The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-06-15


AS to the features, the author says that the
lower jaw is often remarkably well developed in
those guilty OF crimes of violence. The square
ness and prominence of the jaw are obvious to
the eye The average weight of the Partisan
criminal skull is, If anything, below that of the
ordinary Partisan; but while the average weight
of the lower jaw is about IS grammes, it is
about "a grammes among murderers. In this
respect the criminal resembles the savage and
the prehistoric man. Among the insane the
jaw weighs rather less than the normal average.
Prominence of the cheek bone has been noted
by many observers, especially among sexual
offenders. Certain anomalies have been OBJ
served in the teeth of criminals, but the exami-
nation in this direction has been so slight as to
be of little value. Among the anomalies noted
is exaggerated or deficient development of the
CANNES. The extraordinary frequency of dental
and palatal anomalies in idiots was pointed out
in England in 1860 by Bullard and Langden
Down.
Even non-scientifc observers have noticed the
frequency among criminals of projecting or of
long and voluminous ears. The author, through
a series of questions addressed to medical Off
GERS of prisons, found that the prominent ears
of criminals were more generally recognized
than any other abnormality. Lombroso, the
noted Italian criminal anthropologist, found
the jug-handle ear, as he calls it, in % per cent.
of his criminals; Knecht, German scientist,
in ~ per cent; Mario, another Italian, not more
frequently than in other people. Fregero,
recent French writer on the subject, records
that the largest ear he ever found on man or
woman was on woman convicted Of COM
plicity in the murder of her husband. A few
criminals of neurotic temperament as well as
some lunatics, possess the power, rare among
normal persons, of moving the ear
Ottolenghi, an Italian scientist, is quoted as
regards the pecularities of the criminal nose.
He found it in general rectilinear, more rarely
undulating, with horizontal base. Of medium
length, rather large, and frequently deviating
to one side. Thus the typical thiefs nose is
rectilinear, often incurved, short, large, and
often twisted, with lifted base. The sexual Of
fender presents the most rectilinear nose,
though he shows the undulating profile of nose
more frequently than any other group of crimi-
nails, of medium length and rather large.
Palor of the skin was noted among criminals
even by the ancients. Mario, an Italian stu
dent of criminal anthropology, found it among
IA per cent. of his criminals, as against 3 per
cent. among the ordinary population. He con-
sders that it is related to habitual cerebral con-
gestion. Ottolenghi, who examined the wrin-
kles on 200 criminals and on 200 normal persons,
found that they were much more frequent and
much more marked in the criminal than in the
non-criminal person. The foreheads, even of
youthful criminals, present a curiously marked
and scored appearance. awe found young GRIM
inals of fourteen" Ottolenghi says, sswith
wrinkles more evident and marked than are
met with in many normal men above thirty"
These wrinkles are commonly found most fire.
quently about the nose and mouth, the less con-
templative, more material part of the face,
while the more rational and contemplatve part
presents the least degree of active expression.
The beard in criminals is usually scanty AS
against 1.5 per cent. cases of absence of beard
in normal persons Mario found 1879 per cent in
criminals and very large proportion having
scanty boards. The largest proportion of full
boards among criminals was found by Mario
among sexual offenders. On the head the hair
is usually, on the contrary, abundant Mario
observed a notable proportion of woolly-haired
persons, character very rarely found in normal
individuals. Badness is very rare. Among
criminal women abundance of hair is frequently
noted, and it has sometimes formed their most
characteristic physical feature, accompanied by
an unusual development of fine hair on the face
and body. The excess of down on the face has
been found with special frequency on women
guilty of infanticide. The proportion of dark
haired persons is considered greater among GRIM
inals than among the ordinary population in
England, Italy, and Germany. Gray hair at an
early age is vastly more frequent among work.
men and peasants in Italy, for example, than
among male criminals. Female criminals be-
come gray more quickly than ordinary women.
So far as exact evidence on the color of the
hair goes it points chiefly to a relative detici-
ency OF red-haired persons among criminals.
Some curious facts are given relating to crimi-
nal physiognomy. Professor Ennico Ferri a
criminal anthropologist of to-day, found among
several hundred soldiers whom he examined but
one whose face declared him to be murderer
Professor Ferri was told that the man had in
fact, been guilty of murder. Remarkable in
stances of the acuteness of female perception
in this regard are given. "Many ''says the
author, ''on first meeting an individual are CON
scious of an unfavorable impression which they
succeed in OUTLYING, but which is subsequently,
justified. Sometimes the revealing glance is
found, perhaps with a shock of horror, in face
already familiar. 1t is mistake to attempt to
style such instructive impressions as irrational
They are part of the organized experience of
the race, and subject to intellectual control,
they are legitimate guides to conduct"
Professor Lombroso gives curious example
of the truth of these instructive impressions in
the case of a murderer named Francesconi
There was nothing about him to indicate ferocity
or a temper unlike that of other people Yet
years before his crime young girl, afterward
the Countess Della Rocca, who had never quilted
the paternal home and had no experience of life
refused to speak to him, when every one else
welcomed him on account of his wit. When
asked why she treated him thus she said, 'If he
is not a murderer, he will become one.n She
said she knew it by his eyes. Lombroso once
submitted twenty portraits of thieves and twenty
of great men to thirty-two young schoolgirls
Eighty per cent of the children recognized the
first as bad people, the second as good.
Beautiful faces are rarely found among crim-
mails. The prejudice against the ugly and the
deformed is not without sound foundation
What Hepworth Dixon wrote in 1850 on this
point is still of general application in all civil
lied countries: 1.-The population of Millbank
prison is always numerous and always chang
ing, but its character remains substantially the
same. ear after year the visitor might drop in
and see no difference. There is certain monot-
ony and family likeness in the criminal counte-
nance which is at once repulsive and interesting
"A handsome face is a thing rarely seen in a
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