National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1875-09-28

seem to be greatly modifable by subsequent
events, but dominates the fate of the indi-
yidual. In this way 1t would seem that limits
to mental or physical power are fixed by
heredity. But when we come to that portion
of character which is the result of post-natal
development, including in this the organiza-
ton and coordination of thought, the forma-
ton of the viii, and the establishment of just
moral conceptions, find that the hereditary
characteristics of the parents are greatly mod
fiable by the nature of the social environment.
In other words, capacity is limited and deter
mined mainly by heredity, but the use to which
that capacity will be put is mainly governed
by the impersonal training or agency of en-
vironment. For instance, where hereditary
kleptomania exists, If the environment should
be such as to become an exciting cause, the
individual will be an incorrigible thief; but If,
on the contrary, he be protected from tempta-
ton, that individual may lead an honest life,
with some chances in favor of the entailment
stopping there.
"Heredity in pauperism seems to be more
fixed than heredity in crime, for very much of
crime Is the instruction of faculty, and is
amenable to discipline, while very much of
pauperism is due to the absence of vital power,
the lines of pauperism being in many cases the
identical lines of disease, which fact causes
the successive extinction of capacity from gen.
Grafton TO generation till death supervenes."
We have given but a small portion of the
interesting matter which relates to pauper-
ism and crime in these families. Among
the criminal descendants Of Margaret there
were three conspicuous cases of reform in
men under thirty three years. Mr.. Dug.
dale has theory that
Sin the growth Of each individual that por-
ton OF the nervous system which brings the
lungs, heart, stomach, &C., into sympathetic
action with each other is first organized;
then the spinal column, which chiefly brings
the movements Of the limbs and body under
control; third, that portion Of ne brain which
registers the impressions made upon the
senses and, fourth, the reason, the judgment
and the will, which give the adult the power
to hold in check the passions which otherwise
would produce crime il allowed full sway.
Now, the judgment and the will are not fully
organized till between the Shirtissh and thir-
ty-fifth year, and as this is the case it is easy
to understand that boy, who is 9 petty thief
at eighteen or twenty, may ousgrow his habits
of theft as he grows older, simply because the
natural tendency Of the development of the
brain organizes an experience which teaches
that honesty is most sd Taltagsous. Before
the age of full maturity is reached, say the
thirty-tlird year, the growth Of the mind is an
agent spontaneously working for reformation;
therefore any system of reformstory discip
line and education which does not save q large
at least IS per cent, of IDS offenders
under twenty years of age, is an administrative
monstrosity."
The deductions which these few statis-
tics suggest, concerning the influence of
ignorance, poverty and crowded habita-
tons, are sufficiently apparent to the
and it is because we do not have
enough of these statistics that there is so
much silence or vain morslizing upon a