1 86 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



were habitual criminals. These figures go far to 

 support Mr. Dugdale's statement that Houses of 

 Refuge are the " nurseries, not the reformatories, 

 of crime." ^ Concerning diseases among crim- 

 inals, Dr. Bruce Thompson says : " In all my 

 experience I have never seen such an accumula- 

 tion of morbid appearances as I witness in the 

 post-mortem examinations of the prisoners who die 

 here. Scarcely one of them can be said to die of 

 one disease, for almost every organ of the body is 

 more or less diseased ; and the wonder to me is 

 that life could have been supported in such a dis- 

 eased frame. Their moral nature seems equally 

 diseased with their physical frame ; and whilst 

 their mode of life in prison reanimates their 

 physical health, I doubt whether their minds are 

 equally benefited, if improved at all. On a close 

 acquaintance with criminals, of eighteen years' 

 standing, I consider that nine in ten are of 

 inferior intellect, but that all are excessively 

 cunning." ^ 



But figures and testimonies are scarcely needed 

 to prove that a criminal ancestry, especially 

 when reinforced by criminal environment, will 

 surely lead to crime and degeneration. To 



1 The Jukes, Dugdale, revised edition, p. vii, 



2 Quoted in The Jukes, Dugdale, p. 95. 



