before inflicting punishment, so that it should not be attributed to
mere anger on his part. As soon as the infraction was noted, the
prisoner was left to reflect on his conduct, and an hour later the
teacher and Director came to show him the penalty prescribed by the
regulations. Sometimes it was found efficacious to administer a rebuke
and punishment to the whole group to which the offender belonged.
Obermayer considered this method to be advantageous.
Work should be the motive force, aim, and recreation of every institute
of this kind, in order to stimulate flagging energies, to accustom
prisoners to useful pursuits after release, to reinforce prison
discipline and to compensate the State for the expense incurred. This
latter object should, however, always be subordinated to the others, and
lucrative trades must occasionally be avoided. Occupations which might
pave the way for other crimes: lockmaking, brasswork, engraving,
photography, and calligraphy should not be adopted, but choice made,
instead, of those agricultural employments which show the lowest
mortality and are much in demand. The manufacture of articles in straw,
esparto, and string, printing, tailoring, the making of pottery, and
building are all suitable trades, but those which require dangerous
tools--shoemaking, cabinet-making, and carpentering--should be resorted
to last of all. The rush baskets made by the convicts at Noto (Sicily)
obtained several medals.
The tasks allotted to prisoners should always be proportioned to their
strength and tastes. Unskilled or physically weaker individuals who
conscientiously do their best, should be rewarded in some way, if not
pecuniarily, at least by a reduction of their sentences. In this way
work becomes profitable and a spirit of comradeship and friendly
emulation develops among the prisoners.
INSTITUTES FOR HABITUAL CRIMINALS
To protect society against the repeated misdeeds of these offenders and
those of born criminals, segregation is essential. However, the
institutions set apart to receive these classes should still regard the
redemption of the inmates as their chief aim, and only when all attempts
have proved futile should they be replaced by almost perpetual isolation
in a penal colony.
The Penitenciario Nacional of Buenos Ayres is a splendid instance of an
institute founded for the redemption of adult offenders as well as for
the punishment of their offences. The inmates of this penitentiary
comprise offenders of all types--criminaloids, habitual and born
criminals--belonging to the Province of Buenos Ayres. It was established
a few years after the Reformatory at Elmira, the fundamental principles
of which it has imitated with certain wise modifications to suit diverse
circumstances.
Externally, it has nothing in common with the gloomy European prisons.
It is a large, white edifice with a broad flight of steps leading to the
street and is devoid of all signs of force, soldiers, sentry-boxes, etc.
After passing through a wide vestibule, I reached a large, shady
court-yard with low walls almost hidden beneath a wealth of flowers and
foliage. A corridor opening on to the court-yard was flanked on each
side by a row of open, white cells, each well lighted by a fair-sized
window during the day, and by electricity at night. Each cell is
furnished with book-shelves, a table with paper, pen and inkstand, and a
chair. All the corridors, which are gay with plants, converge towards a
central glass-room, whence the sub-inspector surveys all the radiating
corridors under his jurisdiction. Each corridor ends in a workshop,
where printing, lithography, shoemaking, metal and steel work are
carried on, and between the corridors are garden plots in which fruit,
vegetables, and flowers are cultivated. The workshops are reckoned among
the best the Republic contains. The printing-office turns out many
weekly papers, illustrated magazines, and scientific and literary
reviews. Footgear of the finest and most elegant quality is manufactured
in the shoe-factory, and the foundry and workshop produce lathes,
boilers, industrial and agricultural machines and implements. All the
cooking in the Penitentiary is done by steam, and the plant is installed
in a large building erected by the prisoners themselves.
Work in the Penitentiary is compulsory. On arrival, each convict
receives instruction in some handicraft, chosen by himself or one of the
foremen. Of course swindlers and forgers are not admitted to trades like
lithography, for reasons easy to understand.
The convicts receive regular wages which vary according to their
abilities and are about equal to the standard wages in each particular
trade. All earnings are put aside and handed to the convict on his
release when he is also provided with suitable employment.
Work is finished at five o'clock in the evening and after a substantial
supper the prisoners are divided into nine classes, six elementary and
three secondary, according to their culture and intelligence. If
illiterate, they are taught reading and writing and later, arithmetic,
geography, history, languages, and drawing,--this latter being adapted
to the particular trade of each individual. When school is finished,
prisoners are allowed to go to the library to return the books they have
read and take others for the night.
Instead of a weekly newspaper like that published at Elmira,
intellectual development is stimulated by means of lectures delivered
each week by the prisoners or their teachers and attended by the
Director, Vice-Director, and all the convicts.
In addition to the care lavished by the Director, Senor Ballve, on the
work and education of his charges, he spares no pains to encourage moral
progress by rewarding good conduct. As each convict enters the
Penitentiary, his name, trial, sentence, and antecedents are entered in
a book with his photograph and particulars of his physical and psychic
individuality, and these data are supplemented by remarks on his conduct
and good actions, if any, so that on his release a clear idea is
obtained of the moral progress he has made while in prison.
PENAL COLONIES
When after unsparing efforts for the redemption of a criminal, repeated
convictions prove him to be a hopeless recidivist, the community should
decline to allow him to perfect his anti-social abilities at their
expense in prisons or at large, and should segregate him permanently,
unless, indeed, there is any hope of reform, or circumstances render him
harmless. Perpetual confinement in a prison, even of an improved type
is, however, both cruel and expensive, but an excellent substitute may
be found in the Penal Colony. Here the chief object should be, not to
educate, elevate, or redeem the criminal, but to render him as useful as
possible, so that he does not prove too great a burden on the community.
Penal colonies should be situated on islands or in remote territories,
that is, completely isolated from populous districts. The agricultural
colony at Meseplas founded by the Belgian Government is a model worthy
of imitation.
In this colony the convict population is divided into four categories:
1. Turbulent and dangerous individuals, who exercise an injurious
influence over the other inmates of reformatories and prisons;
2. Recidivists, ticket-of-leave men, escaped and mutinous convicts;
3. Persons of bad reputation, who have hitherto avoided conviction;
4. The better types, who have been convicted three or four times only
and although not depraved, lack moral stamina and are constantly
yielding to temptation when at large.
All the common necessities of life are supplied by the colonists
themselves, beginning with the dwellings which are erected as they are
required and according to the resources available. In this way,
extensive building operations are carried out at a very slight cost to
the State. Cattle and crops are raised on the land, which is cultivated
by a number of the convicts, while others manufacture articles which
find a ready market in the vicinity and for which they possess suitable
tools.
Any convict refusing to work is imprisoned on bread and water. All work
is paid for in special coin current only in the colony itself, but
which, on the release of the owner, is exchanged for the coin of the
country.
The "Open Door," an institution on similar lines, was founded by
Professor Cabred for the insane of the Province of Buenos Ayres, and
judging from what I was able to observe during my short visit, it
fulfils its purpose admirably. It consists of a large village populated
by some ten or twelve thousand lunatics. With the exception of the price
of the land and the cost of erecting the first buildings, this colony
does not cost the community anything; on the contrary, the colonists are
able to make large profits.
The ultimate plan of the village with streets and edifices has already
been mapped out, and the patients are continually occupied in erecting
new buildings, etc. There is a brick-kiln, a carpenter shop, and a
smithy, which produce all the materials used in building and furnishing
the dwellings. Only the less dangerous patients are employed in these
operations: those of weaker mind make brushes and wicker articles.
The colony is situated in the midst of a vast stretch of land in the
Province of Buenos Ayres, on which fruit and vegetables are grown by a
number of the patients. Others are occupied in raising fowls and pigs,
which supply the colony with eggs and meat and yield a large profit when
sold outside.
Professor Cabred wisely prefers agriculture of this kind to the raising
of large crops of wheat or maize, because it simplifies the task of
supervision necessary in any colony, and gives the colonists, whose toil
is compulsory, a continual and regular occupation of an almost unvarying
character. (This applies equally to the case of a penal colony.)
Workmen, foremen, engineers, builders, mechanics, gardeners,--all are
patients, with the exception of the Director, the doctor, and about a
hundred mounted warders, who pass rapidly from one part to another and
are able to intervene in suicidal or homicidal outbreaks.
A colony on these lines would be suitable for the large mass of habitual
criminals, who, although unable to resist the temptations of ordinary
life, are capable of useful work under supervision, and under such
conditions may prove beneficial to themselves and to the community.
INSTITUTIONS FOR BORN CRIMINALS AND THE MORALLY INSANE
_Asylums for Criminal Insane._ We have still to consider born criminals,
epileptics, and the morally insane, whose crimes spring from inherited
perverse instincts. These unfortunate beings cannot be consigned to
ordinary prisons, since, owing to their state of mental alienation, they
do not possess even the modesty of the vicious--hypocrisy--and they
never fail to pervert those criminaloids with whom they come in contact.
Malcontents by nature, they distrust everybody and everything, and as
they see an enemy in every warder and official, they are the centres of
constant mutinies.
To confine them in common asylums would be still more injurious, for
they preach sodomy, flight, and revolt and incite the others to robbery,
and their indecent and savage ways, as well as the terrible reputation
which often precedes them, make them objects of terror and repulsion to
the quieter patients and their relatives, who dread to see their kin in
such company.
Ordinary asylums are equally unsuited to those victims of mental
derangement who, although devoid of the depraved instincts of the
morally insane and generally of blameless career up to the moment in
which they are led to commit a crime by some isolated evil impulse, have
a bad influence on the other inmates. Unlike other lunatics, they do not
shrink from the company of others, whom they torment with their violence
and contaminate with that spirit of restlessness and discontent which
distinguished them even before they became insane or criminals. Firm in
the belief that they are always being ill treated and insulted, they
instil these ideas into their companions and suggest thoughts of flight
and revolt, which would never occur to ordinary lunatics, absorbed as
they are by their own world of fancies. The condition of the inmates is
thereby aggravated, and it becomes impossible to accord them that large
measure of freedom advocated by all modern alienists.
To leave these madmen at large would be more dangerous still. Beneath an
appearance of perfect calm and mental lucidity are hidden morbid
impulses, which may give terrible results at some unexpected moment.
All these offenders--insane criminals and the morally insane whose
irresistible tendencies are detrimental to the community--should be
confined in special institutes to be cured, or at any rate segregated
for life. No infamy would attach to their names, because their
irresponsibility would be clearly recognised, and society would be
secure from their attacks.
England was the first country to provide asylums for the criminal
insane. In 1840 a portion of Bedlam was set aside for this purpose.
Fisherton House, a special private asylum of this kind, was opened in
1844, and later others were instituted at Dundrum (Ireland) in 1850, at
Broadmoor in 1863, and at Perth (Scotland) in 1858, to receive criminals
who commit crimes in a state of insanity, or become insane during their
trial, and all prisoners whose state of lunacy or imbecility renders
them unable to conform to the discipline of a prison. Of course
sanguinary and violent scenes often occur in these asylums, where the
pernicious influence this type of lunatic exercises over his
surroundings in ordinary asylums or prisons is multiplied and
intensified a hundred-fold. Conspiracies, almost unknown in common
asylums, and the murder of warders or officials are very common.
