The Times' correspondent in Berlin forwards some remark- able facts
as to the number of military suicides. Life in an army seems to bore or worry men greatly, the suicides among soldiers, even in England, being more than double those in the civil population, or, to bo exact, amounting to 2.09 in every ten thousand of the population against •76 as the regular average. On the Continent, however, where the conscription sweeps into its net a vast number of men to whom military life is disgusting, the proportion is much higher, being in Austria 12.53, against F87 in the civil popu- lation; in Germany, 6.33, against 2.71; and in France, 3 33, against 187. It is remarkable that the heaviest propor- tion of suicides is found among non-commissioned officers, their average being double that of private soldiers, probably because they feel rebuke more, and are more affected by the weight of responsibility. in the really extraordinary Austrian case, we must remember that half the population is Slav, and has therefore a predisposition to melancholy ; while it is probable that, owing to the mixture of nationalities, and the deep line drawn between officers and men, the " home " feeling which should prevail in a regiment is probably less developed. We should, however, in the Emperor's place, suspect, and rigorously inquire about, a certain prevalence of bullying.
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