.8 per cent in Spain. It appears that the oscillations are greater in the female than in the male sex. It will be seen from the table that there is a decided tendency for the proportion of women suicides to decrease; or, one should rather say, women have taken a smaller share than men in the modern development of suicide. 2 It will be seen that this is the case in France, England, and Norway, though not in Prussia, where suicide is decreasing in relation to population, but woman's share seems slightly on the increase, as is woman's share in criminality. On the whole, however, the proportion of male to female suicides is far more constant than the general proportion of suicides to the population; thus in Saxony, both in 1867 and in 1877, there were 18 female suicides to 82 male, but while in the former year suicides were 312 per million of the population, in the latter they were 394. In Italy again, in the year 1877, f° r example, suicides were only 41 per million of the population, but the sexual ratio was still the same as in Saxony, 80 to 2a This seems to hold good of European countries generally. 8 1 It is of interest to note that towards the beginning of the century, when insanity was nearly everywhere more common in men, in Spain (accord- ing to Esquirol) and in Scotland there was an excess of female lunatics.
* This was observed some years ago by Legoyt, Ann, Mid,-Psych t% 8 Harald Westergaard, Die Grundziige dtr Theorie der Statistik, Google MAN AND WOMAN.
Suicide among women appears to be everywhere more precocious than among men. In England the relative number of female suicides, very high at the age of 10, is almost equal to or greater than that of men at the ages of 1 5 to 20. Then for a few years the female rate sinks, to rise again, however, more especially about the age of 45; as old age comes on there is a much stronger tendency to suicide amongst males than amongst females. This is shown in a table, drawn up by Ogle, which exhibits the proportion of the male suicide -rate to the female suicide-rate (reckoned as 100) at successive age-periods: — x Age-Period.
Female Bate.
Male Rate.
IO- IOO IOO 87 IOO IOO IOO IOO IOO IOO IOO IOO With reference to the marked predominance of female suicides over male suicides in the 15-20 age- period. Ogle remarks that this is also " the only period in which the general death-rates, as shown in the Registrar-General's returns, is higher in the former sex, and also is marked, as the census returns for 1 88 1 show, by an exceptionally higher rate of lunacy (exclusive of idiocy or imbecility) for females than for males."
In France, from the ages of 7 to 16, suicide is 1 W. Ogle, "On Suicide in Relation to Age, Sex, etc.," Journal Statistical Society, 1886.
Google MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 333 equally frequent in both sexes; but of 100 women in France who commit suicide (taking the years 1876- 80), 9 have not yet reached their 21st year, while out of 100 male suicides, only 4 are below 21. 1 In Prague, according to Morselli, six-tenths of all the female suicides are by women under 30. That suicide is comparatively so frequent among girls at about the age of 15 is a noteworthy fact It is difficult not to connect it with the stress resulting from the precocious physical development of girls, which is just completed at this age. Probably an often hidden factor in the frequency of female suicides in early life generally is shame at the prospect of becoming a mother. In France, the chief age at which men commit suicide is from 40 to 50, while for women it is between 15 to 30; for women, however, there is comparative quiescence between the ages of 20 and 35 and from 65 to 75, after the epoch of the closing of sexual life has been safely passed. In England, during the last half century there has been a marked increase of suicide at all ages except for women above 65 years of age.
It would be of interest to compare the sexual ratio of suicide in Europe with that in extra-European lands and in inferior races, but statistics here are not so easy to obtain. In India the ordinary European ratio is nearly reversed, being, according to Chevers, 5.5 males to 8 females. And Surgeon- Major M'Leod, after stating that in round numbers the pro- portion is 100 males to 150 females, adds that it is probable the excess of females is even greater. " The survival of the Sati [widow -burning] feeling in the country, the low social position of women, their ignorance and want of education, render them more prone to commit suicide than men."
The causes of suicide correspond very nearly in sexual difference with the causes of insanity. Mental disorders, passions, and domestic troubles are much commoner causes of suicide in women; overstrain and financial troubles are commoner in men; while physical disease is about equal Legoyt, Art. " Suicide " in Diet* ettcy. des Scu Mid.