Despairing of release and conscious of their irresponsibility, these
wretched beings attack the warders, destroy the walls which confine
them, murder and wound others and themselves; but at any rate the injury
is limited to a small circle, and both harmless lunatics and common
criminals are not contaminated. Moreover, even in criminal asylums, long
experience with these strange pathological types and the adoption of
subdivisions like those recently introduced into Broadmoor by Orange
have done much towards improving the general condition and eliminating
many drawbacks. According to this classification insane criminals are
divided into two classes, _unconvicted_ and _convicted_, the former
class being subdivided into _untried_ and _tried_. Untried offenders,
those who are considered to have been insane before committing the
crime, are sent to a common county asylum, where are also confined
persons convicted of minor offences and declared insane (the percentage
of cures in this class is considerable) and others suspected of shamming
insanity. In this way, the better elements are eliminated and the
inmates of the criminal insane asylum reduced to the worst and most
dangerous types only.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
When, notwithstanding prisons, deportation, and criminal asylums,
individuals of ineradicable anti-social instincts make repeated attempts
on the lives of others, whether honest men or their own companions in
evil-doing, the only remedy is the application of the extreme
penalty--death.
Amongst barbarous peoples, on whom prison makes but slight impression,
or in primitive communities that do not possess criminal asylums,
penitentiaries, and other means of social defence and redemption, the
death penalty has always been considered the most certain and at the
same time the most economical means of common protection. But criminal
anthropologists realise that the desire to abolish this penalty, which
so often finds expression in civilised countries, arises from a noble
sentiment and one they have no wish to destroy.
Capital punishment, according to the opinion of my father, should only
be applied in extreme cases, but the fear of it, suspended like a sword
of Damocles above their heads, would serve as a check to the murderous
proclivities displayed by some criminals when they are condemned to
perpetual imprisonment.
We have, it is true, no right to take the lives of others but if we
refuse to recognise the legitimacy of self-defence, exile and
imprisonment are equally unjustifiable.
When we realise that there exist beings, born criminals, who are
organised for evil, who reproduce the instincts common to the wildest
savages and even those of ferocious carnivora, and are destined by
nature to injure others, our resentment becomes softened; but
notwithstanding our sense of pity, we feel justified in demanding their
extermination when they prove to be dangerous and absolutely
irredeemable.
PENALTIES PROPOSED BY THE MODERN SCHOOL
The following tables, compiled by Senator Garofalo, a celebrated jurist
of the Modern School and inserted in _Criminal Man_, vol. iii, show the
distribution of penalties systematically arranged.
I. Born Criminals who are utterly devoid of the sentiment of pity.
_Offender_ _Crime_ _Penalty_
Murderers exhibiting Murder for lucre or Prison, penal colony,
moral insensibility some other egotistical criminal insane
and instinctive object asylum, or
cruelty, capital punishment
convicted of Murder without if recidivists.
provocation on the
part of the victim
Murder with ferocious
execution
II. Violent and Impulsive Criminals, Criminaloids, and those guilty
through insufficiency of pity, of decency, of inhibitory power, and
through prejudiced notions of honor.
_Offender_ _Crime_ _Penalty_
Adults convicted of Cruelty, assault Criminal insane
and battery, rape, asylum for epileptics,
kidnapping or
Indefinite seclusion
for a period equal
to one of the natural
divisions of a man's
life, with period of
supervision.
Minors convicted of Murder, cruelty Special reformatories,
and other offences criminal insane
against the person asylum if there are
without provocation congenital tendencies.
Offences against Penal colony and
decency deportation in cases
of recidivation.
Adults convicted of Homicide provoked by Exile from native
injury or place and from the
genuine grievances town in which the
victim's family live.
Adults convicted of Homicide in Exile, segregation
self-defence for an indefinite
period in some
Homicide to avenge remote town or
some wrong or settlement.
personal dishonour
Adults convicted of Assault in quarrels, Compensation for
or ill-treatment injury caused, fines,
when intoxicated, reprimand, security,
blows, insults, or conditional liberty.
slander
Adults convicted of Mutiny and revolt Reprimand, security,
imprisonment for a
definite period.
III. Criminals Devoid of a Sense of Honesty
_Offender_ _Crime_ _Penalty_
Adults (habitual Theft, fraud, arson, Criminal lunatic
offenders) convicted forgery, blackmail asylums (if insane
of or epileptic),
deportation (for
sane offenders).
Adults (occasional Theft fraud, forgery, Reformatories,
offenders) convicted blackmail, arson conditional liberty,
of exclusion from
particular profession.
Adults convicted of Peculation, concussion Loss of office,
exclusion from all
public offices,
fines, compensation
for damage done.
Adults convicted of Arson, malicious Compensation, or
damage to property as a substitute,
imprisonment.
Criminal lunatic
asylums (if insane).
Penal colonies
(for recidivists).
Adults convicted of Fraudulent Compensation for
bankruptcy damage caused,
exclusion from
business and
public offices.
Adults convicted of Counterfeiting, Reformatories,
forging cheques, fines, compensation
public title-deeds, for damage, exclusion
etc. from office.
Adults convicted of Bigamy, substitution Seclusion for an
or suppression indefinite period.
of child
Minors convicted of Theft, fraud, and Magisterial
picking pockets reprimand, probation,
reformatory, or
agricultural
colony.
IV. Offenders Lacking in Industry
_Offender_ _Penalty_
Beggars, vagabonds, Agricultural colony
loafers for country offenders,
workshop for city offenders.
V. Offenders Deficient in Misoneism (Hatred of Change)
_Offender_ _Penalty_
Political, social, and Temporary exile.
religious rebels
SYMBIOSIS
The punishment of offenders and the protection of society from the
insane are the two chief objects of criminal jurisprudence, but criminal
anthropologists aim at something higher, the utilisation of anti-social
elements, thus redeeming them completely and justifying their existence
in the eyes of mankind and in the scheme of nature.
We find, in fact, in nature numerous instances of a partnership for
mutual benefit between animals and plants of very diverse species and
tendencies. Lichens are a living symbiosis of algae and fungi: the
pagurus allows the actiniae to settle on his dwelling, where they attract
his prey and in return are housed and conveyed from place to place.
In imitation of this principle, criminal anthropologists seek to devise
a means of making offenders serviceable to civilisation by carefully
analysing their tendencies and psychology, and fitting them into some
suitable groove in the social scheme, where they may be useful to
themselves and to others. Side by side with depraved instincts,
criminals frequently possess invaluable gifts: an abnormal degree of
intelligence, great audacity, and love of innovation. The wonderful
galleries and fortifications cut out in the rocks at Gibraltar and Malta
by English convicts and the complete transformation of parts of Sardinia
have led criminologists to the conclusion that the ancient penalty of
enforced labour was more logical, useful, and advantageous both for the
culprit and the community than all modern punishments. The Mormons of
America and the religious sects persecuted in Russia by an omnipotent
bureaucracy, have by their energy transformed uninhabitable regions into
lands of extraordinary fertility. Still greater results might be
obtained, if the abnormal tendencies of certain individuals were turned
into useful channels, instead of being pent up until they manifest
themselves in anti-social acts, and this beneficent and lofty task
should devolve on teachers and protectors of such of the young as show
physical and psychic anomalies at an early age.
The colonisation of wild regions and all professions (motoring, cycling,
acrobatic and circus feats) which demand audacity, activity, love of
adventure, and intense efforts followed by long periods of repose are
eminently suited to criminals. There are cases on record in which young
men have actually become thieves and even murderers in order to gain
sufficient means to become comedians or professional cyclists, and there
is every reason to suppose that these crimes would never have been
committed had the youths been able to obtain the required sums honestly.
On the other hand, men of bad character, ready to develop into
criminals, often undergo a complete transformation when they find some
outlet for their intelligence and aptitudes, in becoming pioneers in
virgin regions or soldiers. War, the original, perpetual and exclusive
occupation of our ancestors, is eminently suited to the tendencies of
criminals. All the characteristics of the criminal, impulsiveness,
cynicism, physical and moral insensibility, and invulnerability are
valuable qualities in the soldier in times of war, especially when waged
against savage and barbarous nations, when cunning and ability have to
be employed against primitive races who laugh at the rules and ethics of
civilised warfare.
Amongst brigands, we find a few badly-armed individuals performing
marvels of valour, and the leaders, although ignorant men, manifesting
an intelligence and tactical skill that puts trained armies to shame.
Could not the tendencies of criminals be used for the good of their
country? The qualities developed in primitive races by constant warfare
against the forces of nature are characteristic also of criminals. Let
those whom nature has destined to reproduce impulsive and brutal
instincts in a civil and industrial age be permitted to employ them in
defending civilisation with true primitive valour against external and
internal enemies, against barbarous peoples who would restrict its
boundaries, or reactionary elements who seek to hinder its progress.
The Great Redeemer, who in pardoning the adulteress, said, "He that is
without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her," and the
Prophet who foretold the day when the wolf and the lamb should dwell
together and the lion should eat straw like the ox and should "not hurt
nor destroy," divined perhaps this noble aim. If criminal anthropology
is destined to lead mankind to this goal, it may well be pardoned all
the harsh measures it has seen fit to suggest in order to realise the
supreme end--social safety.
PART III
CHARACTERS AND TYPES OF CRIMINALS
CHAPTER I
_EXAMINATION OF CRIMINALS_
Criminal anthropologists are unanimous in insisting on the importance of
the results to be gained from a careful examination of the physical and
psychic individuality of the offender, with a view to establishing the
extent of his responsibility, the probabilities of recidivation on his
part, the cure to be prescribed or the punishment to be meted out to
him; but besides furnishing the magistrate with a sound basis for his
decisions, the anthropological examination will prove of great
assistance to probation officers, superintendents of orphanages and
rescue homes and all those who are entrusted with the destinies of
actual offenders or candidates for crime. I have therefore decided to
devote this part of my summary to a minute demonstration of the methods
to be employed in these examinations, which should be conducted on the
one hand with the scientific precision that distinguishes clinical
diagnoses of diseases and on the other with special rules deduced from
the long experience of criminologists in dealing with criminals and the
insane, between whom there is so much affinity.
ANTECEDENTS AND PSYCHIC INDIVIDUALITY
The examination of a criminal or person of criminal tendencies should,
if possible, be preceded by a careful investigation of his antecedents.
Questions put to relatives and friends often bring to light facts
relating to his past life, and give an idea of the surroundings in which
he has grown up and the illnesses suffered by him during childhood
(meningitis, typhus, convulsions, hemicrania, giddiness, _pavor
nocturnus_, trauma). The prevalence of disease in the family (parents,
grandparents, uncles, cousins, etc.) should be elicited and note taken
not only of nervous maladies, but of arthritic, tuberculous, pellagrous,
and inebriate forms, including a tendency to morphiomania. Even goitre
should not escape notice, since it may indicate cretinism or any other
form of degeneration. The existence of criminality in the family is of
still greater importance, but it is extremely difficult to obtain any
information on this head, either from the patient himself or his
relatives. A certain amount of strategy must be used in eliciting facts
of this kind, by suddenly asking, for instance, whether a certain
individual of the same name, already deceased or confined in
such-and-such an asylum or prison, is any relation of the patient.
Next should be ascertained whether he is single or married, and in the
latter case, whether his wife is still living; also what profession or
professions he has exercised. In this connection it should be observed
that although criminals are generally successful in everything they
undertake, they are incapable of remaining constant to one thing for any
length of time.
