14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



so lowered the moral tone as to render them unfit, as a class, to con- 

 tend with the difficulties of life, and exiiihit the same degree of moral- 

 ity as the unmarried woman. Much of this result must depend upon 

 the unavoidable social position of the married woman one not at all 

 calculated to test either her morality or self-reliance. The duties of 

 maternity and domesticity inseparable from her position, do not fortify 

 her against evil in her changed relation to society. On the contrary, 

 with the burden of children upon her, in the time of need, she looks 

 upon crime less as a positive than as a comparative evil. With the 

 true woman, there is no chance for hesitation in the choice between 

 crime in its minor forms and her maternal feelings. But the marriage 

 relation has other influences in forming woman's character as a crimi- 

 nal. The intimacy of the wife with a bad husband, who, if not a 

 criminal, at least may be capable of infusing lax moral notions in the 

 wife, would, if she were left a widow, surely bear fruit. We need a 

 more intimate knowledge of many facts in order to fully understand 

 this question of widowhood in its relation to crime. It is doubtful if 

 returns of crime from less densely populated places than New York 

 City would furnish results at all parallel to those in relation to widows. 

 The most plausible explanation I can give is, that these figures repre- 

 sent cases of absolute destitution. 



There are many other relations that marriage bears to woman's 

 career as a criminal, but which are beyond the scope of a magazine- 

 article. , All that relates to infanticide, and the prevalence of the 

 crime of the period, among the single and married, ought, I believe, in 

 writings of a popular character, to be omitted, except possibly the 

 grave words of warning. Upon this subject I have written all that I 

 thought prudent several years ago, and to whicli I refer the reader.' 

 The well-known lines of Pope upon the effect of familiarity with vice, 

 are certainly very true to-day. It is by a too familiar view of even 

 the shadow of crime, that in certain minds the criminal idea may be 

 developed. We need but abolish the mental barriers to crime to step 

 from the criminal idea to the criminal act. 



Instinctive recoil from the criminal idea without any mental res- 

 ervation is the characteristic of moral health. It is upon the morally 

 healthy minds that unfavorable social conditions may have most de- 

 plorable effect. One in whom the tendency to crime exists as a latent 

 mental quality, requires no social conditions for its development. 

 Whatever his or her occupation or social condition may be, this latent 

 quality is liable to assume active existence, and shape the destiny of 

 the individual. There is one quality that the criminal exhibits which 

 defines him as a class, and is the only trait by the existence of which 

 he becomes the member of a class. This is the liability, after the first 

 outbreak, to commit repeated offenses. I find no term which expresses 



' " The Detection of Criiriinal Abortion, and a Study of Foeticidal Drugs." James 

 Campbell, Boston, 1872. 



