1881.J The Future “ Martyrdom of Science 207 
there is any truth in the doCtrine of heredity criminals re- 
produce criminals. Without wishing to deny that a normal 
man may, under the pressure of circumstances or from the 
influence of sudden temptation, commit some casual offence 
against property or even against the person, we must re- 
member that the systematic habitual criminal, who formally 
prepares and equips himself for war against society, is the 
descendant of a line of similar characters who annoyed our 
forefathers, and that if permitted he will become the pro- 
genitor of a race of nuisances to scourge the public in times 
to come. What is the probability of reclaiming such a 
being ? By what sign are we to know that he is reclaimed ? 
If he is submissive in prison and listens decorously to the 
monitions of the chaplain is he not “ simply biding his 
time ?” Hence the doCtrine of heredity involves corollaries 
little in favour of that indiscriminate leniency in the treat- 
ment of crime which has been substituted for an equally in- 
discriminate rigour, and which our humanitarians wish to 
extend even to the length of allowing the paltry fines for 
ruffianism — licences after the faCt — to be paid for by instal- 
ments. Justice writing up over her doors “weekly pay- 
ments taken ! Thus we see that the law of heredity seems 
to clash with no fewer than three of the favourite dogmas of 
our social reformers as decidedly as did the Copernican as- 
tronomy with that geocentric system which the Church had 
taken under its protection. Is it likely that this collision 
will be unseen, or if seen that it will be accepted with in- 
difference ? 
We may go further ; one of the latest and most interest- 
ing results of scientific research, especially into living exist- 
ence, is recalled to the mind by the much-ridiculed term 
differentiation. It has been found that in proportion as any 
being advances in development its former homogeneous 
structure becomes resolved into parts mutually unlike and 
subserving different offices and yet harmoniously linked to- 
gether for the preservation of the whole. We see further 
that what is thus met with in the growth of the plant or 
animal from a seed or a germ to full maturity, is repeated 
in the growth of human society from savagery to civiliza- 
tion. 
It may be asked how can this truth come in colli- 
sion with the creeds of social reformers ? In reply I 
point out that a distinction is now menaced which has 
become more marked as civilization advances and as the 
division of labour is felt to be a necessity. I refer of 
course to the so-called “ woman’s-rights movement, thq 
