Excerpt from Suicide a Paper Read Before the San Joaquin County Medical Society, February 27th, 1877 At our last three meetings the papers read were unusually interesting and instructive, because they dealt with existing epidemics, or present prevalent evils. I propose to-night, without presumption that I shall be equally attractive, to follow these profitable examples. There is a malady, too common in all civilized countries, now epidemic in this State, which, in the ultimate aggregate of its victims, may bear no unworthy comparison to the mast relentless modern scourge; whose visitations leave a sadder desolation and a more lasting sorrow in the house of mourning than the loathsome ravages of small pox, or the putrefying infections of diphtheria, and the operation of whose causes, in some cases, is as silent and inscrutable as the pestilence which walketh in darkness. The subject of this Paper is Suicide. In various points of view the subject of suicide is one of great practical interest and importance. Viewed as a medical question purely, as one of the most painful consequences of cerebral disease, it is important; yet this is its simplest aspect. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.