There can be little doubt that the domain of mental science is
being invaded on more than one side by the sciences which deal more
especially with the material world and with the physical universe
around us. When physiologists discovered that the force or impulse
which travels along a nerve, which originates in the brain, and which
represents the transformation of thought into action, is nearly allied
to the electrical force—now one of man’s most useful and obedient
ministers—one avenue to the domain of mind was opened up. And when
physiologists, through the aid of delicate apparatus, were actually
enabled to measure the rate at which this nerve-force travels along
the nerve-fibres, it may again be said that physical science was
encroaching on the domain of mind, being in a certain sense thus
enabled to measure the rapidity of thought.
A study, exemplifying in a more than ordinary degree the application of
the methods of physical science to the explanation of states of mind,
was brought under the notice of the members of the British Association
at the last meeting of that body. In the department of Anthropology, or
the science investigating the physical and mental constitution of the
races of man, Mr Francis Galton, as president of this section, devoted
his address to an exposition of the classification or arrangement of
groups of men, according to their habits of mind, and their physiognomy.
Of the curious and absorbing nature of such a study nothing need be
said. Lavater’s method of pursuing the study of character through the
investigation of the features of the human face has long been known.
But Lavater’s system is on the whole much too loose and elementary to
be regarded as satisfactory by modern scientists, whose repudiation
of phrenology as a system capable of explaining the exact disposition
of the brain functions, has unquestionably affected Lavater’s method
also. Mr Galton refers at the outset of his address to the fact we have
already alluded to—namely, that physiologists have determined the rate
at which nerve-force, representing a sensation or impulse of thought
and action, travels along the nerves. The common phrase ‘as quick as
thought’ is found to be by no means so applicable as is generally
supposed, especially when it is discovered that thought or nervous
impulse, as compared with light or electricity, appears as a veritable
laggard. For whilst light travels at the rate of many thousands of
miles—about one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles according to the
latest researches—in a second of time, nerve-force in man passes along
his nerves at a rate varying from one hundred and ten or one hundred
and twenty to two hundred feet per second. Or, to use Mr Galton’s
words, nerve-force is ‘far from instantaneous’ in its action, and has
‘indeed no higher velocity than that of a railway express train.’
As we could naturally suppose from a consideration of this fact,
small animals presenting us with a limited distance for nerve-force
to travel, will avoid rapid blows and shift for themselves in the
struggle for existence at a much quicker rate than large animals.
Take two extreme cases in illustration of this fact. A mouse hears a
suspicious or threatening sound, and at once, so to speak, accommodates
its actions and movements to its protection. The ear of the mouse, as
one of its ‘gateways of knowledge,’ is situated so close to the brain
that the interval which elapses between the reception of the sound
by the ear, or between its transmission as an impulse to the brain
and the issue of a command or second impulse from the brain to the
muscles of the body for the purpose of movement, is too short to be
perfectly appreciated by the observer. In a whale, on the contrary,
which may attain a length of eighty feet, a much longer interval will
elapse before action of body follows on nervous impulse, seeing that
the nerve-impulse has a longer distance to travel. Assuming that in
such animals as the whales the nerve-action travels at the rate of
seventy or eighty feet per second, it follows that in a large whale
which has been struck near the tail by a harpoon, a second or so will
elapse before the impulse is transmitted to the brain, whilst another
second will pass before the second impulse is sent from the brain to
put the muscles of the tail in action for the purpose of retaliating
upon the harpooner. In such a case it is assumed that the brain of the
animal will be the nervous centre or station at which information is
received, and from which instructions are in turn telegraphed to the
various organs and parts of the body. In the actual details of the
case, however, it is probable that the spinal marrow of the animal
or some part of it would act as the ‘head-office’ for receiving and
issuing commands. We know that a headless frog will wipe off with one
foot a drop of vinegar that has been placed on the other, and in the
absence of the brain we thus assume that the spinal cord may act as a
nerve-centre.
Doubtless the spinal marrow discharges this function naturally; and in
view of this latter supposition, the interval between the reception of
a blow and the muscular actions of an animal would be of less duration
than in the case we have just supposed, where the brain is regarded as
the central station of the nervous system. As an eminent authority in
physical science has remarked, ‘the interval required for the kindling
of consciousness would probably more than suffice for the destruction
of the brain by lightning, or even by a rifle-bullet. Before the organ
(that is, the brain) can arrange itself, it may therefore be destroyed,
and in such a case we may safely conclude that death is painless.’
