of nerve poisons, such as alcohol, tobacco, or
morphine, cause various alterations, of which criminality--that is, a
return to the characteristics peculiar to primitive savages--is in
reality the least serious, because it represents a less advanced stage
than other forms of cerebral alteration.

The aetiology of crime, therefore, mingles with that of all kinds of
degeneration: rickets, deafness, monstrosity, hairiness, and cretinism,
of which crime is only a variation. It has, however, always been
regarded as a thing apart, owing to a general instinctive repugnance to
admit that a phenomenon, whose extrinsications are so extensive and
penetrate every fibre of social life, derives, in fact, from the same
causes as socially insignificant forms like rickets, sterility, etc. But
this repugnance is really only a sensory illusion, like many others of
widely diverse nature.

=FIG. 23
ART PRODUCTION FROM PRISON
(see page 135)=

=FIG. 24
A COMBAT BETWEEN BRIGANDS AND GENDARMES
Designed by a Criminal
(see page 135)=

_Pathological Origin of Crime._ The atavistic origin of crime is
certainly one of the most important discoveries of criminal
anthropology, but it is important only theoretically, since it merely
explains the phenomenon. Anthropologists soon realised how necessary it
was to supplement this discovery by that of the origin, or causes which
call forth in certain individuals these atavistic or criminal instincts,
for it is the immediate causes that constitute the practical nucleus of
the problem and it is their removal that renders possible the cure of
the disease.

These causes are divided into organic and external factors of crime: the
former remote and deeply rooted, the latter momentary but frequently
determining the criminal act, and both closely related and fused
together.

Heredity is the principal organic cause of criminal tendencies. It may
be divided into two classes: indirect heredity from a generically
degenerate family with frequent cases of insanity, deafness, syphilis,
epilepsy, and alcoholism among its members; direct heredity from
criminal parentage.

_Indirect Heredity._ Almost all forms of chronic, constitutional
diseases, especially those of a nervous character: chorea, sciatica,
hysteria, insanity, and above all, epilepsy, may give rise to
criminality in the descendants.

Of 559 soldiers convicted of offences, examined by Brancaleone Ribaudo,
10% had epileptic parent