PROFESSOR LOMBROSO. LONDON, October 20.

Otago Witness, Issue 2902, 27 October 1909, Page 18

PROFESSOR LOMBROSO. LONDON, October 20.

The death of Professor Lombroso, criminologist, is announced. Professor Oesaro Lombroso was born in November, 1836, in Venice, and is of Venetian parenta.g-e. At 13 he was attracted to the investigations of sociology — a science then in its infancy — from a linguistic point of view, chiefly, we ara told, with relation to Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, and Coptic. He was drawn at this timo to natural science, and examined with particular attention the bearings of scientific research on the formation of crystals. Before entering the University of Turin be published two books on marked evolutionary lines — Drwin's theory was not propounded until some years later. While a student at the university he first approached that field of scientific work — criminology in its sociological relations. — which has given to his name- would-wide fame. He took up the investigation of mental diseases after a. joint 6tudy of the history, of ancient religions and of medicine, his conclusions being afterwards adopted by Virchow and other eminent specialists. He was appointed in 1862 to the charge of the department of mental diseases at th.» University of Payia, where he initiated an institution for the insane, a psychiatric museum, and a series of researches in the application of exact scientific methods to the study of insanity. At this period Lombroso incurred the displeasure and, indeed, the derision of the scientific Tnen of the time. It was said contemptuously that he was studying madness with a yard measure. Notwithstanding the general scorn, the professor went on quietly with his work, carrying on some important investigations into the causes of pellagra, a skin disease due to underfeeding, common among the pesantry of Northern Italy, the Asturias, (iascony, Roumania, and Corfu. LombroWs syetem slowly made progress, and came to be widely adopted. Appointed as director of the Asylum at Pesaro. he introduced many reforms in the conduct of hhat institution, and establi-hed a newspaper written and managed b*- the insane. He afterwards returnod to Pavia, whoro he continued his psychiatric work, investigating the influence of atmospheric conditions on the mind, inventing an instrument to measure pain, and encaging in many stuoJ ; es. marked by extraordinary ingenuity, patienco, and insight. It is said that Lombroso, even as a youth, exhibited a marvellous faculty, almost amounting to genius, of dhining the pa<«>iblo bearings of other men's discoveries, and of turning his intuitions to important use in the consideration of new methods, (lifted as he was in this rare art, Lombroso eagerly assiunlateci the conclusions of Darwin as revealed in the hitter's book, " The Origin of Species." Lombroso, with hie uf.ua 1 aeuten-ess, at once commenced an elaborate treatise on much the same linos that Darwin bad followed, testing the la tier's theories at many points, and speculating \s ith oonsidorabl-e eufoess on the important suggestions towards the study of man whiah " Th^ Origin of Species " gave to the scientific world/. Lombroso's great work, " I/Uomo D<*linqupnite, ' was not publislvxl, howc-ter, until 1876 — nearly 20 \ears after the undertaking was conceded, — and the second volume appeared onJv in 1889. The influence of " L'TJomo Delinquents " in Itak , France, and Germany is «ud to liaMO Laen as immediate and as decisive as that of " The Origin of •Species." Deapmo's " Psychologic Naturelle," the greatest work on the criminal which ha<J appeared before Lombroso's. was partial : the criminal was therein regarded purely a> a psychological anomaly. Lombroso fiis.t pcioencf] the crmmij.l a-.. anatomically and physioloiiculh . an organic anomaly. He »--t about weighinghim and measuring hin), according to the methods of anthroac-locrv J2\en on t.he I>sjchological eicK- he gamed n-»w and more cxa.et retsult. 1 -. Ho wnit back to the orign* of crime amon« plants and animals, among savagen amJ tluMren. He endeavoured to a*ceitain l'hfe place of the criminal in Xatu.ro, the causes of hi 6 appearance, and hifi treatment. This momentous investiga-

J tion has earned for its comiiictor a reputa- , tion almost exceeding that ol any other ' scientific iruun of the day. The results of 1 that work are daily ueed on the Continent ,in the administration of several 1 Statw ' prisons and in the control and supervision of many private asylums. Lombroso's methods have never been adopted in EnjrlancJ. Rich, laborious, various, Lombroso's life-work has opened up so many new lines of investigation, and has suggested so many more, that it has everywhere been received as marking a new epoch. He has frequently contributed to the Nineteenth f Century and othar. important English magazines. The Monist, an American quarterly philosophical magazine, contained in its aTumber of June, 1898, a very sr-ffg-esitive essay by Lombroso on " Progressive- Phenomena in Evolution." His work has now many English students, largely through the medium of such popular and useful series as the Criminology Series (Fisher Unwin) and the Contemporary Science Series (Walte.r Scott).