Tag Archives: Cesare Lombroso

Mediciones y estadísticas en los archivos de Cesare Lombroso

Por Marina Laura Sardi, Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Para descifrar si el delincuente difería del hombre cuerdo o del alienado, Cesare Lombroso se abocó a la comparación de cuerpos, rostros y cráneos. Esto fue en parte posible porque entre los años 1864 y 1876 cuando enseñaba la clínica de las enfermedades mentales en el hospital de Pavía, Italia, organizó una colección de cráneos, cerebros y máscaras faciales de las personas fallecidas. Esta colección incluía pocos criminales y, en cambio, un mayor número de enfermos mentales, además de algunos soldados que constituyeron una referencia de personas honestas para comparar a los delincuentes. Junto con estos materiales, distintos médicos realizaron libros de registros con datos biográficos (nombre, edad, lugar de origen, enfermedad, etc.), características antropométricas (estatura, peso, pilosidad, presencia de tatuajes, etc.) y las características de los órganos (cerebro, corazón, pulmones, bazo, riñones, etc.) extraídos durante la disección.

Por aquellos años, la antropología buscaba estandarizar sus prácticas. Esto consistía en la selección de las estructuras anatómicas de las que pudieran leerse ciertos indicadores, la determinación de las mediciones apropiadas y, en ocasiones, la provisión de instrumentos que permitieran medirlas. Distintos investigadores, en sus propios laboratorios se dedicaron a dicha búsqueda y tomaría todavía varios años de debates alcanzar algunos acuerdos.

El método de la antropología criminal, de la cual Lombroso fue uno de sus principales proponentes, consistía en la toma de mediciones con las que los antropólogos físicos distinguían razas. Asimismo, consistía en la observación de “anomalías craneanas”, que predominarían en los malhechores (Lombroso 1876, 1878, 1896), tales como presencia de sutura media frontal y de la fosa occipital mediana, arcos superciliares y seno frontal desarrollados, frente huidiza, cráneos pesados, huesos wormianos, asimetría craneana y plagiocefalia, entre otras. Sin embargo, Lombroso recién logró normalizar un método de observación y comparación luego de haber revisado los viejos registros y revisitado su colección de cráneos.

En los archivos del Museo de Antropología Criminal “Cesare Lombroso” (Turín, Italia) es posible detectar algunos nombres, caligrafías, trazos, anotaciones al margen, tachaduras, conteos y cálculos matemáticos mediante el cual el médico italiano construyó los indicadores y el corpus empírico que le permitieron edificar sus inferencias sobre la relación entre el cuerpo físico y la criminalidad. En la Figura 1 se observa un ejemplo de los registros elaborados en el Hospital de Pavía, numerados como 162 (máscara) y 163 (cráneo) en los que se indica: “Palazzoli Giovanni, de 40 años. Ladrón muerto en febrero 1866 […] Individuo de alta estatura 1,70 de cabello negro, bien nutrido, con notable desarrollo de la corpulencia y de los órganos genitales […] Signos de tatuajes. P.S. en el brazo derecho está representado un postillón, en el izquierdo una mujer desnuda que baila sobre cuerda […]”, cuyo dibujo se adjunta al texto. A continuación, se describe la causa de muerte (tuberculosis) y las características de algunos órganos, tales como “hipertrofia de corazón”. En este registro se pueden observar los trazos realizados en color rojo por Lombroso sobre características físicas que, según él, serían más frecuentes o más pronunciadas en los delincuentes. Otras anotaciones en azul indican el peso del cerebro, 1310 (gr), y mediciones sobre la calota, 188 (mm del diámetro anteroposterior), 146 (mm del diámetro transverso) y 15 mm del máximo espesor óseo y 5 mm del mínimo.  

Figura 1. Registro sobre el ladrón Giovanni Palazzoli. Fuente: Mazzo 23, 477, “Registro dei Pezzi del Gabinetto antropologico psichiatrico nel Civico Ospitale Maggiore di Pavia I”. 1864-1866. Pavia. Archivio del Museo Lombroso, Università di Torino

Por su parte, la Figura 2 muestra dos tablas realizadas por Lombroso en las últimas páginas de libro de registros de su gabinete antropológico, realizado entre los años 1864 y 1866. En la primera tabla hay datos sobre los soldados fallecidos en el Hospital de Pavía, con -de izquierda a derecha- el apellido (a veces precedido por el número asignado en el mismo libro de registros), la estatura tomada sobre el cadáver, la región de origen del soldado (solo se indicaron para Nápoles y Sicilia), pesaje en [semillas de] mijo, peso del cráneo y peso del cerebro. En la segunda tabla hay datos de siete ladrones (número, apellido, peso en mijo y peso del cráneo (Nótese que el anteúltimo caso corresponde a Palazzoli).

