THE SKIN AND THE PIGMENTS
_Pigmentation and Cutaneous Apparatus._--The outer covering of the
body possesses an importance that is not only physiological, as a
defense of the living animal, but biological and ethnical as well. In
fact, the covering of the body frequently constitutes a characteristic
of the species, and we may say that it constitutes to a large extent
the aesthetics of coloration, supplementing that of form. In the
covering of the body there are in general certain appendages which
include the double purpose of defense and attraction, as, for example,
the scales of fishes, the quills of the porcupine, the marvellous
plumage of certain birds, the furry coat of the ermine. Man, on the
contrary, is almost completely deprived of any covering of the skin,
and is conspicuous among all animals as the most defenseless and
naked. Consequently, the characteristics of the skin itself, quite
apart from any covering, assume in man a great ethnic importance,
especially as regards his pigmentation. In fact, it is well known that
the fundamental classifications of the human races due to Blumenbach
and Linnaeus are based upon the cutaneous pigmentation (white, black,
yellow races, etc.). This is because it is a recognised fact that
the pigmentation is biologically associated with race, and hence
inalterable and hereditary, in the same way, for example, as the
cephalic index; although we must not forget the modifications of
pigment through phenomena due to adaptation to environment. This would
lead us into scientific discussions which would here be out of place,
since they have no immediate importance to us as educators. It may
suffice to indicate that the distribution of racial colour should not
be studied in relation to temperature and the direction of the sun's
rays, but rather in connection with the history of human emigration;
because, while as a matter of fact it is true that there are races at
the equator which are darker and races near the poles which are fairer,
it is also true that the Esquimaux, for instance, are a dark race,
while in Lybia there are types of ashen blond, which is the palest
blond in the whole range of human pigmentation.
The pigment is distributed throughout the skin, the cutaneous
appendages and the iris.
In the skin, the distribution is not uniform, there being some regions
of the body that have more, and some that have less; it is localised in
the Malpighian mucous layer, _i.e._, the granular, germinative layer of
the epidermis, which rests directly upon the papillae of the derma or
corium.
The derma, being abundantly supplied with blood-vessels, if seen
by itself would appear red; but this color, due to the blood, is
concealed to a greater or less extent by the epidermis, according as
the latter contains more or less pigment. In the iris of the eye and
in the piliferous appendages of the skin, among which we must, from
the anthropological point of view, give chief place to the hair of the
head, the pigment tends to accumulate, producing a constantly deeper
shade.
Pigmentation constitutes an eminently descriptive characteristic, and
consequently, in all attempts to determine it, must be subject to all
manner of oscillations in judgment on the part of the observer; yet,
because it also constitutes an ethnical characteristic, it deserves
to be determined with precision. To this end we have in anthropology
_chromatic charts_, corresponding not only to the various shades of the
skin, but also to those of the piliferous appendages and of the iris.
They consist of a graduated series of colour-tones extending over the
entire possible range of the real colours of pigmentation in human
beings; and every gradation in tone has a corresponding number. When
we wish to use the charts practically, for the purpose of determining
accurately the precise degree of pigmentation of a given person's hair,
we need only to compare the tone of the hair with the colours of the
chart, and, having identified the right one, to note the corresponding
number. For instance, we may record: "Pigmentation of hair = 34 Br.
(_i.e._, No. 34 in Broca's table). Or, again, if we are making a more
complex study of all the children in a certain school, we may say: "The
chestnut tones (35, 42, 43 Br.) constitute 87 per cent., the remaining
percentage consists of the blond shades (36, 37, 46 Br.). And in the
case of the skin and the iris the procedure is analogous. By this means
the investigation is objective and accurate.
As a rule, the three pigmentations are determined in accordance with
a reciprocal correspondence. The light colourings, as well as the
dark, generally go together; _i.e._, a person having blond hair has
also light eyes and a fair skin, and _vice versa_--in other words, the
entire organism has either a greater or less accumulation of pigment
in all its centres of pigmentation. Furthermore, these anthropological
characteristics are accompanied by others of equal ethnical importance,
such as the stature, the cephalic index, etc.; and all of them combine
to determine an ethnic type in all its complex morphology.
In this, as in all other anthropological data, it is necessary to
determine the limits between which it may oscillate. In the races of
mankind, the colour of the skin ranges from a black brown to a gray
brown, to brick red, to yellow, and to white; but among the population
of Italy, and among Europeans in general (excepting certain localised
groups, like the Lapps, etc.), the variation is confined within the
limits of the so-called white tones, that is, from brunette to a sallow
white, a rosy white, or a florid red, with each of which tints there
are special corresponding grades of pigmentation for hair and eyes,
and also, on broad, general lines, different ethnical characteristics
oscillating within our normal limits of stature and cephalic index.
All of which may be summarised in the following table:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Pigmentation | |
------------------------------------| Stature | Cephalic index
Skin | Hair | Iris | |
--------------+----------+----------+--------------+----------------
Brunette | Black |Black |Medium or low |Dolichocephalic,
Yellow-white }| Light |Chestnut |Medium or high|Brachycephalic
Pink-white }| chestnut| and blue.| |
}| & blond.| | |
Florid red | Red |Gray |(Outside of ethnical
| | |characteristics: the red colour
| | |of the hair is abnormal)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
in which we have also included the abnormal colour of red hair, which
plays a part in the actual colour scale of Italian pigmentation: not,
however, as a racial characteristic, but rather as a deviation.
In addition to the oscillation of limits, we should also study in
any given population the geographic distribution of a definite
anthropological datum. This must also be done in the case of the
pigments. Among Livi's splendid charts, there is one regarding the
distribution of the brunette type in Italy. From this it appears
that the greatest prevalence of the brunette type is in Sardinia and
Calabria, and that in general there is a prevalence of the dark types
in the southern districts; while the lowest percentage of brunettes is
found in Piedmont, Lombardy and Venetia, and in general the number of
brunettes is less in northern and central Italy.
The relative distribution of other ethnical data should be noted, such
as the stature and the cephalic index, in the corresponding charts.
By combining these results, we find that in the north of Italy the
prevalent type is blond, brachycephalic, and of tall stature; while
in the south it is a dark, dolichocephalic type, of low stature. This
is what I succeeded in showing in my work upon the women of Latium,
in which I sought to complete the details of these two ethnic types.
In Latium there is a prevalence of the dark, dolichocephalic type of
low stature, a type that is still almost pure at Castelli Romani;
this type is fine, slender and delicate in formation, and corresponds
to Sergi's Mediterranean stock, to which are due the great Egyptian
and Graeco-Roman civilisations. The other race is blond, tall and
brachycephalic, and has only a scanty representation in southern
Latium, but is prevalent in an almost pure form in the neighborhood of
Orte. This type is much coarser and more massive in its formation, with
a euriplastic skeleton, and corresponds to Sergi's Eurasian race that
immigrated from the continent.
* * * * *
In general, we may say that it is foreordained in our biological
destiny not only what form, but also what colouring we ought to attain
in the course of our individual evolution, when we finally arrive at
mature development.
_The Pigments during Growth._--In the course of individual evolution,
it is not only the form that becomes modified, but the pigments as
well. We know, for example, that children are more blond than adults.
Transformations in regard to the pigments occur, however, more
especially at the period of puberty.
_Pigmentation of the Hair._--The colour of the hair becomes darker
in the course of growth, changing from light chestnut to dark, from
blond to light chestnut, from dark to black, from light auburn to
fiery red. Sometimes this darkening of the hair is accompanied by a
change in tone (from blond to chestnut); at other times it consists
in an _intensification_ of the original colour through an increase
of pigment, which _fixes_ and _defines_ a colour that was previously
indefinite.
In children who were ill or ailing during their early years, in other
words, weakly children (through denutrition, exhausting illnesses,
overexertion), this phenomenon is imperfectly achieved, just as their
growth as a whole is imperfectly achieved. The consequence is that
these weaklings retain a paler and less decided pigmentation, which
explains the fact that statistics show a greater proportion of frail,
rachitic, tuberculous and mentally deficient persons among the blonds
than among the brunettes; but it is among that class of blonds whose
light colour represents an arrest of development (suppressed brunettes).
Social conditions also exert an influence upon the colour of the hair;
a larger number of blonds and of lighter and more indefinite blonds
are to be found in the schools for the poor than in those for the
rich; also a larger number in country schools, where the poverty is
greater, than in city schools. Consequently we may conclude that there
are two classes of blonds: that which is associated with a racial
type, and that which is the consequence of arrested development. The
first type has a vivid, uniform and decisive colour tone, accompanied
by physiological robustness; the second is indefinite in colour tone
and lacks uniformity--for example, the more exposed parts of the body
are paler, and the hair varies in tone, some locks showing greater
intensity of colour than others. This is especially noticeable in frail
young girls from the country, where the sun discolours the surface
layer of hair. In this connection it should be remembered that in
those geographical regions where the rays of the sun are most nearly
perpendicular, the pigments are, on the contrary, darker and that the
skin becomes bronzed under the ardent kiss of the sun. But while the
sun intensifies the tints that are strong with life, it destroys those
that are weak and moribund, just as it does in the case of lifeless
fabrics, which become bleached out by the action of the solar light.
Accordingly the pigments give us an important test for judging the
robustness of the body; the blonds who are the product of arrested
development of brown tones that have not been attained because of
weakness, are frail in health and physical resistance, which is the
basis of the popular belief that vigorous wet-nurses must be brunettes.
As a matter of fact, in our own population of Latium the brunette type
prevails over the blond by a percentage of 86 per cent.; and it may be
that a blond Roman wet-nurse is a weakly creature, just as a Roman red
wine is in all probability a white wine that has been coloured.
* * * * *
_Pigmentation of the Iris._--In regard to the coloration of the eyes,
a change often takes place at puberty which is the opposite to that
already noted in regard to the hair: _the eyes become more_ _uniformly
light_; this happens in the majority of cases.
In the coloration of the eyes it is necessary to distinguish two
factors, the _uvea_ and the _pigment_.
The iris has a fundamental and uniform light colour (due to the _uvea_)
which oscillates, according to the individual, between blue and
greenish.
In this layer the pigment is deposited; it may be more or less intense
in tone, shading from yellow to a dark maroon.
