Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
CESARE LOMBROSO
A MODERN MAN OF SCIENCE
PREFACE
The subject of this little book is, as its title shows,Cesare Lombroso, the man and the investigator; itmakes no attempt to deal adequately with Lombroso,the reformer of criminology and criminal sociology.To do justice to Lombroso’s work in the latter respectwould be impossible, without at the same time writingthe history of the Italian school of “positive criminaljurisprudence” and that of the influence of thatschool upon important tendencies of the public life ofall the leading civilized peoples. It would also beimpossible without dealing at the same time with theplan of the new German criminal code. For manyreasons I have refrained from any such attempt;above all, in view of limits of space. None the less,I have dealt with Lombroso’s activity as a reformeras far as this was essential in order to do justice tothe personality of the deceased investigator.
Certain brief sections of this book have, with considerablemodifications, been taken over from myearlier publications upon the development of criminalanthropology. Entirely new, however, is the attempthere made to demonstrate how high is the positionLombroso may justly be said to have occupied in abrilliant epoch of positive study of the world, ofvimankind, and of society. In order to illustrate thepositive mode of thought, I have in an Appendix, towhich I especially direct the reader’s attention,attempted a tabular statement of the facts anddocuments of positivism during the middle decadesof the nineteenth century. The inclusion in thistabular statement of the principal writings of HerbertSpencer is the result of mature consideration andof a renewed careful study of his essay entitled“Reasons for Dissenting from the Philosophy ofM. Comte.” Comte’s philosophy represents merelythe reflection of positivism about itself, and is nomore than the introduction to the completer developmentof positivism.
PREFATORY NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR
I take this opportunity of expressing my gratefulacknowledgments to Mr. Havelock Ellis, who read mytranslation in manuscript, and made many val