436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



A further analogy may be seen between the treatment of the 

 lunatic in past times and the treatment of the criminal in recent 

 years. It will be admitted without question that the former 

 treatment of the insane could only result in driving the victim 

 to utter madness. In an interesting work, entitled Old Bailey 

 Experience (1833), the writer, who shows himself far in advance 

 of his time, in reflecting on the treatment of criminals in Eng- 

 land, says, "So convinced am I that the manner in which the 

 laws are administered, under the discretion of the judges at the 

 Old Bailey, has been one of the chief causes of the increase of 

 crime, that it is a perpetual source of concern to me, that the 

 subject has not been taken up by some one more able than myself 

 to awaken the attention of the public." And he proves his posi- 

 tion by an overwhelming mass of evidence. 



Of late years there has sprung into existence a school of crimi- 

 nal anthropology, with societies, journals, and a rapidly increasing 

 literature. A most admirable summary of the work thus far 

 accomplished has recently been given by Dr. Robert Fletcher, in 

 his address as retiring President of the Anthropological Society 

 of Washington. In his opening paragraphs Dr. Fletcher graphi- 

 cally portrays the scourge of the criminal and his rapid increase. 

 " In the cities, towns, and villages of the civilized world, every 

 year, thousands of unoffending men and women are slaughtered ; 

 millions of money, the product of honest toil and careful saving, 

 are carried away by the conqueror, and incendiary fires light his 

 pathway of destruction. "Who is this devastator, this modern 

 ' scourge of God,' whose deeds are not recorded in history ? The 

 criminal ! Statistics unusually trustworthy show that if the car- 

 nage yearly produced by him could be brought together at one 

 time and place it would excel the horrors of many a well-contested 

 field of battle. In nine great countries of the world, including 

 our own favored land, in one year, 10,380 cases of homicide were 

 recorded ; and in the six years, extending from 1884 to 1889, in the 

 United States alone, 14,770 murders came under cognizance of 

 the law. 



" And what has society done to protect itself against this ag- 

 gressor ? True, there are criminal codes, courts of law, and that 

 surprising survival of the unfittest, trial by jury. Vast edifices 

 have been built as prisons and reformatories, and philanthropic 

 persons have formed societies for the instruction of the criminal 

 and to care for him when his prison gates are opened. But, in 

 spite of it all, the criminal becomes more numerous. He breeds 

 criminals ; the taint is in the blood, and there is no royal touch 

 which can expel it." 



Certain results of the modern school of anthropology, as pre- 

 sented by Dr. Fletcher, may be briefly summed up by stating 



