340 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



reditary taint being a fixed factor, it assumes expression in acts wliicli 

 are most in accord with sexual j^eculiarities. This is nearly equiva- 

 lent to Dr. Carpenter's theory of special mental aptitudes as giving 

 direction to the force of habit ; * except that its operation is .extended 

 to the hereditary transmissions of mental or physical qualities. It 

 is only in the early middle period of life that, from the nature of 

 thino-s, we would expect to find the criminal tendency under the 

 complete sway of sexual life. The inherited criminal tendency in 

 childhood and early youth finds its outlet in a viciousness common 

 to both sexes, or in the milder forms of crimes against property. This 

 is asserted on general princi2:)les. Dr. Carpenter remarks that " this 

 diversity may be in a great part attributed to changes in the physical 

 constitution. Thus, the sexual feeling, which has a most powerful 

 influence on the direction of the thoughts in adolescence, adult age, 

 and middle life, has comparatively little effect at the earlier and later 

 periods." ' This also accords with Mr. Dugdale's theory of criminal 

 analogues. This theory, in his important work,' is mainly brought out 

 in relation to the entailment of crime, and its truth lies in the fact 

 that, in the same family of criminals, while the males are thieves, the 

 females are prostitutes one the equivalent or analogue of the other. 

 The same family, in the two extremes of life, cliildhood and old age, 

 exhibits pauperism as either the reality or promise of a criminal ca- 

 reer. From the fact that pauperism exists as a parasite upon pro- 

 ductive society, and preys upon society to its permanent injury, and 

 makes no return, it will be regarded in this paper as an equivalent to 

 crime against property. When we consider that criminals by entail- 

 ment are exposed to environments possessing essential qualities in 

 common, it is reasonable to expect that in such crime would conform 

 in a more regular manner to those laws which seem to govern moral 

 conduct, than in those who drift into crime through impulse or mis- 

 fortune. This, in a general sense, holds true. M. Prosper Despine, 

 in his "Psychologic Naturelle," shows that incendiarism exists in the 

 young of both sexes with the inherited taint, as a characteristic. M. 

 Despine brings out with great force a mental condition of those who 

 inherit crime that gives an additional cause for the operation of the 

 laws of crime with almost undeviating regularity upon this class. 

 This is the total or nearly total absence of the moral sense 

 moral idiocy which isolates the offspring of criminal families from 

 the cliildren of untainted birth. By this moral blindness they are 

 distinguished throughout their lives. Thus there are wanting in this 

 class the moral elements which effect or impede the criminal tendency 

 in others. The sense of right or wrong, the sense of shame or dis- 

 grace, in no way interferes with the criminal tendency. This is the 

 very condition necessary for the unembarrassed operation of Mr. Dug- 



J " Principles of Mental Physiology," p. 3Y4. ' Loc. cit., p. S65. 



8 " Thirtieth Report," etc., p. 146. 