334 MAN AND WOMAN.
(See Morselli's Suicide^ pp. 309-10; also Lombroso and Ferrero, La Donna Delinquente^ Part iv.. Chap. 7.) If we turn to the Prussian statistics, for example in the year 1883, we find that passion is set down as accounting for 1.9 per cent, of the male suicides, but for 6.4 of the female, and in 1887 the percentages are respectively 2.5 and 6.5. Shame and remorse are set down as responsible for 7.6 of the Prussian male suicides in 1883, and for 9.2 of the female, not a great disproportion. It is not possible, however, to attach much value to official statistics of the causes of suicide.
Differences in the methods of accomplishing suicide throw a curious side-light on sexual psychology, and may be studied with more certainty than official records as to the causes of suicide. Throughout Europe the law, roughly stated, is that men hang themselves and women drown themselves, although a very large proportion of male suicides drown them- selves, and a very large proportion of female suicides hang themselves. 1 With modifications this rule prob- ably holds good all over the world. In India, for example, it is modified through both sexes showing a greater preference than in Europe for drowning; according to Chevers, six out of seven women in India who commit suicide prefer the water, while men resort to drowning and hanging in about equal numbers. In Europe the great majority of boy suicides hang themselves, while the girls drown themselves. The greatest divergences in England between men and women are in the use of weapons and poison, men preferring the former, women the latter. Women also choose falls from heights, about twice as many women as men adopting this method, but on the other hand a much smaller number of women than of men throw themselves before trains.
Ogle prepared the following table showing the 1 In Denmark, for example, during the vears 1861-86, 82.9 per cent, of male suicides hanged themselves, 50 per cent, of the female suicides.
Google MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA.
various methods adopted per iooo suicides during the Method.
[ales.
Females.
79 67 2 21 36 24 8 33 Hanging and Strangulation Drowning...Cut or Stab Poison...Gunshot...Jump from Height Railway Trains. Otherwise...
It may be said, generally, that while men prefer to adopt active methods of suicide, which are at the same time usually more deliberate and more repulsive, women prefer more passive methods, which are at the same time usually more decorous and require less resolute preparation. The only exception is in regard to the passive method of suicide by being run over by a train. About three men resort to this for one woman. The reason probably is that, though a passive method of self-destruction, it requires considerable resolution to face, and offends against women's sense of pro- priety and their intense horror of making a mess; women usually avoid committing suicide in public. If it were possible to find an easy method of suicide by which the body could be entirely disposed of, there would probably be a considerable increase of suicides among women. The sexual preferences in regard to active methods of suicide (hanging, shooting, cutting the throat) and passive methods (drowning, poison, being run over by train, fall from height) is very decisively shown if we sum them up. I take, for instance, the year 1888 in Prussia, selecting a country in which women show a more marked prefer- ence than is usual for the masculine methods of hang- ing and the use of the knife. In this year only 1 1 Google Google MAN AND WOMAN.
per cent of the male suicides adopted passive methods, as against 89 per cent who adopted active methods; not less than 57 per cent of the women adopted passive methods, 43 per cent adopting active methods.
There is a constant change of opinion going on in the community as to the most desirable methods of committing suicide. This change, at all events in England, is remarkably rapid. I have selected for comparison the earliest and the latest years — 1858 and 1 891 — which can be profitably compared, with the results shown in the following table, dealing exclusively with the four chief methods of suicide: — Male.
Female.
Weapons and implements Hanging...Drowning...Poisoning...IO.4 The tendency of change in regard to weapons is anomalous; this is emphatically a masculine method of suicide, rare among women; while increasing among men, it is decreasing among women. In the progress of all three of the other chief methods of suicide a common tendency is visible: hanging has become much rarer in both men and women, while drowning and poisoning have become commoner in both. That is to say, that women have become more womanly than ever in their preferences for the passive methods of suicide, while men have become less manly in their suicidal preferences by exhibiting a growing dislike for active methods of suicide, only 69.2 having adopted active methods in 1 891, in spite of the grow- ing taste for firearms, against 80.3 in 1858. It is Google MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 337 impossible to regard these figures as purely fortuitous, and I believe that they possess a certain significance with reference to the trend of civilisation.
