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

Task That May Be Taken
Up by the Government.
WHAT IT WILL SHOW
SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF
THE DEFECTIVE CLASSES.
Is Crime q DiseaseP-What Separates
the Abnormal From the
Normal.

| Written for The Evening Star.
| laboratory for the study Of the abnor-
NAL American will be established here by
| Uncle Sam at early date very probably.
Fifty American university professors and
the strongest criminologists of the country
are backing the enterprise. Many foreign
ers of international reputation-such as
| Lombroso, Mosso and w. T. Stead-have
| written letters urging the government to
thus set Europe good example which she
| will probably follow.
The nations criminals. paupers, inebri-
ates. insane and otherwise defective classes
| will be the subjects of this new institution s
Investigations 1t will Investigate also mob
| influence and the causes of anarchy. 1t
will gather data in the institutions wherein
| unfortunates are confined, and will COM
pute. tabulate and publish figures of value
| to. penalogists, educators, philanthropistS,
! Sociologists psychologists and medical men.
| The work will cost but $20,0 900 year Nor
| NAL man will likewise be carefully studied
| for comparison with abnormal man, other
! wise the characteristics of the latter can
| not be defined. Hence a general study Of
both the good and bad elements Of society
will result
This projected institution will therefore
be the first in the world to attempt a bread
study of modern man. Many governments,
including our own, wisely appropriate funds
for the study Of primitive man as repre-
sented IN crumbled ruins and living saw
ages. But there are some savants who
venture to say that man of modern
civilization has been less studied in the
broad sense. than minerals, vegetables and
his lower brute relations. There are large
classes of specialists and laymen who opine
that it would be good an investment of
Uncle Sans money to isolate the germs of
crime and pauperism to measure the
mountains the moon.
Especially do they think the government
could afford this meager appropriation in
view of the fact that 5000 of our citizens
are being killed by criminals each year, and
our prisons were costing us So, 900 900 per
annum when the last statistics were pub
liished, ten years ago. 1t was recently
computed by statisticians that the criminal
year, and that the United States has the
highest murder rate of any civilized coun-
try.
Queer Laboratory Apparatus.
In the proposed laboratory special sub
jectS will be measured, not by the Bertil-
lion system adopted by police forces for the
Identification Of criminals, but by a highly
scientific method, whose value has been
demonstrated in the university psychologist
cal laboratories of America and Europe.
1t Is method introduced by the cele-
brated Prof. Fechner of Leipsc and deyel-
oped by Prof. Wundt the great German
psychologist and psychologist. This sys-
tenn has never given any practical results,
because its application has been restricted
to small experiments for the teaching of
university students. If applied to thou
sands of individuals the many instruments
already perfected will, it Is claimed reveal
some surprising facts concerning the make
up of man. The promoters of the govern
ment laboratory enterprise anticipate the
employment of those instruments whose
value has been attested in the university
laboratories.
Among these are instruments which meas
ure the acuteness of taste touch, hearing
seeing and smell; weigh the amount of
blood attracted to the brain by dreams or
mental work; record the effect of emotions
upon the depth of respiration and the I'M
conscious movements or trembling of the
various muscles; time the brains speed of
thought and action; measure the nerves
constituencies to pain, heat, cod and cleo
tricity; gauge the accuracy of the eye or
hand in detecting distance and dimension;
record the actual power of the various mus
cles. the clutch of the hand or the blow
of the fist; determine how much more one