The child of circumstance : the mystery of the unborn / by Albert Wilson.

  • Albert Wilson
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The child of circumstance : the mystery of the unborn / by Albert Wilson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    full force, but we must admit the same in the life of every flower of the field. Each flower moves or reacts accord¬ ing to its environment. Different is it if we take man's most faithful friend, the dog. While we see evidences of determinism in its life, there are times when it acts con¬ trary to the circumstances of the moment, and that is free will, determined by reckoning up fully its surround¬ ings, and, guided by experience, making a free choice of how it will act. However much new psychology reduces us to mere reactions, those amongst us who have education, judgment, and self-control, give evidence of free will. On the other hand, the mentally weak and degenerate show an absence of self-control, and therefore of responsibility. These form the bulk of the criminal masses with whom we are dealing. As an illustration of this class, I will give the history of the rather noted murderer, Caillard. THE MURDERER CAILLARD. H ere is a classical case, which might be explained by the theory of Determinism. He falls into the blood¬ thirsty class of criminals, but most probably was mentally affected. Caillard was a Frenchman who, at the age of 27, murdered a family. 1 The French seem rather addicted to this wholesale style. It was in 1898 that he murdered the mother, grandmother, and three children, thus wiping out the family. The learned President of the Cour d’Assises summed up the situation in excellent terms. He said : “ You were remarkable from your child¬ hood for perverse actions. You hacked young trees ; you put stones on the railway line to throw the trains off ; you passed your nights in marauding, and your days in stealing from shop fronts ; you were sly and hypocritical ; you were considered capable of anything. For years you have roved from factory to factory, leaving the worst records everywhere. At 18 you were sentenced for theft; 1 “ The Criminal Mind, ’ p. iio. De Fleury.
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