The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-12-06
EXPERT ON ANARCHISTS.
or THE DEGENERATE CLASS LIKE
CRIMINALS AND INSANE.

the Anarohiat-Why Mental Epldonhics
Are Common - Segregation Remedy.
A physician connected with many
hospitals and institutions for the
treatment OF nervous and mental dis
eases made the following summing up
OF his conclusions respecting the mem
tai condition Of the anarchist and his
relation to the criminal and insane
classes:
"As a rule, anarchy is something be-
low the superficial surface OF society
closely connected with, though not a
part Of the submerged TENTH or pau
per class Of the community. From the
standpoint Of the expert on mental and
nervous disease, the anarchist stands
sharply outlined In two varieties, the
man who suggests and the man who
is suggestible. There are the brainy
men of the submerged tenth and many
others following them who are not
brainy The followers are better
known to the police than the leaders,
who are not usually known to the pub
lie.
THE criminals, the insane, and the
anarchists are all members of the de-
generate class, differing in many par
ticulars, but all agreeing in being anti
social. The deeds and actions of the
three classes may be the same, muir
der, or assassination, or other crimes
of violence. A degenerate is a word
used Ia various ways Popular use at
tributes to the degenerate abnormal
or unnatural crimes. The newest
books on mental diseases uses it in
a much broader sense as indicating a
class of mankind who are abnormal in
mind and body from inheritance. Her
edity as understood today ignores any
definite type of disease Because a
parent was tuberculOus or eccentric or
alcoholic the child does not of neces-
sity inherit the same conditions. Her
edity passes down abnormal tenden-
cies in various ways, but surely and
certainly mental abnormality super
imposed on physical abnormalities.
These comprise the chief signs of
degenerate as the word is used sci
entifically.
I'm examining a suspected lunatic
the general outlines of face and head,
sometimes almost on the lines of the
old-fashioned phrenologist, are first
noted. Most painstaking attention is
given to the position of the eyes,
whether too near together, too far
apart, OF too high, or if irregularly
placed, The eye itself presents nu-
merous defects in color and shape of
pupil, which appear as rule only in
degenerate types. The ear and roof
Of the mouth are especially valuable
In giving hint that hereditary con-
dition is present. Next to physical
stigmata of degeneracy and of insani-
ty in particular, come mental stig-
mata. These include a variety of
traits found in normal men, such as
passionate outbreaks, vanity, self-con-
ceit, selfishness, jealousy and numer-
GUS other mental characteristics. The
criminal having an increase of some
one of these traits, or, what is far
more common, complete lack of self
control or inhibition, which readily
eXaggerate any positive trait of char
acter, readily falls into a criminal life
and eventually finds his way to pri-
son. He may or may not have physi-
cal stigmata of degeneration. A large
proportion of criminals show them,
especially of the professional crimi-
nails. Whatever view may be taken of
their mental weakness, as enemies Of
society, no one has yet, on any large
scale, viewed them as subjects for
insane hospitals Though theories Of
reformation are entertained in indi-
vidual cases, as a class of the commu-
nifty they are to be regarded as enc
mics of society.
Between the ordinary criminals and
the insane and mentally unbalanced
come the class of anarchists now ex-
citing public indignation since the as
sassination of President Mckinley
They are more positively anti-social
than the ordinary professional crimi-
nal. The crook, robber or common
murderer is an enemy of society, but
more as an individual, as man against
man.
"The anarchists are organized in
their hostility to society, and are def
mite in their methods of waging war
against society. To them the indi-
vidual counts for little, the system
for much. Like the criminal, their
mental characteristics resolve them
seIvns into two Varieties tboca 1ybo