But confining ourselves to the domain of human thought, it seems
perfectly clear that the differences between persons of different
temperament are in reality referable in great part to the varying
rates at which nervous impulses are transmitted through the nerves, and
to or from the brain. The difference between a person of phlegmatic
disposition and a person of sanguine temperament, may thus be properly
enough referred to the varying rates with which sensations and feelings
are appreciated and acted upon. Disposition or temperament thus becomes
referred, secondarily, to the manner in which and aptitude with which
nerves receive and transmit impressions. Primarily, of course, we
must refer the exact causes of the quicker or slower transmission of
impulses to the constitution of the individual who exhibits them.
Mr Galton gives a very interesting example of the differences to be
observed between various individuals in the respects just noted, by a
reference to a practice common amongst astronomers. He says: ‘It is
a well-known fact that different observers make different estimates
of the exact moment of the occurrence of any event. There is,’ he
continues, ‘a common astronomical observation in which the moment
has to be recorded at which a star that is travelling athwart the
field of view of a fixed telescope, crosses the fine vertical wire by
which that field of view is intersected. In making this observation
it is found that some observers are over-sanguine and anticipate the
event, whilst others are sluggish, and allow the event to pass by
before they succeed in noting it.’ This tendency of each individual is
clearly not the result either of inexperience or carelessness, since,
as astronomers well know, ‘it is a persistent characteristic of each
individual, however practised in the art of making observations or
however attentive he may be.’ And so accustomed indeed are astronomers
to these differences in observers, that a definite and standing
phrase—that of the ‘personal equation’—is used in that science to
express the difference between the time of a man’s noting the event
and that of its actual occurrence. Every assistant in an observatory
has his ‘personal equation’ duly ascertained, and has this correction
applied to each of his observations. This most interesting fact
relates exact or mathematical science in the most curious manner to
the mental character of an individual. Mr Galton, however, does not
rest merely with the announcement of this latter result. He goes much
further in his theoretical inquiry, and suggests that peculiarities in
the respect just noted might be found to be related to special points
in the conformation of the body. Thus could the ‘personal equations’
of astronomers be related to the height of body, age, colour of hair
and eyes, weight, and temperament, some valuable facts might be
deduced regarding the union of definite characters to form a special
constitution.
Some other methods may be cited of estimating the differences between
various temperaments in appreciating sensations and in acting upon
them. If a person is prepared to give an instantaneous opinion as
to the colour of a certain signal—black or white—but is unaware of
the particular colour which is to be exhibited, and if he is further
instructed to press a stop with his right hand for the one colour
and a left-hand stop for the other, the act of judgment necessary to
determine the particular stop in each instance, is found to occupy an
appreciable interval. This is particularly the case if a single signal
has been previously shewn, and the observer’s quickness of sight has
been tested and calculated by his pressing a single stop whenever he
saw the object. The comparison between the interval elapsing between
the mere sensation of sight and the act of pressing the stop in the
latter case, and the interval which elapses when the observer has to
make up his mind as to the difference between two signals, is seen to
be very marked.
Setting thus before his mind a certain number of tests of individual
temperament and character such as have been illustrated, the observer
may next proceed to the task of discovering whether persons who exhibit
similar qualities of mind in these experiments, can be proved to be
related to each other in other particulars of their physical or mental
disposition. Mr Galton has ingeniously suggested that by an arrangement
of mirrors, four views of a person’s head might be taken at once, and
would thus afford an ordinary photographic portrait, a portrait of a
three-quarter face, a profile view, and a figure of the top of the head
respectively. Such a series of views would present all the aspects
required for a comparison of the general as well as special contour of
the head of the individual with the heads of others photographed in
like manner.
Our author, whose researches on the heredity of men of genius and the
transmission from one generation to another of qualities belonging
to the highest development of man’s estate, are well known, turned
his attention to the opposite phase of human life and character, and
investigated in an avowedly casual, but still important manner, the
likenesses and differences between members of the criminal classes
of England. The social and practical importance of a study such as
the present may be readily estimated. There are few persons who have
not considered the bearings and influence of criminal antecedents
upon the offenders of the present day. Although to a very large
extent our temperaments and dispositions are of our own making, and
are susceptible of the favouring influences of education and moral
training, there can be no doubt of the truth of the converse remark,
that to a very great extent the traits of character we inherit from our
parents exercise an undeniable influence over us for weal or for woe.
If, therefore, through research in the direction we have indicated, it
can be shewn that criminality runs in types, our notions of criminal
responsibility, and our ideas regarding the punishment, deterrent and
otherwise, of the criminal classes, must be affected and ameliorated
thereby.
