It has again been objected to me that these studies are deficient in utility. To this I might reply with Taine that it is not always necessary that the true should be useful. Yet numerous practical applications arise out of these researches; they furnish us with explanations of those strange religious insanities which become the nucleus of great historical events. The examination of the productions of the insane supply us with new sources of analysis and criticism for the study of genius in art and literature; and, above all, these data bring an important element to the solution of penal questions, for they overthrow for ever that prejudice by virtue of which only those are declared insane, and therefore irresponsible, whose reason has entirely departed, a prejudice which has handed thousands of irresponsible creatures to the executioner. They show us, lastly, that literary madness is not only a curious psychiatric singularity, but a special form of insanity, which hides impulses the more dangerous, because not easy to perceive, a form of insanity, which, like religious insanity, may be transformed into a historical event. C. LOMBROSO. CONTENTS. PART I. _THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GENIUS._ CHAPTER I. .....PAGE HISTORY OF THE PROBLEM.....1-4 Aristotle--Plato--Democritus--Felix Plater--Pascal--Diderot--Modern writers on genius. CHAPTER II. GENIUS AND DEGENERATION.....5-37 The signs of degeneration--Height--Rickets--Pallor--Emaciation --Physiognomy--Cranium and Brain--Stammering--Lefthandedness --Sterility--Unlikeness to Parents--Precocity--Delayed development--Misoneism--Vagabondage--Unconsciousness--Instinctiveness --Somnambulism--The Inspiration of Genius--Contrast--Intermittence --Double Personality--Stupidity--Hyperæsthesia--Paræsthesia--Amnesia --Originality--Fondness for special words. CHAPTER III. LATENT FORMS OF NEUROSIS AND INSANITY IN GENIUS.....38-65 Chorea and Epilepsy--Melancholy--Megalomania--_Folie du doute_--Alcoholism--Hallucinations--Moral Insanity--Longevity. CHAPTER IV. GENIUS AND INSANITY.....66-99 Resemblance between genius and insanity--Men and women of genius who have been insane--Montanus--Harrington--Haller--Schumann--Gérard de Nerval--Baudelaire--Concato--Mainländer--Comte--Codazzi--Bolyai --Cardan--Tasso--Swift--Newton--Rousseau--Lenau--Széchényi--Hoffmann --Foderà--Schopenhauer--Gogol. PART II. _THE CAUSES OF GENIUS._ CHAPTER I. METEOROLOGICAL INFLUENCES ON GENIUS.....100-116 The influence of weather on the insane--Sensitiveness of men of genius to barometrical conditions--Sensitiveness to thermometrical conditions. CHAPTER II. CLIMATIC INFLUENCES ON GENIUS.....117-132 Influence of great centres--Race and hot climate--The distribution of great masters--Orographic influences--Influence of healthy race--Parallelism of high stature and genius--Explanations. CHAPTER III. THE INFLUENCE OF RACE AND HEREDITY ON GENIUS AND INSANITY.....133-150