INSTINCTIVE CRIMINALITY. 285 



decay, but that is not his only blight. Primarily it is 

 his moral sense which is at fault, and leads him to 

 offend against society, but it is seldom indeed that we 

 find any of his class at all approaching perfection, 

 either intellectually or physically. He is a moral 

 imbecile. He lacks the moral sense as the idiot lacks 

 the intellectual, and in both cases the whole economy 

 is more or less degenerate and imperfect. As we find 

 the intellectual want in the idiot associated with 

 physical deformity and moral perversion, and in the 

 physically degenerate we discover mental weakness or 

 disorder and a generally depraved condition of the 

 whole man, so in the criminal we find the moral decay 

 accompanied in the majority of cases by physical 

 degenerations and deformities, together with intel- 

 lectual weakness, epilepsy, and all kinds of neurotic 

 conditions. 



As Maudsley says, " The criminal class constitutes 

 a degenerate or morbid variety of mankind, marked 

 by peculiarly low physical and mental characteristics. 

 . . . They are scrofulous, not seldom deformed, with 

 badly-formed angular heads ; are stupid, sullen, sluggish, 

 deficient in vital energy, and sometimes afflicted with 

 epilepsy." Dr. G. Wilson stated in 1869 that "40 

 per cent, of all convicts are invalids, more or less ; and 

 that percentage is largely increased by the professional 

 thief class." * This is 10 to 20 per cent, under the 

 estimate of the medical officers of prisons at the 

 present day, who find less than 50 per cent, of all 



* British Medical Journal, 1869. 