When the pigment is wanting or is very scant, the fundamental blue or
greenish colour of the uvea is apparent.
In little children the pigment is distributed over the uvea in a
manner by no means uniform, in little masses or spots that are usually
of a mixed colour, so that the colour of the iris in infancy may be
uncertain. At puberty a uniform distribution of the pigment already
accumulated takes place; but rarely an intensification. Hence the
colour becomes more decided, but not deeper, as Godin has recently
succeeded in proving.
_Pigmentation of the Skin._--In the colouring of the skin it is
necessary to distinguish between that which is due to the blood and
that which is due to the pigment.
The blood, whose colour shows transparently through the layers of the
epidermis, produces the various pinkish tones.
The pigment, deposited in all races of mankind under the Malpighian
layer, produces the various brownish tones. The quantity of
cutaneous pigment is a constant _racial_ factor--a hereditary
factor. Nevertheless, in certain individuals, it may be influenced
by external agents (sunshine, heat) which tend to cause it to vary;
such alterations produce _individual varieties_, and also variations
in coloration of the skin between the covered parts of the body and
those exposed to the sun or to atmospheric action in general; these
variations, one and all, are not hereditary.
At puberty the pigment is increased in certain portions of the body
in connection with the generative functions which become established
at that time. Besides this, the general pigmentation is intensified;
children are whiter than adults.
_The Skin and the Hair during the Evolution of the Organism._--In the
case of the hair also, the pigment does not remain a constant quantity
throughout the different periods of life. Grey hair is a normal sign of
the decadence of an organism which has entered upon its involution. As
is well known, the hair of the head, the beard, and in general all the
piliferous appendages turn white, beginning in the regions where the
hair is most abundant, _i.e._, on the head. In some men, however, the
hairs of the beard are the first to turn grey; this is not perfectly
normal, it is an _inferior_ manner of growing old. A German proverb
says, that he who works much with the head (the thinking class) turns
grey first in his hair, and that he who works much with his mouth (the
hearty eater) turns grey first in his beard.
The skin also gives manifest signs of decadence in the form of
_wrinkles_. These serve up to a certain point as documentary evidence
of the life which the individual has led and the _high_ or _low_ _type_
to which he belongs. Just as in the case of grey hair, it is the class
of thinkers who have the most wrinkles on their forehead; those who
were given over to baser passions, such as called for labial rather
than frontal expression, have on the contrary, more wrinkles around the
mouth. We know how the peasant class has a veritable halo of wrinkles
around the mouth.
Thinkers, on the contrary, have a single vertical furrow in the middle
of the forehead: the line of thought. The transverse lines on the
forehead are parallel and unconnected.
Faces with precocious wrinkles may be met with, even in children
(denutrition, mental anxiety, dystrophic conditions); and conversely,
there are faces which have been preserved unwrinkled up to an advanced
age (especially in the case of women of the aristocracy, in whom it may
happen that neither suffering nor mental effort has left its traces on
their lives).
_Pigmentation of the Hair._--This anthropological datum merits special
consideration, since it plays so large a part in the aesthetics of
the human body; and also preserves certain constant characteristics
that serve to differentiate the races. In a study of the hair it is
necessary to consider the _quantity_, the _disposition_ and the _form_.
Abundant, strong, sleek hair is in physiological relation to robustness
of body. Thin hair, on the contrary, or hair that is easily extirpated
at the slightest pull, or dry hair, indicate insufficient nutrition,
which may also be connected with dystrophic or pathological conditions
(hereditary syphilis, cretinism).
The normal disposition of the hair is characteristic, but it may assume
a number of individual variations, as has recently been shown by Dr.
Sergio Sergi, son of our mutual instructor Giuseppe Sergi (Sergio
Sergi, _Sulla disposizione dei capelli intorno_ _alla fronte_--"The
disposition of the hair upon the forehead"--Acts of the Societa di
Antropologia, Vol. 13, No. 1).
The hair, after forming a single whorl or _vortex_, corresponding
to the _obelion_, flows over the forehead in either two or three
divisions, the _lines of the parting_ (either lateral lines or a single
central line) corresponding to the natural divisions of the flowing
hair. Across the forehead the hair ceases at the line of _the roots_,
which crowns the face cornice-like; it is a sinuous line and rises at
the sides in two points, corresponding to the natural partings of the
hair. The hair stops normally at the boundary-line of the forehead,
which together with the face forms the _visage_, leaving bare that
part which in man corresponds to that portion of the frontal bone that
rises erect above the orbital arches, _i.e._, the human portion of the
forehead.
The form of the hair is an ethnical characteristic. Among our European
populations the extreme forms are wanting, namely, _smooth_ hair
(stiff, coarse, sparse hair peculiar to the red and yellow races, such
as the American Indian, Esquinaux, Samoyed and Chinese), and _kinky_
hair (wooly hair, curling in fine, close spirals, such as is found in
all its variations among the Australians and the African negroes).
Consequently, we cannot use the words _smooth_ or _kinky_ for the
purpose of qualifying the forms of hair found in our populations.
We may, however, meet with _straight_ hair (not _smooth_), or _curly_
hair (not _kinky_). In addition to these forms, which among us
represent the extremes, there are also two other forms--namely, _wavy_
hair (in ample curves) and _spiral_ hair (forming much narrower curves,
the so-called ringlets). Corresponding to these various qualities of
hair, there are essential differences in the physical structure of the
stem or shaft of the hair itself. If we make transverse sections of
hair and examine them under the microscope, we find that the resulting
geometrical figures are not all equal: the forms of the sections
oscillate between rounded and ellipsoidal forms. Furthermore, there are
races in which we may find hair having a circular section (_smooth_
hair) and there are others in which we may find, on the contrary, an
extremely elongated elliptical section (_kinky_ hair); in the first
case the hair is a long, bristly cylinder; in the second, it is a
ribbon with a tendency to roll up.
[Illustration: FIG. 130.]
In general, the straighter the hair is, the nearer its cross-section
approaches a perfect circle; and the more curly it is, the nearer
its cross-section approaches an elongated ellipse. The accompanying
examples are drawn from the results of my own study of the women of
Latium; they represent five microscopic preparations. The figure in the
middle (No. 3) represents _straight_ hair; the two figures, No. 1 and
5, are from curly hair; No. 2 is wavy hair, and No. 4, close-curled
hair, or ringlets. Thus we see how widely the sections of hair differ
according to the relative degree of curliness; and conversely, how
identical the two sections, Nos. 1 and 5 are, both of them taken from
equally curly hair, although from different heads. Straight hair has
an almost circular section, although, slightly elliptical; this proves
that really straight hair does not exist; in fact, even when it attains
the maximum degree of smoothness, it retains a tendency to curl, which
is shown, if in no other way, by the readiness with which it acquires
a waviness, if habitually kept braided. There is no other section so
perfectly circular as that of the red races, thus demonstrating the
bristle-like rigidity of the smooth type of hair. Wavy hair is that
which, in the form of its section, approaches most nearly to straight
hair; it is a slightly elongated ellipse (No. 2).
_Anomalies relating to the Pigment, the Skin and the Piliferous_
_Appendages: Pigment and Skin._--There are certain congenital anomalies
of the skin, occasionally to be met with, among which I make note of
the following principal ones:
_a. Anomalies due to Hypertrophy of the Pigment and the Corium:_
_Ichthyosis._--The surface of the skin presents large, raised,
irregular patches of various dark colours tending to maroon.
_b. Anomalies due to Hypertrophy of the Pigment_:
1. _Naevi Materni_: dark isolated spots (moles, birth-marks).
2. _Freckles_: small, light brown spots, no larger than the head of a
pin, scattered over the body, principally on the chest and face.
3. _Melanosis_: the entire skin has a dark appearance, similar to that
of the lower races of mankind, but especially on the face and hands.
_c. Anomalies due to Atrophy of the Pigment. Albinism._--The skin
presents an appearance of milky whiteness; even the hair is white, and
the iris of the eye is red.
_Wrinkles._--The wrinkles of the face are deserving of attention, as
being a detail of noteworthy importance. In regard to wrinkles, two
points should be noted; a. precocity; b. anomalies.
_a. Precocity of Wrinkles._--This is an indication of rapid involution,
and is frequently met with in degenerates. Idiotic children often show
a flabby, shrivelled skin, overstrewn with a multitude of wrinkles that
give them the aspect of little old men.
_b. Anomalies_: the following are to be specially noted:
1. Transverse wrinkles on the nose, frequent in flat-nosed idiots.
2. Wrinkles on the forehead; in normal persons these are interrupted
and broken, they are not quite parallel, nor perfectly horizontal, nor
very deep.
In degenerates it is frequently noticed that the wrinkles on the
forehead form one continuous horizontal line, extending completely
across it; sometimes it is so deep that it seems to divide the
forehead transversely into two parts. The various wrinkles, straight
and unbroken, are quite parallel.
3. The zygomatic (cheek-bone) wrinkles and the wrinkles around the
mouth are extremely deep in mentally defective adult and aged persons,
and also in criminals, whose facial expression is especially active
in the region of the nose and mouth, which constitute the least
contemplative portion of the face.
_Anomalies of the Hair.--1. Quantity._--The quantity of hair may be
excessive--_polytrichia_, a mark of degeneration easily to be met
with among delinquents and prostitutes; or there may be a scarcity
of hair--_atrichia_, among neuropaths, feeble-minded and cretins.
Sometimes, precocious baldness occurs, as a result of defective
nutrition of the skin.
[Illustration: FIG. 131.--Showing various types of the line of roots of
the hair.]
_2. Disposition._--We should note: a. the line of roots of the hair; b.
the vortices.
_a. Line of Roots._--This may be situated _too_ _far down_ upon the
forehead, in which case it gives a false impression of a low forehead,
or _too far back_, in which case it gives a false impression of a high
forehead.
Note in addition the form of the line of roots; it ought to be, as we
have already said, sinuous; sometimes, on the contrary, this line is
straight, and forms a uniform curve, without sinuosity, across the
forehead (imbeciles); at other times it descends in a peak at the
middle point of the forehead.
_b. Vortices._--Normally, there ought to be one central whorl or vortex
over the sinciput.
