Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/593

 NO TES AND ABSTRA CTS 573

A question compendium should be edited by psychiaters and jurists for the use of the bench. The examination should apply not only to the delinquent, but to his parents, grandparents, and collateral relations, with the view of finding a clue to the degeneracy of the accused. This history should be collected in every detail. The medical report of every delinquent recidivist should make part of his history.

In the prophylaxis against criminality we should try to check alcoholism. In all countries the growth of viciousness and of aberration of the moral sense goes hand in hand with the growth of alcoholism and of other poisons. Why are so many crimes committed under alcoholic influence ? Why are so many criminal recidivists of inferior intellect and morality? Experimental physiology and psychology give us the answer. Alcohol produces a progressive degenerative effect on the cortical nerve cells, as well as on the other nerve elements which take part in the intel lectual and moral functions. Continuous indulgence in alcoholic drinks reduces the general as well as the special vitality of the tissues; the faculties are impaired, and abnormal character and acts result. This takes place in normal beings. Should the subjects be hereditarily predisposed, the result is still worse.

Statistical investigation shows an intimate relation between recidivism and almost complete absence of education. This lack of education is so much the more impor- tant because the subjects had attended school for a number of years, thus showing the hereditary taint that exists.

Out of 1 68 recidivists receiving minor sentences, 72 had received no education; 46 had received rudimentary education ; 50, primary education; 89 were given to alcoholic excesses ; 57 had an alcoholic father or mother ; 47 had near relatives among other prisoners; 6 1 belonged to insane, hysterical, epileptic, or suicidal families; some of the same number had been inmates of insane asylums, or were abandoned by their parents, or were orphans. Out of 158 recidivists sentenced for ten or more years, 30 had received no education ; 5 2 had received rudimentary education ; 76, primary education ; 92 indulged in alcoholic excesses ; 55 had alcoholic parents ; 37 had near relatives in prison ; 40 showed signs of degeneracy. In the second class, recidivists receiving long sentences, there are fewer illiterates, because the members of this class received a complementary education while serving sentences. The number of alcoholic and criminal ancestors is about the same in each class. This fact is most striking, and I believe with Dr. Naecke that there is among criminals a hereditary taint of from 50 to 60 per cent. Pauperism is found almost universally ; almost all come from the lower strata of society, having been subjected to worse physical and moral hygiene, and having suffered more from disease than others ; from their very birth they differ from others anatomically and physiologically, having alco- holic parents who lead either vicious or lazy lives, abandoning their offspring, who, in turn, emulate their parents' lives. The recidivists are sufferers from psychological conditions of a pathological nature, besides the defects above mentioned.

For the benefit of the public health, the government should care for the young degenerates and take them away from the evil influence of their parents. When these degenerates attract attention by their acts or conduct, they should be investi- gated and reported on officially, as well as professionally. As far as possible, they should be placed in medico-pedagogic institutes, directed by competent authorities. Parents should have the privilege of placing in medico-pedagogic institutes children whose low intellects require special care; the children should be cared for up to the age of eighteen years. The question of vengeance should give way to that of ameliorating the conditions of the offenders. The degenerate cannot be held respons- ible, but should be cared for by society. Condensed from a paper read by DR. JUL. MOREL, chief physician State Insane Asylum, Mons, Belgium, before the Fifth Inter- national Congress of Criminal Anthropology, Amsterdam, 1901, entitled " La prophy- laxie et le traitement du criminel re"cidiviste," and published in Journal of Mental Pathology, November, 1901.

R. M.

The Pretended Inferiority of Woman. Woman has been deprived of a large amount of happiness which should have fallen to her lot because, since time immemorial, she has been considered inferior to man from both a physical and psychical point of view. If it were demonstrated that this supposed inferiority were