The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-06-10

'fwas born too late Should have lived in the days of the great ad- venturers--Drake and Cortez and all other pi1lagers and conquerers and he. roic thieves who could trace their lineage back further than Jason who quested for the Golden Fieese7
 Was I born too early--before the days of High Finance and the unheroie thieves of this decade
 "Or was it because of some subtle qufrk in my brain some cerebral for nation, some little grouping of the brain cells, that I. who should have been an honest man, an artist. a poet perhaps became burglar May 1t not be that spicule of. bone presses upon convQlution of my brain and, so doing, pervert my whole nature?
 T do not know. and I have thought hard and long upon the causes. But this. although I do not know. is what am inclined to think; Real crime is a disease, or rather crime is the symp- tom of subtle disease of brain and nerve, just as a rash is in some cases e symptom of fever. All those who are criminals-and in this list I place the ancfentsconquerors, the gentleman adventurers. the burglar, the counter feiter, the swindier, the priest of high finance, all of the Under World. and | alL too of the Upper World who are tinged with the evil--al those who are criminas I say have this disease. (" "It may be that the disease that ger. minateS crime and criminals springs from a bacillus There are many req. sons for believing 1t is so. have seen the criminal taint communicated in the most curious ways. hardly cred ible. have seen criminal phenomea that paralleled the contagion of slow fevers. the stride of quick destructive disease.
 Certainly vcrime moves in waves. There are epidenics of various forms, a there are epidemics of smallpox. of
 measles. There are criminals who are always criminals of one kind-so- cial cancers, social consumptives. There are, too, criminals who are only cases of social chickenpox or influ- enza.
 Certainly crime is contagious. I
 have seen honest, law-abiding men
 turned within a fortnight to criminals. have seen others in whom the course of the fnoculation was slower.
 'Ts there subtle bacillus of evil,
 a germ of crime. that causes the fer
 ment of the Under World? I do not
 know. Perhaps my brain will tell I
 have left it for the men of science to ponder over, to dissect, to examine microscopically. Perhaps they can lind
 the germ of crime. So I, who all my life was the enemy of society. may by my
 death become its benefactor.
 Instead of prisons I would have
 sanatoria for the treatment of criml-
 nals. I would have the finest spe-
 cialists for them. I would have the disease of crime coped with logically. Of course the criminal should be se- gregated, but the disease should be
 recognized. The treatment of the criminal of today Is parallelled by | fra nf he tnc gvsc middle ages. and, in fact, as short d time ago as the eighteenth century. | Crime is disease to be corrected by surgery or by medicine and some day | a judge will come who will be big enough and brave enough to say so and to act accordingly"
 Dunlap, to have his theory proved or. disapproved, willed his brain to | the Mister Institute of Anatomy and | his body to Dr. John Chalmers Da l Costa of Jefferson Medical College, one | of the foremost surgeons in the coun- | try. The theory first advanced by | Dunlap is now the study of serious scientific study in both institutions of learning, and great results, beneh- | cial to society. are expected.
 When discussing his radical depart | ure from all precedent and procedure Judge Barratt said No court would knowingly send luudtlc 10 the gallows NO court snould knowingly send a deficient to prison. Today we have nuerologists who can point out with almost unerring ac curacy the defects of those subject to their examination.
 Tt is common practice to call in alientsts to advise the court as to the mental condition of persons accused of murder. and see no reason why such advice should not be sought in the eases of other offenders who face long terms in prison.
 T see no signs of either crime or disease in boys who break windows throw snowballs. play hockey when baseballs are ripe, or try high dives as soon. as the ice is out of the river but I do see evidence of both crime and disease in habitual liars, persis- tent thieves, and in all those guilty of unnatural offenses. Such offenders should be kept under restraint in prop erly equipped hospitals until the att tending surgeons and nuerologists can advise the court as to whether or not operative surgery or continued medical treatment will serve any good purpose. At present our prisons are not fitted up for such work but our State hos pitfalls for the insane are, and it is my intention to commit hopeful cases to these hospitals until such time as pen olosists and legislators find means to provide the necessary hospital equip ment at our established penal insti- tutionS"