If those who are most deeply interested in the reform of the criminal classes would unite in an effort to secure legislation to the effect that the habitual criminal should receive, not a definite sentence but an indeterminate sentence; that is to say, that on his second conviction for burglary, he should be sent to jail until such a time as, in the opinion of officers of the institution where he has been confined, he shows signs of a disposition to become a worthy member of society, and that then he should be allowed to be at liberty only under such circumstances as would permit of reports with regard to his conduct for a time equal at least to the years spent in prison, then there would be much less need of the theoretical considerations with regard to the heredity of criminal traits, and the supposed all powerful influence of environment in fostering criminal tendencies. There is in this matter a very worthy field for the development of philanthropic qualities, and the student of the abnormal man will find many opportunities for the exercise of a large-hearted charity, rather than the facile condemnation which places all violations of law under the head of criminality. Those who have made special studies with regard to criminals have, as a rule, come to the conclusion that our modern method of treating those convicted of crime is eminently irrational. It is a rare thing to pick up a newspaper without finding that a crime by violence has been committed by some one who has previously been in state's prison for a similar crime. Most of the burglars have a police record. Pickpockets and others continue to pursue their avocations, notwithstanding a series of convictions. It is clear that a sentence of a year or two, or even more each time that a crime is committed, does not act as a deterrent. Such people are differently constituted from those who are influenced by {280} public conviction of crime and restraint of liberty. There is something radically wrong with their moral sense. It would seem that the proper way to treat them is after the same fashion as the method used with those who are mentally impaired. After a man has shown, by a second conviction of a crime by violence, that he is one of those whose moral sense can not be restored by punishment to a realisation of his action, then an indeterminate sentence, somewhat as in the case of the mentally unstable, who are allowed to leave the asylum but are kept under observation, is the only proper method.