as the sum
of the characters peculiar to cretins form what is called the cretinous
type. In neither case have the anomalies an intrinsic importance, since
they are neither the cause of the anti-social tendencies of the criminal
nor of the mental deficiencies of the cretin. They are the outward and
visible signs of a mysterious and complicated process of degeneration,
which in the case of the criminal evokes evil impulses that are largely
of atavistic origin.

SENSORY AND FUNCTIONAL PECULIARITIES OF THE BORN CRIMINAL

The above-mentioned physiognomical and skeletal anomalies are further
supplemented by functional peculiarities, and all these abnormal
characteristics converge, as mountain streams to the hollow in the
plain, towards a central idea--the atavistic nature of the born
criminal.

An examination of the senses and sensibility of criminals gives the
following results:

_General Sensibility._ Tested simply by touching with the finger, a
certain degree of obtuseness is noted. By using an apparatus invented by
Du Bois-Reymond and adopted by my father, the degree of sensibility
obtained was 49.6 mm. in criminals as against 64.2 mm. in normal
individuals. Criminals are more sensitive on the left side, contrary to
normal persons, in whom greater sensibility prevails on the right.

_Sensibility to Pain._ Compared with ordinary individuals, the criminal
shows greater insensibility to pain as well as to touch. This obtuseness
sometimes reaches complete analgesia or total absence of feeling (16%),
a phenomenon never encountered in normal persons. The mean degree of
dolorific sensibility in criminals is 34.1 mm. whereas it is rarely
lower than 40 mm. in normal individuals. Here again the left-handedness
of criminals becomes apparent, 39% showing greater sensibility on the
left.

_Tactile Sensibility._ The distance at which two points applied to the
finger-tips are felt separately is more than 4 mm. in 30% of criminals,
a degree of obtuseness only found in 4% of normal individuals. Criminals
exhibit greater tactile sensibility on the left. Tactile obtuseness
varies with the class of crime practised by the individual. While in
burglars, swindlers, and assaulters, it is double that of normal
persons, in murderers, violators, and incendiaries it is often four or
five times as great.

_Sensibility to the Magnet_, which scarcely exists in normal persons, is
common to a marked degree in criminals (48%).

_Meteoric Sens