Men like Sir Robert Anderson are sure that this procedure could be adopted with regard to quite a liberal number of leading criminals whose influence induces others to crime. There would be much less need for all machinery of the criminal law than at the present time, and the community would be better protected. This is certainly true as regards the large cities, where crimes against property are almost without exception committed by those who have been previously convicted for such crimes, or who at least have been in intimate association with such convicted criminals. This view of the criminal, as one against whom society must protect itself just as it does against the insane, is comparatively modern. It must be borne in mind, however, that insane asylums are by no means an old institution, and that the present restraint of very large numbers of the insane is something unknown before in history. It seems not unlikely that if this newer aspect of criminology could be made popular great benefit would follow, not only to the peace of the community and the freedom of its members from fear as to such crimes, but also a number of the weaker individuals, who are now influenced and led astray by clever criminals, would be saved from commission of crime and the necessity of punishment, with the degradation and lifelong stigma that this involves. This is an aspect of criminology with which the Christian clergyman can be in sympathy, and that does not smack of the utter materialism which was at the foundation of much of the discussion of the so-called criminal type. The {281} recognition of moral perversion as a form of insanity requiring treatment and then constant observation for many years, just as in the case of mental disequilibration would be a distinct advance over our present crude methods of dealing with criminals. JAMES J. WALSH. {282} XXVI PARANOIA, A STUDY IN CRANKS Of late years the crank, in the various forms in which he or she may occur, has became a subject of great popular as well as scientific interest. As a matter of fact, the queernesses of people are a more absorbing study to the neurologists and psychologists than are any forms of insanity. It not infrequently happens that individuals of peculiar tendencies are prone to have special affinity for religious ideas, and strange applications of Christian formulae of thought. Even when they do not become absolutely insane in their religiosity, they may often go to extremes. It must be remembered, too, that some cranks are mentally affected in but mild form, and it may be difficult to determine whether their oddity is really the result of a certain amount of mental torsion, or merely intellectual tension.