June 22, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



585 



Criminality in France. — "Society, in its moral 

 and social aspect," says M. Lacassagne, " is divided 

 into three strata, — tlie frontal, the parietal, and the 

 occipital; the latter including the most of our race." 

 The causes which operate upon the human organism 

 are cosmic and social ; or, as M. Lacassagne has it, 

 physico-chemic, biologic, and social. The first in- 

 cludes temperature, physical forces, aliment, etc., 

 acting, first, upon the posterior part of the brain, 

 thence forward, influencing the instinct to control 

 the intelligence. The second includes sex, age, 

 heredity, temperament, acting equally on all parts 

 of the brain, and giving to the sentiments, thoughts, 

 and acts a characteristic pecuharity. The last, act- 

 ing from the front brain backwards, modifies the 

 ideas before changing the sentiments. 



The penal code of France divides infractions of 

 the laws against persons and property into contra- 

 ventions, delits, and crimes; and, for seeking out and 

 punishing these, an army of two hundred thousand 

 individuals is engaged, costing 41,694,720 francs, 

 against 26,034,016 for primary public instruction. 



M. Lacassagne, after reviewing the works of Que- 

 telet, Guerry. Maury, and Ferri, on the statistics and 

 philosophy of crime, proceeds to furnish, in a series 

 of curves, the results of his own researches. It is 

 well observed, that, in studying a series of years, 

 notice must be taken of the changes in the law and 

 the multiplication of recognized infractions. Crimes 

 against property vary with the price of breadstuffs, 

 the operation of tariff, warm summers, rigorous 

 winters. Crimes against persons are shown to be in- 

 fluenced by revokitions, elections, the wine-crop, etc. 



The relation of crime to the season of the year pre- 

 sents some interesting facts, the table showing a crim- 

 inal calendar in which the maxima of crimes against 

 property are placed opposite to the minima of crimes 

 against persons. The former have their maximum 

 in December, their minimum in April and June. 

 The latter have their minimum in November, and 

 their maximum in June. Each crime is then scru- 

 tinized by months, according to the causes afiecting 

 it, such as heat and cold, wine-production, harvests, 

 forced indoor life in winter, wandering life in sum- 

 mer, the length of the day and night, fetes, holy days, 

 pay-days, reaping-time, vintage-time, salaries to do- 

 mestics, etc. For instance, infanticide is large in 

 January, February, March, and April, as the effect 

 of the aphrodisiac months, while abortions, usually at 

 the fifth month, are numerous in January; concep- 

 tions of harvest-time, at their maximum in March; 

 conceptions of the new- wine season, high in May; 

 conceptions of Christmas holidays, high in June; con- 



ceptions of the carnival, ascending in September, 

 October, November, and December, owing to the 

 aphrodisiac months. 



Assassination, murder, parricide, poisoning, theft, 

 are similarly treated, and the relation of crime to sex 

 and illiteracy examined. M. Lacassagne closes his 

 discussion with observations on the prevention of 

 crime. — (Bull. soc. anthrop. Lyon, i. 48-71.) J. w. p. 



[1134 

 EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 



■Writing among the Romans. — M. Havet points 

 out the curious fact, that Greece had a literature be- 

 fore she had the means of recording it, while Rome 

 had the means before she had the literature. It is 

 certain that in Greece literature existed at first in- 

 dependently of writing; but in Rome writing was in 

 use during the period of the kings, when there was 

 no literature. This fact being established, M. Havet 

 asks whether writing was introduced during the time 

 of the kings, or before that time, i.e., before the foun- 

 dation of Rome. He then goes on to show how the 

 Romans must have used writing before they came 

 into contact with the Etruscans, because they did 

 not adopt the Etruscan alphabet. Writing must have 

 been in use, he concludes, in the earliest period of the 

 history of Rome, if not before the foundation of the 

 city. Then he argues, if this is the case, what right 

 have we to suppose that the early kings are fabulous ? 

 If they knew how to write, it is probable that they 

 put their names in writing. The question is raised, 

 What did the Romans do with their writing, if they 

 did not use it to record events which actually hap- 

 pened ? They had no literature to give it a raison 

 d'etre. The argument is an interesting one. — {Rev. 

 polit. et lit., 24 Mars, 1883.) D. "W. E. [1135 



Beginnings of taxation in France. — M. Vuitry 

 continues his studies in the financial history of France, 

 and describes the origin and establishment of state 

 taxes as distinguished from the revenues of a feudal 

 sovereign. These, he tells us, must not be regarded 

 as state taxes. He defines state taxes as taxes levied 

 upon all citizens for the purpose of defraying public 

 expenses. During the early feudal period there were 

 no public expenses : therefore there were no state 

 taxes. The expenditures of the feudal sovereign were 

 private expenditures; his revenues were private reve- 

 nues, derived chiefly from his estates, or from privi- 

 leges attached to his person. It was not until the 

 fourteenth century (1328-.55) that state taxes, proper- 

 ly so called, were instituted. M. Vuitry explains how 

 this came to pass. — {Sean. trav. de I'acad., Avril- 

 Mai, 1883.) D. w. B. [1136 



INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 



GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 

 Bureau of ethnology. 



Note on-certain Maya and Mexican manuscripts. — 

 Professor Cyrus Thomas has recently prepared a 

 paper for the bureau, on a plate of the Codex Cortesi- 

 anus, reproduced in plates 9 and 10 of Rosny's Les 

 documents de I'antiquile Americaine, and plate 44 of 

 the Fejervary Codex (Kingsborough, vol. iii.). For 

 the benefit of scholars devoting attention to these 

 manuscripts, a brief resume of his explanation of 

 one discovery that he has made in regard to them 

 is here given. As facsimile plates cannot be intro- 



duced here, plans of the portions referred to are 

 figured on the assumption that those particularly 

 interested have access to the works in which the plates 

 are to be found. 



Mr. Thomas maintains, with a strong array of 

 evidence, that these plates are siiuply a kind of con- 

 densed calendar, and that the outer looped line of 

 dots and day-symbols in each is a mere table by which , 

 to tell the days on which the weeks (of thirteen days) 

 for the entire year begin. 



If we examine carefully the rows of large dots, and 

 the day-symbols in the large outer space of the Cor- 

 tesian plate, as given by Rosny, we shall find, that, 

 taken together, they form but one continuous line. 