Figura 2. Mediciones tomadas sobre los cráneos de soldados (arriba) y ladrones (abajo). Fuente: Mazzo 23, 477, “Registro dei Pezzi del Gabinetto antropologico psichiatrico nel Civico Ospitale Maggiore di Pavia I”. 1864-1866. Pavia. Archivio del Museo Lombroso, Università di Torino

Durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX la medición del cerebro era un asunto prioritario para los antropólogos, pero no había demasiado consenso sobre el modo de hacerlo; si a través de su peso, sus longitudes, de la capacidad craneana o de las dimensiones externas del cráneo (Topinard 1885). Había consenso, en cambio, en cuanto a que todas esas medidas tenían algún grado de asociación directa; es decir, personas más altas tendían a tener cráneos más grandes y, a su vez, cerebros más grandes. Medir el cerebro, cuando era posible, comportaba algunos problemas metodológicos (extracción de la sangre, de las membranas, etc.); además, de que dicho órgano era sensible a las mismas condiciones que provocaban la muerte (e.g., enfermedades y desnutrición) y a los métodos de conservación aplicados. Tomar medidas internas o externas del cráneo, en lugar del cerebro, era entonces una solución práctica.

La capacidad craneana podía medirse incorporando líquidos o sólidos (arena, plomo, semillas de mijo o mostaza, entre otros), a través del foramen magnum, de los que luego se calculaba el volumen o peso; pero era una medida de difícil acceso y la diferencia arrojada por distintos materiales, o entre distintos observadores, opacaba cualquier inferencia. En tanto, la medición de curvas, diámetros o circunferencias era sencilla y requería de pocos instrumentos y entrenamiento. Dichas mediciones, sin embargo, incorporaban también los huesos que podían ser espesos y voluminosos, lo que conducía a sobreestimar el tamaño de la cavidad.

Lombroso tomó numerosas medidas craneanas, pero decidió finalmente medir la capacidad con arena (en centímetros cúbicos). Insistía a lo largo de sus obras (Lombroso 1876, 1878 1883) en que la mayoría de los delincuentes tenían capacidades craneanas bajas (y cráneos pesados) a pesar de que -destacaba, para fortalecer sus conclusiones- la arena arrojaba valores superiores a otros elementos y de que los criminales presentaban estaturas superiores a los normales (Lombroso 1883). Es probable entonces que los pesajes de las semillas de mijo y los cráneos (Figura 2) no hayan sido más que ensayos estadísticos para evaluar diferencias en los delincuentes, diferencias entre métodos, o correspondencias entre distintos indicadores; lo que constituiría, entonces, una búsqueda para dar validez a sus conclusiones y hacerlas comparables a las de otros investigadores.

Referencias bibliográficas

Lombroso, C. 1876. L’uomo delinquente studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie pel Prof. Cesare Lombroso, Ulrico Hoepli, Milano.

Lombroso, C. 1878. Cranio, in Enciclopedia medica italiana diretta per le singole specialità dai dottori Albertini [et al], F. Vallardi, Milano, vol. 2.

Lombroso, C. 1883. Capacità cranica di 121 criminali. Archivio di Psichiatria, Scienze Penali ed Antropologia Criminale per Servire allo Studio dell’Uomo Alienato e Delinquente» IV, pp. 215-219.

Lombroso, C. 1896. L’uomo delinquente studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie, 5ta ed. Fratelli Bocca Editori, Torino.

Topinard, P. 1885. Éléments d’Anthropologie Générale. Adrien Delahaye et Émile Lecrosnier Éditeurs, Paris.

