346 



NA TURE 



\Atigttst 23, 1877 



gioup of persons resembling one another in some mental quality, 

 and that we cle.-ire 10 acieimine the external physical charac- 

 teristics and features mo^t commonly associated with it. I have 

 nothing new to say as regards the usual anthropometric 

 measurements, but I wish to speak of the great convenience of 

 photographs in conveyinu thnse subtle but cleaily visible 

 peculiarities of outline which almost elude measurement. It is 

 stiange that no use is made of photOLraphy to obtain careful 

 studies ut the head and features. No single view can pos- 

 sibly exhil)it the whole of a solid, but we require for Jthat 

 purpose viewi to be taken from three points at right 

 aiiiJles to one anothei-. Just as the architect requires to 

 know the elevation, side view, and plan of a house, so the 

 anthropologist ought to have the full face, profile, and view 

 of the head from above of the individual whose features he is 

 studying. 



It miyht be a great convenience, when numerous portraits 

 have to be rapidly and inexpensively taken for the purpose of 

 anthropological studies, to arrange a solid framework supporting 

 three mirrors, that shall afford the views of which I have been 

 speaking, by reflection, at the same moment that the direct 

 picture of the sitter is taken. He would present a three-quarter 

 tace to the camera for the direct picture, one adjacent mirror 

 would reflect his profile towards it, another on the opposite side 

 would reflect his lull face, and a third sloping over him would 

 reflect the head as seen from above. All llie reflected images 

 would lie at the same optical distance from the camera, and 

 would, therefore, be on the same scale, but they would be on a 

 somt what smaller scale than the picture taken directly. The 

 result would be an ordinary photographic picture of the sitter 

 surrounded by three different views of his head. Scales of inches 

 attached to the framework would appear in the picture and give 

 the means of exact measurement. 



Having obtained drawings or photographs of several persons 

 alike in most respects, but differing in minor det-iil-^, what sure 

 msthod is there of extracting the typical characteristics from 

 them? I may mention a plan which had occurred both to Mr. 

 Herbert Spencer and mysel', the principle of which is to super- 

 impose optically the \atious drawings and to accept the aggre- 

 gate result. Mr. Sf encer suggested to me in conversation that 

 the drawings reduced to tiie same scale might be traced on 

 separate pieces of transparent paper and secured one upon 

 another, and then held between the eye and the light. I have 

 attempted this with some success. My own idea was to throw 

 (aint images of the several portraits, in succession, upon the 

 same sensitised photographic plate. I may add that it is per- 

 fectly easy to superimpose optically two portraits by means of a 

 stereoscope, and that a person who is used to handle instruments 

 will find a common double eye-gl.iss fitted with stereoscopic 

 lenses to be almost as effectual and far handier than the boxes 

 sold in shops. 



In illustration of what I have said about photographic 

 portraits, I will allude to some recent experiences of my own in 

 a sutject that I have still under consideration. In previous 

 publications I have treated of men who have been the glory of 

 mankind, I would now call your attention to those who are its 

 disgrace. The particular group of men I have in view are the 

 criminals of England, who have been condemned to long terms 

 ol penal servitude for various heinous offences. 



It is needless to enlarge on the obvious fact that many persons 

 have become convicts who, if they had been afforded the average 

 chances of doing well, would have lived up to a fair standard of 

 virtue. Neither need I enlarge on the other equally obvious 

 fact, that a very large number of men escape criminal punish- 

 ment, who in reality deserve it quite as much as an average 

 convict. Making every allowance for these two elements of 

 nnceitainty, no reasonable man can entertain a doubt that the con- 

 vict class includes a large proportion of consummate scoundrels, 

 and that we are entitled to expect to find in any large body of 

 convicts a prevalence of the truly criminal charactistics, what- 

 ever these may be. 



Criminaliiy, though not very various in its development, is 

 extreniely complex in its origin : nevertheless, certain general 

 conclusions are arrived at by the best writers on the subject, 

 among whom I would certamly rank Prosper Despine. The 

 ideal ci iminal has three peculiarities of character ; his conscience 

 is almost deficient, his instincts are vicious, and his power of 

 .self-control is very weak. As a consequence of all this, he usually 

 detests continuous labour. This statement applies to the criminal 

 classes generally, the special conditions that determine the 

 de»ciiptiun of crime being the character of the instincts; and 



the fact of the absence of self-control beinij due to ungovern- 

 able temper, or to passion, or to mere imbecility. 



