naturalistic art and poetry, and remarkable also for discoveries in chemistry and physics, with consequent important practical applications. Thus, for example, the new idea regarding man’s place in Nature (involving also a new idea of man’s relationship to his social environment) led to a new artistic method of representing humanity. In this period, the time of Lombroso’s youth—that of the maturity of Moleschott, Darwin, R. Mayer, Bunsen, Lyell, Pflüger, and Helmholtz—it was possible to gain some respect for facts, the enormous accumulation of which had overwhelmed those who were playing at “natural philosophy” during the two preceding generations. _Positive_ facts, in an abundance known to no previous and to no subsequent period in history, were the foundation of positivism, which then became a principle of investigation and of explanation. Upon this foundation, and with the aid of this principle, criminal anthropology was erected. From far-reaching conceptual analyses, and even from distinct definitions, Lombroso was preserved, because he accepted as a fact only that which had definitely been observed, whether as object or as process. His respect for facts was boundless. It is ridiculous to reproach him with not having personally observed every single fact of which he makes use. Read his books, and see the enormous mass of statistical material requisite for his researches. Wide general conclusions can be reached by no other road than that of statistics (see above, p. 10). It must be freely admitted that Lombroso, in his continuous hunger for material, in his insatiable, unresting desire for new, important, rich, and rare facts—a greed of the intellect from which nothing was more remote than mere sensationalism—did not confine his attention to matters directly observed by himself, nor was he always satisfied with statistically registered details, but frequently utilized facts of a singular nature—inadequately warranted facts, which, on the face of the matter, should have been more strenuously verified. Among these are certain anecdotes from the lives of celebrated men. To the same category belongs his credulous acceptance as facts of the processes observed by him in his “spiritualistic” experiences. This is a matter to which further reference will be made in a later chapter.