Measurements and statistics in Cesare Lombroso’s archives

By Marina Laura Sardi, Universidad Nacional de La Plata

In order to decipher whether the criminal differed from the sane or the alienated man, Cesare Lombroso compared bodies, faces and skulls. This was possible, in part, because between 1864 and 1876, when he taught the clinic of mental illness at the Pavia hospital, Italy, he organized a collection of skulls, brains and facial masks of deceased persons. This collection included few criminals and, instead, a larger number of mentally ill people, as well as some soldiers who constituted a reference of honest people to compare the criminals. Along with these materials, different doctors kept record books with biographical data (name, age, place of origin, illness, etc.), anthropometric characteristics (height, weight, hairiness, presence of tattoos, etc.) and the characteristics of the organs (brain, heart, lungs, spleen, kidneys, etc.) removed during dissection.

In those years, anthropology was seeking to standardize its practices. This involved the selection of anatomical structures from which certain indicators could be read, the determination of appropriate measurements and, sometimes, the provision of instruments to measure them. Different researchers, in their own laboratories, were engaged in this quest and it would take several more years of discussions to reach some consensus.

The method of criminal anthropology, of which Lombroso was one of the main proponents, consisted of taking measurements used by physical anthropologists to differentiate races. It also consisted of the observation of “cranial anomalies”, which would predominate in criminals (Lombroso 1876, 1878, 1896), such as the presence of medial frontal suture and median occipital fossa, developed superciliary arches and frontal sinus, hollow forehead, heavy skulls, wormian bones, cranial asymmetry, and plagiocephaly, among others. However, Lombroso could normalize a method of observation and comparison after he had reviewed the old records and revised his collection of skulls.

In the archives of the Museum of Criminal Anthropology “Cesare Lombroso” (Turin, Italy) it is possible to detect some names, handwritings, strokes, marginal annotations, crossings out, counts, and mathematical calculations through which the Italian doctor constructed the indicators and the empirical corpus that allowed him to build his inferences about the relationship between the physical body and criminality. Figure 1 shows an example of the records drawn up at Pavia Hospital, numbered 162 (mask) and 163 (skull), which indicate: “Palazzoli Giovanni, 40 years old. Thief who died in February 1866 […] A tall individual, 1.70 m tall, black hair, well nourished, with a notable development of corpulence and genital organs […] Signs of tattoos. P.S. on the right arm is depicted a postillion, on the left arm a naked woman dancing on a rope […]’, a drawing of which is attached to the text. This is followed by a description of the cause of death (tuberculosis) and the characteristics of certain organs, such as “hypertrophy of the heart”. In this register, one can see the traces made in red by Lombroso of physical characteristics which, according to him, would be more frequent or more pronounced in criminals. Other annotations in blue indicate the weight of the brain, 1310 (gr), and measurements on the calotte, 188 (mm of the anteroposterior diameter), 146 (mm of the transverse diameter) and 15 mm of the maximum bone thickness and 5 mm of the minimum.

Figura 1. Record about the thief Giovanni Palazzoli. Source: Mazzo 23, 477, “Registro dei Pezzi del Gabinetto antropologico psichiatrico nel Civico Ospitale Maggiore di Pavia I”. 1864-1866. Pavia. Archivio del Museo Lombroso, Università di Torino.

Figure 2 shows two tables made by Lombroso in the last pages of the record book of his anthropological cabinet, made between 1864 and 1866. In the first table, there are data taken on the soldiers who died in the Pavia Hospital, including – from left to right – the surname (sometimes preceded by the number assigned in the same record book), the height taken on the corpse, the region of origin of the soldier (only indicated for Naples and Sicily), weight in [seeds of] millet, the weight of the skull and the weight of the brain. In the second table, there are data for seven thieves (number, surname, weight in millet, and weight of the skull (note that the last but one case corresponds to Palazzoli).

Figura 2. Measurements taken on the soldiers (above) and thieves’ skulls (below). Source: Mazzo 23, 477, “Registro dei Pezzi del Gabinetto antropologico psichiatrico nel Civico Ospitale Maggiore di Pavia I”. 1864-1866. Pavia. Archivio del Museo Lombroso, Università di Torino.