There is another factor to be taken into consideration when dealing with methods of suicide — the factor of racial preferences. I am unable to throw any light on these, but Morselli has some interesting remarks on the point: — " We find that those who exceed others in hanging amongst men are the Danes, Rus- sians, inhabitants of Wurtemberg, and the Austrians; amongst women, Russians with a number equal to the men, the Slavo- Croatians of the Military Frontiers, the Austro-Hungarians, and the Scandinavians. Hence it is evident that in women the Slavic origin betrays itself in a strong tendency towards hanging. On the other hand, drowning is at its maximum amongst the Celto-Latin nations, France, Italy, Belgium, and in Sweden and in Switzerland; whenever the Slavic element comes into play the choice of water falls to its minimum. The largest proportion of suicides by firearms is that of the Slavo- Croats of the Frontiers, and it is to be remarked that the numbers among the women are equally above the average. As to poisoning, its highest proportion is found amongst the Swedish and Austrian women. Among French women those who prefer firearms are hardly 6 per 1000; amongst Italian women 35 per 1000. It is curious that the strong tendency of Italian women as opposed to French women to use the knife or the pistol should be shared by the English and Americans, although the Anglo-Saxon habits are so different from the Italian."
Is the comparative immunity of women from the suicidal impulse real or only apparent? This question has sometimes been raised. It appears that those occupations which "by habit, physical and mental, bring women near to men," considerably raise the suicide-rate among women. 1 Association with men has a similar influence in increasing insanity and criminality. It is obvious that the more nearly women are placed under the same condition as men the more closely their actions will approximate to men's This fact tells us nothing with regard to the special psychology of women, and it is evidently not the only factor, for while women's work to-day more 1 Journal of 'Mental Science^ vol. xxxi. p. 95.
22 Google 338 MAN AND WOMAN.
nearly resembles men's than it did fifty years ago, we have seen that on the whole women's tendency to suicide as compared to men's is decreasing. Male preponderance in suicide has been explained by saying that women are more sheltered in the struggle for existence, that they are more adaptable, more self-sacrificing, more resigned, more influenced by religious scruples and public opinion, and less given to alcoholism. One writer on the subject believes that the sexual disproportion would not be so great if we could take into account all those who contemplate suicide — i.e. f who are suicidal. "Many more women than men desire, or think they desire, but have not the courage to cause their own death." 1 Dr. Harry Campbell also thinks it " probable that the idea of suicide more frequently presents itself to the woman than to the man, because women so much more frequently suffer from the minor forms of melan- cholia," but he does not think that women have less courage than men, but rather more resignation and a stronger sense of duty; he believes that the sexual difference in the rate largely depends upon external circumstances. 2 That external circumstances, save in a very general way and to a limited extent, have any marked influence in altering the sexual incidence I do not believe; the very slight variations in the sexual incidence throughout Europe make this unlikely. That women very often contemplate suicide is prob- able, and it may be added that a very large number of women fail ijrv their attempts at suicide. If in determining the suicide-rate we could include un- successful attempts at suicide, it is probable that women's share would be larger. The passive methods of self-destruction are not always available, and they are also liable to miscarry; moreover, when a woman adopts a more energetic method of self-destruction 1 Journal of Mental Science, July 1885, vol. xxxi. p. 218.
2 H. Campbell, Nervous Organisation of Man and Woman, pp.
Google MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 339 she is more likely than a man to miscalculate from ignorance, violent methods of destruction being more within man's province. These circumstances doubtless do much to minimise the influence of the melancholic depression to which women are often subject. On the whole, however, there seems every reason to believe that the suicidal impulse, in Euro- pean races at all events, is somewhat stronger in men than in women.
INSANITY.
INSANITY.
Aretaeus, the Greek physician of the first century, and Ccelius Aurelianus, a writer of uncertain age and country, taught that men are more subject to insanity than women. Esquirol, who appears to have been the first who applied statistics to the matter, showed elaborately that more women are insane than men, the proportion being 38 women to 37 men. 1 Georget, Haslam, and others confirmed this conclusion. Bur- rows, even before Esquirol, had said more women were insane than men in large towns, but that it was not so in the country. Parchappe made an important step in advance by pointing out that in order to form an accurate estimate of the sexual incidence of insanity we must consider the admissions to asylums, and not the actual number of inmates which is affected by the varying rates of mortality and recovery in the two sexes. He considered the admissions to various large asylums (Bethlem, Bic£tre, Salpdtri&re, Charenton, Turin, etc.), and found that with the very marked exception of Bic£tre and Salpdtri&re, the admissions of men ex- ceeded those of women. He concluded that the solution of the question was still doubtful. 2 A few years later Thurnam made a more accurate and decisive investigation than any that had gone before. 8 He showed that the probability of recovery is greater 1 Maladies Mcntalcs, 1838.
