The progress made by Lombroso in the field of social reform, in consequence of his coming into contact with modern industrialism in the city of Turin, is most clearly displayed by a comparison of the measures which he recommended in the year 1890 for the prevention of political crime, with the contents of the 200 pages which, in the year 1897, in the third volume of his work on “The Criminal Man,”[41] he devoted to the prophylaxis and therapy of criminality in general. Two original ideas are to be found in both these works—viz., definite proposals for the decentralization of Italian national administration; and proposals also for the constitution of a kind of popular tribunal, as a counterpoise to the excessive powers of parliamentary cliques. In addition, we find in Lombroso’s writings, at quite an early date—and apparently as an original idea—a suggestion for the establishment of public labour (employment) bureaus. I am not aware what Lombroso’s position was as regards the most recent conception among the methods of social reform—namely, the notion of “racial hygiene”; nor do I know what he thought of the demand associated with this notion for the deliberate breeding of supermen as the goal of the social politics of the future. Unquestionably he was one of the boldest revaluers of traditional values; and he was always a convinced advocate of the view that the inadequate powers of natural selection ought to be supplemented by the deliberate selection (exclusion from reproduction) of anti-social individuals. With this end in view he was ever the fearless champion of the death-penalty, which he designated “estrema selezione.” Above all, he put before himself as the goal of his life-work the elevation of criminal law and the application of improved methods for the treatment of criminals; freed from all metaphysical complexion, these should, he considered, be numbered among the ultimate aims of social reform. Penal measures, in his view, are the sole safeguard of social evolution! As usual, in the case of medical men greatly interested in social reform, it is difficult to determine in Lombroso’s case where his demands for social reform end, and where the measures he claims as requirements of public hygiene begin; speaking generally, whenever he touches on hygienic questions—as, for instance, in the matter of pellagra—he takes a comprehensive view, embracing also the preservation and improvement of the race. The campaign against the most destructive endemic disease of Italy—pellagra—was the first notable contribution to social reform made by Lombroso in the years of his early manhood.