ENRICO FERRI ON HOMICIDE. 829 



cranial capacity, by the larger frontal diameter, and tlie minor 

 development of the upper jaw. Worthy of note, too, in regard to 

 this last point is the result of the examination of homicidal mur- 

 derers as resi^ects recidivistry. The former showed less cranial 

 capacity and a minor frontal diameter, while their upper jaws 

 were more developed. 



Having examined these chronic anomalies in criminals in re- 

 affirming the conclusions arrived at by the modern school of crim- 

 inal anthropology, Ferri gives us the physiognomy of murderers 

 in their characteristic traits, calling to aid the help of photogra- 

 phy. It is an interesting series of pictures that he has thus 

 grouped together. Here is the apish type; there the half -mad; 

 there one with large jaws, the most characteristic and frequent 

 feature ; the type with receding forehead, etc. The study of tem- 

 perament and of race in the order of delinquency, which repre- 

 sents the bio-psychic personality of an individual and of a people, 

 is not yet well matured, as opinions with regard to their influ- 

 ences are many and varied. Still, some progress has been made. 

 Thus it is popularly held that full-blooded, passionate, energetic 

 temperaments are more prone to homicide, while the truth really 

 lies in the opposite direction ; the physiological character of this 

 determination is rather a general denutrition of the organism and 

 of the nervous system which originates that irritability and that 

 lack of inhibition by which men react with more difficulty against 

 the murderous impulse. 



Race, whose marked influence in biological and social mani- 

 festations is, however, denied by many eminent scientists, is 

 nevertheless one of the concurrent factors in the determination 

 of a crime and one which can not be overlooked. Race is not the 

 only factor in the distribution of homicide in Europe, for side by 

 side with this run the social economical conditions induced in 

 their turn by this very race. In this distribution there are mani- 

 fest three distinct ethnographical groups — the Grseco-Latin, the 

 Germanic with the Anglo-Saxon, and the Slav — which stand for 

 the three large zones of homicide. In the first place for the 

 greater frequency of homicide stand the Latin peoples — Italy, 

 Spain, Roumania, Portugal, France, and Belgium ; in the medium 

 zone the Slav people of Russia and Austria ; for the minor fre- 

 quency of this crime, the peoples of Germanic origin of Germany, 

 Holland, and England. The sad supremacy pertains not to Italy 

 but to Spain. 



With this extended survey of the organic constitution of homi- 

 cidal delinquents Ferri terminates the first section of his book. 

 The second part is devoted to the study of the psychic constitu- 

 tion of the murderers. He first wisely clears the ground with 

 regard to the interpretation of j)sychic data and the relations be- 



