2.—Celibacy and the Frequency of Suicide.

Among physicians and physiologists it is generally assumed that even an imperfect marriage is preferable to celibacy, and this assumption is substantiated by experience. It is a striking fact that the rate of mortality is lower among married than among unmarried people (comparing about 1,000 married persons 30 years old with 1,000 unmarried persons of the same age). The difference is especially marked in the case of men. During some periods of life the rate of mortality among unmarried men is almost twice as great as that among married men. Mortality is likewise very great among men who have become widowers while still young.[45]

It is furthermore claimed that the number of suicides are increased by unsound sexual relations. In all countries suicides are much more frequent among men than among women. The following table shows the ratio in various European countries:

During the years 1898 to 1907 we find the following ratio of suicides in the German Empire:

For each 100 male suicides there were female suicides: During 1898, 26.8; during 1899, 27.2; during 1900, 26.8; during 1904, 28.5; during 1907, 31. But during the period of life from the fifteenth to the thirtieth year, the rate of suicide is higher among women than among men.

The following table shows the ratio between the 15th and 20th, and between the 21st and 30th year:

The following table shows the ratio of male and female suicides in Saxony between the 21st and 30th year:

We find an increased number of suicides among widowed and divorced persons also. In Saxony among divorced men the rate of suicide is seven times as high, among divorced women three times as high, as the average rate of suicide among men and women. Also suicide is more frequent among those widowed or divorced men and women who are childless. Among the unmarried women who are driven to suicide between the 21st and 30th year, there are many who have been betrayed in love or have “gone wrong.” Statistics show that an increase of illegal births is generally accompanied by an increase of female suicides. The rate of female suicides between the 16th and 21st year is exceptionally high, which also points to the conclusion that ungratified sexual impulse, love-sorrow, secret pregnancy or the deceit of men constitute frequent causes.

In regard to the position of woman as a sex being, we find the following thought expressed by Professor Krafft-Ebing[47]: “One source of lunacy among women that should not be underrated, is their social position. Woman is by nature more desirous of love than man, at least in the ideal sense, and she has no honorable means of gratifying this desire except marriage (Mandsley). Marriage is, furthermore, her only means of livelihood. Through countless generations her character has been developed in this direction. Even the little girl is mother to her doll. Modern life with its increased demands is constantly diminishing the prospects of satisfaction through marriage. This is especially true of the upper classes where marriages are contracted less frequently and later in life.

“While man owing to his greater physical and intellectual force and his free social position, readily obtains satisfaction of his sexual impulse, or at least finds an equivalent in some life’s work that requires all his strength, these paths are barred to the unmarried women of the upper classes. This leads, consciously or unconsciously, to dissatisfaction with one’s self and the world and to morbid brooding. For some time compensation is sought in religion, but in vain. The religious fanaticism, with or without masturbation, leads to a number of nervous disorders that frequently culminate in hysteria or insanity. This explains the fact that unmarried women fall victims to insanity most frequently between the 25th and 35th year of life. It is that period when the bloom of youth fades and hope fades with it; while among men insanity most frequently occurs between the 35th and 50th year, the period during which the struggle for existence makes its greatest demands upon their strength.

“It is not a mere coincidence that with the decline in the marriage rate the question of the emancipation of women is becoming more and more urgent. I regard it as a signal of distress showing that woman’s position in modern society is steadily becoming more unbearable. It is a just demand that woman should be given an equivalent for that which has been assigned to her by nature and of which she is being deprived by modern social conditions.”

In speaking of the effect of ungratified sexual impulse on unmarried women, Dr. H. Ploss says: “It is a noteworthy fact, of interest not only to the physician but to the anthropologist as well, that an infallible remedy exists whereby the process of fading bloom, so manifest in old maids, cannot only be arrested, but the already vanished bloom of youth can even be reinstated, partly at least, if not in its entire charm. Unfortunately our social conditions rarely permit its application. This remedy is a regular, orderly, sexual intercourse. We can often observe that when an elderly girl is still fortunate enough to attain matrimony, a marked change in her appearance takes place shortly after her marriage. Her shape obtains its former roundness, the roses return to her cheeks, and her eyes regain their former brightness. Marriage then is a real fountain of youth to the female sex. Thus nature has its fixed laws that inexorably demand obedience, and every unnatural mode of life, every attempt to adapt the organism to conditions of life that are not in keeping with the laws of nature, inevitably leaves marked traces of degeneration. This is true of both the animal and the human organism.”

The question now presents itself: Does society fulfill the demands for a rational mode of life, especially in the woman’s case? If it does not, we are confronted by a second question: Can society fulfill them? If this question also must be answered in the negative, a third question ensues: How can they be fulfilled?