a general
outline of the studies of criminologists.

PHYSICAL ANOMALIES OF THE BORN CRIMINAL

_The Head._ As the seat of all the greatest disturbances, this part
naturally manifests the greatest number of anomalies, which extend from
the external conformation of the brain-case to the composition of its
contents.

The criminal skull does not exhibit any marked characteristics of size
and shape. Generally speaking, it tends to be larger or smaller than the
average skull common to the region or country from which the criminal
hails. It varies between 1200 and 1600 c.c.; _i.e._, between 73 and 100
cubic inches, the normal average being 92. This applies also to the
cephalic index; that is, the ratio of the maximum width to the maximum
length of the skull[1] multiplied by 100, which serves to give a
concrete idea of the form of the skull, because the higher the index,
the nearer the skull approaches a spherical form, and the lower the
index, the more elongated it becomes. The skulls of criminals have no
characteristic cephalic index, but tend to an exaggeration of the
ethnical type prevalent in their native countries. In regions where
dolichocephaly (index less than 80) abounds, the skulls of criminals
show a very low index; if, on the contrary, they are natives of
districts where brachycephaly (index 80 or more) prevails, they exhibit
a very high index.

=SKULL FORMATION
FIG. 2 FIG. 3=

In 15.5% we find trochocephalous or abnormally round heads (index 91). A
very high percentage (nearly double that of normal individuals) have
submicrocephalous or small skulls. In other cases the skull is
excessively large (macrocephaly) or abnormally small and ill-shaped with
a narrow, receding forehead (microcephaly, 0.2%). More rarely the skull
is of normal size, but shaped like the keel of a boat (scaphocephaly,
0.1% and subscaphocephaly 6%). (See Fig. 2.) Sometimes the anomalies are
still more serious and we find wholly asymmetrical skulls with
protuberances on either side (plagiocephaly 10.9%, see Fig. 3), or
terminating in a peak on the bregma or anterior fontanel (acrocephaly,
see Fig. 4), or depressed in the middle (cymbocephaly, sphenocephaly).
At times, there are crests or grooves along the sutures (11.9%) or the
cranial bones are abnormally thick, a characteristic of savage peoples
(36.6%) or abnormally thin (8.10%). Other anomalies of importance are
the presence of Wormian bones in the sutures of the sk