The deficiency of conscience in criminals, as shown by the 

 absence of genuine remorse for their guilt, appears to astonisii 

 all who first become familiar with the details of prison hie. 

 Scenes of heartrending despair are hardly ever w tnes^ed among 

 prisoners ; their sleep is broken by no uneasy dreams — on the 

 contrary, it is easy and sound ; they have also excellent appetites. 

 But hyprjcrisy is a very common vice ; and all my inlormatioii 

 agrees in one particular, as to the utter untruthfulness of 

 ciiminals, however plausible iheir statem;nts may appear to be. 



The subject of vicious instincts is a very large one ; we must 

 guard ourselves against looking upon them as perversions, 

 inasmuch as they may be strictly in accordance with the healthy 

 nature of the man, and, being transmissible l>y inheritance, may 

 became the ncrmal characteristics of a healthy race, just as the 

 sheep-dog, the retriever, the pointer, and the bull-dog have their 

 several instincts. There can be no greater popular error than the 

 supposiiion that natural instinct is a perfectly trustworthy guide, 

 for there are striking contradictions to such an opinion in 

 individuals of every description of animal. All that we aic 

 entitled to say is, that the prevalent instincts of each race are 

 trustworthy, not those of every individual. A man who is 

 counted as an atrocious criminal by society, and is punished as such 

 by the law, may nevertheless have acted in strict accordance with 

 his instincts. The idtal criminal is deficient in qualities that 

 oppose his vicious instincts ; he has neither the natural regard 

 for others which lies at the base of conscience, nor has he 

 sufficient self-control to enable him to consider his own selfish 

 interests in the long run. He cannot be preserved from criminal 

 misadventure, either by altruistic or by intelligently egoistic 

 sentiments. 



It becomes an interesting question to know how far these 

 peculiarities may be correlated with physical characteristics and 

 features. Through the cordial and ready assistance of .Sir 

 Edmund Du Cane, the Surveyor-General of Prisons, who has 

 himself contributed a valuable memoir to the Social Science 

 Congress on the subject, I was enabled to examine the many 

 thousand photograohs of criminals that are preserved for 

 purposes of identification at the Home Office, to visit prisons 

 and confer with the authorities, and lastly to procure for my own 

 private statistical inquiries a large number of copies of photo- 

 graphs of heinous criminals. I may as well say, that I begged 

 that the photographs should be furnished me without any names 

 attached to them, but simply classified in three groups according 

 to the nature of the crime. The first group included murder, 

 manslaughter, and burglary ; the second group included felony 

 and forgery ; and the third group referred to sexual crimes. 

 The photographs were of criminals who had been sentenced to 

 long terms of penal servitude. 



By familiarising myself with the collection, and continually 

 sorting the photographs in tentative was s, certain natural classes 

 began to appear, some of which are exceedingly well marked. 

 It was also very evident that the three groups of criminals con- 

 tributed in very different proportions to the different physiognomic 

 classes. 



This is not the place to go further into details : indeed my 

 inquiry is far from complete. I merely quote my experiences in 

 order to show the way in which questions of character, phy- 

 siognomy, and temperament admit of being scientifically 

 approached, and to give an instance of the helpfulness of pho- 

 tography. If I had had the profiles and the shape of the head 

 as seen from above, my results would have been much more 

 instructive. Thus, to take a single instance, I have seen many 

 pencil studies in outline of selected criminal faces drawn by Dr. 

 Clarke, the accomplished and zealous medical officer of Penton- 

 ville Prison ; and in these sketches a certain very characteristic 

 profile seemed to me conspicuously prevalent. I should have 

 been very glad of photographs to corroborate this. So, again, 

 if I had had photographic views of the head taken from above, 

 I could have tested, among other matters, the truth of Prof. 

 Benedict's assertion about the abnormally small size of the back 

 of the head in criminals. 



I have thus far spoken of the characters and physiognomy ol 

 well-marked varieties of men : the anthropologist has next to 

 consider the life history of those varieties, and especially their 

 tendency to perpetuate themselves, whether to oisplace other 

 varieties and to spread, or else to die out. In illustration of 

 this, I will proceed with what appears to be the history of the 

 criminal class. Its perpetuation by heredity is a question that 

 deserves more careful investigation than it has received, but it is 



