CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY IN ITALY. 753 



square built; like Lombroso, he has piercing eyes that shine forth 

 acutely from behind glasses that he always wears. Psychologist, 

 anthropologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and literary man, Morselli 

 has right to all these titles, and in each branch he is noteworthy. 

 He was born in Modena in 1832, and studied at his native university, 

 carrying off high honors. As a mere student he attracted attention 

 by disputing the conclusions of a noted celebrity on some anthro- 

 pological points, proving himself right. For a while he was the 

 assistant of Mantegazza in arranging his Anthropological Museum, 

 one of the finest as well as one of the most important in Europe. 

 When only twenty-eight he was called to preside over the Turin 

 lunatic asylum, and soon distinguished himself by his profound 

 knowledge of everything connected with the study and treatment of 

 the demented. Besides attending to his profession he found time to 

 write a number of works dealing with normal and abnormal mental 

 maladies, whose mere enumeration would fill pages, some of which, 

 like his work on Suicide, have been translated into English. Mor- 

 selli's latest work was a reply to Brunetiere's assertions regarding 

 " the bankruptcy of science/' demonstrating that here was a case in 

 which the wish was father to the thought, and for which no real 

 foundation existed. 



Paolo Mantegazza has been dealt with at length in these pages, 

 and we need not go over the ground again. What is needful to say 

 is, however, that he has been left behind in the rapid onward tramp 

 of his younger colleagues. Mantegazza is perhaps entitled to lay 

 claim to the name he loves to sport, that of the father of Italian 

 anthropology; but, according to the more precise views of our day, 

 he can hardly be regarded as a real scientist. As is often the case, 

 the sons have outstripped the father, who now combats the views of 

 his legitimate offspring. A reproach cast at Mantegazza, it would 

 seem not without reason, is that he too closely follows Moliere's pre- 

 cept, " Je prends mon bien ou je le trouve" and that he has passed 

 off as his own the conclusions and the work of German scientific men. 

 Another reproach that is certainly well founded is his manifest de- 

 light in handling obscene themes, and handling them not in the calm, 

 scientific spirit that removes from them a real obscene character, but 

 treating the details with a gusto that reveals how these prurient 

 matters rather delight than disgust him, and what is worse, these 

 works are written in popular language, frankly appealing to a popu- 

 lar rather than a scientific audience. To this class belong all his 

 works on Love, on Women, on the Art of taking a Wife, of Being 

 a Husband, etc. It may safely be asserted that his fame is steadily 

 declining, and that his want of perseverance and observation is itself 

 to blame for this. By nature Mantegazza was endowed with a fine 



