Chapter 20

Durkheim, "Le Suicide," (Paris, 1897), p. 88.

[18] The figures are those of Dr. Forbes Winslow for the United States, those of Dr. M. Gubski for Russia, those of Dr. Rehfisch (in _Der Selbsmord_) for Europe, and those of the Government Statistical Bureau for Japan.

[19] Durkheim, "Le Suicide" (Paris, 1897), p. 93.

[20] Five or six years ago, in a paper that I read before the Literary Society of Washington, D. C., I suggested this explanation of the high suicide rate in June. At the conclusion of the reading, a young Italian student, who happened to be present as a guest, came to me and said: "If I did not know it to be impossible, I should think that your explanation of June suicides had been suggested by, if not copied from, a letter left by a dear friend of mine who killed himself in Genoa, two years ago, on a beautiful evening in June. You have expressed his thoughts almost in the words that he used."

[21] For the suicide statistics embodied in this table I am largely indebted to the cooeperation and assistance of Mr. M. L. Jacobson, of the Bureau of Statistics in Washington. In the literature of the subject there are no figures more recent than 1893 for most of the European countries. In this table they are nearly all later than 1900.

[22] The figures for Europe are from the latest reports of government statistical bureaus, and for America from the registration area covered in the twelfth census.