The curve
presented in Chart 4 shows the admissions to the London County Council
Lunatic Asylums during the years 1893 to 1897 inclusive; I have arranged
it in two-month periods, to neutralize unimportant oscillations. In order
to show that this curve is not due to local or accidental circumstances,
we may turn to France and take a special and chronic form of mental
disease: Garnier, in his _Folie a Paris_, presents an almost exactly
similar curve of the admissions of cases of general paralysis to the
Infirmerie Speciale at Paris during the years 1886-88 (Chart 5). Both
curves alike show a major climax in spring and a minor climax in autumn.
Crime in general in temperate climates tends to reach its maximum
at the beginning of the hot season, usually in June. Thus, in
Belgium, the minimum is in February; the maximum in June, thence
gradually diminishing (Lentz, _Bulletin Societe Medecine Mentale
Belgique_, March, 1901). In France, Lacassagne has summated the
data extending over more than 40 years, and finds that for all
crimes June is the maximum month, the minimum being reached in
November. He also gives the figures for each class of crime
separately, and every crime is found to have its own yearly
curve. Poisonings show a chief maximum in May, with slow fall and
a minor climax in December; assassinations have a February and a
November climax.
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