The Monist, Vol. 1, 1890-1891 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 1, 1890-1891 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
Gestures.—It is an ancient habit among criminals to communicate
their thoughts by gestures. Avé-Lallemant describes a set of gestures
used among German thieves,—a real language executed solely with the
fingers, like the language of the deaf. Vidocq says that pickpockets,
when they are watching a victim, give each other the signal of Saint
John, which consists in putting their hand to their cravat or even
in taking off their hat. But Pitré especially has published the most
important information on this point. In his "Usi e Costumi della
Sicilia" (Usages and Customs of Sicily,) he describes 48 special kinds
of gestures employed by delinquents. This phenomenon is explained by
the exaggerated mobility with which born criminals are endowed, as is
the case with children.
MORPHOLOGICAL ANOMALIES.
The Skeleton.—Mr. Tenchini, having made studies upon 63 skeletons
of criminals, has found in the proportion of 6 out of 100 cases, the
perforation of the olecranon (the bony prominence at the back of the
elbow) which one observes in 36 out of 100 Europeans, and in 34 out of
100 Polynesians; he likewise observed additional ribs and vertebræ in
10 cases out of 100 of them, and also too few, in the same proportion;
which reminds us of the great variableness of these bones in the lower
vertebrates. Lately he has even found in a criminal 4 sacral vertebræ
too few, made up by 4 supplementary cervical vertebræ.
Madame Tarnorosky in her study of prostitutes, female thieves, and
peasant women has demonstrated,[39] that the cranial capacity of
prostitutes is inferior to that of female thieves and peasant women
and particularly to that of women of good society;[40] _vice versa_,
the zygomas (bones of the upper jaw) and the mandibles (lower jaw)
were more developed among the prostitutes, who also exhibited a
greater number of anomalies, in the proportion of 87 to 100, while the
proportion of the female thieves showing anomalies was 79 to 100, and
the proportion of peasant women was 12 to 100. The prostitutes had 33
in 100 of their parents addicted to drink, while the female thieves had
41 in 100 and the peasant women 16 in 100. Mr. De Albertis has found
tattooing among 300 prostitutes of Genoa in the enormous proportion of
70 in 100.[41] He has also found the tactile sensibility of the women
very much diminished: 3·6 millimetres to the right and 4 millimetres to
the left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account