630 CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 



not prove that criiuinals are anatomic monsters, and no more does the 

 fact that some criminals are epileptics i)rove that all criminals are 

 epileptics, nor that epileptics become criminals. The statistics ob- 

 tained and the averages sought to be established have been based 

 upon insufficient data. The series have not been suffi dently extended, 

 the figures have been obtained by defective processes, the observa- 

 tions have been uncertain and different, and the observers or investi- 

 gators have been novices in many cases, and in others have proceeded 

 upon different lines, if not by different processes, each one of them 

 more uncertain and defective than the other. They have cited insig- 

 nificant differences which they say exist between honest men and 

 criminals, but which differences may be found in equal proportion 

 among honest men, if they were so examined, and might also be found 

 between criminals. They have compared the series of criminals with 

 series of soldiers; that is to say, with men who are chosen for their 

 exemption from infirmities or deformities, and have calculated the 

 relative frequency of these deformities in the two series, or in the 

 series of the two classes without regard to the difference in their con- 

 dition. They have cited cranial peculiarities observed by different 

 persons operating in different methods and by different rules, with 

 different standards. And from <ill these discordant and inharmonious 

 elements they have sought to establish averages in the respective 

 classes whether of criminals or of honest men. 



In spite of all this incoherence and erroneous and defective process, 

 whether of gathering facts and obtaining evidence, or of ratiocination, 

 they have obtained statistics, which, aided slightly by preconceived 

 opinion, have almost persuaded some of our wisest and best men that 

 the criminal classes present in their average a proportion of abnormal 

 or inferior characters greater than those belonging to the classes of 

 honest men. The number of these abnormal or inferior characters 

 are multiplying themselves day by day in the estimation of these wise 

 men, and this is being pushed to such extremes as that soon the man 

 who is believed to be honest will find himself possessing a half dozen 

 of these criminal characteristics. Thus the system is in danger of 

 breaking down of its own weight. 



We might with propriety ask, what constitutes a criminal type? If, 

 in making this examination of criminals, one unites the characters 

 abnormal, pathologic or inferior, taken in an examination of say a 

 thousand criminals, without considering and arranging upon the other 

 side the characters found therein which are incompatible with each 

 other, it will be apparent that the investigation will be without value 

 and the conclusion based thereon erroneous. One criminal is plagio- 

 cephalic, another has long arms, another a vermien fossette, etc. But 

 it is not any one of these that forms a type whether criminal or other- 

 wise. 



In order to form a type one should unite the common characters, eli- 



