hese and other skulls. Heger, a Belgian
anthropologist says that the skulls of delinquents do not differ from
the skulls of the race to which the delinquent belongs. In fact, till
more exactitude is introduced into the methods of skull measurement,
all deduction based upon an examination of the criminal skull must be
regarded as untrustworthy. A striking instance of this was witnessed
at the proceedings of the Paris Congress of Criminal Anthropology held
in 1889. When the skull of Charlotte Corday, who killed the
revolutionist Marat, was subjected to examination, Lombroso declared
that it was a truly criminal type of skull; Topinard, on the other
hand, gave it as his opinion that it was a typical female skull. On
this point Topinard was supported by Benedict.[34] As long as such
divergencies of view exist among anthropologists it is impossible to
place much stress upon inquiries relative to the conformation of the
criminal skull. Before a beginning can be made with inquiries of this
character, there must be some fundamental basis of agreement among
investigators as to what is to be accounted asymmetrical in skull
measurements and what is not. Even then it will have to be remembered,
before coming to conclusions, that no skull is perfectly
symmetrical--every one showing some variation from the ideal type.
When the extent of this variation has been absolutely demonstrated to
be greater in the case of criminals than among other sections of the
community, we shall then be approaching solid ground. At present we
must wait for further light before anything can be said with certainty
with respect to the criminal skull.

[34] See _Revista Internacional de Anthropologia Criminal y
Ciencias Medico-Legales, Marzo e April de 1890_.

Just as little is known at present about the brain of criminals as
about the skull. Some years ago Professor Benedict startled the world
by stating that he had discovered the seat of crime in the
convolutions of the brain. He found a certain number of anomalies in
the convolutions of the frontal lobes, and he came to the conclusion
that crime was connected with the existence of these anomalies. But he
had omitted to examine the frontal convolutions of honest people. When
this was done by other investigators, it was found that the brain
convolutions of normal men presented just as many anomalies, some
investigators (Dr. Giacomini) said even more than the brains of
criminals. According to Dr. Ba