Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-11

person can endure than another; how much
more susceptible to suggestion one is than
another With such instruments, which au-
Dramatically record these observations on
paper. mans entire working mechanism
can be reduced to a chart which could lit no
other OF his brother kind.
Redistribution of Man.
An interesting classification of man has
been proposed for use as a working basis.
insuring uniformity OF method In this. the
average man is taken as a normal type. and
other individuals are grouped according to
their similarity or dissimilarity to him.
This Is the classification:
% Normal man. constituting the con-
servative and trustworthy element OF So
ciety; 90 dependent man. represt nted In
almshouses, hospitals. asylums for orphans
and the homeless. or similar charitable In
situations: (3l delinquent. man, as found in
prisons. penftentiaries and reformatories;
% defective man. including the insane.
feeble-mtnded. idiOtic, imbecile. deaf mute
and blind: 90 the genius. or man OF gre at
talent. who might properly be termed lab
normal man. and the second. third and
fourth classes as ''subnormal"
or these normal man represents the
largest class. and following him in order
rank defective man. dependent man. delin-
quent man and. last, the genius. class
much the smallest in numbers. There Is
estimated to be about one abnormal for
every 100 normal men IN this country.
Luckily for the projectors Of the enter
prise. their geese have been already caught
Tor them. and 1t only remains for them to
perform the cooking. The country's insti-
tutfons confine the representative number
OF abnormal men except the geniuses. and
there IS no difficulty. thanks to the press,
in discovering the whereabouts of this dis
tinguished class. The first man to volun-
tariiy subject himself to a complete investi-
cation by the method perfected by Wundt
was Emile lola, the genius. The only other
man thoroughly studied in this way was
II. II. Holmes. the noted murderer.
The prison or asylum offers the best op-
portunities for the study of man. Exact
conditions, such as regularity of diet are
known, and the subjects are always found
at home when called upon. Moreover the
prisoner will divulge more details of his
Hfe than will normal man, having less to
lose by such divulgence. But scientific
crim1nologists now find 1t impossible to
conduct their researches uniformly in
prison, because they have no official pres
tlge and are seldom admitted. In the case
of a representative of the government this
obstacle would be obviated.
Delinquent MANN other words. the
crimtnal-is Of course the most obnoxious
element of society. There are two kinds
of criminologists who have been at work
on him Of late years Those most heard
of are the practical criminologists, who
study the best methods of catching the
tories. Less Is heard of the scientific GRIM
inologist who studies the individual wrong
doer Classics him. determines the char
acteristics of his type, and endeavors to
isolate the germ causing his degenerary.
The scientific criminologist has far work.
ed with odds against him, due to the mea-
gerness OF data But he has made some
interesting deductions, one of them being
that nine-tenths of the delinquent class are
criminals by occasion" only, the remaining
tenth being ''habitual criminals"
Abnormal Children.
It is proposed to select criminal and other
wise abnormal children as the first subjects
of the Investigation. Children are more
easy to approach than their elders and their
natures are more open. The first practical
purpose will be the discovery of the phys
ical and mental characteristics common to
criminal children and whether such char
acteristics are due to heredity or environ
ment in the majority of cases. Scientific
criminologists now generally believe that
surroundings are more responsible for crime
than is inherited instinct. If study of
thousands of criminal children were to
prove this to be the case then there may
be more reasonable hope for the lessening
O! crime.
1t is much easier to change childs sur
roundings than to remold its nature. If
heredity Is to blame the problem to
whether criminals should be allowed to
the middle ground-that children of crimi-
nails come into the world with tendency
toward crime. and If placed in proper sur
roundings after birth they may be re-
formed If this were demonstrated a great
lessening of crime would be effected by
isolating children of criminals from their
parents Immediately after birth, as chill
dren of lepers are isolated. But until uni
form and abundant data can be collected
the criminologists of the country see no
way of demonstrating one condition or the
other to the satisfaction of science.
The establishment of a new class termed
prospective criminals would result from
such general research. Until an offense mas
been committed the government does not
now recognize an offender. 1t does not lock
its door until It's horse Is stolen.
Criminals Brains
Is crime really a disease? This Is an
other problem which criminologists would
like to see solved. Statistics show that 81
per cent Of the inmates of our principal