THE PHRENOLOGICAL JOURNAL. No. LI. ARTICLE I. SKETCH OF THE CHARACTER AND CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE FRENCH CRIMINALS LACENAIRE AND AVRIL, RECENTLY EXECUTED IN PARIS. IN November 1835, appeared before the Court of the Seine in Paris, accused of murder and robbery, the notorious Lacenaire. The reports of the trial describe him as having a " large head, a high forehead, and a handsome countenance, with an expression full of intelligence;" and add, "that he had received a good education, but that his vicious inclinations had urged him to crime." In 1829 he was condemned to a year's imprisonment for robbery, and in 1833 he was again imprisoned for thirteen months: on obtaining his liberty he had recourse to literary pursuits to gain his livelihood. He composed political songs and plays, and wrote articles for one of the Journals; but being unable to continue long in any fixed steady employment, he soon returned to his old method of earning his bread by crime. Finally he appeared at the assizes at Paris in 1835, accused of a complication of enormities. A cast of his head was taken by M. Dumoutier before his execution, and afterwards one of his skull, copies of which have been transmitted to us. On comparing them with those of other criminals, we find the development not to resemble that of ordinary robbers and murderers. This class of people usually present a deficient intellect, and still more deficient Ideality, and have little education; but the criminal we are describing possessed a good intellect, and still more Ideality, both of which became available to him, in consequence of being combined with a very active temperament. His readiness of intellect and facility of expression arising from a good endowment of Language cultivated by a classical education, even procured for him a reputation for talent; and there can be no doubt that he was in reality VOL. X.-NO. LI. сс a clever and able man, although not exactly a great genius or profound thinker. Such qualities are rare in persons whose life is devoted to the most revolting of crimes. In Lacenaire, however, this combination existed; and it is one of the many proofs that morality and religion are not conferred by intellect alone. The examination of this cast shews us an extraordinary case of coincidence between development and actual character; for the unfortunate notoriety connected with his name, and the interest excited by him in the French capital, at the time of his execution, have caused the history of the criminal, from his boyhood, to be laid before the public. The following are the dimensions of the skull, and of a cast of the head taken after death. Greatest circumference, From Philoprogenitiveness to Individuality,. ... Concentrativeness to Comparison,........ Destructiveness to Destructiveness,.. Skull. Head. Secretiveness to Secretiveness,... 5 Cautiousness to Cautiousness, Ideality to Ideality, Acquisitiveness to Acquisitiveness,........................................ ................................................... Ear to Philoprogenitiveness,..... ... ... Individuality, Comparison, Firmness,... The activity and intensity of action of the brain of Lacenaire seem to have been great. His temperament is stated in the reports of his trial to have been bilious-sanguine, which always indicates great activity. On looking at the anterior part of the head we find it large, unlike, as we have said, that of most criminals; the reflecting organs are well developed, and the organ of Ideality is large. We all know the influence which a good reflecting intellect and lively imagination must have on a man's character. If this criminal had exhibited in his conduct no signs of talent, but only the grovelling propensities common in men who choose robbery and murder as a profession, then would Phrenology have been at fault; but those who are acquainted with the history of Lacenaire, are well aware that he formed a remarkable exception to ordinary criminals, in the extent to which he displayed both intellectual and imaginative powers. In proof of this, we may refer to the account of him given by the editor of the French newspaper Constitutionel, in the Number of the 14th of November 1835. “In vain,” it is said, "would you seek in the language and manners of this man, any more than in his expression of countenance, the slightest trace of ferocity. He is affable and engaging; his conversation is solid and ele vated; he has travelled a great deal-studied a great dealreflected a great deal; he discusses with facility the gravest questions of social interest-he treats them with great elevation of thought and power of intellect, and without being at all moved by his pending fate." The writer then in a vein of astonishment exclaims, "Why has not this man applied to a useful, to a noble object, so great an extent of intelligence? Why has he aspired to lower himself, to make himself an object of horror? Do not think that he was born, was fatally organized for crime! oh! ye who thus systematize man, it is Lacenaire himself who is here to refute you!" He then goes on to say that, after his condemnation, Lacenaire "tranquilly sat down in the prison amongst some men of letters, advocates, and a physician; and conversed with them on topics of literature, politics, morals and religion, with a force, a justness of idea, and a depth of reflective power, which few could lay claim to." Any one who may be disposed to question the account of this journalist, has only to consult Lacenaire's autobiography, published at Paris in two volumes, containing his poetry and other compositions; and he will thereby be fully convinced that his Ideality and intellect, although not of the highest character, were decidedly above mediocrity. Here, then, we see a man whose life has been a course of crimes of the blackest character, and who at the same time exhibits no mean intellectual powers. Such a union is not very often found in the same individual, but it existed in Lacenaire; and in contrasting his forehead with that of numerous other criminals in our possession, we are struck with its superiority to them in size and development. Why should there be such a difference? Surely no one will say that it is a mere casual coincidence? The French editor asks, why a mind of so much intellect "aspired