PROFESSIONAL CRIME.

499 Mr. Anperson pleads that the same enlightened that overcrowding in Lambeth is much in excess of that I health. which he found in Whitechapel and Mile End Old Town. ’, principles which now obtain in regard to sanitation may be Dr. Hamer visited as many as 1000 different sets applied to crime, and advocates the dealing with such of premises in Lambeth, and he seems to have criminals as have proved themselves to be morally incapable made very careful notes of the conditions which the in a way similar to that in which we now treat lunatics, inspections revealed. Out of 796 dwelling-houses occupied keeping them under perpetual observation and restraint until by the working classes he found defects in no less than cured. That our present methods of dealing with criminals 519, i.e., 65 per cent., a percentage in excess of that which is sadly in need of some reform there can be no doubt, and he detected in his previous inspections of Whitechapel and granting that the welfare of the community is the ruling Mile End Old Town. It is unnecessary to enter into the factor in the problem under discussion the plan suggested details of the defects save to remark that the vast majority by Mr. Anderson is at least logically sound. With the of them were capable of easy remedy. In the course suggestion that the antecedents of all prisoners should be of his inspection Dr. Hamer observed that a large fully gone into and the sentence tempered accordingly, we number of the premises visited had not previously been are in full accord. The whole article will repay careful inspected by the district sanitary inspector ; in other perusal. Dr. Nathan Oppenheim in the Popular Science words, nothing approaching a system of inspection, Monthly (New York) has a thoughtful paper on the Stampingsuch as is made incumbent upon the sanitary authorities by out of Crime. He asks for the complete isolation of the Section 1 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, had criminal in order that he may be prevented from perpetuating apparently been attempted. As regards workshops Dr. his species. One of the best indications for hope, he thinks, Hamer reports that no systematic attempt was made by the is the growing effort to study crime accurately, not merely to vestry to deal with the inspection of those places or to carry regard it as an excuse for confining lawbreakers in selfout the outworkers’ order. The number of inhabitants to each infecting herds, but to seek for the causes of crime, to sanitary inspector is in North Lambeth upwards of 50,000, ascertain all its concomitant conditions, to recognise and and it is perfectly obvious that nothing approaching a pro- classify the criminal in sociological, psychological ways-in perly organised inspection of a district can be effected with a the ways of anatomy and physiology. staff of these proportions. As Mr. Shirley Murphy points out in his introduction to Dr. Hamer’s report, "a complete OUR LIMITED VISION AND THE NEW re-arrangement of the sanitary administration is undoubtedly PHOTOGRAPHY. needed." The Lambeth Vestry has not taken the inspection WHEN Mr. Samuel Weller on a memorable occasion said, of the London County Council in anything approaching a spirit " But, you see, my wision’s limited," he uttered a profound of humility, and they have now attempted partly to discredit a and general truth which at the present time is being very Dr. Hamer’s report, and partly to justify themselves, but the felt and realised. The discovery of the " x " rays is attempt has in neither case been successful. Mr. Shirley keenly mainly responsible for this. Now that it has been shown Murphy has replied to, and disposed of, the vestry’s that it is to take photographs with dark light " it comments, and it is to be deplored that the sanitary is obviouspossible that we must attach a deeper and a much wider authorities should have resorted to such schoolboy excuses to the word light than has hitherto been ordias, that they are no worse than their neighbours and that meaning understood. The fact is, to paraphrase Mr. Weller’s other districts besides theirs have failed to provide a shelter. narily the It can eye is able to see very little. We quite agree with Mr. Shirley Murphy that the vestry expression, and turn to in account an appreciate producing impression have failed to show any inaccuracy in Dr. Hamer’s report. upon the retina but a very limited proportion, barely more than an octave of the waves or vibrations that may actuate PROFESSIONAL CRIME. the ether or medium which pervades all space. The WHAT to do with our criminals has always been a vexata ear is a more sensitive instrument for sound-vibrations, questio and will be, we fear, for yet awhile. Any attempt, since most people can appreciate the notes within the therefore, to solve the problem should receive careful con- compass of a piano, but even here there must be a limit. sideration. Much may be said in favour of the system Some persons cannot recognise the extreme top notes or adopted at the Elmira Reformatory in the State of New rapid undulations until the tension of the strings is York, where prisoners are kept until they are morally, intel- reduced, when the note is appreciated, having been lectually, and physically capable of earning a living when brought down to the level of the ear’s capacity and they are discharged. This system, however, per se can the vibrations reduced in frequency. In the same only be successfully adopted in the case of those who way the photographic plate has brought within our have a moral sense of wrongdoing and are capable of vision countless stars which the eye even aided by the reformation, otherwise much can be said against it. It telescope fails to see. The sensitive plate, in other words, can in no way benefit the habitual criminal, and this records infinitely more than the eye, and this property is is the very class in dealing with which the most utilised to bring things within the range of human vision. serious difficulties are met. With reference to this class So is it with the xor Roentgen rays, and doubtless there Mr. R. Anderson, C.B., has an able article in the current are other rays which have a greater penetrative power. number of .Blackn;ood’s Magazine. He starts by pro- Opacity is, indeed, a phenomenon existing merely for pounding the question,11 why do we imprison our an eye like ours, which if constructed a little differcriminals 7"and answers it by asserting that no trans- ently would enable us to see easily through walls. cendental obligation to punish wrongdoers is recognised Perhaps it is a wise provision that it is not so. The by our law as nowadays administered, and that the main fact that photographs may and have been taken with consideration with the judge is not the guilt of the no apparent source of light at all appears to be due to the criminal, but the need of the community. He then property of probably most things, of absorbing certain rays proceeds to argue that habitual criminals should be dealt and giving them out again in the dark. Thus, if a transwith by the State in a manner similar to that in which it parent photographic proof has been freely exposed to the has dealt with infectious diseases-namely, by removing light and then taken into the dark room and placed over a or checking the causes which tend to produce or spread sensitive plate for some time the plate on development will the disease, patients being isolated until they can mingle give a distinct negative image. The same thing is illusagain with their neighbours without danger to the public trated in a stronger manner in luminous paint, which absorbs