Abnormally it may happen:
That the vortex is misplaced--above, below or laterally;
That the vortex is double;
That there are also vortices along the frontal line of roots, or near
this line.
_3. Form._--It sometimes happens that we find in degenerates forms of
hair that are normal in inferior races, _i.e._, smooth hair, or kinky,
wooly hair.
_Grey Hair._--Sometimes in the case of degenerates or those suffering
from dystrophy, a precocious greyness occurs (grey-haired young men,
children with white hair); or a partial congenital greyness (clumps of
white hair). No form of grey hair, however, should be confused with
albinism.
_Anomalies relating to the Eyebrows and the Beard. The
Eyebrows._--Various anomalies may occur, in respect to the quantity of
hair, and the form of the eyebrows.
The hairs may be too abundant or too scanty.
The form may be _oblique_, in degenerate mongoloid types.
A notable anomaly consists in a union of the eyebrows, which meet and
form an unbroken line across the region of the glabella. The "united
eyebrows" constitute a grave sign of degeneration, and are popularly
regarded in Italy as a mark of the "_jettatura_" or "evil eye."
_Beard._--It may be very thick or very thin. Too thick a beard is
important, especially if the hairs are also abundant on the cheeks
and even on the forehead, a characteristic that is frequently
accompanied by an abundant growth of hair over the entire body (general
hypertrichosis).
A thin beard and moustache may constitute a normal characteristic in
certain races, such as the Kaffirs and other African negro tribes;
as also in the Chinese. In our own race, on the contrary, it is an
abnormal characteristic, which has been interpreted as a sexual
inversion (feminism) and is met with frequently among thieves.
MORPHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CERTAIN ORGANS (STIGMATA)
In our morphological analysis of certain organs, we shall have occasion
to enumerate a number of separate _malformations_, to the study of
which criminal anthropology has devoted much attention. Since many
of these are met with in children, we will make a rapid enumeration
of them, but must keep in mind that the ability to distinguish
the abnormal form from the normal requires practice in the actual
observation of subjects, while mere verbal descriptions may lead to
false and confusing impressions.
SYNOPTIC CHART
{ position
{ rima palpebrarum / high type
{ or eye-slit \ low type
Eyes { size of eye-ball { macrophthalmia
{ microphthalmia
{ exophthalmia
{ sclerotic coat
{ { miosis
{ foramina (pupils) { mydriasis
\ anisocoria
{ asymmetrics / position
{ \ form
Ears { { Wildermuth's ear
{ { embryonal ear
{ malformations { Morel's ear
{ handle-shaped ear
{ crumpled ear
\ canine ear, etc.
/ leptorrhine
{ types { platyrrhine
Nose { \ mesorrhine
{ / flat
{ anomalies { crooked
\ trilobate
/ simian mouth
{ lips { negroid mouth
{ \ hare-lip, etc.
{ / number
Buccal { { dimensions
apparatus { teeth { form
{ { diastemata
{ \ irregular position
{ tongue / macroglossia
{ \ microglossia
{ palate / ogival (pointed arch)
\ cleft
_Generalities._--Passing on to a more minute study of form, we
shall have to invade the field of human aesthetics. The proportions
of the body are all determined, in respect to their harmony; and
especially admirable is the harmony existing between the principal
parts of the human physiognomy. Artists know that in a regular face
the length of the eye is equal to the interocular distance, or to
the width of the nose, while the latter stands to the width of the
mouth in a ratio of 2 to 3. The length of the external ear remains,
at all ages, exactly equal to the sum of the width of the two eyes.
The eyes and the external ears grow but little, consequently they
are relatively quite large in children. The nose and mouth, on
the contrary, grow much more, and hence appear quite small in
infancy. The growth of the face, like that of the whole body, is an
evolution.
Among all the harmonies of the human body, that which can undergo
the greatest numbers of alterations in the course of its evolution
is the reciprocal harmony between the parts of the face. There are
more children than grown persons with beautiful faces, because the
efforts of adaptation to environment, or congenital biological
causes, or pathological causes may easily alter the evolution of
the face.
We will take a rapid glance at the principal morphological
anomalies likely to be encountered in connection with the face.
All the malformations that we are about to enumerate are still
included under the generic name of _stigmata_, and they may be
_degenerative stigmata_ (congenital anomalies), _pathological
stigmata_ (acquired through disease), or _stigmata of caste_
(caused by adaptation to environment).
_Anomalies relating to the Eye._--The eyes may be too far apart
(usually in broad, square faces of the Mongolian type), or too near
together (for the most part in long narrow faces, with a hooked
nose).
_Rima Palpebrarum (Eye-slit)._--A straight, narrow slit (low type);
an oblique slit (Mongolian eye).
_Size of Eye-ball._--The eye-ball may be too large
(_macrophthalmia_) and hence often protrudes from the socket
(_exophthalmia_); or it may be too small and deep-sunken
(_microphthalmia_), or asymmetrical in size (one eye-ball larger
than the other).
_Direction.--Strabism_ (inward, outward, mono-lateral, bilateral).
_Sclerotic Coat._--It may be injected with blood (delinquents), or
partly covered over by an abnormal development of the semilunar
_plica_ or fold of the palpebral conjunctiva.
_Pupillary Foramina._--The two foramina of the pupils ought to be
equal in size, circular and with a clearly marked contour. But
under various conditions of age and ill health the size as well as
the equality of the pupils may vary.
As regards the size of the pupils:
When the pupillary foramina are too small, this constitutes
_miosis_--a condition frequently found in certain serious nervous
diseases (locomotor ataxia, paralytic dementia), and in chronic
opium poisoning; it is frequent in meningitis. In old persons
miosis is a normal condition.
When, on the contrary, the foramina of the pupils are too large,
this constitutes _mydriasis_ (poisoning from atropine, intestinal
diseases, etc.).
In addition to these, there is _anisocoria_, when the two foramina
are unequal (neurasthenia, chronic alcoholism, first stage of
paralytic dementia).
_Form of the Pupillary Foramen._--It is not always round, sometimes
it is oval (cat's-eye). Frequently the form of the pupil is
permanently altered as the result of a surgical operation.
Thus, the contour of the pupil may be broken instead of clear cut;
in verifying this phenomenon it is important to inquire whether the
subject has suffered from any progressive disease of the iris, such
as might produce the same condition.
_Anomalies of the Ear._--While in the case of animals the external
ear is greatly developed, movable and detached from the cranium,
in man it is reduced in size, immovable and attached to the
cranium. Two measurements are taken of the ear, the length and the
width, and by means of the usual formula we obtain the index of
the ear, which for the European race is about 54 per cent. This
index has a certain importance because we find that the proportion
of width to length steadily increases as we descend through the
inferior human races, down to the ape, and the same increase
continues if we descend through the different grades of the simian
order.
This is to a large extent a result of the fact that, in the descent
from man to ape, the lobule of the ear, which is essentially a
human form, steadily diminishes, until it finally disappears.
From this it may be concluded that there exist minute zoological
differences other than generic between man and animals. As to
malformations of the human ear, which may consist of shortness
or absence of the lobule (formerly interpreted as a simian
inheritance) they are to-day attributed to physiological causes.
An abundant circulation produces an ample and _fleshy_ lobe;
in oligohaemic constitutions (deficiency of blood) the lobe is
delicate, pale and even atrophied. Brachysceles often have a big
lobe, and macrosceles, predisposed to phthisis, often have no lobe.
In regard to the external ear we should observe:
1. _Symmetry._--The ears should be symmetrical:
a. In respect to their position.
b. In respect to the more or less pronounced divergence of the
ears from the cranium.
c. In respect to their form.
a. _Position._--We must look for this form of asymmetry by
observing the cranium according to the occipital norm. The
asymmetry may be caused by one of the ears being placed _too high
up_ or _too far back_ in respect to the other, or both asymmetries
may occur together.
b. The asymmetry due to divergence is observed from two norms,
the facial and the occipital.
c. Asymmetry of _form_ is perceived by observing successively
the two external ears according to the lateral norms; their
morphological aspect should correspond on the two sides.
2. _Anatomy and Malformations of the External Ear._--A preliminary
anatomical note is necessary. The external ear consists of
various parts, which were first studied and named by Fabricius of
Acquapendente:
1. _The Helix._--This is the outermost fold of the ear; it takes
its origin above the auricular foramen in a root starting from the
inside of the concha and rises upward, to descend again describing
a regular helix; and it terminates in the _lobule_. At the point
where the helix bends downward to form the descending branch, a
small cartilaginous formation can be discerned by the sense of
touch; this is the _Darwinian tubercle_.
2. The _Antihelix._--This originates in two roots under the
ascending branch of the helix and terminates in the _antitragus_;
it is a cartilaginous formation.
3. _The Auricular Fossa._--This divides the helix from the
antihelix.
4. _The Tragus._--This is a little triangular cartilaginous
formation situated in front of the auricular foramen. Between the
tragus and the antitragus is the _intertragical fossa_.
5. _The Concha._--This is the concavity, the internal fossa of
the auricle, which leads to the channel of the internal ear.
Instances may be found of _malformation_ of each and all of these
various parts of the ear, which may be excessively developed, or
almost wanting, or altered in form.
_The Helix._--The over-folding of the cartilage may be wanting,
leaving the margin of the auricle straight; this form is met with
in the Mongolian race, but among us it is a malformation (Morel's
ear). It is a more serious malformation if it occurs combined with
excessive development of the Darwinian tubercle; in this case the
auricle assumes a really animal-like aspect ("canine ear").
The helix may originate within the concha from a root so prolonged
that it divides the concha itself into two parts, an upper and a
lower.
The helix may be greatly developed and sharply divergent from the
cranium--handle-shaped ear; or it may be bent at an angle at the
upper outer margin--_embryonal_ _ear_.
The _lobule_ is, as we have already said, an essentially human
formation, and as though man were conscious of this fact and proud
of it, it is customary in all races to adorn it with ear-rings,
to such an extent that in India and in Cochin-China the lobe is
burdened with ornaments of great weight, in consequence of which it
has continued to develop until it almost touches the shoulder.
The lobule may be attached to the cheek (sessile lobule).
The antihelix may be so developed as to rise in front of the
helix--_Wildermuth's_ _ear_.