Many persons, cooks, tavern-keepers, confectioners, etc., exercise
callings that have a deleterious effect on the nervous centres and
encourage an abuse of alcohol; others like bakers, have night work,
which is equally harmful. Professions which bring poor men, servants,
secretaries, cashiers, etc., into close contact with wealth, are
sometimes the cause of dishonesty in those who in the absence of special
temptations, would have remained upright; others provide criminaloids
with opportunities or instruments for accomplishing some crime, as in
the case of locksmiths, blacksmiths, soldiers, doctors, lawyers, etc.
The time of the year and other circumstances under which the crime takes
place should be elicited, and it should be borne in mind that the
vintage season in countries of Southern Europe and extremes of heat and
cold are favourable to seizures of an epileptic nature.
When the subject under examination is a recidivist, care should be taken
to ascertain at what age and under what circumstances the initial
offence was committed. Precocity in crime is a characteristic of born
criminals, and puberty and senility have their peculiar offences, as
have the extremes of poverty and wealth.
_Intelligence._ As we are not dealing with an ordinary patient, who is
generally only too ready to talk about his troubles, but with an
individual who has been put on his guard by constant cross-examination,
his suspicions should first of all be allayed by a series of general
questions on his native place or the town in which he is now living, his
trade, etc. "Why did you leave your native town? Why do you not return?
Are you married? How many children have you?" etc. Then an attempt
should be made to gain an idea of his intellectual powers by asking easy
questions: "How many shillings are there in a pound? How many hours are
there in a day? In what year were you married?" etc.
_Affection._ The affections should be tested in an indirect way. "Is
your father a bad man?" or "Are your neighbours worthless people? Do
they treat you with due respect? Has any one a spite against you? Are
you fond of your parents? Are you aware that your brother (or mother) is
seriously ill?" Questions concerning relatives and friends are of
special interest, because they enable the examiner to ascertain whether
they cause the patient emotion of any kind, whether he has any real
affection for those beings to whom normal persons are attached, but
towards whom born criminals and the insane in general do not manifest
love. In the absence of instruments, we must judge of the feelings of
patients by their answers and the facial changes caused by emotion, but
medico-legal experts naturally prefer a scientific test by means of
accurate instruments, by which the exact degree of emotion is
registered. These instruments are the plethysmograph and the
hydrosphygmograph.
=FIG. 28
Criminal's Ear=
It is well known that any emotion which causes the heart-beats to
quicken or become slower makes us blush or turn pale, and these
vaso-motor phenomena are entirely beyond our control. If we plunge one
of our hands into the volumetric tank invented by Francis Frank, the
level of the liquid registered on the tube above will rise and fall at
every pulsation, and besides these regular fluctuations, variations may
be observed which correspond to every stimulation of the senses, every
thought and above all, every emotion. The volumetric glove invented by
Patrizi (see Fig. 25), an improvement on the above-mentioned instrument,
is a still more practical and convenient apparatus. It consists of a
large gutta-percha glove, which is put on the hand and hermetically
sealed at the wrist by a mixture of mastic and vaseline. The glove is
filled with air as the tank was with water. The greater or smaller
pressure exercised on the air by the pulsations of blood in the veins of
the hands reacts on the aerial column of an india-rubber tube, and this
in its turn on Marey's tympanum (a small chamber half metal and half
gutta-percha). This chamber supports a lever carrying an indicator,
which rises and falls with the greater or slighter flow of blood in the
hand. This lever registers the oscillations on a moving cylinder covered
with smoked paper. If after talking to the patient on indifferent
subjects, the examiner suddenly mentions persons, friends, or relatives,
who interest him and cause him a certain amount of emotion, the curve
registered on the revolving cylinder suddenly drops and rises rapidly,
thus proving that he possesses natural affections. If, on the other
hand, when alluding to relatives and their illnesses, or vice-versa, no
corresponding movement is registered on the cylinder, it may be assumed
that the patient does not possess much affection.
=FIG. 25
A VOLUMETRIC GLOVE
(see page 224)=
=FIG. 26
HEAD OF A CRIMINAL
Epileptic=
Thus when Bianchi and Patrizi spoke to the notorious brigand Musolino
about life in his native woods, his mother, and his sweetheart, there
was an immediate alteration in the pulse, and the line registered by the
plethysmograph suddenly changed, nor did it return to its previous level
until some time afterward.
My father sometimes made successful use of the plethysmograph to
discover whether an accused person was guilty of the crime imputed to
him, by mentioning it suddenly while his hands were in the
plethysmograph or placing the photograph of the victim unexpectedly
before his eyes.
_Morbid Phenomena._ When examining a criminal or even a suspected
person, who is nearly always more or less abnormal, it is advisable to
investigate the more common morbid phenomena he may be subject to, on
which he is not likely to give information spontaneously because he is
ignorant of their importance. He should be questioned about his sleep,
whether he has dreams, etc. Mental sufferers nearly always sleep badly
and are frequently tormented by insomnia and hallucinations. The
inebriate imagines he is being pursued by disgusting, misshapen
creatures, from which he cannot escape. Epileptics, and frequently also
hysterical persons have peculiar obsessions. They fancy they cannot
perform certain actions unless they are preceded by certain words and
gestures.
The susceptibility of the patient to suggestion should also be tested,
to determine what value can be attached to his assertions. Sufferers
from hysteria and general paralysis are like children, highly
susceptible to suggestion, not necessarily of an hypnotic nature. If you
tell an hysterical person with conviction that he suffers pain in a
certain part of his body, is feverish or pale or something of the sort,
he will inform you spontaneously after a few minutes that he feels pain
or fever, etc. After a crime of a startling nature has been committed by
some unknown person, it not unfrequently happens that some hysterical
subject, generally a youth, who imagines he has been accused of the
crime by the neighbours or his acquaintances, becomes convinced that he
is really guilty and gives himself up to the police.
_Speech._ Special attention should be directed during the examination to
the way in which the patient replies to questions and his mode of
pronunciation. There may be peculiarities of pronunciation and
stammering, characteristic of certain forms of mental alienation, or at
any rate of some nervous anomaly; or articulation may be tremulous and
forced, as in precocious dementia and chronic inebriety. In other cases
the words are jumbled and confused, especially if long and difficult. In
the first stages of progressive paralysis the letter _r_ is not
pronounced. To test this anomaly, which is of great importance in the
diagnosis, the patient should be requested to pronounce difficult words,
such as, corroborate, reread, rewrite, etc.
In order not to lose such valuable indications, in cases where personal
examination is impossible, phonograph impressions of conversations
between the patient and some third person will serve as a substitute.
The inquiry may reveal still more serious anomalies in the ideas,
intelligence, and mental condition of the patient. Sometimes the answers
given are sensible but are followed by nonsense. Other patients,
especially when afflicted with melancholia, speak unwillingly, as if the
words were forced from them, one by one. Idiots, cretins, and demented
persons are sometimes incapable of expressing themselves. Some patients
who have had apoplectic strokes substitute one word for another,
"bread" for "wine," etc., or elide one part of the sentence and only
repeat the last word.
_Memory._ To form an idea of the memory of the subject, questions should
be put to him concerning recent and remote personal facts and
circumstances, the year in which he or his children were born, what he
had for his supper on the previous evening, etc., etc.
_Visual memory_ may be tested by giving the patient a sheet of paper, on
which are drawn various common objects, letters, or easy words. He
should be allowed to look at these for five or ten seconds and requested
to enumerate them after the paper has been withdrawn. In order to test
the memory of sounds, the examiner should utter five or six easy words
and ask the patient to repeat them immediately afterwards.
To test sense of colour, a picture on which various colours are painted
is placed before the patient, as well as a skein of wool of the same
shade as one of the colours in the picture, which he is requested to
point out.
_Handwriting_ is very important, particularly in distinguishing a born
criminal from a lunatic, and between the various kinds of mental
alienation.
Monomaniacs and mattoids (cranks) who give the police the most trouble
often speak in a perfectly sane manner, but pour out all their insanity
on paper, without an examination of which it is not easy to detect
mental derangement. They write with rapidity and at great length. Their
pockets, bags, etc., are always full of sheets of paper covered with
small handwriting, sometimes scribbled in all directions. The matter is
generally absurd or simply stupid, consisting of endless repetitions.
Individuals in the first stage of paralysis make orthographical errors,
which coincide with their mistakes in pronunciation, like _Garigaldi_,
instead of _Garibaldi_. Care must be taken to test this defect
thoroughly. If the patient is fairly well-educated, his signature, which
is the last to alter, is not sufficient; nor are a few lines a
satisfactory test, since he can easily concentrate his attention on
them, but he should be requested to write a page or two and be exhorted
to make haste.
Alcoholism and paralysis generally give rise to tremulous handwriting
with unsteady strokes, as in old people. After epileptic seizures and
attacks of hysteria the writing is shaky. The slightest trembling of the
hand is detected if Edison's electric pen be used.
In progressive general paralysis and some forms of dementia shakiness is
so excessive that it becomes dysgraphy, with zigzag letters. The
handwriting of persons subject to apoplectic strokes has often the
appearance of copper-plate. Monomaniacs intersperse their writings with
illustrations and symbols. They write very closely in imitation of
print, as do mattoids, hysterical persons, and megalomaniacs, and use
many notes of exclamation and capital letters. Their writings are full
of badly-spelled words, scrolls, and flourishes.
Criminals guilty of sanguinary offences generally have a clumsy but
energetic handwriting and cross their _t's_ with dashing strokes. The
handwriting of thieves can scarcely be distinguished from that of
ordinary persons, but the handwriting of swindlers is easier to
recognise, as it generally lacks clearness although it preserves a
certain uniformity. The signature is usually indecipherable and
enveloped in an infinite number of arabesques.
_Clothing._ The manner in which a patient is dressed often gives an
exact indication of his individuality. Members of those secret
organizations of Naples and Sicily, the Camorra and Mafia, are fond of
dressing in a loud manner with an abundance of jewelry. Murderers,
epileptics, and the morally insane, who lead isolated lives, attach no
importance to dress and are frequently dirty and shabby. (See Fig. 26,
A. D., a morally insane epileptic, the perpetrator of three murders.)
Swindlers are always dressed in faultless style, the cinaedus is fond of
giving his costume a feminine air, and monomaniacs trick themselves out
with ribbons, decorations, and medals: their clothes are generally of a
strange cut. The cretin and the idiot go about with their clothes torn
and in disorder and not infrequently emit a strong odour of ammonia.
PHYSICAL EXAMINATION
Having carefully investigated the past history of the subject and made a
minute study of his abnormal psychic phenomena, the expert should
proceed to the examination of his physical characters.
Chapter I of Part I contains a detailed description of the principal
physiognomical anomalies of the criminal that may be discerned by the
naked eye. They will now be briefly recapitulated.
_Skin._ The skin frequently shows scars and (in the epileptic subject to
seizures) lesions on the elbows and temples. Marks of wounds inflicted
in quarrels and attempted suicide are frequent in habitual criminals.
The forehead and nose must be examined for traces of acne rosacea
frequent in drunkards, and for erythema on the back of the hands,
characteristic of pellagra. Ichthyosis, psoriasis, or other skin
diseases are very common in cases of mental alienation, and scurvy often
indicates long seclusion in prison.
_Tattooing._ Great care must be taken to ascertain whether the subject
is tattooed, and if so, on what parts of his body. Tattooing often
reveals obscenity, vindictiveness, cupidity, and other characteristics
of the patient, besides furnishing his name or initials, that of his
native town or village, and the symbol of the trade he refuses to reveal
(sometimes such indications have been blurred or effaced). (See Fig. 27.)
