Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-24

from should be called into question. and
the whole criminalistic edfice. the work
Of many years. should be ruthlessly de-
molished. NJ. ]. Naville in an open letter
to Prof. Lombroso attacks the state
ment that the single horizontal line of the
palm is peculiar to lower apes and the
! ma jority of epileptics, idiots and born
criminals. IF ever he adds sarcastical-
ly, you happen to come my way. Ishould
be happy to show you a similar case in
the two hands of man who has reason
to believe that he cannot be classed in
any of those categories. This character
istic sign is repeated in four of his chill
drep.' Another savant unkindly limited
that the great criminalist had discovered
the stigmata of degeneracy by a process
of suggestion. He bad before him. as he
believed. criminals hand. and it was
quite natural that he should discover a
confirmation of his theories. A series
of photographs reproducing the hands of
honest men and criminals alike he placed
before NJ. Lonbroso. and then let him
test his theories by separating the wheat
and the tares.
To crown all DR.. Manrouvier a profess
sor at the Paris School OF Anthropology,
furnished abundant evidence to show that
the skull which Prof Lombroso regarded
as the skull of Charlotte Corday. and on
which he relied for one of the principal
chapters of his work on female GRIM
inals, IS. to say the least, of very doubt
full authenticity. N-s-s
Prof Lombroso made the best of
bad job. He replied to his adversaries
that the anomalies were there even if the
hands were not those OF the assassin. He
denied that the single horizontal fold of
the palm can be caused by mans call
ing. - Every savant knows that it is an
atavia PHI nomenon. anterior to birth" He
unjustiy pours out the phials of his wrath
at having been led into such an egregious
blunder on the devoted head of NJ Ber-
tillon, whereas he should have reserved
them for the willy reporter. the cause of
all the mischief. "A se!f-respacting
man Should treat very differently a man
who has devoted all his life to science"
The storm now has blown over. The
other day i called at the Anthropometri-
cal Office and was fortunate enough to
find M. BertillOn in a communicative
mood 1t is easy to see that the creator
of the anthropometrcal system. in spite
of the courteous form in which he clothes
his utteranceS. has a boundless contempt
for the pseudo-scientific theories that
would brand man on the strength of an
anomalous conformation of hand, head
or eye. The eriminalist of the Lombroso
school hardly could find favor in the sight
of this cold. practical observer, trained
in the school of experience, who can tell
thief a vagabond or a criminal at a |
glance.
X x
This new-fangled criminalsm." he |
said, lis nothing more nor less than palm
istry dressed up in imposing covering |
of scientific terms such as atrophy. hy-
potenary, medius, cbromatic asymmetry |
and the like. If the lines of the hand in
dictate anything at all, this can only be
by the application of the law of correla-
ton. in virtue of which. to take familiar
instance, we are enabled to recognize |
a mich cow by the arrangement of the
hairs of it's legs. If we admit as phil
osophical principle that man descends
from the ape, and If we find ourselves
in the presence of a man with an apes
hand, the believers in transformism lex
aggerated Darwinism) will be able to say:
Apes hand. apes brain
ut never will be case of certainty, but |
there will be some Prescriptions of its
being true. Such is Prof. Lombrosos
reasoning. In the case of Soleiland it |
crumbles to pieces of itself, for the hands
taken by Lombroso were not Soleilland S
at all.
Let us examine now ordinary palms.
try. In criticising ordinary palmistry by |
absolutely asserting that it is a fraud 1t |
is clear that l deprive myself Of a pleas
ure that is not to be sneered at. for l de-
prive myself forever of the pleasure of |
taking a pretty girls hand in mine and,
under the cover of science turning 1t this |
way and that and scrutinizing it for ten |
minutes while 1 tell her things that fill |
her with emotion-thngs about her past !
present and future, such as l would have |
them be. But what correlation can there |
possibly be between the bifurcation of the |
stoppage of what palmists-modern sor- |
cerers-call the tree of life and let US say. |
suicide? l should feel much more conf |
dent in foretelling mans suicide after
a few minutes conversation with him on