Another important malformation connected with the ear, which is
commonly found in idiots, is a prolongation and restriction of the
intertragical fossa into a fissure (_fissura intertragica_). The
tragus ought normally to exceed the antitragus in dimensions.
_Anomalies of the Nose._--The nose presents very numerous
individual varieties, even among normal individuals. In the
European race we distinguish the straight nose (Italian), the
aquiline, the retrousse (French), the sinuous, etc. But in all
these forms one characteristic remains more or less constant: the
aperture of the nostrils is long and narrow, or rather its length
exceeds its width (the nostrils are thin and mobile, the skeleton
of the nose projects above the plane of the face). In the other
races of mankind, on the contrary, two other types of nose are
distinguished in respect to this characteristic: 1. The aperture of
the nostrils is round (the nostrils themselves are fleshy, the base
of the nose somewhat flattened)--_mesorrhine nose_, characteristic
of the Mongolian race, and found repeatedly in mongoloid idiots;
2. the aperture of the nostrils is broadened, _i.e._, the width
exceeds the length (the nose is flattened and almost level at the
base, and furrowed for the most part with transverse wrinkles, the
nostrils are exceedingly fleshy and immobile)--_platyrrhine nose_,
peculiar to the African and Australian races. Corresponding to
the external form of the nose there is also a difference in the
skeleton in relation to the _piriform aperture_ and the naso-labial
duct; the external form of the nose is really dependent upon the
skeleton consequently, the above-mentioned nomenclature applies
also to the piriform aperture of the cranium (see _Skeleton of the
face_). The flat nose is found as a malformation in idiots, and is
usually accompanied by prognathism.
Other important malformations relating to the nose are the
development of a tubercle at the tip--_trilobate nose_, frequent in
_low types of idiots_; and the _tip of the_ _note bent sideways_
(usually toward the left); this form occurs in leptorrhine noses
and is considered to be a stigma of criminality (thieves).
_Anomalies relating to the Buccal Apparatus._--Malformations occur
in relation to the lips, the teeth, the tongue and the palate.
_The Lips._--The European type of lips is well known both as
regards their proportions and their lines of contour which
determine the distinctive form.
Sometimes this graceful modeling is wanting; the contour of the
lips is formed of almost horizontal lines, the oral aperture is
very wide, and has the appearance, especially when laughing, of
being edged by a perfectly uniform, narrow line, thus resembling
the mouth of a monkey.
At other times we meet with thick, fleshy lips, slightly pendulous,
like those of the black races, especially the Hottentots and
Australians; it is a malformation frequent among idiots, and occurs
together with prognathism and the flattened nose.
Another notable form is that in which the lips are not only thick
and fleshy, but the internal tissues are so abnormally developed
that they protrude from the oral orifice in a slight prolapsus;
this form of lips is quite characteristic of myxedematous idiots.
Finally, we may meet with the so-called hare-lip, or lip divided
in the middle, signifying an arrest of embryonal development and
frequently accompanied by a cleft palate and a double uvula (see
_Development of the face_).
_The Teeth._--There is nothing new to tell of the characteristic
forms of the teeth--the incisors, the canines, the premolars,
and the molars--nor of their regular placement in a single row
corresponding to the curve of the maxilla and the mandible. I shall
therefore merely give the two dental formulae corresponding to the
two dentitions of man.
First dentition, or "milk teeth":
2--2 1--1 2--2
2--2 2--2 2--2 = 20 teeth
incisors canines premolars
Second or final dentition:
2--2 1--1 2--2 3--3
2--2 1--1 2--2 3--3 = 32 teeth
incisors canines premolar molars
In relation to the teeth there are a great number of anomalies
which may occur, in number, in position, in size and form, and
these anomalies are so frequent that we may say the _smile_
stigmatizes the degenerate. Frequently it is the most evident
stigma of the whole face; so much so that this same smile which
adds so much charm to the normal human countenance becomes ugly and
repulsive in degenerates.
_Anomalies in Number of Teeth._--Sometimes there are more than 32
teeth, owing to the presence of certain _supernumerary teeth_;
these will be found to occur most frequently in the case of the
canines, next in that of the incisors, and lastly in that of the
premolars.
[Illustration: FIG. 132.--Mongolian eye.]
[Illustration: FIG. 133.--Embryonal ear.]
[Illustration: FIG. 134.--Decayed teeth.]
[Illustration: FIG. 135.--Worn-down teeth.]
[Illustration: FIG. 136.--Example of a worn-down tooth.]
[Illustration: FIG. 137.--Handle-shaped ears.]
Sometimes the number of teeth is less than 32, in which case it is
necessary to distinguish two cases of very different significance:
First, the last molars ("wisdom teeth") may be wanting; secondly,
some of the other teeth may be wanting (incisors, canines, or
premolars). The last molar is of no use whatever to man, because it
does not enter into the service of mastication, and it is tending
to disappear. We may even predict that the day is coming when
mankind will no longer have wisdom teeth, and the human dental
formula will be as follows:
2--2 1--1 2--2 2--2
---- ---- ---- ---- = 28 teeth
2--2 1--1 2--2 2--2
incisors canines premolar molars
The absence of useful teeth, on the contrary, is a grave sign of
degeneration, and one which leaves wide spaces between two adjacent
teeth (wide diastemata).
The _diastema_, or space left between adjacent teeth, is of great
importance.
There are various causes for this stigma. Besides the one already
mentioned, due to congenital absence of a tooth (broad diastema),
another recognized cause is an _anomalous placing_ of the teeth
(narrow diastema). The significance of this is not always the same:
for example, the diastema between two upper incisors indicates a
very slight anomaly of embryonal development, and, some people
think, gives a sympathetic charm to the smile. On the contrary,
a diastema occurring at the side of a canine tooth signifies a
congenital malformation.
At other times such anomalous spaces may be due to the fact
that the teeth have remained small, or happen to have worn away
laterally and present an almost filiform or thread-like aspect
(diastemata due to microdontia resulting from syphilis or various
dystrophic conditions).
The _form_ of the teeth demands consideration next in order
of importance. Sometimes we encounter cases of teeth that are
all nearly alike in form; they have lost that morphological
differentiation which already existed in the anthropoid apes; there
is an insensible transition from the incisors, all exactly equal in
form and dimensions, to the premolars, which also present the same
appearance, passing over a tooth which it would be difficult to
define either as incisor or premolar (the canine tooth). Usually in
such uniform dentition there are slight diastemata.
This condition, however, is not frequently met with; it is much
more usual to find this anomaly occurring only in part; the incisor
teeth are all equal, or else the canine resembles an incisor or a
premolar. In combination with this characteristic, it often happens
that there is a diastema next to the canine.
In regard to size, the teeth may be too large, _macrodontia_, or
too small, _microdontia_.
Microdontia may be due to a true and actual arrest of development
of the teeth (white teeth, small and narrow, often all very much
alike), or to a kind of _corrosion_ of the teeth due to congenital
dystrophism (syphilis). In this case the teeth are ground down and
_worn away_ either horizontally or laterally (filiform teeth), or
again the cutting edge of the tooth is not horizontal in the two
upper canines, but oblique, so that the teeth have the appearance
of being broken.
Often the teeth are furrowed transversely with yellow streaks
corresponding to a lack of development of the enamel.
Finally, the teeth may present various anomalies of position, which
may be grouped under three heads:
a. Narrow teeth, so placed as to leave slight intervals between
them.
b. Isolated teeth, planted outside the common line, or else
transversely instead of horizontally.
c. The dentition does not follow the regular curved line, but shows
various sinuosities, usually bending in at the point corresponding
to the canine tooth.
_The Tongue._--The tongue may present morphological anomalies of
great importance, since they are the cause of many defects of
speech. Sometimes the tongue is too big--_macroglossia_, in which
case it cannot move freely within the buccal cavity and even finds
difficulty in remaining within the mouth, but projects between
the lips, contributing in no small measure to giving the face an
imbecile expression. At other times it is too small--_microglossia_.
A deficient or excessive development of the lingual frenulum may
also interfere with the movements of the tongue (tongue-tie).
_The Palate._--It is a frequent experience to meet with idiots
having an _ogival_ or gothic-arched palate, with the vault much
curved and narrow, such as is met with in animals and similar in
section to a gothic window. A special bony ridge or crest may also
occur along the _raphe_ or median line. Lastly, the palatine vault
may be divided in two (cleft palate), a form frequently accompanied
by a double uvula; this stigma may also be one of the causes of
defective speech, so frequently met with in deficient children.
The palate normally presents a diversity of forms: Narrow and
high, or broad and low--forms associated with the general type of
head (dolichocephalic, high palate; brachycephalic, low palate)
and especially with the type of face, as we have already seen in
treating of the latter.
=Importance of the Study of Morphology.=--The study of morphology is
of high importance in biology, and even more so in anthropology. And
since the organism is a harmonic whole, in which the parts and their
functions are closely interrelated, any external anomaly leads us to
assume that there are corresponding anomalies of the internal organs,
and hence, functional anomalies; hence also, in man, psychic anomalies.
And conversely, if perfection of form has been attained, it leads us to
assume that the entire organism is perfect in its internal organs as
well, and in its complex physical and psychic functional action.
"Assure yourselves and one another," says Lelut in his _Cadre_ _de
philosophie et de l'homme_, "that wherever you see a change in the
body, you will have to search for a corresponding change in the
intelligence. Assure yourselves that you will have to establish this
correlation throughout the entire scale, from the lowest degradations
of imbecility to the highest achievement of genius, from the
clearest and strongest mentality to that which is most profoundly and
irremediably disordered."
This correlation between the morphological and the psychic personality
must be sought throughout the entire scale of human variations, from
the genius to the most degraded of imbeciles, from the strongest and
most upright character to that which is most profoundly perturbed.
Hence morphology constitutes a fundamental part in the study of human
personality.
The principle of this aforesaid correlation was at first exemplified
in the field of biological science only by abnormal persons, whose
noticeable deviations from the customary limits, both in the external
form of the body and in their psychic manifestations, gave proof of
the phenomenon by exaggerating it. In his classic work, _Traite des
degenerescences_, Morel asserts that "the study of physical man cannot
be isolated from the study of moral man." But in our own day, the
theory has been marvellously illuminated and popularised by Cesare
Lombroso, and precisely on its pathological side.
