HEREDITY AND POLITICS 155 



offender of clearly criminal type. We have already 

 given a short account of the more sensational Conti- 

 nental methods of studying the subject. In England 

 criminology has not yet become a recognized branch 

 either of penal jurisprudence or of biological science. 

 But the report of the Prison Commissioners for 1911 

 emphasizes the important fact, well known already 

 to students of the question, that a large proportion 

 of habitual criminals suffer from mental defect. This 

 conclusion might have been foretold from a study of 

 the pedigrees of unsound families. In such families 

 we find continually that the unsoundness takes different 

 forms in different individuals. Some will be feeble- 

 minded, some tuberculous, some alcoholic, some habitu- 

 ally criminal, while some show a combination of these 

 qualities. It is the unsound stock that is the root of 

 the mischief ; the criminality is but a symptom. 



In these cases it is clear that hopes of reformation 

 are vain. Short sentences of hard labour interspersed 

 with periods of ill-used freedom are merely senseless 

 in themselves, cruel to the criminal and a danger to 

 society. The only cure is permanent detention not 

 necessarily under penal conditions so that the un- 

 soundness may not reappear in yet another generation. 



Indirect methods of checking the reproduction of 

 undesirable sections of the people must also be con- 

 sidered. The present facilities for habitual paupers to 

 enter and leave the workhouse at will lead to evils 

 which perpetuate the hereditary qualities of these 

 parasites of society. Enlarged powers of detention 

 should be given to guardians in cases where abuse of 

 liberty is probable or certain. It should be recognized 