One of the chief proofs showing the untruthfulness of the statements
made by the Tichborne claimant was the fact that his person was devoid
of tattooing, whereas it was well known that Roger Tichborne had been
tattooed.
Tattooing often reveals the psychology, habits, and vices of the
individual. The tattooing on pederasts usually consists of portraits of
those with whom they have unnatural commerce, or phrases of an
affectionate nature addressed to them. A pederast and forger examined by
Professor Filippi was tattooed on his forearm with a sentimental
declaration addressed to the object of his unnatural desires; a criminal
convicted of rape was covered with pictorial representations of his
obscene adventures. From these few instances, it is apparent that these
personal decorations are of the utmost value as evidence of hidden vices
and crimes.
_Wrinkles._ We have already spoken of the abundance and precocity of
wrinkles in born criminals. They are also a characteristic of the
insane.
The following are of special importance: the vertical and horizontal
lines on the forehead, the oblique and triangular lines of the brows,
the horizontal or circumflex lines at the root of the nose and the
vertical and horizontal lines on the neck. (The ferocious leader of a
band of criminals at twenty-five, and a savage murderer under thirty
years of age.)
_Beard._ The beard is scanty in born criminals and often altogether
absent in epileptics. On the other hand, it is common in insane females
and in normal women after the menopause. Degenerates of both sexes
frequently manifest characteristics of the opposite sex in the
distribution of hair on the body. A tuft of hair in the sacro-lumbar
region, suggestive of the tail of the mythological faun, is frequently
found in epileptics and idiots, and in some cases the back and breast
are covered with thick down which makes them resemble animals.
The hair covering the head is generally thick and dark, the growth is
often abnormal with square or triangular zones growing in a different
direction from the rest, or in small tufts like those inserted in a
brush. Still more frequently do we find anomalies in the position of the
vortex, or that point whence the hair-growth diverges circularly, which
in normal persons is nearly always situated on the crown. In degenerates
it is frequently on one side of the head and in cretins on the forehead.
Precocious greyness and baldness are common in the insane criminals, and
cretins, on the contrary, show these initial signs of senility at a much
later period than normal persons.
_Teeth._ The greatest percentage of anomalies is found in the incisors;
next come the premolars, the molars, and lastly the canines. In
criminals, especially if epileptics, the middle incisors of the upper
jaw are sometimes missing and their absence is compensated by the
excessive development of the lateral incisors. In other cases the
lateral incisors are of the same size as the middle ones, and sometimes
the teeth are so nearly uniform that it is difficult to distinguish
between incisors, canines, and molars, a circumstance which recalls the
homodontism of the lower vertebrates. After the incisors, the premolars
show the greatest number of anomalies. While in normal persons they are
smaller than the molars, in degenerates they are frequently of the same
size or even larger. Supernumerary teeth, amounting sometimes to a
double row, are not uncommon. In other cases there is extraordinary
development of the canines. Inherited degeneracy from inebriate,
syphilitic, or tuberculous parents frequently manifests itself in
rickety teeth with longitudinal and transverse _striae_ or serration of
the edges, due to irregularities in the formation of the enamel. In
idiots and epileptics, dentition is often backward and stunted; the
milk-teeth are not replaced by others, or are almond-shaped and
otherwise of abnormal aspect.
_Ears._ The ears of criminals and epileptics exhibit a number of
anomalies. They are sometimes of abnormal size or stand out from the
face. Darwin's tubercle, which is like a point turned forward when the
helix folds over, and turned backward when the helix is flat, is
frequently encountered in the ears of degenerates. The lobe is subject
to a great many anomalies, sometimes it is absent altogether, in some
cases it adheres to the face or is of huge dimensions and square in
shape. Sometimes the helix is prolonged so as to divide the concha in
two. Idiots often show excessive development of the anti-helix, while
the helix itself is reduced to a flattened strip.
_Eyes._ The eyebrows are generally bushy in murderers and violators of
women. Ptosis, a species of paralysis of the upper lid, which gives the
eye a half-closed appearance, is common in all criminals; but more
frequently we find strabismus, a want of parallelism in the visual axes,
bichromatism of the iris, and rigidity of the pupils.
_Nose._ In thieves the base of the nose often slants upwards, and this
characteristic of rogues is so common in Italy that it has given rise to
a number of proverbs. The nose is often twisted in epileptics, flattened
and trilobate in cretins.
_Jaws._ Enormous maxillary development is one of the most frequent
anomalies in criminals and is related to the greater size of the zygomae
and teeth. (See Fig. 27.) The lemurian apophysis already alluded to is
not uncommon.
_Chin._ This part of the face, which in Europeans is generally
prominent, round and proportioned to the size of the face, in
degenerates as in apes is frequently receding, flat, too long or too
short.
These anomalies may be studied rapidly with the naked eye, but height,
weight, the proportions of the various parts of the body, shape of the
skull, etc., should be measured with the aid of special instruments.
_Height._ Criminals are rarely tall. Like all degenerates, they are
under medium height. Imbeciles and idiots are remarkably undersized. The
span of the arms, which in normal persons about equals the height, is
often disproportionately wide in criminals. The hands are either
exaggeratedly large or exaggeratedly small.
=FIG. 27
ANTON OTTO KRAUSER
Apache
(see page 236)=
The height of a patient must be compared with the mean height of his
fellow-countrymen, or, to be more exact, of those inhabitants of his
native province or district who are, needless to say, of the same age
and social condition. The average height of a male Italian of twenty is
5 feet 4 inches (1.624 m.), that of a female of the same age, 5 feet
(1.525 m.). The distances from the sole of the foot to the navel and
from the navel to the top of the head are in ratio of 60 to 40, if the
total height be taken as 100.
=FIG. 29
Anthropometer=
These measurements may be effected very rapidly by using the
tachyanthropometer invented by Anfossi (see Fig. 29). It consists of a
vertical column against which the subject under examination places his
shoulders, a horizontal bar adjustable vertically until it rests on the
shoulders, and can be used at the same time for ascertaining the length
of the arms and middle finger: a graduated sliding scale in the vertical
column for rapid measurements of the other parts of the body and a
couple of scales at the base for measuring the feet.
_Weight._ In proportion to their height, criminals generally weigh less
than normal individuals, whose weight in kilogrammes is given by the
decimal figures of his height as expressed in metres and centimetres.
=FIG. 30
Craniograph Anfossi=
_Head._ The head, or rather the skull, the shape of which is influenced
by the cerebral mass it contains, is rarely free from anomalies, and for
this reason the careful examination of this part is of the utmost
importance. We have no means of studying subtle cranial alterations in
the living subject, but we can ascertain the form and capacity of his
skull. This is rendered easy and rapid by means of a very convenient
craniograph invented by Anfossi (see Fig. 30), which traces the cranial
profile on a piece of specially prepared cardboard.
=FIG. 31
Pelvimeter=
In the absence of a craniometer, measurements may be taken with
calipers, the arms of which are curved like the ordinary pelvimeters
used in obstetrics (see Fig. 31), and a graduated steel tape.
The following are the principal measurements:
1. Maximum antero-posterior diameter, which is obtained by applying one
arm of the instrument above the root of the nose just between the
eyebrows and sliding the other arm over the vault of the skull till it
reaches the occiput. The distance between the two arms furnishes the
maximum longitudinal diameter.
2. The maximum transverse diameter or breadth of the skull is measured
by placing the arms of the calipers, one on each side of the head on the
most prominent spot.
3. The antero-posterior curve is obtained by fixing the graduated tape
at zero on the root of the nose (on the fronto-nasal suture) and passing
it over the middle of the forehead, vertex, and occiput to the external
occipital protuberance.
4. The transverse, or biauricular curve is obtained by applying the
steel tape at zero to a point just above the ear, and carrying it over
the head in a vertical direction till it reaches the corresponding point
on the other side.
5. The maximum circumference is obtained by encircling the head with the
steel tape, touching the forehead immediately above the eyebrows, the
occiput at the most prominent point, and the sides of the head more or
less at the level, where the external ear joins the head, according to
whether the position of the occipital protuberance is more or less
elevated. (See Figs. 32, 33.)
6. The cranial capacity is obtained by adding together these five
measurements, the antero-posterior diameter, maximum transverse
diameter, antero-posterior curve, transverse curve, and maximum
circumference. For a normal male the capacity is generally 92 inches
(1500 c.c).
=FIG. 32 FIG. 33
Diagram of Skull=
7. The cephalic index is obtained by multiplying the maximum width by
100 and dividing the product by the maximum length, according to the
following formula:
W x 100
------- = X (cephalic index).
L
If the longitudinal diameter is 200 and the transverse diameter 100, the
cephalic index is 10,000 divided by 200 = 50.
The cephalic indices of degenerates, like their height, have only a
relative importance; that is, when they are compared with the mean
cephalic index prevalent in the regions of which the subject is a
native. The cephalic index of Italians varies between 77.5 (Sardinians)
and 85.9 (Piedmontese).
Skulls are classified according to the cephalic index, in the following
manner:
Hyperdolichocephalic under 66
Dolichocephalic 66-75
Subdolichocephalic 75-77
Mesaticephalic 77-80
Subbrachycephalic 80-83
Brachycephalic 83-90
Hyperbrachycephalic above 90
We shall find among criminals frequent instances of microcephaly,
macrocephaly, and asymmetry, one side of the head being larger than the
other. Sometimes the skull is pointed in the bregmatic region
(hypsicephaly), sometimes it is narrow in the frontal region in
correlation to the insertion of the temporal muscles and the excessive
development of the zygomatic arches (stenocrotaphy, see Fig. 5, Part I.,
Chapter I.), or depression of the bregmatic region (cymbocephaly).
_Face._ We have already remarked on the excessive size of the face
compared with the brain-case, owing chiefly to the high cheek-bones,
which are one of the most salient characteristics of criminals, and to
the enormous development of the jaws, which gives them the appearance of
ferocious animals (see Fig. 5). To these peculiarities may be added
progeneismus, the projection of the lower jaw beyond the upper, a
characteristic found only in 10% of normal persons, receding forehead as
in apes, and the lemurian apophysis already mentioned.
_Arms and Hands._ With the exception of the excessive length as compared
with the stature, anomalies in the arms are rare, but the hands show
some interesting characteristics, which have already been described in
the first chapter of Part I, an increase or decrease in the number of
fingers and syndactylism or palmate fingers. Also the lines in the palm
and those on the palmar surfaces of the finger-tips show deviations from
the normal type resembling characteristics of apes.
_Feet._ Degenerates and more especially epileptics, frequently have flat
or prehensile feet and an elongated big-toe with which, like the
Japanese, they are able to grasp objects.
All these anomalies vary in number and degree according to whether the
subject examined is a born criminal or a criminaloid, and according,
also, to the special type of crime to which he is addicted. Thieves
commonly show great mobility of the face and hands. Their eyes are
small, shifty and obliquely placed, and glance rapidly from one object
to another. The eyebrows are bushy and close together, the nose twisted
or flattened, beard scanty, hair not particularly abundant, forehead
small and receding, and the ears standing out from the head. Projecting
ears are common also to sexual offenders, who have glittering eyes,
delicate physiognomy excepting the jaws, which are strongly developed,
thick lips, swollen eyelids, abundant hair, and hoarse voices. They are
often slight in build and hump-backed, sometimes half impotent and half
insane, with malformation of the nose and reproductive organs. They
frequently suffer from hernia and goitre and commit their first offences
at an advanced age.
