OBITUARY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 643, 21 October 1909, Page 7

OBITUARY.

i ■ , LOHBROSO, CRIMINOLOGIST. (Bj Telegraph.-I'ml. Anioclalluri.-OutijrlrhU (Ecc. October 20, 8.25 p.m.) > 1 London, October 20. , Professor Cesare Loinbroso, the Italian criminologist, is dead, aged 72. : LOMBROSO'S THioBY OF CRIME. • Cesare Lambroso, Italian criminologist, was born iu November, 1836, at Venice. After making himself known by " his medical and anthropological studies, he was in 18G2 appointed professor at Pavift, then director of the lunatic asylum at Fesaro, and finally professor at Turin. His works. include "The Criminali'An Anthropological and Medico-legal' Study," "The Man of Genius," "Epileptic Ihsanity," "Political Crime and Revolutions," "Tbe Physiognomy of tho' AnWcbist," and "The Female Offenders" with William l ? errerri (1891)., ' • ■ Writes, the "Encyclopaedia Briliunica":— "Lombroso, like Bovio, li'crri, and Colajanni, well-known Italian criminologists,, has. been, strongly influenced by AugUsti) Conite, and owes to him an exaggerated tendency to refer all montal facts to biological causes. In.spite of this, however, and a serious want of accuracy and discrimination in', handling evidence, his work has mado an epoch in criminology; for ho has surpassed all his predecessors by the wide scope and systematic character of his researches, and by the practical conclusions he'draws from them. . "Their net theoretical result- i6>' that ;the criminal population exhibits a higher percentage of physical, nervous, and mental anomalies than non-criminals, and that' fhese anomalies aro duo partly to degeneration, : partly to atavism. The criminal is a spocial type-of the human race, standing midway between tho lunatic and the savage. ■: "This doctrino of a 'criminal tvpe' has been gravely,criticised, but is adinitted'by all to coin tain a substratum of-truth. 'The practical reform to whioh it points, is a classification of so that the born criminal may receive a different kind of punishment from tho offender who is tompted into crime,by Circumstances. • • . "LombrosioV biological principles are much less successful in his work on ' Genius,' which ho explains as a morbid degenerative condition, presenting analogies' to insanity; l nnd not. altogether alien to crime.". i MI?.. JOHN. GTJNN. ■ ■ (Eec..October QO, 11.30 p.m.) ■ ' ' ' Melbourne, October 20. ' : Mr. John Qunn, of Clarko,;. Meynell, and Guiin, theatrical managers, died suddenly of pneumonia. ~ [ilr. John Gnrin, who was.-'ih: l HVellingtori with tho first "Fatal Wedding" Company, was a'son of the_ late Air. Michf.pl Gunn, who whs proprietor or tho Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, for ft mimbor of years. Miss ll'aidee Gunu, the English actress, is Mr. John (iuiui's sitter.] , SUPERINTENDENT OF -TVESLEYAN ! 1 MISSION. , ri ! London,' October 19. '• Tho ~l!ev.,- Peter Thompson, v-',who/.has, been Superintendent of the M'esleyan. East.London Mission.for over 22 years, is dead., /. , [Under the; late ,'llsv. Mr.. Thompson, the wesloyan East London Mission has'devoloped, hndv theio are now seven tenlres with a lull roonibership. of over ISOO-'oft ti'lal -membership 500 ahd junior membership^nearly;, 1000. Mr. Thompson had an intimate: knowledge of social problems. He was a scholar-arid an 'cvfln. gellSt.J -\> , ■ ' -;• , j ,V'; •