proceedings: anthropological society 469 



protection sometimes fails. Rather complicated watering methods 

 are necessary in the west to prevent chemical injury to the germinating 

 seed by fungicides which leave residues. Further work is required 

 to place any of the treatments on a firm economic basis. 



W. W. Stockberger, Corresponding Secretary. 



THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



The 462th regular meeting of the Anthropological Society of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, was held in the New Museum Building, Washington, on 

 October 15, 1912. 



Major Richard Sylvester, Superintendent of Police for the District 

 of Columbia, read a paper on Criminal characteristics. He reviewed 

 the history of crime and pointed out that as civilization progresses the 

 cruder crimes, such as homicide, tend to give place to subtler forms, such 

 as forgery or embezzlement. The general government, he continued, 

 has been urged to establish a national bureau of criminal identification, 

 but such cooperative work has been left to the heads of American police 

 departments. 



There are practical difficulties in establishing a standard for the normal 

 human being and in the distinction of criminals therefrom; for the police 

 tests are applied only to those who have broken the law and many are 

 non-criminal simply from lack of occasion. Moreover, many cases of 

 apparent criminality are due to mental defect or disease. 



The popular impression of the criminal as hungry and furtive is erro- 

 neous. The average man who makes crime a business in large cities is 

 fairly prosperous and has no fear of arrest. Some of the anatomical 

 characteristics which Lombroso thought decisive of criminality are com- 

 mon in the lower races of man, whether criminal or not. Measurements 

 in general give racial rather than criminal characteristics. 



Descriptions of a number of criminals charged with murder were 

 compared in detail with the result of showing many varieties of human 

 appearance bracketed together. 



Some special kinds of crime are associated with peculiarities of appear- 

 ance and develop these, but the criminal does not usually differ in 

 appearance from other people. Stress was laid on the importance of 

 circumstances beyond the control of the individual as largely determin- 

 ing the category to which a man belongs. 



The paper was discussed by Drs. Hrdlicka, Frank Baker, Hough, 

 Glueck and others. The first two emphasized the unreliability of ex- 

 ternal peculiarities, relied on by Lombroso and others, and of every 

 sort of test which has been devised for general distinction. Dr. Hrdlicka 

 insisted that crime is a matter of the nerves and brain, or that the men- 

 tality and criminal characteristics may be more due to organs and parts 

 which are hidden than to the obvious and chiefly irrelevant external 

 ones which Lombroso depended upon for his diagnosis. Dr. Hough 

 explained tattooing as devoid of significance in primitive conditions, 

 but in civilization as a survival indicative of some weakness that might 