That criminality, like moral greatness, ‘runs in the blood,’ there
can be no doubt. It would in fact be a most unwonted violation of the
commonest law of nature, were we to find the children of criminals
free from the moral taints of their parents. As physical disease
is transmissible, and as the conditions regulating its descent are
now tolerably well ascertained, so moral infirmities pass from one
generation to another, and the ‘law of likeness’ is thus seen to hold
true of mind as well as of body. Numerous instances might be cited of
the transmission of criminal traits of character, often of very marked
and special kind. Dr Despine, a continental writer, gives one very
remarkable case illustrating the transmission from one generation to
another of an extraordinary tendency to thieve and steal. The subjects
of the memoir in question were a family named Chrétien, of which the
common ancestor, so to speak, Jean Chrétien by name, had three sons,
Pierre, Thomas, and Jean-Baptiste. Pierre in his turn had one son,
who was sentenced to penal servitude for life for robbery and murder.
Thomas had two sons, one of whom was condemned to a like sentence for
murder; the other being sentenced to death for a like crime. Of the
children of Jean-Baptiste, one son (Jean-François) married one Marie
Tauré, who came of a family noted for their tendency to the crime of
incendiarism. Seven children were born to this couple with avowedly
criminal antecedents on both sides. Of these, one son, Jean-François,
named after his father, died in prison after undergoing various
sentences for robberies. Another son, Benoist, was killed by falling
off a house-roof which he had scaled in the act of theft; and a third
son, ‘Clain’ by nickname, after being convicted of several robberies,
died at the age of twenty-five. Victor, a fourth son, was also a
criminal; Marie-Reine, a daughter, died in prison—as also did her
sister Marie-Rose—whither both had been sent for theft. The remaining
daughter Victorine, married a man named Lemarre, the son of this couple
being sentenced to death for robbery and murder.
This hideous and sad record of whole generations being impelled, as it
were, hereditarily to crime, is paralleled by the case of the notorious
Jukes-family, whose doings are still matters of comment amongst the
legal and police authorities of New York. A long and carefully compiled
pedigree of this family shews the sad but striking fact, that in the
course of seven generations no fewer than five hundred and forty
individuals of Jukes blood were included amongst the criminal and
pauper classes. The account appears in the Thirty-first Annual Report
of the Prison Association of New York (1876); and the results of an
investigation into the history of the fifth generation alone, may be
shortly referred to in the present instance as presenting us with a
companion case to that of the somewhat inaptly named Chrétien family.
This fifth generation of the Jukes tribe sprang from the eldest of the
five daughters of the common ancestor of the race. One hundred and
three individuals are included in this generation; thirty-eight of
these coming through an illegitimate grand-daughter, and eighty-five
through legitimate grand-children. The great majority of the females
consorted with criminals: sixteen of the thirty-eight have been
convicted—one nine times—some of heinous crimes: eleven are paupers
and led dissolute or criminal lives: four were inveterate drunkards:
the history of three is unknown; and a small minority of four are
known to have lived respectable and honest lives. Of the eighty-five
legitimate descendants, only five were incorrigible criminals, and only
some thirteen were paupers or dissolute. Jukes himself, the founder of
this prolific criminal community, was born about 1730, and is described
as a curious unsteady man of gipsy descent, but apparently without
deliberately bad or intently vicious instincts. Through unfavourable
marriages, the undecided character of the father ripened into the
criminal traits of his descendants. The moral surroundings being of the
worst description, the beginnings of criminality became intensified,
and hence arose naturally, and as time passed, the graver symptoms of
diseased morality and criminal disposition.
The data upon which a true classification of criminals may be founded
are as yet few and imperfect, but Mr Galton mentions it as a hopeful
fact, that physiognomy and the general contour of the head can be shewn
to afford valuable evidence of the grouping of criminals into classes.
This method of investigation, however, it must be noted, is by no means
a return to the old standing of phrenology, which, as all readers know,
boasts its ability to mark out the surface of the brain itself into
a large number of different faculties. The most that anthropologists
would contend for, according to the data laid down, is, that certain
general types of head and face are peculiar to certain types of
criminals. Physical conformation of a general kind becomes thus in a
general manner related to the mental type.
The practical outcome of such a subject may be readily found in the
ultimate attention which morality, education, and the state itself, may
give to the reclaiming of youthful criminals and to the fostering, from
an early period in their history, of those tendencies of good which
even the most degraded may be shewn to possess. If it be true that we
are largely the products of past time, and that our physical and mental
constitutions are in great measure woven for us and independently of
us, it is none the less a stable fact, that there exists a margin
of free-will, which, however limited in extent, may be made in the
criminal and debased, and under proper training and encouragement, the
foundation of a new and better life.