to become an object of horror," instead of an ornament to society. An examination of Lacenaire's cerebral configuration would have enabled him to solve the difficulty, by referring to the predominance of the animal feelings over the moral sentiments. On drawing a line from Causality to Cautiousness, the quantity of brain above it, where the moral organs are situated, is observed to be small, while those of the animal propensities, lying all below the line, are enormous. The difference in volume of the two regions is so striking as to require but a glance to convince the most sceptical; and yet a periodical laying claim to talent and respectability has not hesitated to describe this skull as "being phrenologically endowed with all the qualities of a good, mild, kind, sensible, and religious man, holding injustice in horror, and a hundred * Gazette Medicale of Paris. thousand leagues from being an assassin." It proceeds: "There is a marked development of all the anterior and superior parts of the cranium, and as remarkable a smoothness of the two sides, particularly in those parts which are said to correspond with robbery and murder. The organs of Benevolence, and above all Veneration, are largely developed." If the enlightened writer of this nonsense had enabled his readers to judge for themselves, by laying before them an engraving of Lacenaire's skull, accompanied by one of the negro Eustache, or of the first half dozen persons he might meet on the street, we are of opinion that this would have done him more credit than his positive assertions on a subject he shews such ignorance of, which are proved, on the slightest glance, to be so widely incorrect. Firmness is extremely developed; but on each side of it the head slopes down, indicating a small Conscientiousness, whilst the organs of Self-Esteem, Secretiveness, and Destructiveness, are exceedingly large, especially the two last. Acquisitiveness and Combativeness are also large, although the latter is considerably smaller than Destructiveness. Adhesiveness is moderate, or rather small. The weakness of the moral region was too great to control this overwhelming extent of propensity; there were not even the kindly affections to come to their assistance. This is one of the most unfortunate developments that could exist, and in the life of Lacenaire are to be traced the deplorable workings of it. He was the son of a wealthy merchant at Lyons, was sent to school near that place, but was repeatedly expelled for habitual and incurable outrageousness of conduct; he was then sent to a college at Aix, where in a few days his vicious disposition procured him the hatred of his teachers and schoolfellows, and an immediate expulsion from that seminary. On his dismissal, the professor at the head of the establishment remarked, that,*" if the torrent of his passions remained unchecked, he would turn out a monster that would one day be brought to the scaffold." This prediction was unhappily destined to be verified. His ardent imagination, led away by his inordinate pride, vanity, and dishonest selfishness, rendered a life of legitimate industry insupportable to him; he ran away from his father's house and business to seek in Greece pursuits more congenial to his mind; pressed by poverty, he returned to France, and went to Paris, where, being without means, and unwilling to work, he became desperate. After killing the nephew of Benjamin Constant in a duel, he deliberately made up his mind to give unrestrained licence to his passions. His moral sentiments were too weak to lay before Constitutionel of November 30. 1835. his intellect the true cause of his misery, viz. his own idleness and depravity, and to make him resolve to use his talents and acquirements in obtaining an honest livelihood; he therefore preferred excelling in the character of a robber and a murderer, and, pretending to look upon himself as the "victim of society" (such are his words), he proceeded to visit upon society, as he termed it, the penalty due for its imaginary ill-treatment of him. He was finally brought to justice, and during his trial made confessions detailing a career of crime that filled all Paris with horror. It is curious to remark, in regard to other faculties also, the minute coincidence of the character of Lacenaire with the development of his brain. The posterior region displays a very large organ of Philoprogenitiveness, which is the more conspicuous from the small Adhesiveness which adjoins it. In exact conformity we find the criminal saying of himself, that while he would never have hesitated to sacrifice either man or woman or FRIEND of any kind, when he stood in his way, he "could never HAVE HAD THE COURAGE TO KILL A CHILD, even had he been sure of enriching himself by its death;"* and yet this is the case which is said to give a deathblow to Phrenology! In most criminals the organ of Amativeness is largely developed, and abuse of the sexual feeling is generally one of the causes of their dissipation, and one of their incentives to crime. In Lacenaire the organ is, however, of very moderate size, and from the same authority it appears that he "had very little inclination for women," and that his dissipation consisted in drinking to excess. To such an extent did he carry this passion, that when in prison he sold his pantaloons to procure wine, and added, with a laugh, that the officers would be obliged to buy a pair for him to take him to the scaffold! The organ of Alimentiveness is so prominently marked, as to lead us to infer that eating and drinking would be among his chief pleasures. It is recorded indeed, that he enjoyed greatly the numerous pies sent to him in prison, and that he held his Christmas very gaily with Avril. There are those who accuse Phrenology of saying that this person was born for crime; but was it the fault of Phrenology that he ran the course he did? It was not Phrenology that caused the professor at Aix, in dismissing him as hopeless, to predict that he would one day turn out a monster worthy of the scaffold. Phrenology would not say that he " was bornwas fatally organized for crime;" but it would indicate, as the actual disposition of the pupil did to the professor, that if his powerful animal propensities were allowed to have the ascend ⚫ Gazette des Hopitaux, 1 Mars 1836. |