608 Meeting of the British Association. [Oct., 



present in certain Molluscs, aquatic insect laiTae, a Pbyllopodous 

 Crustacean, many Annelids, and in all Vertebrata, as well as in the 

 muscles of Mammals, Birds, and FLshes. The action of reagents on 

 Haemoglobin was then described, and the various derivative spectra 

 obtained by other observers were compared, and their place in the 

 spectrum scale fixed. Chlorocruorin, the green blood-stuff dis- 

 covered by Mr. Lankester in Sii^honostoma and Sabella, and Chon- 

 driochlor, the chlorophyl-like body obtained from Sjpongilla Jiuvi- 

 atilis, were also fully described. 



Dr. Wilson's paper " On the Moral Imbecility of Habitual Crimi- 

 nals," exemphfied by Cranial Measurements, attracted a considerable 

 audience. The author maintained that the majority of such crimi- 

 nals were devoid of all moral sense and principle, and could rarely 

 distinguish between right and wrong. They exhibited a tendency 

 to revert to the types of the uncivilized races, and cranial deficiency 

 was associated with real physical deterioration. The habitual 

 criminal was the victim of inherited prochvities to which he must 

 yield, and of a course of training which had so warped his nature 

 that he was incapable of appreciating any code of morality which 

 did not harmonize with his own vicious tendencies. Dr. Wilson 

 had examined and measured about 460 heads, and had arrived at 

 the conclusion that habitual criminals were cranially deficient, espe- 

 cially in the anterior lobes of the cerebral portion of the brain. 



The Kev. W. Caine, chaplain of the county gaol of Manchester, 

 maintained that ignorance and defective intellect was by no means 

 a universal or even general characteristic of criminals ; and he 

 startled the meeting by the statement that at one time, out of 700 

 Protestant criminals in tbe gaol, 81 were Sunday-school teachers, 

 besides clergymen and their sons, sohcitors, schoolmasters by the 

 dozen, commercial travellers, and others. From very recent obser- 

 vation, he found that out of 649 criminals in that gaol 593 had 

 been Sunday scholars, on the average between six and seven years 

 each. This state of things arose from the bad example of parents 

 and companions, and the temptation of diink. 



Mr. Busk, Professor McClellan, and Mr. Prideaux also took part 

 in the discussion, which turned much upon the cranial measure- 

 ments; and it appeared, from the contradictory opinions held by 

 the speakers, that all our collections of crania, their measurement 

 and delineation, have yet led to very little result. We had thought, 

 that however much the details had been disputed, the basis of Phre- 

 nology, that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that its anterior 

 portion is the seat of the intellect, was pretty generally admitted. 

 Mr. Busk and Prof. McClellan, however, assured the audience that 

 there was much to be said on the other side, and that they inclined 

 to the belief that the intellectual fiicullics had their ; cat in the back 



