A REJOINDER 109 



rapidity. The criminal was apparently never found, 

 notwithstanding that these murders were committed 

 at different periods.* This being one of the facts 

 of our mundane life, I would like to ask Dr. Cobbett 

 how far it is consistent with his hypothesis that 

 cannibalistic instincts may be suppressed under the 

 softening influences of civilisation ? I would like 

 to ask him where in that civilisation are those external 

 promptings which encourage the perpetration of such 

 foul deeds to be found ? On the other hand, are not 

 all the influences of society against them ? The fear 

 of the hangman's rope is there to keep the wild 

 instincts of such cowardly beings in bounds ; but, 

 as is clear, no external influences can modify them 

 or avert the consequences of their operations, if 

 they be present. I need not multiply this particular 

 type of example, for almost every day the newspapers 

 contain some account of them. 



I may, however, pass to some other matters 

 which newspapers do not publish. Partly, perhaps, 

 because there is no particular interest in them, 

 and partly, because in these days of democratic 

 sentiment, when the play is to the highly strung 

 emotions of the gallery, it may be deemed impolitic 

 from a fmancial point of view to point the moral of 

 the facts. Such considerations and others akin to 

 them need not deter us. We have no love at all of 

 those things that are associated with the gallery, 



* I am aware of Sir Robert Anderson's recent statement to the 

 effect that these murders were the work of a Polish Jew, itnown to the 

 police, and that the murderer is described as a " maniacal sexual 

 pervert." But this does not in any way invalidate my argument. 



