This is so true that at the Prison Congress at St. Petersburg in 1889 the question was first propounded ``whether it can be admitted that certain criminals should be regarded as incorrigible, and, if so, what means could be employed to protect society against this class of convicts.'' And speaking as a delegate from the Law Society of St. Petersburg, M. Spasovitch acknowledged that ``this question bore the stamp of its origin on its face. Of all the questions in the programme, it seemed to be the only one directly inspired by the principles of the new positive school of criminal anthropology, whose theories, propagated beyond the land of their birth in Italy, tended to a radical reform in science as well as in legislation, in the penal law as well as in procedure, in ideas of crime as well as in the modes of repression.'' The Congress, in spite of some expressions of reserve, as when Madame Arenal platonically observed that ``an uncorrected criminal is not synonymous with an incorrigible criminal,'' adopted the following resolution:--``Without admitting that from <p 255>the penal and penitentiary point of view there are any absolutely incorrigible criminals''--which is pure pedantry--``yet since experience shows that there are in fact individuals who resist the combined action of punishment and imprisonment''--a notable admission!--``and who habitually and almost professionally renew their violation of the laws of society, this section of the Congress is unanimously of opinion that it is necessary to adopt special measures against such individuals.''