Which means "I have found it" to those of you who are not familiar with the
phrase
The quote I am looking for would appear to allude to an anecdote on p169 of
Forbes Winslow's, "The anatomy of Suicide" Renshaw, London, 1840 (I hope
that is academic enough for this list)
"The following anecdote is recorded of Voltaire: - An English Gentleman of
fortune had been sitting many hours with this great wit and censurer of
human character. Their discourse related chiefly to the depravity of human
nature, tyranny and oppression of kings, poverty, wretchedness and
misfortune, the pain of disease, particularly the gravel, gout, and stone.
They worked themselves up to such a pitch of imaginary evils that they
proposed next morning to commit suicide together. The Englishman, firm to
his resolution, rose, and expected Voltaire to perform his promise, to whome
the genius responded "Ah monsieur, pardonnez moi, jai bein dormi, mon
lavement a bien opere, et le soleil est tout-a-fait clair aujord, hui"
Google books to the rescue, but what connection that has to the alamanach de
Gotha I have no idea.
I have no doubt that my paraphrase has been mangled three times in the
telling from my original recollection of it's occurrence in print a long
time ago. Now that either that is a testament to the failure of memory, or
the usefulness of lateral thinking.
Voltaire is as we know a man who is known for a lot of things he did not say
directly in print, but were vicariously reported by others in there
anecdotage. One of them was about defending free speech.
Anyway Winslow devotes an entire chapter to the relationship of the bowels
and suicide, but incase anybody thinks that is irrelevant here is something
from pub med, this year
Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2010 Apr 23. [Epub ahead of print]
Inflammatory bowel disease and completed suicide in Danish adults.
Gradus JL, Qin P, Lincoln AK, Miller M, Lawler E, Sørensen HT, Lash TL.
National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston,
Massachusetts.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The risk of suicide is increased among people with inflammatory
bowel disease (IBD); however, most of the evidence regarding this
association comes from studies of all-cause mortality, with small numbers of
people who have committed suicide, or from clinical case reports. The
current study examined the association between the two forms of IBD: Crohn's
disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), and completed suicide in a
population-based sample.
METHODS: Data for this nested case-control study were obtained from the
Danish national healthcare and social registries. We included 27,053 cases
who completed suicide between January 1, 1981, and December 31, 2006.
Controls were selected from the general population and matched to cases on
gender, date of birth, and calendar time (n = 551,060).
RESULTS: There was an increased rate of suicide among participants with both
CD (odds ratio [OR] = 1.6, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.1, 2.3) and UC
(OR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.4, 2.4), when adjusting for the matched factors and
identified confounders.
CONCLUSIONS: The current study suggests that physicians treating IBD
patients should be vigilant about expressions of suicidal ideation or signs
and symptoms of self-harm. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2010).
So sorry if the subject is touchy for some people, it is however a proper
subject for academic study as I have just attested.
Larry
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