The cinaedus is distinguished by his feminine air. He wears his hair long
and plaited, and even in prison his clothing seems to retain its
feminine aspect. The genitals are frequently atrophied, the skin
glabrous, and gynecomastia not uncommon.
The eyes of murderers are cold, glassy, immovable, and bloodshot, the
nose aquiline, and always voluminous, the hair curly, abundant, and
black. Strong jaws, long ears, broad cheek-bones, scanty beard, strongly
developed canines, thin lips, frequent nystagmus and contractions on one
side of the face, which bare the canines in a kind of menacing grin,
are other characteristics of the assassin.
Forgers and swindlers wear a singular, stereotyped expression of
amiability on their pale faces, which appear incapable of blushing and
assume only a more pallid hue under the stress of any emotion. They have
small eyes, twisted and large noses, become bald and grey-haired at an
early age, and often possess faces of a feminine cast.
SENSIBILITY
This external inspection of the criminal should be followed by a minute
examination of his senses and sensibility.
=FIG. 34
Esthesiometer=
_General Sensibility and Sensibility to Touch and Pain._ Tactile
sensibility should be measured by Weber's esthesiometer, which consists
of two pointed legs, one of which is fixed at the end of a scale
graduated in millimetres, along which the other slides (see Fig. 34).
After separating the two points three or four millimetres, they are
placed on the finger-tips of the patient, who closes his eyes and is
asked to state whether he feels two points or one. Normal individuals
feel the points as two when they are only 2 mm. or 2.5 mm. apart; when,
however, tactile sensibility is obtuse (as in most criminals) the points
must be separated from 3 to 4.5 mm. or even more, before they are felt
as two. Obtuseness varies with the type of crime committed habitually by
the subject; in burglars, swindlers, and assaulters, being approximately
double, while in violators, murderers, and incendiaries it stands in the
ratio of 5 to 1 compared with normal persons.
In the absence of an esthesiometer, a rough calculation may be made by
using an ordinary drawing compass or even a hairpin, separating the two
points and measuring with the eye the distance at which they are felt to
be separate.
_General Sensibility and Sensibility to Pain_ are measured by a common
electric apparatus (Du Bois-Reymond), adapted by Lombroso for use as an
algometer. (See Fig. 35.) It consists of an induction coil, put into
action by a bichromate battery. The poles of the secondary coil are
placed in contact with the back of the patient's hand and brought slowly
up behind the index finger, when the strength of the induced current is
increased until the patient feels a prickling sensation in the skin
(general sensibility) and subsequently a sharp pain (sensibility to
pain). The general sensibility of normal individuals is 40 and the
sensibility to pain, 10-25: the sensibility of the criminal is much less
acute and sometimes non-existent.
_Sensibility to Pressure._ Various metal cubes of equal size but
different weight, are placed two by two, one on each side, on different
parts of the back of the hand. The patient is then asked to state which
of any two weights is the lighter or heavier. This sense is fairly acute
in criminals.
_Sensibility to Heat._ Experiments are made by placing on the skin of
the patient various receptacles filled with water at different
temperatures. If great exactitude is desirable, Nothnagel's
thermo-esthesiometer should be used. This is an instrument very similar
to Weber's esthesiometer, but the points are replaced by receptacles
filled with water of varying heat and furnished with thermometers. The
patient must state which is the colder, and which the hotter spot.
Sensibility to heat is less acute in criminals than in normal
individuals.
_Localisation of Sensibility._ After the patient has been requested to
close his eyes, various parts of his body are touched with the finger
and he is asked to point out the exact spot touched. Should he not be
able to reach it with his finger, a statuette should be placed before
him on which he should mark with a pencil the part touched. Normal
persons are always able to localise the sensation exactly: inability to
do so signifies disease of the brain or some kind of anomaly.
_Sensibility to Metals_ is tested by placing discs of different metals,
copper, zinc, lead, and gold, or the poles of a magnet, on the frontal
and occipital parts of the patient's head. Sometimes he feels pricking
or heat, giddiness, somnolence, or a sense of bodily well-being. In
general, criminals show great sensibility to metals; in hysterical
persons this sensibility reaches an extraordinary degree of acuteness.
By applying a magnet to the nape of the neck, the sensations of such
individuals become polarised, that is, what appeared white to them
before becomes black; bitter, what was formerly sweet, or vice versa.
This is an excellent way of distinguishing between bona-fide cases of
hysteria and sham ones. My father once detected simulation in a
_soi-disant_ hysterical patient by means of a piece of wood shaped and
coloured to represent a magnet. On application of either magnet, the
real or sham one, the patient's sensations were identical, whereas
hysterical persons experience very diverse sensations and are able to
distinguish very sharply between the contact, not only of wood and
metal, but of the different kinds of metal, and are particularly
sensitive to the magnet.
=FIG. 35
ALGOMETER
(see page 246)=
=FIG. 36
CAMPIMETER OF LANDOLT
(Modified)
(see page 249)=
_Sight--Acuteness of Vision--Chromatic Sensibility--Field of Vision._
Visual acuteness is tested by holding letters of a specified size at a
certain distance. Sight is generally more acute in criminals than in
normal persons; not so, chromatic sensibility, which is tested by giving
the patient a number of skeins of different coloured silks, and
requesting him to arrange them in series. Persons afflicted with
dyschromatopsia confuse the different colours and the different shades
of the same colour. Colour-blind people confuse black and red.
Especially important is the examination of the field of vision, as the
seat of one of the most serious anomalies discovered by the Modern
School, the presence of peripheral scotoma, frequently found in
epileptics and born criminals. To test this anomaly, use should be made
of Landolt's apparatus (Fig. 36). This consists of a semicircular band,
which can revolve around a column. The patient rests his chin on a
support placed in front of the semicircle in such a manner that the eye
under examination is exactly in the centre, and looks directly at the
middle point of the semicircle, corresponding to 0 in the scale: the
testing object, a small ball, is passed backwards or forwards along the
semicircle. A graduated scale, placed on the semicircle, marks the point
limiting the field of vision, and the result is registered on a diagram.
The average limit of the normal field of vision is 90 mm. on the
temporal side, 55 mm. on the nasal side, 55 mm. above and 60 mm. below
(see Fig. 42). If a suitable instrument is not available, a series of
concentric circles may be traced on a slate and the patient placed at a
certain distance with one eye covered. The examiner then touches the
different points of the circles with his hand and asks the patient
whether he can see it when his eye is fixed on the central point. In
this way the various points limiting the field of vision are noted and
furnish, when united, the boundary line.
=FIG. 37
Diagram Showing Normal Vision=
_Hearing_ is generally less acute in the criminal than in the normal
individual, but does not show special anomalies. It may be tested by
speaking in a low voice at a certain distance from the patient, or by
holding an ordinary watch a little way from his ear.
_Smell._ Olfactory acuteness is tested by solutions of essences of
varying strength, which the patient should be requested to place in
order, indicating the one in which he first detects an odour. Ottolenghi
has invented a graduated osmometer which is easy to use. The criminal
generally shows olfactory obtuseness.
_Taste_ is tested in the same way as smell, by varying solutions of
saccharine or strychnine dropped on to the patient's tongue by means of
a special medicine dropper. The mouth should be rinsed out each time.
Normal persons taste the bitterness of sulphate of strychnine in a
solution 1:600,000; the sweetness of saccharine in a solution 1:100,000.
The sense of taste is less acute in criminaloids than in normal persons,
and is specially obtuse in born criminals, 33% of whom show complete
obtuseness.
_Movements._ Normal individuals in a state of repose remain almost
motionless, and their gestures are always appropriate. Lunatics and
imbeciles have a habit of speaking and gesticulating even when they are
not interrogated. Nervous diseases manifest themselves in facial
contortions or slight spasmodic contractions. In melancholia and all
forms of depression, the patient does not gesticulate but remains
immovable like a statue with his eyes cast down. Degenerates manifest a
fairly varied series of involuntary motions,--twitchings of the muscles,
as in chorea, tonic and clonic convulsions and tremors. In senility,
chorea, and Parkinson's disease, the tremors are incessant and continue
even when the body is in a state of repose; in sclerosis, goitre, and
chronic inebriety they accompany voluntary movements, and in this case
they are easily detected by making the patient lift the tip of his
finger to his nose or a filled glass to his lips. The nearer the hand
approaches its goal, the more intense the oscillations become. Above
all, the examiner should not fail to ask the patient to put out his
tongue. If it protrudes on one side, it is a sign of a serious nervous
alteration and nearly always denotes the beginning or remains of
paralysis, or partial apoplectic strokes.
_Muscular Strength_ is measured by a common dynamometer (Fig. 38), which
the patient is requested to grasp with all his might. Compressive
strength is tested by compressing the oval. In order to test tractive
strength, the dynamometer is fastened to a nail at the point C, and the
patient pulls with all his strength at D. The effort is registered on a
graduated scale and is of importance for detecting left-handedness and
measuring the extraordinary force that is displayed in certain states of
excitement.
=Fig. 38
Dynamometer=
_Reflex Action_ consists of movements and contractions produced by an
impression exciting the nerves of the cutis (cutaneous reflex) or
tendons (tendinous reflex).
_Cutaneous Reflex Movements_ may be tested by placing the patient in a
recumbent position and stroking methodically certain parts of the body,
the sole of the foot (plantar reflex), the under side of the knee-joint
(popliteal reflex), the abdominal wall (abdominal reflex). Certain
reflex movements are of special importance: the cremasteric reflex, on
the inner side of the thigh (obtuse in old people and individuals
addicted to onanism), the reflex action of the mucous membrane covering
the cornea (suspended during stupor, coma, and epileptic convulsions),
and the pharyngeal reflex along the isthmus of the fauces (absent in
hysterical persons).
The dilatation and contraction of the pupil in accommodation to the
distance of the object viewed or in response to light stimuli is
undoubtedly the most important cutaneous reflex movement. It may be
tested by requesting the patient to look at a distant object and
immediately afterwards at the examiner's finger, placed close to his
eye, or bringing him suddenly from semi-darkness into the light. If the
pupil reacts very slightly to the light, it is called torpid: if it does
not react at all, it is called rigid. Rigidity of the pupil always
denotes some serious nervous disturbance. In certain diseases,
especially tabes, the pupils do not respond to light stimuli, but
accommodate themselves to objects.
_Tendinous Reflex Action_ may be tested in every part of the body, but
the rotular reflex movement is generally sufficient. The patient is
asked to sit on the edge of the bed or on a chair with his legs crossed.
If he is healthy, the reflex movement is fairly strong, but in some
illnesses spastic movements may be provoked and extend to the abdomen
(exaggerated reflex action); in others no reflex is forthcoming. This is
one of the first symptoms of tabes.
=FIG. 39
HEAD OF AN ITALIAN CRIMINAL=
_Urine_ and _Feces_. As the functions are anomalous, the chemical
changes must also be anomalous, owing to the correlation of organs. In
born criminals there is a diminished excretion of nitrogen, whereas that
of chlorides is normal. The elimination of phosphoric acid is increased,
especially when compared with the nitrogen excreted. Pepton is sometimes
found in the excretions of paralytic persons in whom there is always an
increased elimination of phosphates and calcium carbonate.
The temperature is generally higher than in normal persons, and, more
important still, varies less in febrile illnesses.
* * * * *
For the reader's convenience, I have drawn up a list of the different
points that should be noted in a careful examination.
