836 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and the moral valuation of the crime which, may rise to the point 

 of true remorse. 



The characteristics of the attitude of the mad homicides dur- 

 ing their trials are the frequent energetic protests that they are 

 not mad, the dissimulation of their insanity or even the simula- 

 tion of another form of madness different from that from which 

 they suffer, the nonresistance when arrested, the instinctive at- 

 tempt at flight, and the alibi they prepare for themselves in cases 

 of premeditation ; their frequently detailed confession, often made 

 in phrases such as " It was not I. It was my head. I was blinded 

 by my illness. I felt a blow on my head," and so forth. Or when, 

 like other delinquents, they are not anxious to invent excuses for 

 themselves, they either do not excuse themselves at all, or even 

 accuse themselves of imaginary crimes, as though they wished 

 to make themselves out worse than they are. 



Ferri finally proceeds to analyze very carefully the groups of 

 symptoms regarding the life of the criminal before and after the 

 committal of his crime as well as his hereditary antecedents. 

 The previous conduct of the born homicide is often very regular ; 

 and then suddenly, a little before the murder, a change of life and 

 character will take place. Another characteristic sometimes is 

 the perpetration of other crimes after the first homicide. 



Following this last research Ferri gives us in conclusion the 

 most important deductions which result from this portion of his 

 great work, as to the psychical constitution of the born homicide 

 and the mad homicide. He sums them up into twelve axioms, 

 which should prove of invaluable use to the judicial authorities. 

 These it is not easy to condense, and for their precise formula we 

 must refer our readers to Ferri's book. 



Crime is always a decided condition. This is the final and 

 lucid outcome of his learned work, a conclusion at which Virgil 

 and Lombroso respectively arrived, and a conclusion that honors 

 these thinkers. In his future volume he promises to treat of the 

 two other typical figures of homicides from passionate impetus 

 and homicides from occasion, to which we look forward. One 

 important point Ferri touches but slightly, and that is. Is crime 

 nowadays the exception or is it not rather the rule ? It must 

 unfortunately be concluded that it is the rule in the actual epoch 

 Europe is traversing ; this does not mean, however, that crime is 

 a normal phenomenon, but only helps to confirm the innate rela- 

 tions that exist between economic conditions and criminal facts, 

 or rather, in Ferri's own words, " that the present social crisis has 

 reached such a point as to render even criminal symptoms acute 

 and profound, which does not exclude that in a more advanced 

 phase of social order, such as scientific socialists look forward to, 

 crime, like every other symptom of social jDathology, will be re- 



