Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-12-26

From the Medieal Efess. III sss@
How far the principles of altruism are
compatible with, that Is to say advanta-
geous to. the existence of civilized state
is an interesting problsh that remains to
be worked out. The evidence of the last
century is all III favor Of the social ad-
vance Of that state III which regard for
others is substituted for brutal fndffrer-
ence The reason may not always be APP
parent. but the fact remains, and to med
icfne must be assigned the first place as
a civilizins and fimanf3ing force.
The work and mission OF the medical
profession brings and keeps It's members
In constant contact with every class of
society. down to the lowest, and this at
the time when the softer feelings are
most apparent; namely, In the time of
sickness. Consequently one finds the in
fuence of medicine generally on the side
of mercy-to the great advantage of So
clety generally. In no domain more than
In that of crime and criminoiogy is this
apparent, and in no field has medicine
greater triumphs to show. The desire for
revenge and for punishment Is one of the
sheer stupidity of giving IT unrestricted
play In dealing with delinauents has been
demonstrated In the criminal annals OF
every country that possesses annals. s..
has shown itself to be not only the right.
but the wlse course. and the cid savage
punishments are, happily. passing out of
fashion. The report of the directors OF
English convict prisons. just issued. gives
full account Of the. workings Of the So
called Juvenile adult system that has
been inaugurated at Borstal. and we may
say at once that the, verdict Of the directors
is wholly favorable. This system was In
augurated as an experiment to exploit the
plan of treating young criminals with a
view to curing instead Of merely Furnishing
them. From the London prisons were col
I'D Of nrt Ood
of Imprisonment of six months and upward,
and these lads were put to learn useful
trades. such as carpentering and bricklay-
Ing. under benefceht supervision. instead
of performing the old routine Of purposeless
prison tasks. The conduct of prisoners I'M
der the new set of circumstances complete
ly changed; they showed great anxiety to
improve, and they were granted extra privi-
leges, became great readers, and good chess
players.
Nor was this improvement only tempo
rary. So far, hundred and twenty-five
Juvenile adults" have been discharged.
be in employment, and leading useful lives,
while thirty have been lost sight of. OF
the remainder. only twenty-four have been
reconvicted, and fourteen are still unplaced
Considering that more than a hundred Of
these cases were hardened young criminals,
'fifty-one of them having been convicted
more than once, and twelve more than
three times; that they were discharged In
London where they had either no homes or
thoroughly bad homes, and where every
temptation existed to guide back TO their
old haunts, and that the task of supervision
after discharge is extremely difficult, one
Is not surprised that the directors write
enthusiastica about the success of the
scheme. They are now planning TO exteno
it so as to reach not only London, but the
whole of England and Wales. and to es-
tablish it on a permanent basis. Two ele-
ments are necessary for a complete cure
time in the prison, and supervision after
ward. :t-.