Reviewing the various methods of committing suicide he found none to his taste, and resolved on something new. Being familiar with the constituents of explosives, he resolved to convert his body into a bomb, load it with explosives, and thus blow himself to pieces. He procured some powdered sulphur and potassium chlorate, and placing each in a separate wafer he swallowed both with the aid of water. He then lay down on his bed, dressed in his best clothes, expecting that as soon as the two explosive materials came into contact he would burst like a bomb and his troubles would be over. Instead of the anticipated result the most violent collicky pains ensued, which finally became so great that he had to summon his neighbors, who took him to the hospital, where, after vigorous application with the stomach-pump, it was hoped that his life would be saved. Sankey mentions an epileptic who was found dead in his bed in the Oxford County Asylum; the man had accomplished his end by placing a round pebble in each nostril, and thoroughly impacting in his throat a strip of flannel done up in a roll. In his "Institutes of Surgery" Sir Charles Bell remarks that his predecessor at the Middlesex Hospital entered into a conversation with his barber over an attempt at suicide in the neighborhood, during which the surgeon called the "would-be suicide" a fool, explaining to the barber how clumsy his attempts had been at the same time giving him an extempore lecture on the anatomic construction of the neck, and showing him how a successful suicide in this region should be performed. At the close of the conversation the unfortunate barber retired into the back area of his shop, and following minutely the surgeon's directions, cut his throat in such a manner that there was no hope of saving him. It is supposed that one could commit suicide by completely gilding or varnishing the body, thus eliminating the excretory functions of the skin. There is an old story of an infant who was gilded to appear at a Papal ceremony who died shortly afterward from the suppression of the skin-function. The fact is one well established among animals, but after a full series of actual experiments, Tecontjeff of St.
Petersburg concludes that in this respect man differs from animals. This authority states that in man no tangible risk is entailed by this process, at least for any length of time required for therapeutic purposes. "Tarred and feathered" persons rarely die of the coating of tar they receive. For other instances of peculiar forms of suicide reference may be made to numerous volumes on this subject, prominent among which is that by Brierre de Boismont, which, though somewhat old, has always been found trustworthy, and also to the chapters on this subject written by various authors on medical jurisprudence.
Religious and Ceremonial Mutilations.--Turning now to the subject of self-mutilation and self-destruction from the peculiar customs or religious beliefs of people, we find pages of information at our disposal. It is not only among the savage or uncivilized tribes that such ideas have prevailed, but from the earliest times they have had their influence upon educated minds. In the East, particularly in India, the doctrines of Buddhism, that the soul should be without fear, that it could not be destroyed, and that the flesh was only its resting-place, the soul several times being reincarnated, brought about great indifference to bodily injuries and death. In the history of the Brahmans there was a sect of philosophers called the Gymnosophists, who had the extremest indifference to life. To them incarnation was a positive fact, and death was simply a change of residence. One of these philosophers, Calanus, was burned in the presence of Alexander; and, according to Plutarch, three centuries later another Gymnosophist named Jarmenochegra, was similarly burned before Augustus. Since this time, according to Brierre de Boismont, the suicides from indifference to life in this mystic country are counted by the thousands. Penetrating Japan the same sentiment, according to report, made it common in the earlier history of that country to see ships on its coasts, filled with fanatics who, by voluntary dismantling, submerged the vessels little by little, the whole multitude sinking into the sea while chanting praises to their idols. The same doctrines produced the same result in China. According to Brucker it is well known that among the 500 philosophers of the college of Confucius, there were many who disdained to survive the loss of their books (burned by order of the savage Emperor Chi-Koung-ti), and throwing themselves into the sea, they disappeared under the waves. According to Brierre de Boismont, voluntary mutilation or death was very rare among the Chaldeans, the Persians, or the Hebrews, their precepts being different from those mentioned. The Hebrews in particular had an aversion to self-murder, and during a period in their history of 4000 years there were only eight or ten suicides recorded. Josephus shows what a marked influence on suicides the invasion of the Romans among the Hebrews had.
In Africa, as in India, there were Gymnosophists. In Egypt Sesostris, the grandest king of the country, having lost his eyesight in his old age, calmly and deliberately killed himself.