In 1846, two years before the publication of The Communist Manifesto and twenty-one years before the publication of Das Kapital, Karl Marx published an essay titled "Peuchet on Suicide." Based on the writings of Jacques Peuchet, a leading French police administrator, economist, and statistician whose memoirs included discussions of suicides in Paris, Marx's essay is not a straightforward translation of Peuchet but instead an essay reflecting his own strong positions on the subjects addressed in Peuchet's work.