736 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the period covered by the reports, 90 per centum of those arrested for 

 disorderly conduct and intoxication were women. ^ It becomes evident 

 at once that the excess of men over women, in crimes against the per- 

 son, cannot to any extent be accounted for by the proneness of men 

 to intoxication and disorderly conduct, and which we perceive does 

 not so greatly exceed that of women. Instead of searching among 

 accidental qualities for the causes of this difference, rather ought we 

 to examine the mental and physical qualities which exist inherently 

 in man. From the same source we may gain an idea which bears in 

 another direction upon this matter. The ratio of drunkenness and 

 disorderly conduct to total crime, for the sexes separately, furnishes 

 nearly positive proof that it has but a restricted influence upon the 

 tendency to crime in general. Thus, these ofienses furnish 41 per 

 centum of the total crime committed by men ; while, of the total crime 

 committed by women, 80 per centum is of the same nature. While 

 tlie number of drunk and disorderly among men is larger by a small 

 excess than the number of women so addicted, yet women considered by 

 themselves exhibit twice the tendency to these offenses that men do. 

 Here, the sex which affords the least measure of total crime gives the 

 largest ratio, relatively to her own sex, of those offenses which are so 

 generally supposed to underlie the criminal tendency. The explana- 

 tion I would offer of this rather unexpected result is, that intoxication 

 and disorderly conduct are offenses closely allied to vagrancy and its 

 analogue, prostitution ; that this class represents the effete among 

 men and women who gravitate into vice from total lack of vitality 

 and energy to keep themselves up to the level of the average. The 

 active criminal requires mental and physical energy in order to pur- 

 sue his course. Any of the conditions of life which depress the physi- 

 cal powers and deplete mental energy tend to remove those with 

 criminal tendencies from the order of active criminals, and j)lace them 

 among those addicted to the minor degrees of crime. While habitual 

 intoxication and disorderly conduct lead to the lighter offenses against 

 property, the more serious crimes against property and persons are 

 comparatively unaffected by these causes, either among men or women. 



CAROLINE LUCRETIA HERSCHEL. 



By ELIZA A. YOUMANS. 



MOST people in this counti-y have heard of Miss Caroline Her- 

 schel the astronomer. Without knowing much about her, she 

 has been vaguely regarded by the public as a profound scientific 

 genius, the strong-minded peer and coadjutor of her brother, the 



J "Reports of the Prison Association of New York," Tables "C," " D," " E," "F," 

 186Y, and Tables " 0," "D," "E," "F," " G," " H," 1871 and 1873. 



