76 THE TREND OF THE RACE 
as thieves. Many of the stigmata, like the third trochanter, poly- 
dactylism, perforate head of the humerus, etc., occur only in a 
small percentage of cases, but more frequently than in normal 
persons. 
According to Lombroso most of the senses of criminals, except 
sight, are dull. There is an insensitiveness to pain which in 
certain cases is very striking. Criminals are commonly impulsive 
and may at times act with much energy, but they are generally 
lazy. Moral sense and natural sympathies are at a low ebb. 
Remorse seldom afflicts the born criminal. Vindictiveness, cruelty 
and excessive egotism and vanity are common traits. Intelli- 
gence, generally subnormal, may be well developed in some 
instances; as a rule criminals show a lack of prudence and fore- 
thought which often serves the ends of justice through causing 
failure adequately to conceal the evidences of crime. 
Lombroso regards the born criminal as an atavistic product. 
Many of the stigmata are said to represent characteristics found 
in the lower animals or among the savage races of mankind. The 
born criminal is a brute or savage living among human beings 
who have advanced beyond his stage of development. He repre- 
sents a survival of a primitive type. 
Lombroso recognized, especially in his later writings, that 
certain criminals are to be regarded as pathological products 
rather than cases of atavism. An important réle is attributed to 
insanity and especially epilepsy in the causation of crime, and the 
effort is made to establish a fundamental relationship between 
epilepsy and the atavistic traits of the born criminal. ‘‘Crimi- 
nality,”’ says Lombroso, “‘is an atavistic phenomenon which is 
provoked by morbid causes of which the fundamental manifesta- 
tion is epilepsy. It is true that criminality can be provoked by 
other diseases . . . but it is epilepsy which gives to it, by its 
gravity, the most extended basis.” 
The experience of Lombroso and other investigators shows 
that epilepsy is much more prevalent in criminals than among 
normal individuals, although not so common as Lombroso’s doc- 
trine would lead one to expect. This fact he attempts to account 