* Recherches staiistiqtus sur Us Causes de? Alienation Men/ale. Rouen, 1839. 8 Observations and Essays on the Statistics of Insanity, London, 1845.
Google 340 MAN AND WOMAN.
in women than in men, the recoveries of women exceeding those of men by from 4 to 28 per cent He showed also that there is a still greater difference in the rate of mortality, the mortality of men being 50 and sometimes nearly 90 per cent greater than that of women — £&, nearly double. In 1844, in England and Wales, there were 9053 male inmates of asylums to 9701 females, the admissions of women in London greatly predominating over those of men, in com- parison with the country. In 24 asylums out of 32 (including a total of 71,800 admissions), Thurnam found a decided excess of men among admissions, the average excess being 13.7 per cent In a very large number of British asylums (including 6jfij6 admis- sions) there were about 36 men to 32 women. Thurnam also observed that a larger proportion of women become insane relatively to men among the lower classes than among the higher. He concluded that " in nearly all points of view women have an advantage over men in reference to insanity; for not only do they appear to be less liable than men to mental derangement, but when the subjects of it, the probability of their recovery is on the whole greater, and that of death considerably less. On the other hand, the probability of a relapse, or of a recurrence of the disorder, is somewhat greater in women than in men." Dr. Jarvis, a few years later, after examin- ing the statistics of asylums in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Belgium, and America, came to the similar conclusion that " males are somewhat more liable to insanity than females." L If we look only to the gross number of lunatics in the various countries of Europe, we shall find on the whole that throughout the century, as Esquirol showed, the women are more numerous than the men. There are, however, notable exceptions; male lunatics are more numerous in Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Russia. In Italy in 1888 there were 11,895 male 1 On the Comparative Liability of Males and Females to Insanity, 1850.
Google MORBID PSYCHIC PHENOMENA. 341 lunatics to 10,529 female, being 78.1 males per 100,000 of the population, and 70. 1 females. There is a proportionatelygreater increase among the men in Italy than among the women, but to a very slight extent.
On the whole, therefore, in this country, and it may probably be said nearly everywhere else, men have hitherto been more liable to insanity than women, any excess of insanity in women being apparent only. This is, however, no longer the case, at all events in Great Britain. For several years not only has there been in our asylum population an excess of women over men, but there has been an excess of women in the admissions to the asylums. Medical statisticians, when the change in the sexual incidence of insanity was pointed out, 1 were on examination able to verify it The Lunacy Commissioners have admitted the change in the figures, and stated that they were not aware of any fallacy underlying them. It must, there- fore, be accepted that in this country men are no longer more liable to insanity than womea This greater liability of women to insanity is, more- over, not an accidental variation. It is the outcome of a gradual change which may be traced back in this country for more than a century. During the latter half of the last century there was an obvious excess of male over female lunatics, but that excess was tending to diminish. At the middle of the present century Thurnam found it necessary to analyse the figures carefully in order to show the greater liability of men to insanity. In the early days of the Lunacy Com- missioners (thirty years ago) the rate of increase of insanity to population, as Mr. Noel Humphreys has pointed out, was greater among males than among females; in more recent years the rate of increase among females has slightly exceeded that among 1 This was done by the present writer: " The Increase of Insanity among Women," PaU Mall Gazette, 21st May 1892, and Art. " Sex, Influence of, in Insanity," Diet, of Psych, Med., 1892. These have both been freely used in the preparation of the present section.
Google 342 MAN AND WOMAN.
males. During the ten years 1878-87 the total number of admissions of women to the public and private asylums of England and Wales was 69,560 as against 66,918 men. There is here an obvious excess of women, but if we take into account the excess of women in the general population, the liability of the sexes to insanity is found to be almost equal. During subsequent years, however, the excess of women, although slight, has become clearly marked, even when allowance is made for the excess of women in the general population. When we turn to the admissions to the public and private asylums of England and Wales for 1890 we find that 10,025 women were admitted against 9,109 men. The exact proportion of admissions per 100,000 of the population during the years 1888-90 is as follows: — 1 It may be added that the excess of admissions of women is found in all classes of asylums; it is not among the poor only that insanity is becoming more frequent