_Table showing the Anthropological Examination of Insane and Criminal
Patients_ (_drawn up by Tamburini, Strassmann, Benelli, and Mario
Carrara_).
A--_Anamnesis._ Name--surname--nationality--domicile--profession--
age--education.
Economic and hygienic conditions of native place.
Family circumstances--pre-natal conditions--infancy--puberty.
Causes to which decease of parents may be attributed.
Cases of insanity--neurosis--imbecility--perversity--suicide--crime--or
eccentricity in the family.
Progressive diseases or trauma in the subject.
Offence and causes thereof.
B--_Physique._ Skeletal development--height--span of the arms.
C--_Physical Examination._ Muscular development.
Colour of hair and eyes.
Quantity and distribution of hair.
Tattooing.
Craniometry: Antero-posterior diameter--transverse diameter--
antero-posterior curve--transverse curve--cephalic index--type and
anomalies of the skull--circumference--probable capacity--
semi-circumference (anterior, posterior)--forehead--face, length,
diameter (bizygomatic and bigoniac)--facial type--facial index--
anomalies of conformation and development in the skull, in the face,
in the ears, in the teeth, in other parts.
D--_Functions._
E--_Animal Life._ Sensibility: meteoric--tactile--thermal--dolorific and
muscular--visual--auditory--of the other senses.
Motivity: Sensory left-handedness--motory left-handedness--voluntary
and involuntary movements--reflex action (tendinous or muscular,
abnormal, chorea).
F--_Vegetative Life._ Muscular strength.
Circulation.
Respiration.
Thermo-genesis.
Digestion: Rumination--bulimy--vomiting--dyspepsia--constipation--
diarrhoea.
Secretions: Milk--saliva--perspiration--urine--menstruation.
Dyscrasia: poisoning.
G--_Psychic Examination._ Language--writing--slang.
Attention--perception.
Memory (textual)--reason.
Dreams--excitability--passions.
Sentiments: Affection--morality--religion.
Instincts and tendencies.
Moral character--industry.
Physiognomical expression.
Education--aptitudes.
H--_Morbid Phenomena._ Illusions--hallucinations--delusions--
susceptibility to suggestion.
I--_Offences._
Cause of first offence: Environment--occasion--spontaneous or
premeditated--drunkenness.
Conduct after the offence: Repentance--recidivation.
CHAPTER II
_SUMMARY OF THE CHIEF FORMS OF CRIMINALITY TO AID IN DISTINGUISHING
BETWEEN CRIMINALS AND LUNATICS AND IN DETECTING SIMULATIONS OF INSANITY.
A FEW CASES SHOWING THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY_
The cases described in this chapter show the necessity of being able to
estimate correctly accusations made against insane persons by criminals
or normal individuals. Since, moreover, criminals are prone to sham
insanity in order to avoid punishment, I sum up the characteristics that
distinguish the various types of criminals. With regard to insane
criminals, it must be remembered that every form of mental alienation
assumes a specific criminality.
The idiot is addicted to bursts of rage, savage assaults, and homicide.
His unbridled sexual appetite prompts him to commit rape. He is
sometimes guilty of arson in order to gratify a childish pleasure at the
sight of the flames.
The imbecile or weak-minded egotist is a frequent though unnecessary
accomplice in nearly every crime, owing to his susceptibility to
suggestion and incapability of understanding the gravity of his actions.
Melancholia is often the cause of suicide or homicide (as a species of
indirect suicide). The sufferer generally confesses and gives himself up
to the police. Delusions that he is being poisoned or insulted are often
the cause of the murders committed by this type of lunatic.
Maniacs commit robbery, rape, homicide, and arson, and behave indecently
in public.
Stealing is common among those afflicted with general paralysis, who
believe everything they see belongs to them, or do not understand the
meaning of property.
Dementia causes general cerebral irritation, which frequently results in
murder and violence.
Hysterical persons invent slanders, especially of an erotic nature. They
are given to sexual aberrations and delight in fraud and extravagant
actions to make themselves notorious.
Persons subject to a mania for litigation offend statesmen and others.
Epileptics, of whom born criminals and the morally insane are the most
dangerous variety, are familiar with the whole scale of criminality.
Their special offences are assault and battery, rape, theft, and
forgery. The first offences are committed intermittingly at the
prompting of attacks of cortical irritation, the last two almost
continuously owing to a state of constant irritation.
To distinguish between genuine insanity and simulation, it must be
remembered that exaggeration of the symptoms is one of the chief
characteristics of shamming. The simulator exaggerates the morbid
phenomena and manifests a greater inco-ordination of ideas than does the
genuine lunatic who gives sensible replies to simple questions, whereas
the simulator talks nonsense. For instance, if a simulator is asked his
name, his answer will show no connection with the question. He will say,
perhaps: "Did you bring the bill?" or if asked how old he is, will
answer: "I am not hungry."
Above all, in order to distinguish between dementia, idiocy, cretinism,
and an imitation of these forms, a minute somatic examination is
necessary. It should be remarked that in idiots, imbeciles, and cretins
we generally find hypertrophy of the connective tissues, earthen hue,
scanty beard, _stenocrotaphy_, malformations of the skull, ears, teeth,
face, and especially jaws, and there are invariably anomalies in the
field of vision, lessened sensibility to touch and pain (which cannot
be simulated since pain invariably produces dilatation of the pupils),
meteoric sensibility, attacks of hemicrania, neuralgia, hallucinations,
and even convulsions, epileptic fits, tremors disposing to propulsive
forms, and, psychologically, absence of natural feeling, sadism, and the
inability to adopt a regular occupation.
When dealing with a simulation of epilepsy, it must be borne in mind
that the epileptic always manifests salient degenerate characteristics,
especially asymmetry of the face, skull, and thorax; and a careful
investigation reveals neurosis of some kind in the family and trauma or
serious illness in childhood. During the seizure, the pupil does not
react (this cannot be simulated) or there is excessive mydriasis. The
sudden pallor, and the exhaustion which follows the fit, are absent in
the simulator, nor does he bite his tongue or injure himself in other
ways. Furthermore, he reacts at the application of ammonia, and as he is
not in that state of asphyxia in which the epileptic lies during the
fit, the closing of his mouth and nostrils likewise produces a reaction.
_Hysteria._ Here the detection of shamming is more difficult, since
deceit is a characteristic of this disease. Tests with metals, to which
hysterical persons are extremely sensitive, suggestion and hypnotism
should be resorted to. The character of the crime should be specially
considered, because, as we stated, the foundation of hysteria is an
erotic one, and offences committed by the hysterical are nearly always
of this nature in the means or the end.
An examination of sensibility with suitable instruments, and of reflex
action, is to be recommended in all cases.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY
The minute study of the criminal admits of infinite applications. It is
generally used in deciding to which category of crime a particular
offender belongs, whether he is a born criminal, a morally insane
subject, an occasional criminal, or a criminaloid; but in certain cases
the examination may be of value in establishing the innocence of an
accused person, or in recognising in an accuser an insane individual
whose accusation originates in some delusion and not in a knowledge of
the facts.
AN ACCUSED MAN PROVED INNOCENT BY THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXAMINATION
On the 12th of January, 1902, a little girl of six, living at Turin,
suddenly disappeared. Two months later, the corpse was discovered hidden
in a case in a cellar of the very house the little victim had
inhabited. It bore traces of criminal violence and the clothing was in
disorder. Various persons were arrested, among them a coachman named
Tosetti, who had been seen joking and playing with the child on several
occasions.
Tosetti was of honest extraction, his grandparents and parents having
died at an advanced age (between sixty and ninety) without having
manifested nervous anomalies, vices, or crimes. Tosetti himself,
although fond of drinking, was rarely, if ever, intoxicated, and was an
individual of quiet, peaceful aspect with a benevolent smile and
serenity of look and countenance. His hair had become grey at an early
age, and he was devoid of any degenerate characteristics except
excessive maxillary development. [Height 5 feet, 7 inches (1.70 m.);
weight, 158 lbs. (72 kilogrammes); cranial capacity, 93 inches (1531
c.c.); cephalic index, 84 (brachycephaly; characteristic of the
Piedmontese); tactile sensibility, 3 mm. left, 2.5 mm. right; general
sensibility, 83 right, 78 left; sensibility to pain, 55 right, 45 left.
The sensibility was, therefore, almost normal without any trace of
left-handedness. Analysis of urine--absence of earthy phosphates common
to born criminals. Tendinous reflex action feeble, few cutaneous
reflexes, no tremors. The field of vision was not much reduced but
manifested a few peculiarities, due no doubt to the abuse of alcohol.]
Psychologically, Tosetti appeared to be a man of average or perhaps
slightly less than average intelligence. He was quiet, very respectful,
not to say servile, entirely devoid of impulsiveness of any form, and
averse to quarrels, on which account he was rather despised by his
companions. His natural affections were normal, and he was a good son
and brother; he was excessively timid and disconcerted by the slightest
reproof from his employer. He was rather fond of wine, though not of
liquors. His sexual instincts he had lost very early, a fact which
caused his companions to indulge in many jokes at his expense. His
stinginess bordered on avarice, and he had never changed his trade.
During his trial he showed no resentment against anyone, not even the
police and warders, of whom he said on one occasion, "They have treated
me like a son."
The examination proved beyond a doubt that Tosetti was not a born
criminal, and was incapable of committing the action of which he was
suspected--the murder of a child for purely bestial pleasure.
To obtain stronger proof, my father adopted the plethysmograph and found
a slight diminution of the pulse when Tosetti was set to do a sum;
when, however, skulls and portraits of children covered with wounds
were placed before him, the line registered showed no sudden variation,
not even at the sight of the little victim's photograph.
The results of the foregoing examination proved conclusively that
Tosetti was innocent of a crime which can only be committed by sadists,
idiots, and the most degenerate types of madmen, like Vacher and Verzeni
and all bestial criminals, who have reached the summit of criminality
and unite in their persons the greatest number of morbid physical and
psychic characteristics.
A few months after my father had diagnosed this case, an assault of the
same nature was committed on another little girl living in the same
house. In this case, however, the victim survived and was able to point
out the criminal--an imbecile, afflicted with goitre, stammering,
strabismus, hydrocephaly, trochocephaly, and plagiocephaly, with arms of
disproportionate length, the son and grandson of drunkards, who
confessed the double crime and entreated pardon for the "trifling
offence" since he had always done his duty and swept the staircase, even
on the day he committed the crime.
Other cases of this kind might be cited, but one instance will suffice.
I may, however, mention a case in which my father demonstrated the
innocence of an unfortunate individual who had been sentenced to ten
years' penal servitude and released at the expiration of his sentence.
By means of a thorough examination, which showed a complete absence of
criminal characteristics, my father declared the man to be innocent of
the crime for which he had been imprisoned; and subsequent
investigations resulted in his rehabilitation and the discovery of the
actual culprit.
ACCUSATION PROVED TO BE FALSE BY THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXAMINATION
An individual named Ferreri suddenly disappeared, and ten days later his
corpse was found down a well. The evidence of several persons led to the
arrest of the owner of the well, a certain Fissore, a man of very bad
reputation, with whom Ferreri had been seen on the day of his
disappearance.
On being arrested, Fissore admitted having committed the crime, but not
alone, and named as his accomplices three others, Martinengo, Boulan,
and a prostitute, named Ada. All three strenuously denied their guilt.