The Lombrosian theories were so rapidly popularised even before they
were fully matured, that it seemed as though the spirit of the times
was ripe to receive them, and had awakened to greet the new order of
thought, after having long slumbered over the old; thus they wrought a
revolution in the field of law and morality, and even laid a foundation
for the erection of a new pedagogy.
Or to state it better, they again brought to light certain principles
of truth that had been understood even from the most ancient times.
For the principles proclaimed by Lombroso are in their general line
certainly nothing new nor suddenly derived from a study of modern
civilization; the belief that a physical stigma represents a moral
stigma is exceedingly ancient. In the Bible we find Solomon saying: we
may read the heart in the face. Homer describes the malignant Thyrsites
as having a narrow forehead and ferret-like eyes. Caesar feared only
those conspirators who were pale and lean. In the Middle Ages there
was a law which held that in case of doubt as to which of two men
was guilty, the uglier looking one should be hanged. And this same
principle has been established from time immemorial in the current
wisdom of the people, as is demonstrated by proverbs, which are like
laws graven upon stone, and have been gathered experimentally through
the repeated observation of successive generations. The proverbs
tell us of the physical stigmata of the wicked: "Beware of those who
bear the mark of God;" "The bristles prove the brute." Even in art,
degenerative stigmata are introduced to represent the malevolent. The
satyrs are represented as being of the microcephalic type. The devil
was formerly represented as having goat's feet and a tail; Michelangelo
pictures him with a narrow, receding forehead and pointed ears.
To-day all this is shown to be true. The truth, and sometimes the
intuitive semblances of truth in their relation to outward phenomena,
have the most ancient and diffuse history, because, since they always
existed, they were analogously interpreted by the intelligence of
man. And this is proved by the glorious discoveries of positive
science, which we may trace back to far distant foreshadowings; what
was in danger of being lost has been born again with an overpowering
fertility. The great theories of Darwin regarding evolution were
already perceived by Herodotus. The cycle of indestructible material,
proclaimed by Greek philosophy, formed the palpitating heart of the
teachings of Giordano Bruno; and in our day it formed the fascinating
halo of materialism which illuminated the face of my own teacher, Jakob
Moleschott.
Now, the fact that it is not new demonstrates that the Lombrosian
theory explains phenomena which really exist, since they came under
the observation of man from the earliest times. And the fact that this
theory has become popularised tells us that the times were ripe to
fertilise its renovating principles into practical action. For where
is it that we find the triumphant success of science? The attainment
of its most profound purposes? We find it wherever science achieves
something that is practical and useful for all mankind. Because, so
long as anything is merely perceived or looked into, or even deeply
studied, it never attains the apogee of its scientific glory and
dignity unless it finds some means of benefiting and ameliorating
humanity.
Lombroso grasps a principle and turns it into a benefit; and he sends
it broadcast throughout human society, to purify society of the spirit
of personal vengeance.
Garibaldi redeems an oppressed people and saves the oppressors from the
burden of being unjust and tyrannical, through a work of humanity which
has no national boundary; Lombroso, by means of his new scientific
and moral principle, effects a world-wide redemption of a despised
and outcast class, and saves us from the iniquitous burden of social
vengeance. Two great deeds of heroism, one of the heart and the other
of the brain; two great works of redemption.
Nevertheless, the principle of a morphological and psychic relationship
was not wholly wanting in examples of practical application. Not,
however, in the case of man; but in regard to animals it had been
utilised for a long time back. For instance, when a horse cannot be
broken by ordinary methods, the veterinary is called in, and he either
discovers some ailment and prescribes a treatment, or else be studies
the conformation of the forehead and the nasal bones, and if they are
abnormal, he declares that the horse is absolutely untameable. In India
the natives are afraid of the solitary elephant with a narrow forehead,
for they know that he is ferocious.
To-day we know that many children who can be taught nothing in the
public schools are really sick children, in whom anomalies of character
coincide with morphological anomalies; and we are beginning to replace
the old custom of blind and brutal punishment with a personal interest
that leads us to invoke the aid of the physician and to establish
special schools for the mentally deficient.
We may say that this new and reforming principle of pedagogics
and the school, which transforms punishment into medical care and
creates special educational institutions which are at the same time
sanatoriums, constitutes the pedagogical application of the Lombrosian
theories and accomplishes that social task which was foreordained to
emanate from the lofty brain of Lombroso.
In its special application to pedagogics, anthropology aids in the
difficult task by its diagnosis between the _normal_ and the _abnormal_
child.
But the contribution of anthropology to pedagogics is vastly wider than
this. In this restricted sense of diagnosis, it accomplishes, to be
sure, a complete reform of the penal sciences, but it is very far from
doing like service to the science of pedagogy.
Scientific pedagogy must concern itself before all and above all, with
_normal_ individuals, in order to protect them in their development
under the guidance of biological laws, and to aid each pupil to adapt
himself to his social environment, _i.e._, to direct him to that form
of employment which is best suited to his individual temperament and
tendencies.
In this new task, anthropology not only studies the individual, but
also gives real and personal contributions to the solution of many
pedagogic problems; among others, that relating to study after school
hours; to rewards and punishments; to physical training, elocution,
etc.; while, by regarding the children as the _effects_ of biological
and social causes, it establishes new and enlightening standards of
morality and justice, and reveals to educators responsibilities not
hitherto conceived. It will suffice to call to mind the fact that the
most studious children, and therefore those who receive the greatest
amount of praise and prizes, show a deficiency in weight, in chest
development, and in muscular force; consequently, a physiological
impoverishment the blame for which must be attributed to an ignorance
of hygiene and of anthropology, such as still persists throughout
the whole field of pedagogy; an ignorance which leads the teacher to
encourage by his praises the impoverishment of the best forces that
reveal themselves in the school (the most intelligent and studious
children) in an age when social industries, multiplied and grown to a
giant size, demand the cooperation of a vigorous race, and to inspire
by rewards and praise a sentiment of superiority and of vanity in
an age that is dominated by the sentiment of universal equality and
brotherhood.
The teacher ought, on the contrary, to appoint himself the defender of
the race, and to demand, among his other rights, that of making such
social reforms and such reforms in the school and in pedagogies as
may be necessary to the accomplishment of his purpose, which is the
attainment of the highest degree of civilisation and of prosperity.
But this subject would lead us to repeat principles on which we have
already insisted; it will suffice to reassert that the tendency of
anthropology is undoubtedly toward a reform in the school and the
opening of a new era in pedagogy.
_The Significance of the So-called Physical Stigmata of
Degeneration._--We have studied so many congenital malformations
and pathological deformations that a synthetic statement of their
significance becomes necessary. All the more so, because certain
principles in this connection, already widely circulated among the
general public, have now been rejected by science.
One of these principles refers to the so-called _atavism_ and formed
part of the original Lombrosian doctrines: but blessed is the scientist
who is obliged to correct himself, for that means that his brain is
still fertile.
Certain morphological anomalies call to mind forms of the inferior
races and species, from which, according to the original Darwinian
doctrine of evolution, the human species had descended in a direct
line: hence the term "_atavistic survival_." It will suffice to mention
the receding forehead that calls to mind the Neanderthal cranium,
the long simian arms, the prognathism distinctive of the inferior
human races and of animals, microcephaly which suggests the crania of
anthropoid apes, the mongoloid eyes and protruding cheek-bones, which
recall the yellow races; the "canine" ear, the wooly or smooth hair,
polytrichia, the dark skin, etc.
Now, all this assemblage of stigmata which went under the name of
_atavistic_, or _absolute retrogression_, were held to be in almost
direct relation to _degeneration_.
Degeneration was supposed to revive in us forms that had been
superseded in the course of evolution, and hence also psychic states
that had also been superseded in the history of the human race; it is
well known that, according to Lombroso, a criminal might be defined as
a savage, a barbarian born among us, yet still having within him his
particular instincts of theft and slaughter.
To-day, since the original interpretation of the Darwinian theory has
been discarded, with it have fallen all those deductions which medicine
and sociology were in too great haste to draw, in order to make
scientific application of them.
In conclusion, the principle remains firmly established of a
correlation between physical and psychic anomalies, which forms the
very essence of the Lombrosian theory. What science wishes to-day to
correct is the _atavistic_ interpretation of stigmata and of types
of degenerates. This takes nothing away from the brilliant record of
Lombroso, who interpreted biological and pathological phenomena in
the selfsame light that shed glory upon Ernest Haeckel, namely, the
Darwinian theory. In the first enthusiasm of that luminous flame which
had wrought a reawakening of thought throughout all Europe and the
civilised world Lombroso tried to explain _according to the letter_
what could properly be explained only according to the spirit; that is
to say, in accordance with a very broad principle (evolution and the
successive formation of species) which had been divined but not yet
demonstrated.
We ought to have recourse, in interpreting congenital (degenerative)
malformations to explanations analogous to those in the case of
acquired deformations, _i.e._, to pathological explanations.
We find ourselves in all these cases in the presence of pathological
phenomena affecting either the _species or the individual_. On the
strength of analogies shown by certain malformations, the tendency
to-day is to consider them as "_arrests of development_" or phenomena
of _infantilism_, such, for example, as macrocephaly, macroscelia,
nipples or shoulders placed too high, nose tending to flatness,
handle-shaped ears, etc.--a whole series of stigmata which go by the
name of _stigmata of relative retrogression_.
Meanwhile there are other malformations which merely deviate from
the normal form (Morselli's "simple deviation"), and they may
deviate either in the way of an excess (hyperplasia), or of a
deficiency (hypoplasia), as, for example, macroglossia, microdontia,
macro- and microphthalmia, etc.; or they may deviate in a true
and actual sense (paraplasms), as, for example, in the various
asymmetries (plagiocephaly, plagioprosopy, etc.). This whole group
of above-mentioned stigmata, which seem to have a congenital origin,
or, rather, to be connected in a general way with growth itself, are
called _malformations_, to distinguish them from _deformations_, which
evidently have an acquired origin, especially from pathological causes,
such, for instance, as rachitis and forms of paralysis which arrest the
development of a limb, etc., resulting in functional and morphological
asymmetry.
