CHAPTER XX. 



INSTINCTIVE CRIMINALITY. 



No work, however unpretentious, purporting to treat 

 of family degenerations, could, at the present day, be 

 considered complete, which did not give a place to the 

 class of instinctive criminals. 



The study of this abnormal variety of the human 

 animal, although still in its infancy, is one of the 

 oldest of the natural sciences. Indeed, it is as old 

 if not even older, than man himself. Clearly the 

 study of the criminal had its origin in the pseudo- 

 science' known to-day as Physiognomy, and this we 

 can trace down through all races to primitive man, and 

 not a little way further down still among the inferior 

 animals. 



The face of man, being much more expressive than 

 that of any of the animals beneath him in the scale of 

 development, gives a much clearer and truer reflec- 

 tion of the passions and desires passing in the brain 

 behind it. Every thought passing through the human 

 mind, cruel or kind, beautiful or brutal, is reflected 

 more or less clearly upon the features. If a thought, 

 passion, or desire be but transient, the moulding effect 



