the characteristics are manifested at an earlier age than is the case
with born criminals, but these differences are not of fundamental
importance.

_Cases._ During many years of observation, my father was able to follow
innumerable cases of moral insanity in which perversity was manifested
literally from the cradle, and in which the victims of this disease grew
up into delinquents in no wise distinguishable from born criminals.

A typical instance is that of a certain Rizz... who was brought to him
by the mother because, while still at the breast, he bit his nurse so
viciously that bottle-feeding had to be substituted. At the age of two
years, careful training and medical treatment notwithstanding, this
child was separated from his brothers, because he stuck pins into their
pillows and played dangerous tricks on them. Two years later, he broke
open his father's cash-box and stole money to buy sweets; at six,
although decidedly intelligent, he was expelled from every private
school in the town, because he instigated the others to mischief or
ill-treated them. At fourteen, he seduced a servant and ran away, and at
twenty he killed his fiancee by throwing her out of a window. Thanks to
the testimony of a great many doctors, Rizz... was declared to be
morally insane, but if the family had been poor instead of well-to-do,
and the mother had neglected to have her child examined in infancy by a
medical man, thus obtaining ample proof of the pathological nature of
his perversity, Rizz... would have been condemned as an ordinary
criminal, because, like all morally insane persons, he was very
intelligent and able to reason clearly, like a normal individual.

Another typical case is that of a child named Rav... (see Fig. 12) a
native of the Romagna, who was brought to my father at the age of eight,
because his parents were convinced that his conduct was due to a morbid
condition. Unlike the above-mentioned case, his evil acts were always
carried out in an underhand way. He showed great spite towards his
brothers and sisters, especially the smaller ones, whom he attempted to
strangle on several occasions, and was expelled from school on account
of the bad influence he exercised over his schoolfellows. He delighted
above everything in robbing his parents, employers, and the neighbours
and in falsely accusing others, and so cleverly did he manage this that
he caused a great deal of mischief before his double-dealing was
discovere