The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-12-17
Enthusiastically pronounce against the &C.
ceptance of the dwarf deduction.

Enthusiastically pronounce against the &C.
ceptance of the dwarf deduction.
''Weight," again, is considered. The
criminal is Tighter" than the honest man.
Truly science has come to maze when it
endeavOrs to penetrate the mysteries of the
known. A fact in connection with this is
aprOpos. 1t is we'll established that the av
erage weight of ''well- to do" peOple-thOse
who do nOthing-ls more than that of man
ual laboring people; these exhaust their
nerve and muscle, and have to continually
recuperate. necessitating continual drain
and consequent degeneracy of the whole
system; the former have no nerve and no
muscle to exhaust; but their obesity and
fatness make up for what is lacking. So.
in deduction. the criminal at his better
status must needs exhaust his forces; he is
in continued state of activity in one form
or another, and half of his time he is ill fed,
or meagerly fed, and that he should be
Fighter" than his honest brother is no
cause for scientific inquiry.
Then. the formation, or malfOrmatiOn of
the skull is noted in the criminal But on
! this point anthrOpOlOgiStS disagree. Son.
brOsO, noted European scientist, supports,
while TOpinard, an equally eminent scien-
tist. antagonizes the theory of skull malfOr-
nation in criminals. These two opponents
have each his supporters. 1t is said that
SOmbrOsO, at the congress of Criminal An
thrOpOlOgists. held in Paris. in 1889. pro-
duced the skull of Charlotte Corday, the
slayer of Marat, and stoutly maintained
that it was a typical criminals skull;
TOpinard stOutly maintained the reverse,
and thus tongues wagged. The fact ap-
pears to be that man with pet theory
will sacrifice all truth so that one jOt or one
little of his law shall not pass away. Any
one who has observed the skulls Of "buSi.
ness" men will have noted all the kinds OF
malformed skulls that have ever been cre-
ated. and to attempt to evolve fact ap-
plicable to one class of society's offspring
and not to another is, one must admit, typ
ical of skull malformatiOn in the evolver.
brains" occupy the attention of our
scientists, and the same antagOniSm exists
between them-the ScentistS-as to the
connection between them-the brains. and
criminality. A European scientist advocates
the theory OF brains responsibility in the
commission of crimes. His name is Pro
feSSOr Benedict; but he is antagOniZed by
DR.. GiacOmini. who is no less an authority
than the Professor. They have their dis
cipleS, also.
Biologically the brain OF the child at it's
birth are non est. The child cannot exer-
else the least of the brains functiODs-the
knowledge of its own identity. Here the
advocate of "heredity in crme'' is non
plussed; but he still adheres to his belief in
the transmission of crminality from parent
to child as mental one. Crime is trans
mitted without doubt; but it is of bodily
nature. Bad blood, improper diet. abuse.
and other Irregularities may and do have an
influence on the embryo infant for its fut-
ure i'll being; but there is no direct trans
mission of criminal ideas. Add to the i'm
perfected mental and bodily estate of the
child of the criminal the environment of
viciOusness in which it must needs live, and
there is no occasion to refer to brains as be-
ing abnormal in criminals. Moreover, the
brains of honest people are known in many
cases to have been of the so called abnormal
kind. Gambetta's is notable instances; so
is Daniel Webster's. But these great names
are not evidence of abnormality: neither are
the scores of instances proved by post
mOrtem inquests in the hands of expert
scientists. The fact to be deduced from
these. however, is that the brain is not a
criterion of criminality, or of honesty, or of
genius, or otherwise, based on size or shape.
Size and shape have cOntradicted many a
wise man.
Faces" their formation and character
istics. enter into the disquistions of the
criminal anthropolOgists. The .'retreating
forehead" has long been held-it is an al
most universal belief in our day-as typical
of criminality. It has. however, been
demOnstrably proved that it is equally typ.
ical of honesty. OF $50 criminals and 100
ordinary citizens that DR.. Mars investi-
gated. the conclusions were in favor of the
criminals-that the ordinary citizens show
ed the ''retreating" characteristic in as
conspicuous, or rather, in as noticeable a
manner as the criminals. So in reference
to tho ''overhanging eyebrows" project
ing ears. tip tilted" or irregular noses,
and the like.
Other things in connection with the sub.
ioct ara 1iscusSod-ssrait ssannaaronco -