Some curious statistical returns have been prepared as to the
relative prevalence of the practice of suicide in the different European armies. Suicide appears to be three times as preva- lent in our Army as in the male population of the same age engaged in ordinary occupations ; in the Belgian Army, again, it is one-fourth part more common than in our own ; and in the French Army one-third part more .common ; in the Prussian Army it is not quite twice as common as in our own, and in the Austro-Hungarian Army more than twice as common. The prevalence of suicide even among our troops while serving in India is not quite up to the Belgian level. These figures mean, we suppose, first, that our Army, in which there is no conscription, suffers less in this way than armies where the service is enforced ; next, that our troops have the kind of physique least liable to oppressive melancholy ; and lastly, perhaps, that the military responsibilities thrown upon them are leas wearing than in other armies. The excess of sui- cide in the Prussian Army is explicable enough, considering the extremely large proportion of conscripts to population, and the severity of the duties imposed. In the Austro-Hungarian Army the still greater excess of suicide is probably due partly to ethno- logical causes. Slays are more disposed to suicide than Indo- European races. They have something of the Oriental indiffer- ence to life, together with something of the Western irapatieece of grievances.
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