Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/452

436 A further analogy may be seen between the treatment of the lunatic in past times and the treatment of the criminal in recent years. It will be admitted without question that the former treatment of the insane could only result in driving the victim to utter madness. In an interesting work, entitled Old Bailey Experience (1833), the writer, who shows himself far in advance of his time, in reflecting on the treatment of criminals in England, says, "So convinced am I that the manner in which the laws are administered, under the discretion of the judges at the Old Bailey, has been one of the chief causes of the increase of crime, that it is a perpetual source of concern to me, that the subject has not been taken up by some one more able than myself to awaken the attention of the public." And he proves his position by an overwhelming mass of evidence.

Of late years there has sprung into existence a school of criminal anthropology, with societies, journals, and a rapidly increasing literature. A most admirable summary of the work thus far accomplished has recently been given by Dr. Robert Fletcher, in his address as retiring President of the Anthropological Society of Washington. In his opening paragraphs Dr. Fletcher graphically portrays the scourge of the criminal and his rapid increase.

"In the cities, towns, and villages of the civilized world, every year, thousands of unoffending men and women are slaughtered; millions of money, the product of honest toil and careful saving, are carried away by the conqueror, and incendiary fires light his pathway of destruction. "Who is this devastator, this modern 'scourge of God,' whose deeds are not recorded in history? The criminal! Statistics unusually trustworthy show that if the carnage yearly produced by him could be brought together at one time and place it would excel the horrors of many a well-contested field of battle. In nine great countries of the world, including our own favored land, in one year, 10,380 cases of homicide were recorded; and in the six years, extending from 1884 to 1889, in the United States alone, 14,770 murders came under cognizance of the law.

"And what has society done to protect itself against this aggressor? True, there are criminal codes, courts of law, and that surprising survival of the unfittest, trial by jury. Vast edifices have been built as prisons and reformatories, and philanthropic persons have formed societies for the instruction of the criminal and to care for him when his prison gates are opened. But, in spite of it all, the criminal becomes more numerous. He breeds criminals; the taint is in the blood, and there is no royal touch which can expel it."

Certain results of the modern school of anthropology, as presented by Dr. Fletcher, may be briefly summed up by stating