634 CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 



otherwise. If, on the other hand, they are educated to be criminals, 

 then ought our system of education to be seriously and radically 

 cbanged. I repeat my impression of the profound importance of this 

 science. 



Question III. — Establishment , of • regular rules for investigating the 

 occupants of our prisons and insane asylums by means of anthropom- 

 etry, or of psychology, by Dr. Sciammana of Kome, reporter. 



The study of the criminal had its origin in the purest love for science 

 and the greatest desire to obtain the truth. Perhaps those who com- 

 meuce to gather the history of celebrated criminals, to trace their organ- 

 isms, to study their special physical conditions, the environments in 

 which they have lived, or to search for the idea or theory that possessed 

 them at the moment of their crime, or the cause which pushed them to 

 it, did it for naught but scientific curiosity. But in the study of crim- 

 inal anthropology in these latter days these things have changed, and 

 now, thanks to the civilization of our epoch, its truth is sought for its 

 own sake as well as for the practical benefits which may follow. Every 

 one has recognized the practical importance of the study of criminal an- 

 thropology. There are, nevertheless, scientists who deny the fecundity 

 of the researches and who believe that crimes are nothing but the re- 

 sult of the free will of the criminal, and that the influence which pushes 

 him to commit the crime had its origin in the same free but evil and 

 wicked will. But we are not obliged to occupy ourselves with these 

 scientists, however wise they may be, because they have confined their 

 investigations only to the field of theory and have never come down to 

 test of investigation by means of experiments. 



Our scientific academies, our medical congress, the administration of 

 the prisons, are all now occupying themselves over the questions, what 

 are the individual characteristics of criminals, whether anatomic, psy- 

 chologic, physiologic or sociologic ? And in studying these questions 

 they are moved by the highest order of both charity and pride. They 

 are moved to discover the most rational and satisfactory method for the 

 prevention of crime and the reformation of criminals. Various scientific 

 societies and bodies have taken steps in this direction. 



The Society of Anthropology of Brussels organized a commission 

 charged to study the characters of professional criminals, and in the 

 bulletins of that society the members published their investigations on 

 the criminals confined at the prisons at Louvain. 



In 1885 the Medical Congress at Antwerp following a communication 

 made by Dr. Semal on the relations of criminality and insanity, voted 

 unanimously to continue these studies, to extend the commission to in- 

 clude the magistrates who tried the criminals, the administrators of the 

 penitentiary and the medical profession. 



The International Medical Congress of Barcelona recognized the im- 

 portance of criminal anthropology and declared that the scientific 



