74-6 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



LEX TALIONIS. 



To the Editor of the Popnlar Science Monthly. 



THE authors of " The Unseen Universe " 

 tell us, as appears in a note in your 

 January number, " It is probable that, 

 before many years have passed, electricity 

 will be called upon by an enlightened Legis- 

 lature to produce absolutely indescribable 

 torture, thrilling through every fibre of 

 such miscreants " in referring to " human 

 brutes who vent their despicable passions 

 in murderous assaults on women and chil- 

 dren." 



Evolution by reversion is not encour- 

 aging. 



The refinement of scientific training, in- 

 dicated by the above extract, is hardly in 

 the direction of improving civilization. 



It is suggested that the " human mis- 

 creants " are not the products of accident. 

 May they not be examples of inherited dis- 

 ease, and therefore properly fit subjects for 

 insane asylums, or other similar reforma- 

 tories ? How far may not society itself, in 

 the locality of these human monsters, be 

 responsible for their existence ? 



May we not hope that an " eye for an 



eye " is, in the order of healthy evolution, 

 to disappear entirely from our penal cor- 

 rectives, including that relic of barbarism, 

 capital punishment, even now rapidly dis- 

 appearing from our statute-books, and in 

 most States inflicted only for one grade of 

 crime? 



What is the object of all rational pun- 

 ishment ? Certainly not vengeance not 

 vindictiveness. 



Is it not, rather 1. Restitution to soci- 

 ety or to individuals, so far as possible, for 

 loss or injury caused by criminals ? 2. Pro- 

 tection of society from repetition of criminal 

 acts ? and, 3. Reformation of the culprit ? 



If the gallows, and " absolutely inde- 

 scribable torture, thrilling through every 

 fibre," provided by enlightened Legislatures, 

 are the only infallible remedies, then, in- 

 deed, is our vaunted civilization a sad fail- 

 ure. 



Let us revert to scientific inquisition at 

 once, and have a commission of savants in 

 this Centennial year of grace, to resurrect 

 the beauties of Torquemada. Why not ? 



B. 



EiCHMOiTD, Indiana, January 10, 18T6. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



MARTINEAU'S REPLY TO TYNBALL. 



ONE of the great characteristic ele- 

 ments of scientific knowledge is 

 that it is progressive, and the nature of 

 that progress is to arrive gradually at the 

 establishment of truth. Science having 

 fixed upon its methods methods that 

 have been vindicated in its history goes 

 on with the exploration of phenomena 

 in all fields, by beginning with imper- 

 fect evidence and gradually working 

 out its investigations to the complete- 

 ness of proof and the firm establish- 

 ment of facts and principles. This 

 being so, it follows that those who lead 



in science, who are active in its pre- 

 liminary work, are naturally the most 

 obnoxious to all those classes who rest 

 contented with the existing state of 

 opinion and are the conservators of tra- 

 ditional belief. It has always been so. 

 In every phase and stage of advancing 

 science, it is those that push on with 

 the pioneer work, who begin to ques- 

 tion opinions long rooted, trusting to 

 the wholesomeness of inquiry, and the 

 validity of long-tested scientific pro- 

 cedure, that encounter denunciation as 

 disturbers of the world's intellectual 

 peace. It was those who initiated in- 



