Show DOCTORS AND SUICIDE statistics show a peculiar dond boad ot of sympathy between the two during the last three years says the medical and surgical reporter of philadelphia nearly one fiftieth of all deaths among physicians have been by suicide this is a conservative estimate as many instances of death are attributed to accidental overdosing as the tendency is always to hush up a suicide whenever possible but without including such cases the fact remains that the medical profession is more prone to suicide than any other these statistics may be explained by the on development of morbid fancies in the mind of a doctor on acco account un t of his constant association with the sick and or of an actual indifference to death or because he has the rr knowledge of how to die ent y and painlessly ti a favorito favorite method but it does doea not appear from statistics that the cyanides cranides cy anides or morphine havo have the preference which would woold exist if epicurean philosophy were carried into the choice of drugs at the same time physicians usually put their knowledge of drugs to a practical execution in selecting a poi soa eon for suicide but if the more mere knowledge of the painlessness painless nesa of deat death h by certain means is not a determining deter in i n i D g factor f ac tor in leading so many physicians to suicide probably the tha accessibility of poisons is suicide is largely a matter of insane IMP impulse alse ulse and such an impulse can often bo be ascertained even in ic the case of those who havo have long been indifferent to life and have contemplated suicide if a man must put on his hat and overcoat walls walk to a drug store and tax his ingenuity fora for a lie with which to explain hi bi desire for poison he ha may postpone the th fatal act from mere inertia or he be may meet a friend or have his interest in life aroused by one of a multitude of everyday occurrences or physical exercise may bring him to his senses if as is th the e case with almost every doctor he has simply to feel in his pocket or walk across his office to get a deadly poison the impulse may bo be carried into execution before anything can happen to supplant it in the brain |