DISTRIBUTION OF MALFORMATIONS
Malformations (associated, as we have said, with individual
development) may be found in all individuals who, through various
causes (degeneration, disease, denutrition, defects of adaptment), have
undergone any alteration in development. And, since we have not yet
acquired a recognised standard of _morality_ _of generation_, and the
social environment, including the school, weighs heavily upon humanity
in the plastic state, who is there without malformation? Complete
normality is a _desideratum_, an ideal toward which we are progressing,
and, we might add, it is the battle-flag of the teacher.
Accordingly, all men have malformations. It is interesting to see how
they are affected by variations in age and social condition, and how
they are distributed among normal persons and degenerates, in order
to measure the extent of their contribution to the diagnosis between
normal and abnormal man.
[Illustration: FIG. 138.--Percentage of stigmata among the peasantry,
the labouring class and the wealthy class, for children and adults.]
On the basis of notes taken from an important work by Rossi,[48] I have
drawn up the following table, relating to malformations based upon a
comparative study of children and adults, grouped under three different
social conditions--peasants, city labourers and persons of the wealthy
class.
At the further extremity of the horizontal lines will be found the
figures recording the number of times that any one anomaly occurs in a
hundred instances. The other indications are explained in the figure
itself.
From this it is apparent that anomalies of the cranium are much more
rare than those of the face, both in children and in adults.
But in children the anomalies of the cranium (and this includes
the cases of plagiocephaly), are much more frequent than in adults
in all social classes; this shows that in the course of growth the
malformations of the cranium have to a great extent disappeared.
In regard to the face, on the contrary, or, at least, in regard to
certain malformations of the face, the opposite holds good; the
mandible and the zygomata, or, in general, that part of the face which
grows rapidly during the period of puberty, show more anomalies in the
case of adults than in the case of children.
This shows us that a face which is still beautiful in childhood may
acquire malformations in successive periods of growth. In simpler
words, the facts may be expressed as follows: that the cranium
_corrects_ itself and the face _spoils_ itself in the course of growth.
But in the case of facial asymmetries the same thing occurs that we
have already seen in regard to plagiocephaly; it is more frequent in
children, hence asymmetries are infantile stigmata.
[Illustration: FIG. 139.--Two small examples of Morel's and
Wildermuth's ear.]
Some important characteristics are to be noted regarding the
handle-shaped ear; all children have ears proportionally larger than
those of adults and the _handle-shaped_ form is very frequent in normal
children, regardless of the social condition to which they belong.
This malformation _corrects_ _itself_ in the course of growth, being
far less frequent in adults of the wealthy class and even among the
labouring classes; but among the peasantry it remains permanently,
almost as though it were a _class stigma_. Although the mechanical
theories are in disrepute as an interpretation of morphological
phenomena, nevertheless it is worth while to note the singular
frequency of this stigma in peasants, in connection with the habit of
straining the ear to catch the faintest sounds, distant voices, echoes,
etc., for which the _senses_ of peasants are extremely acute.
The greater frequency of prominent superciliary arches in adult
peasants and labourers may also be considered in relation to a
defective cerebral development, connected, perhaps, with illiteracy,
etc.; furthermore, the superciliary arches, together with a more
than normal development of the jaw bones, are stigmata which usually
occur together as determining factors of an _inferior_ _morphological
type_. The fact also that an excessive development of the mandible,
unlike other malformations, is found with the same frequency among
adults of the peasantry and the labouring class, gives to this anomaly
the significance of a _stigma of the poorer_ _classes_. It should
be remembered that children of inferior intelligence have a deeper
mandible.
What is quite interesting to know, in addition to the frequency of
stigmata at various ages and in the various social conditions, is
the _number_ of them that may coexist in the same individual. It was
already asserted by Lombroso that a single undoubted malformation was
not enough to prove degeneracy, but that it depended upon the number of
stigmata existing simultaneously in the same individual. Now, confining
our attention to _normal individuals_, we find, according to Rossi,
that the individual number is less among the well-to-do than among the
poor; and that it is less among the peasantry than among the working
class. The working class in the cities are accordingly in the worst
condition of physical development. Furthermore, children always show a
greater number of individual malformations than adults.
INDIVIDUAL NUMBER OF MORPHOLOGICAL ANOMALIES
+---------+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| | Adults: to every 100 | Children: to every 100 |
|Number of| individuals | individuals |
+anomalies+---------+--------+----------+---------+--------+----------+
| |Labourers|Peasants|Well-to-do|Labourers|Peasants|Well-to-do|
+---------+---------+--------+----------+---------+--------+----------+
| ... | 4 | 18 | 14 | ... | ... | 12 |
+---------+---------+--------+----------+---------+--------+----------+
| 1-2 | 56 | 36 | 68 | 18 | 16 | 44 |
+---------+---------+--------+----------+---------+--------+----------+
| 3-4 | 31 | 26 | 18 | 52 | 68 | 38 |
+---------+---------+--------+----------+---------+--------+----------+
| 5-6 | 9 | ... | ... | 27 | 13 | 6 |
+---------+---------+--------+----------+---------+--------+----------+
From which it appears that only 4 per cent. of the labouring class are
without malformations, while the peasantry and the well-to-do have from
18 to 14 per cent. Among normal adults there is a preponderance of
persons having 1-2 stigmata; while those having 3-4 stigmata are more
frequent than those without any at all.
Excepting for a few labourers, there are no normal persons with 5-6
malformations; in fact, this is the number of coexisting malformations
that is held to be the _test of degeneration_, the sign of an abnormal
morphological individuality.
Among children, on the contrary, this individual number of
malformations (5-6) occurs, _even in the wealthy classes_, so that the
child and the adult cannot be judged by the same standards.
The prevailing number of stigmata among children is 3-4. Therefore,
in the course of growth, many of these malformations are eliminated.
It should be noted that children without malformations are found only
among the prosperous classes and in a rather small percentage (12 per
cent.).
Accordingly, social conditions bring about a difference not only in
robustness, stature, etc., but also in the degree of beauty which the
individual is likely to attain. The social ideal of the establishment
of justice for all mankind is consequently at the same time a _moral_
and _aesthetic_ ideal.
Another parallel that it is interesting to draw is that between the
most unfortunate social class (the working class) and the degenerates.
We have seen that the working class has the highest individual number
of stigmata. Rossi compares them with two other categories of persons
who are strongly suspected of being degenerates, or who at least
must include a notable proportion of degenerates among their number,
namely, _beggars_, as regards the adults, and _orphans_, as regards the
children.
These classes differ in the general frequency of malformations; in
fact, the chronic anomalies, taken collectively, give 17 per cent. for
the labouring class and 25 per cent. for beggars. But the difference
becomes strikingly apparent when we come to consider the _individual
number_ of stigmata.
+---------+---------------------+-------------------+
|Anomalies|Labourers (per cent.)|Beggars (per cent.)|
+---------+---------------------+-------------------+
| 3-4 | 31 | 41 |
+---------+---------------------+-------------------+
| 5-6 | 9 | 21.3 |
+---------+---------------------+-------------------+
And still greater is the difference between the children of labourers
and the orphan children.
FREQUENCY OF ANOMALIES IN CHILDREN (PERCENTAGE)
Anomalies Labouring class, Orphans, degeneration
pauperism
Cranial anomalies in general 32 39
Forehead very low 16 20.8
Alveolar prognathism 4 10
Enlarged mandible 20 25
Plagiocephaly 16 45.8
Prominent cheek-bones 16 41.6
Facial asymmetry 28 35.4
Anomalies of teeth 24 37.5
We see therefore that _degeneration_ exerts a most notable influence
upon morphological anomalies; it is far more serious than external
(social) conditions.
Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, studying the distribution of malformations and
deformations among poor children who were inmates of a large New
York orphan asylum (634 males and 274 females) distinguishes the
morphological anomalies into three categories: Those that are
congenital (degeneration); those acquired through pathological causes
(diseases), and those acquired through the circumstances of social
adaptment, or, as the author expresses it, through _habit_. And to
these he adds still another category of stigmata the causes of which
remain uncertain.
If we examine the following extremely interesting table, we see at once
that in the case of children the anomalies of form are associated with
_degeneration_ and with _disease_, because the anomalies _acquired_
individually by the child as the result of personal habits are
comparatively so few in number as to be quite negligible, and all of
them are exclusively in reference to the trunk; in other words, a
result of the position assumed on school benches.
As between degeneration and disease, the proportion of anomalies caused
by the former is considerably more than double. Hence, the great
majority of malformations have their origin, so to speak, _outside of
the individual_, the responsibility resting on the parents.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Organs | Anomalies
in +-------------------------------+-------------------------------
regard to | Males | Females
which +-------+-------+--------+------+-------+-------+--------+------
the |Congen-|Patho- |Acquired|Cause |Congen-|Patho- |Acquired|Cause
anomalies | ital |logical|through |uncer-| ital |logical|through |uncer-
occur | | |habit | tain | | |habit | tain
------------+-------+-------+--------+------+-------+-------+--------+------
Head | | 74 | | 15 | | 26 | | 10
Periosteum | | | | | 1 | | |
Hair | 26 | 2 | | 1 | 17 | | |
Forehead | 15 | 25 | | 1 | 1 | 8 | | 1
Face | 51 | 68 | | 10 | 11 | 17 | | 4
Eyes | | | | 15 | | | | 6
Ears | 221 | | | | 88 | | |
Teeth | 67 | 20 | | 37 | 19 | 4 | | 27
Gums | 51 | 7 | | 104 | 41 | 3 | | 23
Palate | 88 | 59 | | 81 | 30 | 40 | | 44
Uvula | 14 | | | 112 | 6 | | | 54
Body (bust) | 5 | 54 | 72 | 2 | 3 | 18 | 9 | 1
Limbs | 60 | 14 | | 11 | 39 | 4 | | 3
Genital | 275 | 1 | | 1 | | | |
organs | | | | | | | |
------------+-------+-------+--------+------+-------+-------+--------+------
Totals | 873 | 324 | 72 | 390 | 256 | 120 | 9 | 173
Percentage| 40 | 10 | 4 | 18 | 45 | 21 | 1 | 30
The greatest number of anomalies due to degeneration occur in
connection with the _ear_, and the _genital organs_, and next in order
come those of the _palate_, the _teeth_ and the _limbs_. The maximum
number of anomalies due to _pathological causes_ are in connection
with the _head_, and principally with the _face_; after that, with the
_palate_, and then with the _bust_.
