The practical considerations of social defence are so strong that the great majority of classical criminal experts now accept criminal lunatic asylums, in spite of their manifest contradiction of the formal theories of moral responsibility, on the strength of which these asylums were, and still are, opposed by the intransigents of the classical school. This is why the new <p 237>Italian penal code, in spite of its progressive aim, had not the courage in 1889 to adopt them frankly; and in the definitive text, as in the ministerial draft, it took refuge in an eclectic arrangement which has already met with a crowd of obstacles, due to the vagueness of the principles inspiring the code. These criminal lunatic asylums ought to be of two kinds, differing in their discipline, one for the insane authors of serious and dangerous crimes, such as homicide, incendiarism, rape, and the like; and the other for slighter crimes, such as petty theft, violent language, outrages on public decency, and the like. For the latter, seclusion should be shorter than for the others. Thus in England convicts are sent to the State Asylum at Broadmoor, whilst minor offenders are sent to a county asylum. Persons thus confined should be (1) prisoners acquitted on the ground of insanity, or sentenced for a fixed period, at the preliminary inquiry; (2) convicts who become insane during the expiation of their sentence; (3) insane persons who commit crimes in the ordinary asylums; (4) persons under observation for weak intellect in special wards, who have been put on their trial, and given grounds for suspecting madness. At Broadmoor, on December 31, 1867, there were 389 male patients and 126 female; and in 1883 there were 381 males and 132 females, thus classified:-- Mad Criminals. Male. Female. Murder ... ... ... ... ... 155 ... 85 Attempted murder ... ... ... 111 ... 18 Parricide ... ... ... ... ... 7 ... 6 Theft ... ... ... ... ... 23 ... 3 <p 238> Mad Criminals. Male. Female. Incendiarism ... ... ... ... 24 ... 1 Military offences ... ... ... 21 ... -- Attempted suicide ... ... ... 3 ... In Germany, in the prison at Waldheim, the proportion of mad criminals to the corresponding classes of ordinary criminals was as follows:-- Percentage Crimes. In Prison. Insane. Homicide, actual or attempted ... 74 ... 17.6 Murder and malicious wounding ... 51 ... 9.8 Highway robbery with violence ... 64 ... 12.5 Incendiarism ... ... ... ... ... 219 ... 6.8 Rape ... ... ... ... ... ... 52 ... 5.8 Indecent assault... ... ... ... 299 ... 5.7 Perjury ... ... ... ... ... ... 220 ... 2.7 Military crimes ... ... ... ... 23 ... 21.7 Crimes against property ... ... ... 5,116 ... 1.9 Other offences ... ... ... ... 158 ... 0.6 ---- ---- Total ... ... 6,276 ... 2.7