The alienist and neurologist would have sought more light on the health of this anomalous murderer and the causes of his singular conduct, but they will seek in vain in the records of his trial, and here again the plaintive plea of Isaac Ray in reference to similar cases in history "must give us pause" that we may reflect. "The absence

of particulars in some of the cases we find recorded," (he says, referring to particulars as to bodily health affecting the mind, and developing the incubative stage of insanity,) "leaves us in doubt, how general this change really is; but a careful examination would no doubt, often, if not always, show its existence."-§ 257.

Thus another case goes into history imperfectly developed in its medico-scientific, medico-legal aspects, because of the clamorous public demand for speedy vengeance. Blinded by the vengeful clamour and the righteous indignation of a personally stricken people, we are left sitting in the dark, still wondering how such a deed could have been done, by a man in his sound and sober senses, in Fair and Free America, and appalled at the possibility of a sane man murdering an American President.

Prima facie, the man who under all the circumstances thus far brought to light in the Czolgosz trial, would murder or attempt to murder an American President, cannot be mentally sound or naturally normal in mind, even as a criminal, and there are some minds so constituted that they would wish to know more of the causes which could culminate in so terrible and unnatural a tragedy in this country, at such a time in our glorious political history, at such a place, and with such a man for its victim, and such an anachronistic psychic anomaly in crime for its despised chief actor. Legal tribunals, in such momentous causes, should seek to reach something more than conviction or acquittal. They should search for all possibly to be acquired truth of science pertaining to such singular cases.

Law should concern itself, not alone with the question of complete or non-responsibility, but with degrees of responsibility and considerations of public safety. There are terato

logical mental defectives incapable of living in harmony with the lawful regulations aud duties of free and equal government whose organic mental misadaptability should be understood. Such persons should be sequestered and supervised and denied the franchise or any part in government. They are more dangerous to society, if allowed the freedom and privileges of rational citizens, than the ordinary criminal or lunatic who is now executed or secluded from lawfully organized society, and all social and law-regulated political life. Among its new acquisitions the United States should establish a colony for cranks and sequester and supervise them there, as Belgium does her lunatic colony at Gheel.

LEON F. CZOLGOSZ.

A DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS ON THE BASIS OF THE BERTILLON SYSTEM OF IDENTIFICATION.

THE

By REV. AUGUST DRAHMS,

SAN QUENTIN, CAL.

Chaplain of State Penitentiary.

HE Bertillon system of criminal identification furnishes us with tolerably accurate measurements of the cranial and physical configuration of Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley, which, in the absence of more specific anatomical criteria gives us a fairly satisfactory idea from external indicia of the internal man-at least as far as such criteria can go. The endorsements upon the identification card and his photograph, are given in detail below:

Height of body, 1 metre, 71.8 m. (Continental Method)

5 feet, 7% inches). Outstretched arms, 1 metre, 19 m. Trunk, 90.9 m. Length of foot, 26.1 m.; middle finger, 11.7 m.; little finger, 9.1 m. Length of forearm, 47.3 m. Weight, 138 pounds. Build, medium; hair, brown; eyes, blue. Cranial configuration-Head length, 19.7 m,; head width, 15.6 m. Length of ear, 6.4 m.

Foremost in the degree of importance with reference to external conformation as indicative of the criminal characterization stands cranial asymmetry, whose peculiarities however, present themselves to some extent to the post mortem alone, and hence lie outside the scope of the present paper. Broadly stated, it may be said the cephalic index as a generic classification into the three orders of the-dolichocephalic, (smaller than 77); mesocephalic (ranging from 77.7 to 79.9) and brachycephalic (from 80 to 90) together with their sub-heads, represent the several cranial forms that give us prevailing orders, from which taking 100 as the longitudinal base line, and 80 for mean breadth, the above variations are formulated. The oceanic races, with the Esquimo and Afrancoid head are usually taken as illustrative of the dolichocephalic; while the Mongolian (Tartar), 88+ and the Indian 80+, represent the roundheaded (brachycephalic); the mesocephalic, or medium, standing for the Caucasian or head of civilization.

The brachycephalic head is designated predominantly the criminal head. Thus, the Cephalic Index in revelation of criminalistic tendencies gave out of 394 thieves 74 dolichocephali, 129 mesocephali and 191 brachycephali; among homicides, 21 were dolichocephali, 31 mesocephali and 54 brachycephali; out of 92 sexual offenders 18 were dolichocephali, 30 mesocephali and 38 brachycephali, and out of 54 swindlers, 19 were dolichocephali, 15 mesocephali and 30 brachycephali. Out of 697 criminal heads from the Bertillon system as furnished by this prison (San Quentin), I found out of 44 murderers (26 executed) the average cephalic index gave us 83.51 (brachycephalic); 120 robbers, cephalic index 80.52 (brachycephalic); 250 recidivists (pronounced criminals-2nd offenders) 79.05 cephalic index 80.42 (brachycephalic), and 32 erotics (sexual offenders) (meso

cephalic) thus apparently graduating from mesocephalic into brachycephalic in proportion to the relatively pronounced criminalistic tendency, the cephalic index of the homocidally inclined being larger than that of the recidivist by a fraction over 3 mm. To the brachycephalic belong all the lower order of races, such as the Mongolian (88+ pure brachycephalic) and the American Indian (80+). The cephalic index of Czolgosz is 83.4-well advanced under the brachycephalic type. A frontal view (without possessing actual measurements) would place the architectural form of the skull (without regard to lateral view) within the type designated as the "pyramidal (Prichard) skull," or technically termed "oxycephalic" (sugar loaf), a form which Dr. Von Hölder attributes to the contemporaneous premature closing of the sutures at the expense of width, and which is designated by Lombroso as the ideal criminal head, his tables crediting 7.5 per cent of criminals with this form of cranial structure as against 2 per cent. of normals. Benedict attributes it to a defective organization. As has been well said this form of skull tends to a peculiarly satanic appearance of the head. The anterior and posterior portions do not present these features however in so marked degree. It is quite marked from a frontal view of the head of the assassin.

The facial angle (usually employed to determine the relative superiority of the frontal over the posterior brain mass) as determined by the angle formed by the intersection of a base line running horizontally from the base of the nose, through the opening of the ear and a line drawn perpendicularly from the glubella to the front of the upper jaw, in this case marks no deviation from that usually accredited to the Caucasian (according to Camper) 80 as against the American Indian, 73°, and the African 70o. The peculiar inclination of the head in the photograph renders accuracy difficult. The immense preponderance of the medium occipitalic and cerebec region is manifest, a marked characteristic of the criminal skull and indicative of undue thickness of the occipital fossa which Lombroso associates with the pronounced criminal. It is taken in