(De Sanctis and
Toscano, _Atti Societa Romana Antropologia_, vol. viii, 1901,
fasc. II).

In Chicago Dr. Harriet Alexander, in conjunction with Dr. E.S.
Talbot and Dr. J.G. Kiernan, examined thirty prostitutes in the
Bridewell, or House of Correction; only the "obtuse" class of
professional prostitutes reach this institution, and it is not
therefore surprising that they were found to exhibit very marked
stigmata of degeneracy. In race nearly half of those examined
were Celtic Irish. In sixteen the zygomatic processes were
unequal and very prominent. Other facial asymmetries were common.
In three cases the heads were of Mongoloid type; sixteen were
epignathic, and eleven prognathic; five showed arrest of
development of face. Brachycephaly predominated (seventeen
cases); the rest were mesaticephalic; there were no
dolichocephals. Abnormalities in shape of the skull were
numerous, and twenty-nine had defective ears. Four were
demonstrably insane, and one was an epileptic (H.C.B. Alexander,
"Physical Abnormalities in Prostitutes," Chicago Academy of
Medicine, April, 1893; E.S. Talbot, _Degeneracy_, p. 320; _Id.,
Irregularities of the Teeth_, fourth edition, p. 141).

It would seem, on the whole, so far as the evidence at present goes, that
prostitutes are not quite normal representatives of the ranks into which
they were born. There has been a process of selection of individuals who
slightly deviate congenitally from the normal average and are,
correspondingly, slightly inapt for normal life.[188] The psychic
characteristics which accompany such deviation are not always necessarily
of an obviously unfavorable nature; the slightly neurotic girl of low
class birth--disinclined for hard work, through defective energy, and
perhaps greedy and selfish--may even seem to possess a refinement superior
to her station. While, however, there is a tendency to anomaly among
prostitutes, it must be clearly recognized that that tendency remains
slight so long as we consider impartially the whole class of prostitutes.
Those investigators who have reached the conclusion that prostitutes are a
highly degenerate and abnormal class have only observed special groups of
prostitutes, more especially those who are frequently found in prison. It
is not possible to form a just conception of prostitutes by studying them
only in prison, any more than it would be possible