HOMICIDE AND SUICIDE. 285 



crime, rejoices at the thought of repeating it, and 

 expresses no feeling of remorse. 



Hereditary criminals form a class peculiar to 

 themselves. They are much influenced by en- 

 vironments, and are greatly brutalized by the use 

 of liquor; but crime is as natural to them as 

 the most desirable gifts are to other men. 

 Dr. Thompson, in speaking of this class, says : 

 "The habitual criminals are without moral sense. 

 They are true moral imbeciles, in the presence 

 of temptation; they have no self-control against 

 criminal acts. Out of five hundred murderers 

 that I have known, only three of them ever ex- 

 perienced any remorse." Lombroso says: 

 "Many criminals have told me that there were 

 times when they could not restrain themselves." 



An insatiable longing or inborn desire to steal, 

 or to torture something is not uncommon among 

 natural born criminals. That this is not the re- 

 sult of alcoholism or bad environments is proved 

 by the fact that it is often strongest in the young 

 child that has not been exposed to any of these 

 causes. The reform schools now contain several 

 thousand such children; hundreds of them were 

 born on a farm, or in places where they were far 

 removed from any exciting cause. 



The number of persons born with homicidal 

 or suicidal tendencies is increasing much more 



rapidly than is the normal population ; this is no Increase of 



, J . . F . Hereditary 



doubt in part due to the increased consumption Criminals. 



of alcohol and the unrestricted multiplication of 

 criminal families; but it is more largely due to 

 bad prenatal influences. The morbid conditions 

 of the prospective mothers, gloomy forebodings, 