The anomalies most difficult to diagnose seem to be those relating to
the gums, the palate and the uvula, in regard to which it is not easy
to determine whether they are due to degeneration or to disease.
In order that we may have a clear understanding regarding
_malformations_, it is well to insist upon still another point:
Malformation does not signify _deviation_ from a type of ideal
beauty, but from _normality_.
Now, there are normal forms which are very far from beautiful
and which are associated with race. For instance, prognathism,
ultra-dolichocephaly, a certain degree of flat-foot, prominent
cheek-bones, the Mongolian eye, etc., are all of them
characteristics which are regarded by us as the opposite of
beautiful, but they are normal in certain races (therefore
practical experience is indispensable). These principles which,
when thus announced, are perfectly clear, must be extended far
enough to include that sum total of individuals whom we are in
the habit of calling _our race_. That we are hybrids, still
showing more or less trace of the racial stocks which originally
concurred in our formation, is well known, but not clearly enough.
The _primitive races_ are more or less evident in different
centres of population; for instance, in the large and promiscuous
cities, hybridism tends more or less completely, to _mask_ the
_types_ of race, producing individual uniformity through an
intermixture of characteristics that renders all the people very
much alike (civilised races). These are the individuals who form
the majority of the population, and whom we are in the habit of
regarding as being _normally formed_. But when we get away from
the big centres it may happen, and indeed does happen, that the
primitive racial forms or types become more apparent; thus, for
example, I found in Latium almost pure racial types at Castelli
Romani (dolichocephalics, brunette type, short stature), and at
Orte (brachycephalics, blond type, tall stature); the nuclei of
population at Castelli were especially pure. Now, as a result of
a highly particularised series of observations I found _normal
forms that were not_ _beautiful_ in each of these races; thus,
for example, in the brunette race, while the face is extremely
beautiful and delicate, the hands are coarse, the feet show a
tendency toward flat-foot, the breasts are pear-shaped, pendent and
abundantly hairy; in the blond type, on the contrary, while the
facial lineaments are coarse and quite imperfect, the hands, feet
and breasts are marvellously beautiful.
Accordingly, the marks of beauty are distributed in nature among
the _different_ _races_; there is no race in existence that is
wholly beautiful, just as there is no individual in existence who
is perfect in all his parts.
Furthermore, since there is for every separate characteristic a
long series of individual variations, both _above_ and _below_ (see
chapters on _Biometry_ and _Statistical Methodology_), it is very
easy to assume that we are on the track of a malformation, when it
is really a matter of racial characteristic. And this is all the
more likely to constitute a source of error, because the school of
Lombroso promulgated the morphological doctrine that a degenerate
sometimes shows an _exaggeration_ of ethnical characteristics.
Thus, for example, we meet with ultra-brachycephalics and
ultra-dolichocephalics among the criminal classes.
Let us suppose that a teacher who has made a study of anthropology
receives an appointment in one or another of the Castelli Romani.
Among the _normal_ individuals studied by me, certain ones showed a
cephalic index _of_ 70. Now, a teacher accustomed to _examine_ the
crania of city children and to find that the limits range more or
less closely around mesaticephaly, would be led to assume that he
was in the presence of an _abnormal_ individual.
Now, in the places where morphological characteristics of race
are most persistent, the _social forms_ are primitive, and so
also are the sentiments, the customs and the _ethical level_,
because _purity of race_ means an absence of hybridism, _i.e._,
an absence of intimate communication with human society evolving
in the flood-tide of civilisation. Consequently, in addition to
the above-mentioned characteristic (ultra-dolichocephaly), the
individual would probably show an intellectual inferiority, an
inferiority of the ethical tense, etc., and this would serve
to strengthen the teacher's first impression. But the normal
_limits of growth_ for a given age, the absence of real and actual
malformations (for instance, in this case there is probability of
facial beauty, etc.), would cause him very quickly to correct his
first judgment with a more thoughtful diagnosis. Therefore a study
of local ethnical characteristics would be very useful as a basis
for pedagogical anthropology, as I have tried to show in one of my
works (_Importanza della etnologia_ _regionale nell'antropologia
pedagogica_, "The importance of regional ethnology in pedagogical
anthropology").
And this also holds good for the interpretation of true
malformations.
We have hitherto been guided in our observation of so-called
stigmata by analytical criteria, that is, we have been content with
determining the single or manifold malformations in the individual
without troubling ourselves to determine their _morphological
genesis_ or their _genesis of combination_.
For example, the _ogival palate_ is a well-known anomaly of form,
but in all probability it will occur in an individual whose family
has the _high and narrow_ _palate_ that is met with, for instance,
as the normal type among the dolichocephalics of Latium; the same
may be said in regard to flat-foot, etc. Multifold diastemata and
macrodontia will, on the contrary, be more easily met with in
families whose palate is wide and low (brachycephalics). And just
as certain normal forms or characteristics are found in combination
in a single individual (for instance, brachycephaly, fair hair,
tall stature, etc.), so it is also in the case of stigmata, which
will be found occurring together in one individual, not _by_
_chance_, but according to the laws of morphological combination,
and probably as an _exaggeration_ of (unlovely) characteristics
which belong, as normal forms, to the family or race.
There are already a number of authorities on neuropathology, De
Sanctis among others, who have noted that there is an _ugly family
type_ which sometimes reproduces itself in a sickly member of the
family, in such a way as to exaggerate pathologically the unlovely
but normal characteristics of the other members, and furthermore,
that an exaggeration of unlovely characteristics may increase from
generation to generation, accompanied by a disintegration of the
psychic personality.
Consequently, a knowledge of the morphological characteristics
which in all probability belong to the races from which the
subjects to be examined are derived, has a number of important
aspects. The literature of anthropology is certainly not
rich in _racial_ studies, consequently, I feel that it will
not be unprofitable to summarise in the following table the
characteristics that distinguish the two racial types encountered
by me among the female population of Latium.
TABLE OF THE DIFFERENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TWO
RACIAL TYPES
_Brunette Dolichocephalics and Blond Brachycephalics_
---------------+---------------------------+--------------------------
Organs to |Dolichocephalic, brunette |Brachycephalic, blond type
which the |type of low stature |of tall stature
characteristics| |
refer | |
---------------+---------------------------+--------------------------
Visage. |Elongated ellipsoidal or |Rounded, broad; coarse
|ovoidal; fine, delicate |features; contour
|lineaments, rounded |frequently angular,
|curves, softly modeled. |especially around the
| |cheek-bones.
| |
Eyes. |Large, usually |Not so large, the form
|almond-shaped; |frequently tending to the
|pigmentation brown, |oblique; the contours of
|shading from black to |the inner angle of the
|chestnut. |eye less clear-cut, owing
| |to the plica epicantica.
| |Pigmentation light gray,
| |blue.
| |
Nose. |Very leptorrhine; nostrils |Leptorrhine, tending
|delicate and mobile. |toward mesorrhine;
| |sometimes the nose is
| |fleshy, nostrils thick and
| |slightly movable only.
| |
Mouth. |Labial aperture small, |Labial aperture wide, lips
|lips finely modeled and |frequently fleshy, and not
|very red |well modeled.
| |
Teeth. |Small, with curved |Teeth large and flat,
|surface, gleaming, almost |enamel dull; difference
|as wide as long, not |between incisors, canines,
|greatly dissimilar, "like |etc., sharply marked.
|equal pearls." |
| |
Palate. |Very high and narrow |Flat and wide.
|(ogival). |
| |
Profile. |Proopic. |Platyopic.
| |
Ear. |Finely modeled, small, |Often irregular, large,
|delicate. |thick.
| |
Frontal line |Very distinct; forehead |Indistinct; forehead
of roots of |small. |protuberant.
hair. | |
| |
Neck. |Long and slender, flexible.|Short, more or less stocky.
| |
Thorax. |Flattened in |Projecting forward.
|antero-posterior direction.|
| |
Breasts. |Position low, form tending |Position high, breasts
|to pear-shape; nipples |round; nipple prominent,
|slightly raised, aureole |aureole small and
|broad; often hairy between |rose-colored; always
|the breasts. |hairless.
| |
Pelvis and |High and narrow; the |Low and broad; the abdomen
abdomen. |abdomen becomes prominent |does not become prominent.
|toward the thirtieth year, |
|even in unmarried women. |
| |
Lumbar curve. |Slightly pronounced; |Quite pronounced; position
|position of buttocks low. |of buttocks high.
| |
Limbs. |Distal portion slightly |Distal portion slightly
|shorter (as compared |longer (as compared with
|with the proximal) limbs |the proximal); limbs well
|slender. |endowed with muscles.
| |
Hands. |Coarse; palm long and |Delicate, palm broad,
|narrow; fingers short. |fingers long.
| |
Fingers. |Short, thick, with |Long, tapering; nails with
|flattened extremities; |deep placed quicks, rosy
|nails flat, not very pink |and shinning.
|nor very transparent. |
| |
Palmar and |Coarse; frequently with |Very fine, rosy and with
digital papillae|geometric figures on the |open designs.
|finger tips; pallid. |
| |
Feet. |Big; form tending to |Small, much arched.
|flatness. |
| |
Body as a |Slender; slight |Beautiful; strong muscle.
whole. |muscularity. Tendency |No tendency toward too
|toward stoutness in old |much flesh. Furthermore,
|age with deformation of |the body preserves its
|the body. |contours.
| |
Complexion. |Brunette and dark. |White.
| |
Color of hair. |Black to chestnut. |Blond.
| |
Form of hair. |Short, always wavy |Long, straight, section
|or curly, fine with |slightly elliptical and
|ellipsoidal section. |sometimes almost round.
| |
Hair on body. |Growth of hair sometimes |The surface of the body is
|found on thorax and on the |hairless.
|legs. |
---------------+---------------------------+--------------------------
=The Origin of Malformations during Development.=--Malformations are a
morphological index, and we have already shown that there is a relation
between the physical and the psychical personality. A defective
physical development tells us that the psychic personality must also
have its defects (especially in regard to the intelligence).
