746 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



impulse, although he often displays, as madmeu do, a low cunning 

 in finding means to carry out his impulse. He is intensely vain, prid- 

 ing himself on the number of crimes he has committed. He is 

 further devoid of all remorse, fond of boasting of his evil deeds and 

 of describing them in detail. Thus Lombroso gives the reproduc- 

 tion of a photograph, in which three murderers who had assassinated 

 one of their number caused themselves to be represented in the very 

 act of committing their deadly deed, a photograph taken for the 

 benefit of their less fortunate associates. 



This inordinate vanity is often in itself the primary cause of ter- 

 rible crimes, especially in young men who have just attained puber- 

 ty, an age observed to be especially fruitful in crimes of violence. 

 The critical character of this period, even in well-balanced minds, 

 is abundantly known; little wonder, then, if it prove fatal to those 

 whose constitutions urge them to extremes. It is noticed also that 

 the criminal needs to lead a life full of noise. The necessity of 

 orgies entailed by the irregularities of his feelings is often the moving 

 cause of some act of violence, such as robbery and assassination, cal- 

 culated to procure the means of indulgence. His affections, too, are 

 abnormal: he will assassinate father and mother, and yet be capable 

 of making sacrifices for some companion in time of illness. This 

 trait, however, occurs more often among women than men. We 

 used to believe there was a species of honor among thieves, but 

 Lombroso asserts that it is rare to find any consistent attempt to shield 

 each other; on the contrary, the almost physical need they feel of 

 talking incessantly renders them specially inclined to mutual be- 

 trayal. The criminal is fond of tattooing himself, and so distinctive 

 a mark of criminal tendencies is this held in Italy that tattooed re- 

 cruits are looked on as likely to make bad soldiers ; and a private once 

 spoke to Lombroso of tattooing as " convict habits." He presents, 

 too, an extraordinary insensibility to pain, tattooing himself in places 

 which even the Indians spare, and receiving or inflicting on himself 

 the most terrible wounds without a murmur. 



He has a language of his own, employed even in cases where he 

 would run no risk from using ordinary speech, and this still further 

 isolates him from the rest of mankind. He has a writing of his own, 

 too, made up of hieroglyphics and rough pictures. 



Such briefly is the Frankenstein, which the modern science of 

 criminal anthropology evokes; an unbalanced being, a pathological 

 subject, whose illness takes a form which, hurtful to society, is de- 

 fined as crime. For the facts collected by Lombroso place beyond all 

 doubt the intimate connection between crime and mental derange- 

 ments which has so long been suspected to exist. Madmen and 

 criminals belong to the same family; not in the sense of the vulgar 



