One hundred years ago

Suicidal tendencies were marked in a large proportion of the patients admitted, and the inquiries of Sir John Sibbald now published for the first time show that Forfarshire and the neighbouring county of Kincardine have a larger proportion of suicides compared with the population than the rest of Scotland. The same authority states that ‘the counties of the east coast of Scotland all show higher suicidal rates than the western counties. It is curious that the city of Dundee shows a lower rate than the rest of Forfarshire. It is so far in favour of the view of those who say that Celticism and Catholicism prevent suicide, for Dundee contains the largest proportion of Irish Catholics of any part of Forfarshire’. Certain parishes in the two counties named send a very high proportion of suicidal patients to the asylum and suicides are specially frequent in these parishes. ‘A possible explanation of this,’ says Dr Havelock, ‘seems to be that of inherited predisposition for the suicidal tendency is strongly hereditary in most cases and is prone to increase unduly in districts where the population is stagnant and stationary. The whole subject is beset with problems of extreme interest and difficulty.’