282 MARRIAGE AND DISEASE. 



wherein he devised laws for the protection of the 

 feeble and good against the machinations of the strong 

 and evil, the exercise of this instinct was as necessary 

 for self-preservation in the human family as it had 

 been in the case of the lower animals, from which he 

 inherited the gift. Its presence to-day in our children 

 is a sad commentary on the success of our civilisation. 

 Had the laws devised by man given anything like 

 perfect protection to the just against the unjust, or 

 civilisation eliminated the evil instincts natural to 

 uncivilised man, this character must, like many another 

 primitive character, have grown dim, faded, and finally 

 disappeared as useless in the economy. But as no 

 civilisation can ever make the bad good, and no law 

 can ever fully protect the weak and honest against 

 the strong and dishonest at least no law yet devised 

 we find this character, which made its appearance 

 very early in the process of evolution, handed on from 

 parent to child in the highest ranks of civilised 

 humanity, as it was among our poor relations ages 

 before we came into existence. 



The next step in the evolution of Criminal Anthro- 

 pology, which dates from the time of Aristotle or 

 earlier, was attained with the establishment of Phren- 

 ology, that is, when man began to note how certain 

 instincts and passions in his fellows were associated 

 with certain peculiarities of cranial development. Here 

 the natural philosopher was on surer ground ; but, as 

 in physiognomy, and for the same reason, viz., want 

 of any scientific basis, his conclusions in individual 



