Suicide is rather a grim subject, but it deserves study,
and there is in fact a remarkably scanty literature regard- ing it. What brings it to mind, of course, at the moment is the poignant letter left behind by the woman Elsie Walsingham, who gassed herself in Pimlico after the companion with whom she had a death-compact had killed himself with a shot-gun on Leith Hill. The letter was remarkable for its discussion of the various methods of suicide. The couple had considered driving their car over the Black Rock at Brighton, then on opening their arteries with a knife, then decided on shooting them- selves. Ultimately the girl lost her nerve and failed to do that, and after talking of going into the country to starve —which would call for unusual firmness of purpose—took her life by the now common method of gassing. The methods of suicides are singularly constant. In this country in the years 1900-6 and 1920-6 they stood in precisely the same order—hanging, drowning, cutting, corrosive poison, gas poison, but in the 20 years ga,- poisoning had moved up from under 1 per cent. to 8 per cent. of the whole. Since 1926 it has no doubt become commoner still. The subject is of obvious sociological importance, and I am glad to know that a book dealing adequately with it is in preparation—the first, I fancy, to be published in this country for many years. * *
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