ertain defects in the brain
and nervous system can be and are inherited. No brain or nervous system
is perfect, so the problem is one of the incapacity which causes the
maladjustment. Crime results from defective heredity when applied to the
environment. It comes from the inability of the machine to make the
necessary adjustments of life. The making of the criminal is largely a
question of his fortune or misfortune in the environment where he is
placed. It is absurd to say that one inherits the tendency to rob or
rape or burglarize or kill. He may inherit an unstable organization that
in certain hostile environments will lead him to any of these crimes.
For that matter all men inherit the organization that will bring these
results if the environment is sufficiently hard. Society may in many
ways place too high a value on human life. Still we punish men who place
too low a value on the lives of others, and the state should be very
slow to destroy life or the capacity for life.

There is much to learn, much to explain about the mysterious workings of
heredity, before man can undertake to say that he has the wisdom or
justice to choose the ones who should be the bearers of life to the
future.

It is most common to find in the same family various degrees of
intelligence. Now and then a man of such high powers and faculties is
born that he is regarded by scientists as a "sport" who defies all
known laws in his origin. Often one person in a family is of commanding
strength, while the rest are commonplace.

The insanity and disease that afflict many men of genius is well known.
Grasset in his book _The Semi-Insane and the Semi-Responsible_ has given
a long list of eminent names. Many great authors have depicted insanity
in their most gifted characters. Genius is frequently an indication of
insanity. It is a wide departure from the normal.

The obscure and lowly origin of many of the world's greatest men seems
to point to the fact that Nature has methods that man cannot comprehend
and with which it is not wise for him to interfere. The fact is that
genius, or even great strength or ability in the parent, is by no means
sure to be handed down. In fact, it is very rare indeed that such
unusual traits persist. That sterilization should follow as a punishment
for sex crimes is without any sort of logic except that sterilization
relates to sex. The whole idea is born of the hatred or loathing of
certain crimes.

Generalization