They all appeared perfectly normal.
But after a month of investigations, Martinengo, a tipsy porter of
thirty-five, the son and grandson of drunkards, who at first had
advanced an alibi, after being confronted several times with Fissore,
admitted his complicity, and in the latter's absence added various
details to his (Fissore's) version.
The four accused persons were examined anthropologically with the
following results:
Boulan had the appearance of an honest country notary with broad
forehead, precocious grey hairs and baldness, small jaws and a
well-shaped mouth. He was a quiet man and had only once come into
conflict with the law, but for an action which is not a crime in the
eyes of an anthropologist (striking a carabinier who had ill-treated his
father). He worked hard at his trade, which was that of a journeyman
baker, and showed his kindly nature by substituting for sick comrades.
He showed great attachment to all his companions, relatives, and family,
and was generally beloved. In short, he was an honest, hard-working man.
His alibi was corroborated by several persons who had been playing cards
with him on the evening of the crime.
The second prisoner, Ada, although a prostitute, had never shown other
criminal tendencies; she had adopted her calling in order to maintain
her father and children, of whom she was very fond.
Martinengo, who had admitted his complicity, had no previous
convictions. He was, however, an individual of earthy hue, with
precocious wrinkles. Height, 5 feet, 3 inches (1.60 m.); span of the
arms, 5 feet, 7 inches (1.70 m.); flattened, nanocephalous head, normal
urine (phosphates 3.1), but anomalous reflex action and senses. Rigid,
unequal pupils, tongue and lips inclined towards the right, shaky hand,
astasia, aphasia, strong rotular reflex action, absence of cutaneous and
cremasteric reflexes, illegible handwriting--a defect of long standing,
since it was also found in writing dating back nine months before his
arrest, uncertainty and errors of pronunciation (bradyphasia and
dysarthria), complete insensibility to touch and the electric current,
which gave him no sensation of pain. On the other hand, he was subject
to unbearable pains in various parts of the body.
He was in the habit of laughing continually, even when reprimanded, or
when sad subjects were mentioned. In spite of sharp pains in the
epigastric region, he appeared to be in a strange state of euphoria or
morbid bodily well-being, which prevented him from realising that he was
in prison. He manifested regret when taken from his cell, where he said
he had enjoyed himself so much in passing the hours in reading.
Occasionally he had hallucinations of ghosts, lizards, mice, etc.
At night, he seemed to suffer from acute mental confusion, which caused
him to spring out of bed. Sometimes he was seized by a fit of chorea,
followed by deep sleep.
These phenomena led my father to the conclusion that Martinengo was an
inebriate in the first stage of paralytical dementia.
The demented paralytic and the imbecile, like children, are easily
influenced by the suggestions of others or their own fancies. Mere
reading may produce a strong impression on such minds, as in the case of
the little girl who accused the Mayor of Gratz of assault, because she
had listened to the account of a similar case; and the impression is
intensified when, as in the case of Martinengo, it is preceded by
arrest, seclusion in a cell, the remarks of magistrates, warders, etc.
In order to test Martinengo's susceptibility to suggestion, my father
told him that his cell was a room in the "Albergo del Sole," the name of
a hotel in his native town. At first the idea amused him, but after a
few days he began to mention it to other persons and at last he firmly
believed in it. A few months later, he was transferred in a state of
paralysis to the asylum, and there he was fond of boasting of the
"Albergo del Sole" where he had been staying a few months before, and
where they had treated him to choice dishes, etc.
We now come to Fissore, the accuser of the other three. Investigation
of his origin showed that a male cousin had died raving mad, a female
cousin had died in an asylum, a great-uncle on the maternal side had
been crazy and had committed suicide; another cousin was weak-minded and
subject to fits; another, a deaf-mute, had died in an asylum; another
great-uncle was a drunkard and a loafer; one sister was an idiot, the
other had run away from home, and a brother had been convicted several
times.
Giuseppe Fissore had suffered from somnambulism and _pavor nocturnus_
(fear of darkness) when quite a child; when a little older, he used to
get up in the night, walk about and try to throw himself out of the
window. At school he shunned the company of other boys and grew
violently angry when called by his name. When ten years old, he was
bitten by a mad dog and while being tended in Turin by the wife of an
inn-keeper, had an epileptic seizure. At thirteen, he was seized by
another fit, and in falling broke his arm. His restless and capricious
character led him to change his occupation a great many times; he
became, in turn, baker, carpenter, forester, and farm-labourer. He
appeared to have little affection for his mother and still less for his
father, with whom he had come to blows on one occasion. At the age of
twenty, in a quarrel with some companions, one of them struck him with
a sickle and fractured his skull. He had been convicted several times of
theft, assault, etc.
He manifested only a few physical anomalies,--exaggerated facial
asymmetry, due to the disproportionate development of the left side of
his skull, Carrara's lines in the palm of his hands, and a scar
resulting from the fracture of his skull; but the convulsions, the
_pavor nocturnus_, the two fits, and other characteristics showed him to
be an epileptic and an abnormal individual, and explained how he could
have accomplished a murder single-handed, which was moreover rendered
more easy by the fact that the victim had been drinking heavily. Nor was
the crime without a motive, since the murdered man had been robbed of a
large sum of money. The total lack of moral sense that distinguished
Fissore explains why he should have sought to implicate three persons
who had never wronged him for the pleasure of harming and enjoying the
sufferings of others. In fact, during his trial he made many false
accusations against the police merely for the sake of lying, which is
characteristic of degenerates.
Irrefutable alibis and a mass of evidence in favour of the three others
corroborated the anthropological diagnoses and led to their acquittal,
while Fissore was convicted of the crime.
SIMULATION OF DEMENTIA AND APHASIA BY MORALLY INSANE SUBJECT
In August, 1899, a certain E. M. (see Fig. 44) was removed from prison
to an asylum. Although only eighteen, he had been convicted several
times of theft and robbery. As a child he had always shown a strong
dislike to school and was given to inventing strange falsehoods. In one
instance, he asserted that he had killed and robbed a man, although it
was known that he had not left the house during the time.
After six months in prison, he began to show signs of mental alienation,
with insomnia, loss of speech, and coprophagy. Whenever the cells were
opened, he made wild attempts to escape by climbing up the grating. He
was often seized with epileptic convulsions.
On the 30th of August, 1899, he was examined medically with the
following results:
Stature, 5 ft., 1 in. (1.55 m.); weight, 130 lbs. (59 kilogrammes).
Other measurements could not be obtained, owing to the subject's
obstinate resistance. His skeletal constitution appeared to be regular
and his body well nourished. His skull was brachycephalic, with strongly
developed frontal sinuses, and fine, long, dark-brown hair. In the
parieto-occipital region were a scar and lesion of the bone, the marks
of a wound received during one of his dishonest adventures. He had a
normal type of face with frequent contractions of the mimic muscles; the
hair-growth on the face scanty for his age. Extremely mobile eyes of
vivacious expression, slight strabismus. An examination of the mouth
showed a slight obliqueness of the palate, and the mucous membrane was
rather pale. The colourless skin was inclined to sallowness.
The functions showed an extraordinary degree of cutaneous anaesthesia and
analgesia. In winter and summer the patient wore only a pair of trousers
and a thin jersey covering his chest and leaving the arms bare; these he
was fond of adorning with ribbons and medals. He was in the habit of
slipping pieces of ice between his clothing and skin, and pricking
himself on the chin with a needle for the purpose of inserting hairs in
the holes. On one occasion, one of the doctors came quietly behind him
and thrust a needle rather deeply into the nape of his neck, apparently
without producing any sensation. Various tests were made by pricking him
with a needle when asleep, but without causing the slightest reflex
movement on his part.
_Psychology._ He was subject to strange impulses, which appeared to be
irresistible. On one occasion he was caught cutting off the head of a
cat, and at times he would devour mice, spiders, nails, excrements, and
the sputum of the other patients. He committed acts of self-abuse
publicly, with ostentatious indecency; was in the habit of snatching at
bright objects and frequently tore his clothes. His obstinate mutism
procured him the nickname of "the mute," but he talked in his sleep and
replied to questions by signs.
At first, medical men judged him to be in the first stages of dementia,
but the course of the symptoms and certain biological and psychic data
obtained from the examination led them to the conclusion that the case
was one of simulation by a morally insane individual.
In the first place, the patient's look expressed a certain amount of
confusion and constant distrust; furthermore, it was noticed that the
filthy, indecent, and cruel acts practised by him were committed only
when he knew he was being observed. The warders often saw him retire to
a quiet spot and vomit all the nauseous substances he had swallowed
publicly. As soon as he believed himself to be secure from observation,
the usual apathetic look on his face was replaced by one of vivacity and
intelligence.
In November of the same year, although he had not discarded his air of
imbecility, he gave abundant proofs of intelligence. He helped the
asylum barber, and showed skill and neatness in the way he soaped the
other patients' faces, but if a doctor appeared on the scene, he would
daub the soap clumsily in their eyes and mouths. In playing cards he
showed no lack of skill and never missed an opportunity of cheating.
All these facts pointed to shamming, and the suspicions of medical men
were amply confirmed by his escape on the 26th of November. The manner
in which he had prepared and executed this plan showed great astuteness
on his part. Some time before, he had completely changed his clothes and
dressed with a certain amount of elegance. He left a note bidding an
affectionate farewell to everyone. Later on, he confessed to a
fellow-prisoner that he had prepared everything beforehand for his
escape as soon as he should have sufficient money. He also asserted that
he had felt pain when pricked.
Some of the peculiarities manifested in this case, aphasia,
insensibility, and coprophagia, have been noticed in other simulators,
and it is easy to see why morally insane persons, who are naturally
insensible and filthy in their habits, should adopt these peculiarities
as traits of their insanity. The stubborn resistance offered by the
subject to all attempts to apply diagnostic instruments, except those
for measuring insensibility, may be explained by fear lest the
simulation should be detected.
Simulators of insanity are generally psycho-physiologically, and often
anatomically, degenerate, and their inferiority obliges them to resort
to violence and trickery--the traits of savage races--to counter-balance
their natural disadvantages. The simulation of insanity resembles in its
motive the mimicry of certain insects which assume a protective
resemblance to other and noxious species. Naturally inferior individuals
tend to imitate characters of a terrifying nature (psychic in this case)
which serve to protect them and enable them to compete with others who
are better equipped for the battle of life.
MENTAL DERANGEMENT AND CRIMINAL MONOMANIA DEMONSTRATED BY THE
ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXAMINATION
In June, 1895, Michele Balmi, aged 30, was arrested for stabbing Maria
Balmi in the neck and hands. The deed had been committed in broad
daylight and apparently without any motive, but the accused asserted
that it was done in revenge, because the girls were always jeering at
him.
From evidence given, it appeared that far from insulting Balmi, the
girls of the village were in the habit of avoiding him as much as
possible on account of his lubricity. The testimony of other witnesses,
including the mayor of the place, showed that he was looked upon
generally as a semi-insane person, because in a very short time he had
squandered all his inheritance and had quite ceased to work.
_Somatic Examination._ Body fairly well nourished, height 5 ft., 3 in.
(1.60 m.), weight 150 lbs. (68 kilogrammes). Shape of the skull
apparently normal but more exaggeratedly brachycephalic than the mean
cephalic index of the Piedmontese, which is 85; probable capacity
90 cu. in. (1475 c.c.), or slightly below that of a normal male skull,
but proportioned to the low stature.
