investigation, the true foundations upon which reformatory science
is to be built are clearly indicated.

This statement, that heredity plays an important part in the production
of the criminal, needs to be carefully guarded. It means precisely this
and nothing more:--That where an hereditary influence (such as above
described) making crime easier, has been transmitted, there that
influence is an important factor in the production of the criminal. It
does NOT mean that this influence is invariably transmitted by the
criminal parent, neither does it mean that the majority of criminals are
"born" criminals.

The following is an extract from a letter upon this subject which the
author has received from Dr. Arthur MacDonald, one of the leading
criminologists of to-day:--"There is no proof of any scientific value
that criminality is inherited." By criminality we understand "the moral
basis of crime."

The famous "Jukes" family that lived in the State of New York, afford
one of the most interesting studies in heredity to be found in the
annals of criminology. Of this numerous family (some 709 persons of
which were clearly traced in five generations) the elder sons took to
crime and the younger sons to vagabondage. There was indeed a proportion
of honest and industrious persons among them. Of the women 52 per cent.
were prostitutes. That a proportion of honest men among the sons, and a
fair number of virtuous women among the daughters is recorded, clearly
proves that an hereditary taint is not, in all cases, necessarily
transmitted from parent to child. Latency in one generation, with
activity in the next, is frequently observed in the transmission of
disease; but in the case of crime, as distinguished from vice, this is
rarely so.

That the younger sons of the "Jukes" family fell into habits of
vagabondage (leaving it to the elder sons to carry on the criminal
traditions of the family) is also worthy of notice. It serves to show
that whatever the influence of heredity may be, as a factor disposing
towards crime, it cannot be an independent and final factor. In families
living after a primitive manner of life, as this family did, the elder
sons are invariably the companions of their fathers and accompany them
on their depredatory raids. The younger sons are left to the milder
environment of their mother's society. Thus from a criminal point of
view, the environment of the elder sons is more intense than that of the
younge