poisoned by the spectre of want, is perhaps casting evil looks at her
and harboring the unfilial thought: "Better an open grave in the
cemetery than one mouth more to feed at home!"

It is true, that want alone is not sufficient to prepare the soil in the
environment of that suffering family for the roots of real crime and to
develop it. Want will weaken the love and mutual respect among the
members of that family, but it will not be strong enough alone to arm
the hands of the man for a matricidal deed, unless he should get into a
pathological mental condition, which is very exceptional and rare. But
the conclusions of the positive school are confirmed in this case as in
any other. In order that crime may develop, it is necessary that
anthropological, social and telluric factors should act together.

We generally forget the conditions of the physical environment in which
we live, because supernatural prejudice tells us that the body is a
beast which we must forget in order to elevate ourselves into a
spiritual life. Manzoni could designate the Middle Ages by the term
"dirty." because they neglected the demands of elementary hygiene, and
thus of human morality. For where the requirements of our physical body
are neglected or offended, there no flower can bloom. The telluric
environment has a great influence on our physical activity, by way of
our nervous system. We feel differently disposed, according to whether a
south or a north wind blows. When Garibaldi was on the Pampas, he
observed that his companions were irascible and prone to violent
quarrels, when the Pampero blew, and that their behavior changed, when
this wind ceased. The great founders of criminal statistics, Quetelet
and Guerry, observed that the change of seasons carried with it a change
in criminality. Sexual crimes are less frequent in winter than in spring
and summer. And with reference to this point I have maintained, and