CO882-(2-3) — Page 5

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11. I cannot say that I place implicit reliance on this classification. I do not, however, myself think that any very large portion of these suicides is due to jealousy. It appears not to be an uncommon cause of suicide in India among women, and in India it is to be observed that female suicides very largely outnumber those of men-indeed, in the Madras Presidency (the only one which has furnished any minute statistics of suicides), I perceive that during each of the five years 1865-69 the suicides of females amounted to nearly double the number of those among men.

12. Here, on the contrary, the suicides are almost all those of males, only 17 suicides of women having occurred out of a total of 642, according to the Police, or 29 out of a total of 577 according to the Civil Status. I do not believe that the passion of jealousy, as the term is understood by us, has much influence with the lower class of Indian men, and I should say, that if one of them finds that the female whose com- panionship he desires, prefers another man to himself, he is far more likely to kill the woman who has offended him than to kill himself.

13. Neither do I find that the prevalence of suicide appears to have been affected by any change in the proportion between the sexes among the Indian population.

14. In 1864, the male Indian population was estimated at 150,220, and the pro- portion of women to men then residing in the Island was only something over 10 per cent.

15. In 1869, the male Indian population had sunk to 141,391, and the proportion of women to men had risen to over 50 per cent.; but the number of suicides in that year was, according to the Civil Status, 78. That is to say, the proportion of suicides to every 100,000 of the male Indian population was in the former year only 28, and in the latter year-when the sexes had been far more equalized-55.

16. I myself believe that a very large portion of these suicides are due to nostalgia, or an intense desire to return to India, which they have no means of gratifying.

The whole subject, however, is one which calls for further inquiry, and will not be neglected by me.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

ARTHUR GORDON.

1

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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LTCO.882

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