During the second half of the 19th century, the measurement of the brain was a priority issue for anthropologists, but there was little consensus on how to do this; whether through weight, lengths, cranial capacity, or the external dimensions of the skull (Topinard 1885). There was consensus, however, that all these measures had some degree of direct association; that is, taller people tended to have larger skulls and, in turn, larger brains. Measuring the brain, where possible, entailed some methodological problems (removal of blood, membranes, etc.); in addition, the brain was sensitive to the same conditions that caused death (e.g., disease and malnutrition) and to the preservation methods applied. Taking internal or external measurements of the skull, rather than the brain, was then a practical solution.

Cranial capacity could be measured by incorporating liquids or solids (sand, lead, millet, or mustard seeds, among others) through the foramen magnum, from which the volume or weight was then calculated; but it was difficult to get direct access to the cavity and the differences yielded using different materials or between different observers obscured any inference. Meanwhile, the measurement of curves, diameters, or circumferences was simple and required few instruments and training. Such measurements, however, also incorporated bones, which could be thick and bulky, leading to an overestimation of the size of the cavity.

Lombroso took numerous cranial measurements but finally decided to measure capacity with sand (in cubic centimeters). He insisted throughout his works (Lombroso 1876, 1878 1883) that most criminals had low cranial capacities (and heavy skulls) despite the fact that – to strengthen his conclusions – sand yielded higher values than other elements, and that criminals had larger than normal statures (Lombroso 1883). It is likely, then, that the weighing of millet seeds and skulls (Figure 2) were nothing more than statistical tests to evaluate differences in criminals, differences between methods, or correspondences between different indicators; which would constitute, thus, a quest to validate his conclusions and make them comparable to those of other researchers.

Bibliographic references

Lombroso, C. 1876. L’uomo delinquente studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie pel Prof. Cesare Lombroso, Ulrico Hoepli, Milano.

Lombroso, C. 1878. Cranio, in Enciclopedia medica italiana diretta per le singole specialità dai dottori Albertini [et al], F. Vallardi, Milano, vol. 2.

Lombroso, C. 1883. Capacità cranica di 121 criminali. Archivio di Psichiatria, Scienze Penali ed Antropologia Criminale per Servire allo Studio dell’Uomo Alienato e Delinquente» IV, pp. 215-219.

Lombroso, C. 1896. L’uomo delinquente studiato in rapporto alla antropologia, alla medicina legale ed alle discipline carcerarie, 5ta ed. Fratelli Bocca Editori, Torino.

Topinard, P. 1885. Éléments d’Anthropologie Générale. Adrien Delahaye et Émile Lecrosnier Éditeurs, Paris.

The reception of Cesare Lombroso’s theories in France: the case of Le Mans’ learned society

By Franco Orlandi, University of Turin

In 1876 Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), a professor of Forensic Medicine and Public Hygiene at the University of Turin and widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern criminology, published the first edition of The Criminal Man, one of the most famous criminological treatises ever written. In his book, Lombroso claimed that criminals were a subspecies of the human race and that they exhibited distinct physical and mental features than law-abiding individuals, such as unusual shapes of the skull, the presence of tattoos and a lack of moral sense. According to Lombroso, criminal behavior was not the result of a free will, but of a biological predisposition. Criminals were basically “throwbacks” to an earlier stage of human evolution, modern primitive men unable to control their violent and immoral instincts. The theory of the “born criminal” travelled all over the world and had an enormous influence on nineteenth century European culture, even though it had no scientific basis. This does not mean, however, that Lombroso did not encounter resistance to his ideas.

Cesare Lombroso. Photogravure. Credits: WikiMedia commons

This was particularly true in France, where Lombroso’s theories were rejected by the two leading representatives of the French School of criminology: Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904), magistrate and director of the Justice Ministry’s statistical service in Paris, and Alexander Lacassagne (1843-1924), professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Lyons. Unlike Lombroso, both scholars explained crime in sociological rather than biological terms. Tarde denied the existence of a “born criminal” marked by a cluster of physical anomalies and maintained that the similarities between offenders derived from their belonging to the same professional group. In Tarde’s view, criminality was a learned behavior that resulted primarily from the interaction with disadvantaged social environments rather than the product of a biological predisposition. Similarly, Lacassagne dismissed Lombroso’s atavistic explanation of crime and stressed the importance of poor living conditions in the etiology of crime. ‘The social milieu – he wrote – is the culture medium of crime; the microbe is the criminal, an element which only becomes active when it finds the medium to make it ferment’ (Lacassagne quoted from Renneville 2014).  