General sensibility and sensibility to pain and touch more obtuse on the
left, the general sensibility of the right hand being 68 and the left
81. Dolorific sensibility, 35 right and 41 left; tactile sensibility,
1.5 right, 3.5 left. The strength tested by the dynamometer showed 47 on
the right and 54 on the left, which proved that the subject was
left-handed.
The field of vision manifested extraordinary irregularities, with
serious scotoma on the inner side of the right eye; on the left side the
eye showed only slight scotoma but there was myopia on the inner side.
_Psychic Examination._ The behaviour of the subject was very strange.
From the very first day of his imprisonment he seemed to be perfectly
calm and composed, as though nothing had happened. When asked how he
found prison life, he only remarked: "I certainly thought the food was
better."
When asked why he had committed the crime, he replied:
"Crime indeed! I have only done my duty. Those women were always
annoying me. Even in the night, they would come tapping at my window and
calling me [acoustic hallucinations] and they insulted me because they
wanted me to marry them."
"Did they insult you during your absence from Italy?"
"Yes, they worried me all the time I was in America. It was no use
changing my occupation. I tried everything; first I was a musician, then
a barber, then I tried weaving, but they went on just the same, until I
lost my situations through them and had to leave the country."
"Have you ever been insane or suffered from pains in the head?"
"At Chicago, all of a sudden, a doctor called on me, but I have never
been mad and should be all right if those women would leave me alone.
After all, I only wanted to give them a lesson."
He showed a profound and unshaken belief in his own assertions, such as
is rare in simulators or in sufferers from melancholia, but is peculiar
to monomaniacs, especially if subject to delusions and convinced that
they are the object of general persecution.
Careful investigation of the crime showed that it was entirely without
motives and had been committed openly without any attempt to escape or
to establish an alibi. It bore no resemblance to ordinary crimes and was
clearly a case of monomania with hallucinations. This diagnosis was
confirmed by the fact of the anomalies in the field of vision and
sensibility, the acoustic hallucinations, and, psychologically, the
anomalous nature of the affections and moral sense.
It was impossible to suppose that any of these peculiarities had been
simulated, because the subject was far too ignorant to be aware of the
importance of hallucinations and alterations in the senses and
affections. Moreover, his whole bearing was that of a man profoundly
convinced that he had done his duty, and he had no motive for shamming
to escape punishment, since it evidently never entered his head that he
ran any risk of incurring it. He was sent to an asylum.
APPENDIX
WORKS OF CESARE LOMBROSO (BRIEFLY SUMMARISED)
I
_The Man of Genius (L'Uomo di Genio)_
In 1863, my father was appointed to deliver a series of lectures on
psychiatry to the University of Pavia. His introductory lecture, "Genius
and Insanity," showed the close relationship existing between genius and
insanity; and the theme proved so absorbingly interesting to him that he
threw himself into the study of the problem with all the ardour of which
he was capable.
Those who have never come into contact with mentally deranged persons
may deem it absurd to mention genius and insanity in the same breath,
and still more absurd to seek to demonstrate the existence of flashes of
inspiration in insane persons. In the minds of most people, the word
_lunatic_ has from earliest childhood conjured up the vision of an
incoherent, stupid, or demented being, with wildly streaming hair,
raging in paroxysms of maniacal fury, or sunk in imbecile apathy; not,
certainly, a sharp-witted individual capable of reasoning logically. But
the briefest of visits to an ordinary asylum will make it plain to any
observer that such extreme types form only a very small minority. The
greater number, when drawn outside the small circle of their delusions,
often reason with greater acumen than normal persons; and their ideas,
unhampered by stale prejudices which hinder freedom of thought, are
remarkable for their originality. Fine fragments of prose and poetry and
really beautiful snatches of melody, the work of inmates of lunatic
asylums, were collected by my father and published, as special
monographs, in _The Man of Genius_; and his museum at Turin contains
specimens of embroidery of marvellously beautiful design and execution,
and carvings of extreme delicacy.
The well-known cases of mathematical, musical, and artistic prodigies
and somnambulists with prophetic gifts, who nevertheless appear to be
perfectly imbecile apart from their special talents, are interesting
examples of the transition from madness to genius. The solving of
equations of the fourth and fifth degree or mental calculations
involving the multiplication or division of a large number of figures,
are difficult operations for normal persons; yet individuals barely able
to read and write, and often afflicted with insanity or imbecility, have
been known to possess marvellous mathematical faculties. Imualdi was a
cretin, and Dase, Juller, Buxton, Mondeur, and Prolongeau, men of feeble
intellect. Among the inmates of asylums, we may find cretins and idiots
that are able to play on a whistle any melody they have heard. The
drawings of cats, executed by a Norwegian cretin, have been deemed
worthy of a place among the treasures of art-galleries and museums. Such
cases prove that the possession of one highly developed faculty does not
imply a corresponding development of all the intellectual powers.
Unintelligent, unbalanced, or even mentally deficient women, when in a
somnambulistic or hypnotic state, are able to predict future events, an
impossible feat for normal persons, or to discover the whereabouts of
objects hidden at a distance, a marvellous phenomenon, which can be
explained only by presuming the existence of a far-seeing vision, and
the working of a powerful synthetic process resembling the inspirations
of genius.
Although not a difficult task to prove the existence of traits of genius
in mentally diseased persons, the bringing to light of instances of
insanity in men of genius was a much simpler matter.
These instances, carefully classified, form the longest and most
important part of _The Man of Genius_, but it is not necessary to give
space to any of these instances here. The proofs of the connection
between genius and insanity were supplemented by data supplied by the
physical examination of a number of geniuses, compared with insane
subjects, and a careful investigation of the ethnical, social, and
geographical causes which influence the formation of both types. All the
facts elicited demonstrated their complete analogy.
But my father's studies did not stop short at the discovery of this
analogy, or that of the sources whence the diverse varieties of genius
spring, which is perhaps the most interesting part of the book, or even
at the application of the new doctrines for the purpose of clearing up
obscure points in history and shedding light on the lives of great men.
He pursued his investigations until he found the keystone of the edifice
reared by insanity and genius--epilepsy.
It is a well-known fact that a great many men of genius have suffered
from epileptic seizures and a still greater number from those symptoms
which we have shown to be the equivalent of the seizure. Julius Caesar,
St. Paul, Mahomet, Petrarca, Swift, Peter the Great, Richelieu,
Napoleon, Flaubert, Guerrazzi, De Musset, and Dostoyevsky were subject
to fits of morbid rage; and Swift, Marlborough, Faraday, and Dickens
suffered from vertigo.
But it is in the descriptions written by men of genius of their methods
of working and creating that we find the strongest resemblance to the
different phenomena of epilepsy, which have already been described in
detail in this work, in the part treating of the connection between
epilepsy and crime. While writing his poems, Tasso appeared to be out of
his senses; Alfieri felt everything go dark around him; Lagrange's pulse
became irregular; Milton, Leibnitz, Cujas, Rossini, and Thomas could
work only under special conditions. Others have encouraged inspiration
by using those stimulants which provoke epileptic attacks. Baudelaire
made use of hashish; and wine evoked the creative spirit in Gluck,
Gerard de Nerval, Verlaine, De Musset, Hoffmann, Burns, Coleridge, Poe,
Byron, Praga, and Carducci. Gluck was wont to declare that he valued
money only because it enabled him to procure wine, and that he loved
wine because it inspired him and transported him to the seventh heaven.
Schiller was satisfied with cider; and Goethe could not work unless he
felt the warmth of a ray of sunlight on his head. Many have asserted
that their writings, inventions, and solutions of difficult problems
have been done in a state of unconsciousness. Mozart confessed that he
composed in his dreams, and Lamartine and Alfieri made similar
statements. The _Henriade_ was suggested to Voltaire in a dream; Newton
and Cardano solved the most difficult problems in a similar manner; and
Mrs. Beecher Stowe, George Eliot, and George Sand asserted that their
novels had been written in a dream-like state, and that they themselves
were ignorant of the ultimate fate of their personages. In a preface to
one of her books Mrs. Beecher Stowe even went to the length of denying
her authorship. Socrates and Tolstoi declared that their works were
written in a condition of semi-unconsciousness; Leopardi, that he
followed an inspiration; and Dante described the source of his genius in
those beautiful lines:
"... quando
Amore spira, noto, ed a quel modo
Che detta dentro, vo significando."
"When love inspires, I write,
And put my thoughts as it dictates in me."
"I call inspiration," says Beethoven, "that mysterious state during
which the whole world seems to form one vast harmony, and all the forces
of Nature become instruments, when every sentiment and thought resounds
within me, a shudder thrills through my frame, and every hair on my
head stands on end."
These expressions show that when a genius attains to the fulness of his
development and, consequently, to the widest possible deviation from the
normal, he is more or less in that condition of unconsciousness which
characterises psychic epilepsy and is represented by a series of
unconscious psychic activities.
Having demonstrated the frequent existence of a spice of insanity in the
genius and flashes of genius in the insane, and, further, that geniuses
are subject to a special form of insanity, my father, who was no mere
theorist, but an admirer of facts and eager to turn them to account,
considered next the possibility of making practical use of these
discoveries. This he had no difficulty in doing.
The prevalence of insanity in men of genius explained innumerable
contradictions and mad traits in their lives and works, the true meaning
of which had hitherto escaped biographers, who either ignored them
altogether or covered reams of paper with vain attempts to represent
them as inspirations or, at any rate, reasonable actions. It also
explained the origin of some of the extraordinary errors committed by
great men; for example, the absurdly contradictory actions of Cola di
Rienzi, who, after making himself master of Rome when the city was in a
state of chaos, restoring peace and order, reorganising the army and
conceiving the vast idea of a united Italy, ended his patriotic mission
with a series of extravagances worthy of a madhouse.
The fact that traits of genius are so often found in mentally unsound
persons and _vice versa_, permits us to suppose that lunatics have not
infrequently held the destinies of nations in their hands and furthered
progress by revolutionary movements, of which by reason of their natural
tendencies and marked originality they are so often the promoters.
It may seem a simple idea to class great men, who have exercised such an
enormous influence on civilisation, with wretched beings, to whom no
brilliant part has been allotted, and to estimate mad ideas at their
true worth; yet it had never occurred to any one before.
It is in the minor works of geniuses that the greater number of
absurdities abound, but they are little known to the general public, who
are acquainted only with the masterpieces. Critics either ignored the
absurdities and heresies contained in these works, or, dazzled by the
genius of the author, made them the subject of infinite studies, in the
conviction that they were merely allusions or symbols demanding
interpretation. All the defects of great men, all the extravagant
notions written or spoken by them were covered with the magic veil of
glory; and there was no innocent little child, as in Andersen's charming
story, to tell the world of the nakedness of geniuses.
Thus idiocy, epilepsy and genius, crimes and sublime deeds were forged
into one single chain; and the brilliant lights of some of its links,
and the gloomy shadows thrown by others, were reduced to a play of
molecules, like those which transform carbon into a refulgent diamond or
a sombre lump of graphite.
II
_Criminal Man (L'Uomo Delinquente) considered in relation to
Anthropology, Jurisprudence, and Psychiatry_
Although my father's theories on the male criminal have already been set
forth in the volume now presented to the public, I feel that it would
not be inappropriate to add to the descriptions of his other important
works a brief survey of the original book for the use of readers
desirous of studying the subject more thoroughly.