07 July 2010

California Quotes: From the Maelstrom of Insanity

"During the calendar year ended December 31st, 1877, the following suicides, with their supposed causes, were reported in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Assigned or Supposed Causes of Suicide
Males Females Total
Losses in mining stocks, etc. 20 2 22
Insanity (Cause not stated) 5 0 5
Intemperance (Cause Not Stated) 12 0 12
Incurable disease 7 0 7
Love 4 3 7
Ill Treatment 0 2 2
Religion 1 0 1
Remorse for Murder 1 0 1
Unknown (or not stated) 24 3 27
Total 74 10 84

LOVE AND RELIGION

(Viz: Love 9, and religion 1), appear to have kept up their normal ratio as opposed to whisky and stock in California; religion emerging from the maelstrom of insanity as almost perfectly sane, having only aberration to cite."


From: Transactions of the California Medical Society, Volumes 8-11. Sacramento: H. S. Crocker & Co., 1878. Page 153

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