medy which would,
while it would prevent the transmission of the taint, yet it would not
interfere with reproduction. Such a remedy would be in fact a method for
the reformation of the criminal, for if the criminal were reformed the
problem would be solved. If he were transformed into an honest and
industrious man then the transmission of the criminal taint is at once
prevented. There are some, however, who maintain that the criminal is
incorrigible and that reformatory agencies have invariably failed. They
look upon all attempts on behalf of the criminal as a useless
expenditure of energy and money. This question of the possibility or
otherwise of the reform of the criminal must now be settled before we
can proceed further.

Is the criminal incorrigible? Some criminals do not ever reform because
they cannot. These are insane. Some do not because they will not; but
these may. The many who pass through our gaols and show no signs of
reform does not prove that although they may reform they never will. If
nine hundred and ninety-nine cases were observed of men resisting reform
it would not prove the impossibility of reforming the thousandth. It
would point to the difficulty, the remote probability or the need of
different methods; but it would not determine the impossibility. When
the term "incorrigible" is applied to certain criminals it does not mean
that these men are incapable of reform; but they are RESISTING
reform; and no one can tell when or whether the most obstinate of these
will surrender his will to the dictates of conscience and commence a
life of reform. The possibility is always an open question. No better
testimony can be brought forward than that of Mr Z. R. Brockway, late
Superintendent of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira. Mr Brockway
is one of the pioneers in reformatory work and is considered the
greatest living authority upon the subject. Some 10,000 felons have
passed through their hands. Speaking at the Fourth International Prison
Congress held in St. Petersburg in 1890 he said:--"There is a sense in
which nothing that lives is incapable of betterment, and so strictly
speaking there are no incorrigible criminals. If it is possible to grasp
the thought and cherish it, we should endeavour to discover in the very
worst characters some spark of humanity which unites us all in ties of
relationship, some secret soul-chambers where superhuman influences may
find lodgment, and so with good leaven per