CRIMINALS AND MONKEYS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 3, 28 September 1907, Page 4

CRIMINALS AND MONKEYS.

Resemblances between criminals and monkeys aro traced by Professor Cesare'Lombroso, the Italian professor of criminology, in " "° tc wil ' c 1 h no sent to the " Temps " on July 30, on tho' hands of Soleilland, whose trial for tho murder of a little girl pro-. vided Paris with the last cause oelebrc. (Soleilland has escaped the death penalty because President Falheres is opposed to capital punishment). _ The -professor puts forward two theories after having examined the photographs of Soleilland's hands— tho first, that Soleilland shows certain resemblances to the monkoy tribe ; tho- second, that his organisms wore not symmetrical. Ho points out that in 0116 photograph of the palm of the right hand tho lino from the littlo finger.to the wrist, instead of being a convex curve, is - a straight line, which ■■ is practically a prolongation of tho line of tho forearm. In addition, 111 place of two oblique lines across tho palm, the hand shows only one, which is .horizontal. He sayS that these peculiarities havo been noticed 111 the casn , of monkeys, epileptics, and born criminals. ', ',"',,,., In addition, tho second and, third fingers aro of equal length, niid tho littlo finger 'is abnormally separated from the third. This, Professor Lombroso savs, is a sign ofiasyi»motry which, considered in conjunction with tho fact that Soleilland has the iris of his eyes in two colours,' leads 'oho to suspect asymmetry in the thorax and tho brain. ! " In criminals who anj. so born,". he declares, " and in epileptics; there is a fundamental icauso of their eccentricities, and tliis is often revealed by dxcessivo asymme', try, as though several individuals were moulded together in one far the' misfortuno of humanity." I