While the reception of Lombroso’s theories in France has been the subject of numerous studies in recent years, the way in which they were received by less known actors and in more peripheral contexts is still worth investigation. One interesting case study in this regard is represented by the learned society of Le Mans. Founded in 1761 by a royal decree of Louis XV, the Society of Agriculture, Sciences, and Arts of Sarthe is the oldest learned society in the Sarthe region. In 1840 it launched its own journal, which continues to be published to the present day. An analysis of all the volumes of the Bulletin published from 1840 to 1927 seems to reveal that Lombroso’s ideas did not spark much debate in the local scientific community. In fact, only one article refers to the controversial theories of the Italian scientist. The text was published in 1890 by Paul Hervé, a physician at the local hospital and a member of the Sarthe’s learned society, and reported the content of a communication he had presented a few months earlier to the Medical society of Le Mans. The article, which was entitled Essai sur la suggestion mentale (Essay on Thought Transmission), quoted the testimonies of several men of science of unquestionable credibility who had witnessed firsthand apparently inexplicable phenomena of thought transmission, mental telepathy and hypnosis, and concluded that the latter should be made the subject of serious scientific investigations. In the final bibliography, Hervé included two works written by Lombroso: the 1889 French translation of L’Homme de génie (The Man of Genius) and the 1886 second Italian edition of Studi sull’ipnotismo (Studies on Hypnotism). In addition to studying crime and criminals, Lombroso became in fact very interested in spiritualism, mediumship and hypnosis, publishing several works on the topic and even attending séances presided over by the world-famous medium Eusepia Palladino, an experience that produced a strong impression on him. After outlining the main theories that had been formulated hitherto to explain thought transmission, Hevré went on to discuss whether this phenomenon could be considered the product of a pathological condition. After all, he noted, most of the subjects involved in these experiments suffered from nervous disorders, hysteria in particular. Although he discarded this hypothesis, Hevré quoted in a footnote a passage from Lombroso’s L’Anthropologie criminelle et ses récents progrès (Criminal anthropology and its recent progress), in which the Italian criminal anthropologist had claimed that genius was often associated with pathology, especially with epilepsy and degeneration:

The fact that genius is frequently derived from parents either addicted to drink, of advanced age, or insane, certainly points to this conclusion, as also does the appearance of genius subsequently to lesions of the head. It is also indicated by frequent anomalies, especially of cranial asymmetry; the capacity of the skull being sometimes excessive, sometimes abnormally small; by the frequency of moral insanity, and of hallucinations; by sexual and intellectual precocity, and not rarely by somnambulism. To these we may add the prevalence of suicide, which is, on the other hand, very common among epileptic patients

(Lombroso 1890, pp. 110-111)
Cesare Lombroso attending a séance in Milan in 1908. Salt print photo. Credits: Cesare Lombroso Museum of Criminal Anthropology

In conclusion, an analysis of the Bulletin de la Société d’ agriculture, sciences et arts de la Sarthe seems to confirm that French scientists and physicians adopted a rather hostile attitude towards Lombroso’s theories. However, the article by Paul Harvé shows that Lombroso’s publication were read and discussed not only in intellectually thriving cities like Paris and Lyons, but also in more peripheral locations like Le Mans.

Selected bibliography

Paul Hevré, “Essai sur la suggestion mentale”, Bulletin de la Société d’ agriculture, sciences et arts de la Sarthe, 24 (1889), pp. 357-424.

Cesare Lombroso, L’anthropologie criminelle et ses récent progrès, Paris, Felix Alcan, 1890.

Marc Renneville, “Exploring the History of French Criminology (1885-1939): the Case of the Archives de l’Anthropologie Criminelle”, Criminocorpus, 2014, http://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2753

Francesco Paolo de Ceglia, Lorenzo Leporiere, “Becoming Eusapia: The Rise of the ‘Diva of Scientists’” Science in Context 33, 4 (2020), pp. 441–71. doi:10.1017/S026988972100020X.

Carlos S. Alvarado, Massimo Biondi, “Cesare Lombroso on Mediumship and Pathology”, History of Psychiatry 28, 2 (2017), pp. 225–241. doi:10.1177/0957154X16686904.