458 



SCIEWCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 223 



development, which can be plainly read on the 

 typical physiognomy of a criminal. Their average 

 weight was 134 pounds; their height, 5 feet 4^ 

 inches ; and chest-girth, 33f inches. They were 

 subjected to a carefully selected and weighed diet, 

 to water and vapor baths, to kneading and mas- 

 sage ; underwent a systematized training in dumb- 

 bell and other gymnastic exercises ; were drilled 

 in keeping step and marching ; and altogether 

 lived (outside of the usual shop-work) very much 

 the life of an athlete under training. As was to 

 be expected, the first effect was a decrease in 

 weight (of 4.37 pounds on Julyl) ; but on Nov. 6, 

 when the class discontinued, the average increase 

 of weight was 1.23 pounds. Their muscles, pre- 

 viously soft and flabby, were now hardened and 

 active ; their shuffling gait was abandoned for an 

 elastic walk ; the dull and stolid look gave way to 

 a brighter and more intelligent expression. But a 

 special object was to see the effect of all this on their 

 mental capabilities. When they began, one could 

 neither read nor write ; a second could barely do 

 so ; four understood long-division, but not well 

 enough to get a correct answer ; while the rest 

 were wrecked before finishing simple division. 

 Their average work in the school register prior to 

 this experiment was 45.25 out of a possible 100 ; 

 during the five months of training it was 74.16. 

 Add to this the statement of the instructors, that 

 the numbers fail to express the real improvement 

 which their actions and spirit portrayed, and one 

 appreciates the real success of this valuable exper- 

 iment. Of course, the dullards were not made 

 scholars, and to mentally awaken men of 23 is a 

 different task from arousing a growing boy ; but 

 it shows that even in this low type of humanity 

 there is a latent mental power capable of being 

 acted upon for the good of its owner. 



The rationale of this process, modern physiology 

 can well explain. The muscles are connected 

 by nerves with motor centres in the brain : they 

 are the organ of the will, because their con- 

 traction is under the control of the brain-centres. 

 When we exercise a muscle, we not only make it 

 grow and develop, but we also strengthen the 

 brain-centre that controls it. The language of the 

 muscles appeals to the very root of human nature : 

 the first step in educating idiots is to get them to 

 move their limbs in an orderly way and at com- 

 mand, to educate their motor centres. Just so 

 the dull brains of these criminally inclined men 

 can be best aroused by arousing their motor cen- 

 tres. This effects a more vigorous vitality of the 

 whole brain, and is the first step towards a higher 

 psychic life. 



Dr. Wey, to whom the credit of this painstak- 

 ing work belongs, appends to his story separate 



photographs and a composite (unfortunately a 

 poor one) of the group which will bear out the 

 description of the men above outlined. 



Traits of criminals. — An Italian scientist, 

 Marro, finds that criminals are more apt than 

 normal people to be the descendants of very young 

 and of very old parents in opposition to parents 

 of middle age ; and the same is true of the in- 

 sane. In a table founded on 1,865 normal men, 

 456 criminals, and 100 insane, 8.8 per cent of nor- 

 mal men were born of parents in the growing 

 period of life, 66.1 per cent of parents in the 

 period of maturity, and 24.9 per cent of parents 

 who had already reached the declining period of 

 life. Similar percentages for criminals are 10.9, 

 56.7, and 32.2 ; and for the insane, 17.0, 47.0, and 

 36.0. The same writer also finds that the bodily 

 temperature of criminals is slightly higher than 

 that of normal persons, being about 37°. 07 C. in 

 thirty cases which he examined. 



The writing and printing of the deranged. 

 — The manuscripts of neuropaths — a word wide 

 enough to include the slight and the severe dis- 

 turbances of mental sanity — present certain typ- 

 ical characteristics. They abound in italicized 

 words ; in exclamation-points and punctuations 

 after almost every word ; in frequent use of cap- 

 itals; in various sizes of writing, particularly 

 much very large writing ; and the like. It is not 

 often that such people have the opportunity of 

 going to print and converting the compositor to 

 their peculiar system of typography. M. Richet 

 prints a few specimen pages of such an author, 

 and counts twelve different kinds of letters in 

 seventeen lines, besides the usual capitals, excla- 

 mation-points, and so on, in great abundance. 

 All this is significant of an excited, prancing state 

 of mind, closely allied to delirium and mania. 



Colored sounds. — Mr. Gallon, in his ' In- 

 quiries into human faculty,' has collected a num- 

 ber of very interesting and strange cases of per- 

 sons to whom certain sounds always call up certain 

 colors. In one case a whole language was devel- 

 oped for translating colors into sound and back 

 again, and this favored individual could read 

 words out of a wall-paper pattern, or paint a pat- 

 tern to order to represent a word. Two French 

 writers, Lauret and Duchaussoy, recently de- 

 scribe a case the peculiarity of which is its heredi- 

 tary character. The gentleman in question has 

 colors for articulated sounds, but not for musical 

 ones. Both his son and daughter have a similar 

 faculty. The father and daughter agree quite 

 closely on the colors going with the vowel and 

 consonant sounds ; but the names of the numerals 



