CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. fi61 



yet tliey may not be incorrigible, certainly not until they shall have 

 arrived at the age when the character is fixed. 



(G) It follows as a necessary conclusion that as each of these classes 

 of (leliuqueuts may be determined with anything appronching pre- 

 cision an enlightened legislature should adopt a special treatment. It 

 is not astouisbing that the legislators and magistrates who make and 

 deal with the criminal laws should repulse the services and the aid of 

 psychology and anthropology, and should persist in their a priori per- 

 ceptions and in uniform precepts, without giving consideration to the 

 inlinite variety in criminals produced by so many different causes and 

 intluenced so differently by surroundings, all of which go in such supreme 

 degree to form the guilty and reprehensible intent with which the crime 

 was committed, or which on the other hand may take away that in- 

 tent and form either a justification or excuse. 



M. Puglia gave his unqualified assent and support to the propositions 

 advanced by Baron Garofalo. 



M. Alimena, on the contrary, assailed the entire classification. Ac- 

 cording to him the examination, whether anthropological, physical, or 

 psychological, was insufficient to more than raise presumptions and 

 invent theories, while certainty was required in dealing with judicial 

 questions and cases. If exterior and physical anomalies are appreci- 

 ated, why not apply the same rule to internal anomalies'? What, he 

 demanded, did it signify as to the depth or size, more or less, of the 

 occipital fossette in the skull of Charlotte Corday which we now saw 

 in the collection of Prince Koland Bonaparte f If it indicates, as is 

 claimed, that she was a born criminal, then instead of being a heroine 

 who rid the world of a monster, she was naught but a common, vulgar, 

 impulsive murderess. 



The difference should be recognized between a purely scientific treat- 

 ment of criminals and the practical treatment which they must receive 

 under the law. If science advances so does the law. But they go at 

 different rates. Science flies on wings of the mind, while the law 

 marches along in stately and dignified tread with leaden sandals. 

 Scientific errors are easilj" corrected. They do no harm. They come 

 down upon us and envelop us as does the fog the earth, but like the 

 mists of the morning which fade away before the sunlight of lieaven, 

 so do they under tiie light of investigation ; while the jurisprudence of 

 the country, solid and enduring, and, more like the earth which has been 

 hidden, remains after the fog has been dissolved into a few drops of 

 dew. 



He expressed his opinion that of al) these sciences, psychology 

 would be most productive in results, and he much regretted that the 

 schools of law and of medicine did not teach this science. 



Lombroso responded that his works or his opinions were not opposed 

 to nor contradicted by any i)sychologic diagnosis. He returned to the 

 skull of Charlotte Corday, which he said demonstrated anatomic char- 



