Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/30

 \ 1 6 Ty/. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

the department was prepared for the World's Columbian Expo- sition. It forms an octavo volume of some 123 pages, with dia- grams and plates. Its title is Estudios de Antropologia Criminal. It is written by Dr. Baca and his assistant, Dr. Manuel Vergara It is an important work. When it was written there were in the museum skulls and brains of twenty-six individuals, whose life histories, prison conduct, mode of death, and physical structure all known to the authors. The volume contains the first printed observations upon the criminality of a race.

Seventy-three per cent, of these individuals were of Indian race. Their absolute brain weight was low, varying from 1295.91 grams to 1 157.85 grams. This is to be expected in a population which is badly nourished, overworked physically, and under- worked intellectually. Sixty- nine per cent, of them showed meningeal affections. Abnormalities in the brain were common ; among them was the presence of a fourth frontal convolution, found in almost 20 per cent, of the cases. The horizontal and vertical antero-posterior circumferences of the skull are small ; the latter shows that the lack of development is not in the hinder portion, which is normal in size, but in the forward part. Cer- tain points regarded as evidences of criminality in Europe are believed by our authors to be racial features. Thus the epactal bone (os incae) is common ; again, heavy eye arches, so conspic- uous in European criminals, are here almost lacking. In Europe the absence of natural beard growth is mentioned as a criminal sign ; in Mexico, among a people with naturally smooth bodies and faces, its presence is sinister. So true is this that popular saying asserts : No te fies de indio barbon ni de espagftol lampino ; ni de mujer que /table como hombre, ni de hombre que hable como nifto. (Trust not the bearded Indian nor the beardless Spaniard ; neither the woman who talks like a man, nor the man who talks like a child.) The more common skull form in these cases is the dolichocephalic (which is also the more common form in the race) or long skull ; yet more than 20 per cent, are brachy- cephalic. In Europe exaggerated or extreme forms of skull of these types are considered degenerate signs ; in Mexico such