The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-05-18
PHYSICAL, UL-HEALTH
AS A CAUSE OF CRIME

Address Of Mr.. Gilbert T. Stephenson. City Sole
ior Of Winston salem. delivered before the southern
sociofs cal Congress in Houston. Texas. Monday
May 10. 1915;
A normai person is one whose body
activities perform in a dehnlle reld-
tionship to one another, producing an
equilibrium of all vital forces winch
results in q condition called goou
health. A violent disturbance of this
vital equilibrium such as to throw the
whole organism out of balance pro-
duces a condition called acute dls-
ease. A less violent but more pro-
lCnged disturbance of the equilibrium
produces the condition called III
health. When the conduct OF a per-
son is so anti-social that the govern
ment takes notice of 1t as being
against the public good, it is called
crime.
nl-health, as here defined,
a.chronic state. / shall, therefore,
consider for the most part the causal
connection between crime and enron
ic diseases like tuberculosis and syph-
Ills. One chronic disease, alcohollsm,
though admitted to be the cause or
more crimes than any other one
thing, is excluded because it's rank in
the causal series is so prominent as
to o~vershadow the others and en-
title it to separate treatment. My
subject expressly p~recludes discussion
ot feeble-mindednes or mental dis
eases however chronic.
High Death Rate.
Physical ill-health of criminals is
indicated % by high death-rate,
CD by inferior physique, and CD by
diseased condition of the body. The
death-rate among boys in the re-
formatories of England is fully twice
as high and among girls over three
ti,,, &c nc hiuh nc n n r those nf fhp
same age in the general population.
tTnsanitary surroundings partly &C
count for the high death-rate, to be
sure; but the physical inferiority Of
these delinQuentS is the greater con-
tributor to 1T.
Convicts are about n and one
third inches shorter in stature than
is below normal and their pulse-rate
above normal. Pigeon breasts, poor
ly developed chests and STOPPING
shoulders are said to be almost the
rule among the recidivists in the Wis
consin State Prison. Mr.. u. r.. Brock
way, formerly superintendent Of the
Elmira Reformatory, who has been
in prison service since 1848, says:
acute olfactorieS readily distinguish
the odor Of a mass Of confined Grim
inals-an eifluviuIn as Of Gagged wilC
animals but different, and different
also from the odor of the insane ant
of paupers. Their raucouS voice OF
soft hesitancy of speech and fault,
articulation are suggestive of thu
stigmata Of the degenerate palate
Clammy or sca1y hands, repulsive' tt
the touch, also indicate degeneracy.'
Inviting Field for Diseases.
Such degenerate and inferior
bodies are inviting fields for all kind
of disease germs and particularly tn
tubercle bacillus. OF $500 inmate
Of Elmira Reformatory eXaminet
twenty per cent were in some>d egre
infected with tuberculosis. AT on
time seventy-five per cent of all tn
deaths in the prisons Of New Yor.
were due to tuberculosis. 1t is est
mated that from sixteen to twenty
five per cen Of the general prise
population Of this country, at leas
are infected with tuberculosis to
demonstrable degree. When one con
siders, that in the United States Their
are annually discharged upon societ
upwards of one hundred thousan
prisoners, nearly one-fourth of whol
arc infected with tuberculosis, the
he realizes that society, for it's ow
sake If for nothing else, should /
concerned about the health of i
prison population. Though unsan
tary prisons cause many prisoners
develop tuberculosis after they a.
committed; 1t Is true, nevertheless
thai most Of them were infected b
forehand. The health of the GRIMM
is in double danger-in that ne is e
p~ecially exposed to infection and, b
cause Of his inferior physique,
lacks power to resist disease.
InciteS to Crime.
Next after tuberculosis amol
criminals probably comes the vene
cal diseases. Thirty-nine per cent
the boys in the Chicago Refor
School were found to be sufferi
from venereal infection. Of Gig
= thousand inmates of Elmira Reforl
atory forty-three per cent were,
their admission to the reformatol
the victims of venereal disease. Oy
forty per cent of the convicts in t
Wisconsin State Prison are simila,
infected. Judge Hastings of the m
nicipal court of WinstoE-Salem. w
sits in judgment upon over two tho
sand colored offenders a year, es