270 =F. Galton—Address before the British Association. 
arate pieces of transparent paper and secured one upon another, 
and then held between the eye and the light. I have attempte 
this with some success. My own idea was to throw faint 
images of the several portraits, in succession, upon the same 
acommon double eye-glass fitted with stereoscopic 
lenses to be almost as effectual and far handier than the boxes 
e 
Criminality, though not very various in its development, is 
extremely complex in its origin: nevertheless, certain general 
conclusions are arrived at by the best writers on the subject, 
among whom I would certainly rank Prosper Despine. The 
ideal criminal has three peculiarities of character; his conscience 
is almost deficient, his instincts are vicious, and his power 0 
self-control is very weak. As a consequence of all this, he 
usually detests continuous labor. This statement applies to 
the criminal classes generally, the special conditions that deter- 
mine the description of crime being the character of the 1n- 
stincts; and the fact of the absence of self-control being due to 
ungovernable temper, or to ion, or to mere imbecility. 
he deficiency of conscience in criminals, as shown by the 
absence of genuine remorse for their guilt, appears to astonish 
all who first become familiar with the details of prison life. 
Scenes of heartrending despair are hardly ever witnessed among 
prisoners; their sleep is broken by no uneasy dreams—on the 
