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VI. Some Recent Criminological Works. 
By CHARLES GORING, M.D. 
In a bulky volume, entitled Les femmes homicides*, Dr Pauline Tarnowsky records the 
results of an anthropometrical survey she has carried out upon 160 Russian women imprisoned 
for murder. The preface states, very modestly, the essential purpose of the author's under- 
taking. " I regard this book," she says, " as nothing more than a collection of material, and 
shall be happy if future workers may find some use for it in constructing the edifice of 
criminal anthropology which still awaits the great architect." Throughout the work, there is 
abundant evidence that Dr Tarnowsky has collected her material with a devotion and con- 
scientious industry which insures its reliability ; and these qualities, combined with the excellent 
arrangement and lucid exposition of her facts, cannot fail to make the book of value to all in 
need of criminal statistics. 
The outline of the author's plan is, briefly, as follows. Each of the individuals studied was, 
firstly, submitted to physical measurement : all the principal measurements recognised by anthro- 
pologists were taken of head, face and body. Secondly, the majority of these criminals were 
examined with reference to the functional condition of their sense organs and, at the same time, 
the condition of their reflexes and muscular power and the presence of any deviation from 
the normal in physical structure, including the so-called stigmata of degeneration, were noted. 
Lastly, so far as they could be ascertained, the more important particulars of the family ante- 
cedents were noted for each individual :— such as the character, inclinations, habits, occupation 
and standard of living of the parents ; special emphasis being laid upon the occurrence of herit- 
able diseases and upon the more or less marked inclination towards alcoholic excess. Apart 
from some i^reliminary chapters dealing historically with general principles, the great bulk of 
the volume is made n-p of the records of these measurements and observations. The record of 
each individual is presented seriatim and upon a definite plan, and is supplemented in each case 
by a very readable and psychologically interesting narrative of the personal history of the 
murderess, the circumstances leading up to her crime, its probable motives, and the methods of 
its execution. Finally, the salient features contained in the records are brought together and 
classified in the form of tables. Accompanying tables of similar records relating to different 
classes of criminal and non-criminal Russian women are presented for purpose of comparison. 
The work concludes with an account of some general deductions which, in the opinion of the 
author, follow from the analytical and comparative study of her data. Les femmes Iwmicides is 
a valuable contribution of conscientious spade-work, and as such will find general acceptance. 
Having said this we are bound to add that, in the ti-eatment of her evidence, the author has 
been animated too much by a spirit of partisanship for the old school of criminologists ; we 
mean that school associated with the name of Cesar Lombroso — to whom, by the way, the 
author dedicates her work. We think that the evidence from her data is altogether too slight 
to justify so emphatic and far-reaching a statement as the following, which the author affirms to 
be her fixed conviction — " that there exists an enormous physical and psychical difference between 
the female criminal and the normal woman of the same race and class and that this conclusion 
follows directly (1) from the measurements, (2) from the facts of heredity, and (3) from the 
evidence of the degeneration stigmata contained in the records." First, with regard to the 
evidence from the measurements. For comparison with the table of average measurements of "les 
femmes homicides," three corresponding tables are provided relating to (1) "femmes instruites," 
* Paris, F61ix Alcan. 
