48 C. W. M. Poynter 



(1885), "Che le anomalie del cervello dei criminali si manifes- 

 tano tanto frequenti e svariate in proporzione a quelle del cer- 

 vello degli uomini dabbene che si potrebbe in questa, peculiare ric- 

 chezza diforme anatomiche. forse in questa stessa atipia, ammessa 

 gia come predisponente alle malattie, vedere il carattiere ed in- 

 sieme il fatto piu interessante nello studio dei delinquenti," i. e., 

 the very multiplicity of anatomical forms and lack of symmetry 

 may possibly furnish the most interesting character in the study 

 of criminal brains. 



Nacke (1903-10) has made extensive studies of criminal brains 

 and has found in them many conditions and characters which 

 would suggest that there is a departure from the normal, although 

 it cannot be said that there is any uniformity of these variations 

 interpretable as a tendency to type formation. He says : " Trotz 

 des verschiedenen normalen, pathologischen und verbrecher Mate- 

 rials waren die Befunde der Normalen unter sich ahnliche, eben 

 so die Verbrecherer, welche fast iiberall, wie auch Geistkranke 

 hohere Protzentsatze an ' Anomalien ziegen. Das ist sicher nicht 

 der reine Zufall ! *' 



While all investigations of the criminal brain show a larger per- 

 centage of variations than may be found in a similar number of 

 normal brains, the individual variations are not peculiar to the 

 delinquents, nor is any one of them common to criminals. Even 

 with the present incomplete knowledge of the significance of vari- 

 ations, it may be positively stated that there is no criminal type, 

 nor will it ever be possible to say from the macroscopic examina- 

 tion of a brain that it does or does not belong to a criminal. If 

 we may interpret the scanty evidence so far presented, it would 

 seem that the greater number of variations found in criminals and 

 their more frequent tendency to repeat lower forms might indi- 

 cate a more imperfect or unstable organization in these brains. 

 But, as already remarked, the connection between structure of 

 the brain surface and the psychic powers of the individual has 

 not been established, and also our conclusions have been derived 

 from the study of a small number of brains and cannot as yet 

 be applied in an attempt to classify the individual specimen. 



392 



