The author then treats some of the so-called “occasional factors”, such as age, sex, and religion. I shall speak only of what Dr. Battaglia says upon the influence of alcoholism and poverty upon criminality, since this is pertinent to my work. Alcoholism is a cause of crime in two ways, first, direct, i.e. when crimes are committed under the actual influence of intoxication; second, indirect, since chronic alcoholism causes demoralization and degeneracy. As evidence in support of this the author cites the opinions of Baer, Virgilio, and others. As to poverty, Dr. Battaglia remarks that the opinion of Professor Lombroso on this subject cannot be correct. The latter believes that the importance of the fact that crimes against property decrease when prices fall, is weakened by the circumstance that, according to Guerry, the theft of food holds only the hundredth place in the table of articles stolen. According to Dr. Battaglia this has no weight in a critical examination of the influence of poverty. For anyone who is driven to crime by hunger tries by preference to seize articles that are of great value and little volume, since he can at once exchange them for other articles that are directly consumable. Further it must not be forgotten that alcoholism and bad education are intimately connected with poverty, and lead in their turn to crime. Not only does acute hunger incite to theft indirectly, it may lead to it directly, for it may (according to Professor Follet) bring on a delirium. Chronic hunger and malnutrition may cause pellagra, rachitis, tuberculosis, scrofula, etc., or predispose to these diseases, which may cause crime in their turn. In the second part of “La dinamica del delitto” the author makes an examination of what he has called the “criminogenous factors.” Crime is a phenomenon that develops itself in society in accordance with certain constant laws. Consequently the criminogenous factors must be found in society. To discover them, then, it is necessary to examine the different social institutions. The family. In nature and in primitive society there rules a natural selection by which the weak and sickly are prevented from reproducing themselves, or from reproducing themselves as freely as those who are stronger. But at present this selection is no longer felt; even the most wretched, the most diseased can procreate, since it happens constantly that marriages take place with a secondary object. Hence transmission of degeneracy may go on from one generation to another, and consequently, the indirect propagation of crime.