Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/356

344 In Italy sociological studies began by reflecting almost solely the popular social movement which, however, was not then very conspicuous among us. It therefore happened that sociologv was confused with socialism, as was done to a certain extent by Colajanni, who followed the example of the French author, Gautier. Jacobi, one of the first to accept the theories of Darwin, delivered a lecture on the conception of evolution, in which he tried to show the perfect accord which exists between the theories of Darwin and those of Carl Marx. This demonstration has engaged the attention of various Italian students. It had already been attempted by Colajanni in one of his works on socialism, and later Enrico Ferri returned to it with greater insistence. In a work entitled Socialism and Positive Science, (Socialismo e Scienza Positiva), he proposed to show the perfect accord which, according to him, exists between the theories of Darwin, Spencer and Marx. But in a letter published some months ago in the Italian journals, Herbert Spencer denies absolutely this pretended accord between his theories and those of Carl Marx. "To represent me as saying what I have not said," so the letter of Spencer may be abridged, "simply means that my works have not been understood."

Another question which was discussed in the beginning of social studies in Italy was that of criminality in a socialistic state. With even greater scientific seriousness than that which was shown in the question just referred to, the conclusion was reached that, while some forms of the criminality of today would be diminished, other forms would be increased; and this contrary to the gratuitous afifirmation of Turati and the other socialists who pretended that in a socialistic state criminality would be enormously diminished if it did not entirely disappear.

In the meantime Enrico Morselli founded about 1882, the Rivista di Filosofia Scientifica, and almost contemporaneously Schäffle's "Structure and Life of the Social Body" was translated from the German. Although Schäffle has not found many followers in Italy, it cannot be denied that his work has exercised a strong influence on many students. Some exaggerated