Not only degenerates, but even we normal beings, in the conflict of
social life, and because of our congenital weaknesses, have felt
that we were losing, or that we were failing to acquire the rich
possibilities latent in our consciousness, and that vainly formed
the height of our ambition. And when this occurred, the body also
lost something of the beauty which it might have attained, or rather,
it lacked the power to develop it. In the words of Rousseau, "Our
intellectual gifts, our vices, our virtues, and consequently our
characters, are all dependent upon our organism."
Nevertheless, this interrelation must be understood in a very wide
sense, and is modified according to the period of embryonal or
extrauterine life at which a lesion or a radical disturbance in
development chances to occur. In a treatise entitled _The Problems_ _of
Degeneration_, in which the most modern ideas regarding degeneration
are summed up, and new standards of social morality advocated, Brugia
gives a most graphic diagram, which I take the liberty of reproducing.
[Illustration:
fertilized ovum
embryo
foetus and new-born child
child]
From the little black point to the big circle are represented the
different stages of embryonal and foetal development, until we reach
the child. In A we have the fertilized ovum. Here it may be said that
the new individual does not yet exist; we are at a transition point
between two adults (the parents) and a new organism, which is _about to
develop_. Now comes the embryo, which may be called the new individual
in a _potential_ state; then the foetus, in which the human form is at
last attained; and lastly the child, which will proceed onward toward
the physical and spiritual conquests of human life. But so long as an
individual has not completely developed, deviations may occur in his
development; but these will be just so much the graver, in proportion
as the individual is in a more plastic state.
We should reserve the term _degeneration_, real and actual, to
that which presupposes an alteration at A, _i.e._, at the time of
conception. An alteration all the graver if it antedates A, that is to
say, if it preexisted in the ovum and in the fertilizing spermatozoon,
_i.e._, in the parents. In this case, there is no use in talking of
a direct educative and prophylactic intervention on behalf of the
individual resulting from this conception; the intervention must be
directed toward all adult individuals who have attained the power of
procreation. And in this consists the greatest moral problem of our
times--sexual education and the sentiment of responsibility toward
the species. All mankind ought to feel the _responsibility_ toward
the posterity which they are preparing to procreate and they ought
to lead a life that is hygienic, sober, virtuous, and serene, such
as is calculated to preserve intact the treasures of the immortality
of the species. There exist whole families of degenerates, whose
offspring are precondemned to swell the ranks of moral monsters. These
individuals, who result from a _wrongful conception_, carry within them
malformations of the kind known as degenerative, and together with them
alterations of the moral sense that are characteristic of degenerates,
that is to say, they will be unbalanced (through inheritance) in their
entire personality.
Something similar will happen if such a lesion befalls the embryo,
_i.e._, while the individual is still in the potential state (lacking
human form). In the foetus, on the contrary, _i.e._, the individual who
has attained the human form but is still in the course of intrauterine
development, any possible lesion, and more especially those due to
pathological causes, while they cannot alter the entire personality,
may injure that which is already formed, and in so violent a manner
as to produce a _physical_ _monster_, whose deformities may even be
incompatible with life (_e.g._, cleft spine or palate, hydrocephaly,
Little's disease, which is a form of paralysis of foetal origin, and
all the teratological (_i.e._, monstrous) alterations). That is to say,
in going from A to C we pass from _malformations_ to _deformations_;
from simple physical alterations of an aesthetic nature to physical
monstrosities sometimes incompatible with life itself; while in regard
to the psychic life, we find that the remoter lesions (in A) result for
the most part in anomalies of the moral sense, while those occurring
later (B, C) result for the most part in anomalies of the intellect.
So that at one extreme we may have moral monsters, with malformations
whose significance can be revealed only through observation guided by
science and at the other extreme, physical monsters, whose moral sense
is altered only slightly or not at all. Those who suffer injury at A
may be intelligent, and employ their intelligence to the malevolent
ends inspired by moral madness; those who suffer injury at C or D are
harmless monsters, often idiots, or even foredoomed to die. The peril
to society steadily diminishes from A to C, while the peril to the
individual steadily augments.
Over all these periods so full of peril to human development and so
highly important for the future of the species, we may place one single
word:
=Woman.=--Throughout the period that is most decisive for its future,
humanity is wholly _dependent upon woman_. Upon her rests not only the
responsibility of preserving the integrity of the germ, but also that
of the embryonal and foetal development of man.
The respect and protection of woman and of maternity should be raised
to the position of an inalienable social duty and should become one of
the principles of human morality.
To-day we are altogether lacking in a sense of moral obligation toward
the species, and hence lacking in a moral sense such as would lead
to respect for woman and maternity--so much so, indeed, that we have
invented a form of _modesty_ which consists in concealing maternity,
in not speaking of maternity! And yet at the same time there are sins
against the species that go unpunished, and offenses to the dignity of
woman that are tolerated and protected by law!
But even after the child is born and has reached the period of
lactation, we should still write across it the words _Woman_ and
_Mother_. The education and the responsibility of woman and of society
must be modified, if we are to assure the triumph of the species. And
the teachers who receive the child into the school, after its transit
through society (in the form of its parents' germs) and through the
mother, cannot fail to be interested in raising the social standards
of education and morality. Like a priesthood of the new humanity, they
should feel it their duty to be _practitioners_ of all those virtues
which assure the survival of the human species.
_Moral and Pedagogic Problems within the School._--Children when they
first come to school have a personality already outlined. From the
unmoral, the sickly, the intellectually defective to the robust and
healthy children, the intelligent, and those in whom are hidden the
glorious germs of genius; from those who sigh over the discomforts of
wretchedness and poverty to those who thoughtlessly enjoy the luxuries
of life; from the lonely hearted orphan to the child pampered by the
jealous love of mother and grandmother:--they all meet together in the
same school.
It is quite certain that neither the spark of genius nor the blackness
of crime originated in the school or in the pedagogic method! More
than that, it is exceedingly probable that the extreme opposite types
passed unnoticed, or nearly so, in that environment whose duty it is
to prepare the new generations for social adaptation. From this degree
of blindness and unconsciousness the school will certainly be rescued
by means of the scientific trend which pedagogy is to-day acquiring
through the _study of the pupil_. That the teacher must assume the
new task of _repairing_ what is wrong with the child, through the aid
of the physician, and of protecting the normal child from the dangers
of enfeeblement and deformation that constantly overhang him, thus
laying the foundations for a splendid human race, _free to attain_ its
foreordained development--all this we have already pointed out, and
space does not permit us to expand the argument further.
But, in conclusion, there is one more point over which I wish to pause.
If the Lombrosian theory rests upon a basis of truth, what attitude
should we pedagogists take on the question of moral education? We
are impotent in the face of the fact of the interrelation between
physical and moral deformity. Is it then no longer a sin to do evil
and no longer a merit to do good? No. But we have only to alter the
_interpretation_ of the facts, and the result is a high moral progress
pointing a new path in pedagogy. There are, for example, certain
individuals who feel themselves irresistibly attracted toward evil,
who become inebriated with blood; there are others, on the contrary,
who faint at the mere sight of blood and have a horror of evil. There
are some who feel themselves naturally impelled to do good, and they
do it in order to satisfy a personal desire (many philanthropists)
thus deriving that pleasure which springs from the satisfaction of any
natural need. In our eyes, all these individuals who act instinctively,
though in opposite ways, deserve neither praise nor blame; they were
born that way; one of them is physiologically a proletarian, the other
is a capitalist of normal human ability. It is a question of birth.
When the educator praised the one and punished the other, he was
sanctioning the necessary effects of causes that were unknown to him:
"But still, whence cometh the intelligence
Of the first notions man is ignorant,
And the affection of the first allurements
Which are in you as instinct in the bee
To make its honey; and this first desire
Merit of praise or blame containeth not."
(DANTE, _Longfellow's Translation_.)
The instinctive malefactor is not to blame, the blame should rest
rather upon his parents who gave him a bad heredity; but these parents
were in their turn victims of the social causes of degeneration.
The same thing may be said if a pathological cause comes up for
consideration in relation, for instance, to certain anomalies of
character.
Analogously, he who is born good and instinctively does good deeds,
deriving pleasure from them, deserves no praise. There is no vainer
sight than is afforded by a person of this sort, living complacently in
the contemplation of himself, praised by everyone, and to all practical
intent, held up as a contrast to the evil actions of the degenerate
and the diseased who act from instinct no more nor less than he does
himself. The man who is born physiologically a capitalist assumes
high moral obligations; he ought to discipline his nature as a normal
man in order to make it serve the general good. And this is not to be
accomplished through an _instinct_ to do good, which acts at haphazard,
but through the _deliberate_ _will_ to do good, even if the requisite
actions bring no immediate satisfaction, but even involve a sacrifice.
Society will be ameliorated and rendered moral through the harmonious
efforts of good men, trained for the social welfare. Man will become
good only when his goodness costs him a voluntary effort.
Hence it will be necessary not to limit ourselves, as has been done
in the past, to admiring the man who is born good, but to educate him
so as to render him thoughtful, strong and useful; not to condemn the
sinner, but to redeem him through education and through a sense of
fellowship in the common fault, which is the scientific form of pardon.
The degenerate, who succeeds in conquering his sinful instinct and in
ceasing to do harm, the normal man who renders himself morally sublime
by dedicating his splendid physiological inheritance to the collective
good, will be equally meritorious. But what a moral abyss gapes
open to divide them! Because it is a short stride at best that the
physiological proletariat can take, while for the soul of the normal
man an untrammelled pathway lies open toward perfection.
Accordingly the new task of the teacher of the future is a multifold
one. He is the artificer of human beauty, the new modeler of created
things, just as the sublime chisel of Greek art was the modeler of
marbles. And he prepares for greater utilisation the physiological
and intellectual forces of the new man, like a Greek deity scattering
broadcast his prolific riches.
But above all he prepares the souls for the sublime sentiment which
awaits the humanity of the future, glorying in the attainment of peace,
and then indeed he becomes almost a redeemer of mankind.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] ROSSI, _Anthropological Anomalies in their relations to social
conditions and to degeneration_.