i32Section I.A. Marro.
Table VI.
Proportion of Mothers of Normal People, Criminals, or Insane in the
different periods of age according to the epoch of birth.
Period
"—'of full
of immaturity.development.of decline.
Assassins ........................6-451-8387
Blows and injuries .......27257*5I5‘I
Rapes .............................15-659*325-0
Assaults ............................27*263-69'o
Arson ............................—IOO'O—
Sharpers ........................12' 174‘213-6
Burglars ........................19-46ri19-4
Pickpockets ................22-564-5x 2 '0
Domestic thieves ...........20‘062-517 "5
Simple thieves ................i7'964-i17-9
Idlers and breakers of
laws forbidding residence20'061 ‘9x7‘4
General average ..............x8'263717-9
Normal persons examinedI2’876-4107
Insane numbering 8520'058-821 ’ 1
The law which we observed for the fathers in different classes of
criminality is also met with amongst the mothers.
Amongst the last we find the largest proportion of aged mothers for
assassins, and also, though in smaller proportion, for those guilty of rape,
which would explain in part the apparent anomaly by which these latter do
not present a preponderance of aged fathers. A proportion of very young
mothers prevails also in the class of thieves and of beaters, amongst whom
we have already found a preponderance of young fathers; they reach their
maximum in the class of assaulters in which we have found the proportion
of young fathers very high, although not attaining the same degree.
We find a smaller number of aged mothers amongst swindlers, so that
if it were permitted to draw general conclusions from so limited a number
of observations, one might admit that the mother has a higher capacity of
transmitting emotional qualities to children rather than intellectual; seeing
that we find the maximum number of young mothers for the classes in
which that emotional excess is the most powerful cause promotive of crime,
whilst we do not see an equal proportion of aged mothers, and, consequently,
of mature and cautious judgment, amongst criminals who base their actions
upon craft.
Amongst the insane, the curable forms, the subjects of melancholy and
mania appear in moderate proportion amongst the descendants of young
