Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/355

Rh very probable law of criminal analogues or equivalents. Hence we may say, with almost positive certainty, that the children of both sexes, with the inherited taint, are paupers; that adult life in the male is distinguished by pauperism and crime; that adult life in the female is devoted to prostitution, and that old age brings both sexes again to the state of pauperism. And here again we encounter the phenomenon revealed by an analysis of Mr. Nelson's statistics: the criminal equivalent existing between childhood and senility. It is childhood and old age joining hands, as it were, over the fevered and crime-laden middle life. But, while the moral faculties are absent, the mental powers are perverted to an equal degree. Any one accustomed to closely observe confirmed criminals must be cognizant of the fact that they are not as other men in their habits of mind. What one observes may not be called insanity, in the full meaning of the word, but it appears to be a departure from the standard one forms from mingling with average men. I have noticed this especially with regard to women. From an experience of two years with criminal women undergoing punishment in the Onondaga Penitentiary, I cannot recall an instance in which mental traits were wanting to distinguish them from the average woman. In this class mental peculiarities may be intensified into actual insanity, and the tendency to it exist stronger than in any other class. M. Ribot shows that hereditary crime and insanity are closely connected, and refers to Drs. Ferrus and Lélut, who have established the great frequency of insanity among criminals. Dr. Bruce Thompson, in a recent work, supports this by figures, and proves that twelve per centum of insanity occurs among prisoners, with fifty per centum of recommittals, revealing the strength of the inherited tendency.

The two more important inherited criminal traits which reveal sexual types in their development are pauperism and prostitution. Pauperism appears to be as characteristic of the male sex as prostitution is of the female. The ratio of sexes receiving relief is twenty per cent, of men to thirteen per cent, of women, in out-door, and thirteen per cent, of men to 9.5 per cent, of women in almshouse relief. De Marsangy fixes the ratio at seven times more vagabondage among men than women. As a rule, women receive relief—if single—while child-bearing, and if married they follow the condition of the husband; while widows drift back into prostitution. "Thus we find," remarks Mr. Dugdale, "that although the rates of wages are lower for women, charity is much more frequent among men." The above relates to those who are known to receive relief. The hereditary strength of the last-named offense is shown by the Juke family, so