The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1891-06-11
CRTMfNOLOGY.
Scientists Take Up the study of Criminal AM
thropoiogy.

Scientists Take Up the study of Criminal AM
thropoiogy.
1t has been suggested by Mr.. Thomas VIII
son, of the Smithsonian Institution, that in
the exhibit at the Chicago Fair relating 10 an
thropology the criminal should have a show.
In the Paris Exposition Of 1889 this interest
ing development of humanity was given a
conspicuous place. The criminal at present
is receiving greater attention at the hands OK
philosophers than has ever been accorded To
the type, which may be said to represent an
enemy in the very body OF society, and
therefore well worthy of notice, just as O
dangerous tumor-for, like the tupior, tho
criminal is morbid growth-would deserve
interested and even anxious study.
"Criminologys is the approved word for
this new science. says the Washington Star.
Although the latter has sprung 80 recently
into being, IL already embraces two schools
with very opposite opinions, the question at
issue being whether criminals are born or
made The Italian philosophers are the prin-
cipal advocates of the theory that these unfor-
tunates came into the world with an equipment
of potential andinstinctiye wickedness handed
down from the parents. According 70 their
view the infant bad by heredity Is unable to
control his or her impulse TO do wrong; be or
she falls naturally and uncontroliably into
evildOings and thus the prisons ere Horged
with persons whose mischievious perform
ances are not TO be referred SO much TO their
own fault as TO the naughtines5 oftheir anccs-
tors According TO this notion, vice and
error propagate, their kind in the world and
the doctrine of original sin, finds certain
sort of illustration.
On the other hand, the French school ar
CUES that there Is nothing in heredity which
the individual is not able 10 contxol that It is
his duty 10 control it and in his power fur
thermOre that his criminal tendency u mainly
the result of education or surrounding in
huenoes from infancy upward.
The distinguished Professor Lombroro, OF
Italy states his position thus:
'As the apatomist will find in the human
body traces of organs that are useless or dam
gerous, so the anthropologist or the psycholo-
eist finds in the social BODY an instinct which
belongs TO and was received from his ancestor
a savage of primitive times: that a criminal
was man born SO, and was from his infancy
without moral sense"
Possibly the future will develop a school
that will try 10 combine the two theories
above described into a working method. Tho
exhibit referred 20 included numerous models
and casts Of criminals skulls and brains, some
in wax and others in plaster. Some represented
their faces before and after execution. Also.
there we're casts of the hands OF many in-
diyiduals One series began with the hand OF
the giant Kamuck and ended with that Of
General Tom Thumb. NJ. Vinson presented
large series of casts OF the ear. One taking
cursory examination would easily believe that
all human ears were different. except those
that belong 10 the same head.
Such was likewise shown 10 be the case
with other features which in the future may
afford 10 the student of such matters illus
trations of character upon which reckon
ings may be based with an accuracy
now undreamed of. Men and women may
select their mates for marriage with in
fnitely more assurance Of satisfaction than
is at present possible. and bank presidents
will have no difficulty in distinguishing
beneath the cashier Sunday school demesnor
an appetite for the depositor's cash. The pros
pectiye father-in-law will learn by tweaklng the
aural appendage of the candidate for bis
daughters hand how much the girl. and NOS
her money. is desired; the chaperon will ascef.
tain by the cock of her charges nose how far
she is TO be trusted; the youth in his turn will
estimate the temper of his bride that Is 70 be,
and the first baby can DO clapped into jail Is
soon as weaned il its chubby countenance be-
trays a leaning toward crime. In short.
through the deyelopmentof this anthropologi-
cal science, everybody will live in glass houses
and the restraining influence OF public opin-
ion will keep every one good.-Chicsgo Inter-
Ocean.