of present-day civilization.  The 19th century has won a great victory over mortality and infectious diseases by means of the masterful progress of physiology and natural science.  But while contagious diseases have gradually diminished, we see on the other hand that moral diseases are growing more numerous in our so-called civilization.  While typhoid fever, smallpox, cholera and diphtheria retreated before the remedies which enlightened science applied by means of the experimental method, removing their concrete causes, we see on the other hand that insanity, suicide and crime, that painful trinity, are growing apace.  And this makes it very evident that the science which is principally, if not exclusively, engaged in studying these phenomena of social disease, should feel the necessity of finding a more exact diagnosis of these moral diseases of society, in order to arrive at some effective and more humane remedy, which should more victoriously combat this somber trinity of insanity, suicide and crime.

The science of positive criminology arose in the last quarter of the 19th century, as a result of this strange contrast, which would be inexplicable, if we could not discover historical and scientific reasons for its existence.  And it is indeed a strange contrast that Italy should have arrived at a perfect theoretical development of a classical school of criminology, while there persists, on the other hand, the disgraceful condition that criminality assumes dimensions never before observed in this country, so that the science of criminology cannot stem the tide of crime in high and low circles.  It is for this reason, that the positive school of criminology arises out of the very nature of things, the same as every other line of science.  It is based on the conditions of our daily life.  It would indeed be conceited on our part to claim that we, who are the originators of this new science and its new conclusions, deserve alone the credit for its existence.  The brain of the scientist is rather a sort of electrical accumulator, which feels and assimilates the vibrations and heart-beats of life, its splendor and its shame, and derives therefrom the conviction that it must of necessity provide for definite social wants.  And on the other hand, it would be an evidence of intellectual short-sightedness on the part of the positivist man of science, if he did not recognize the historical accomplishments, which his predecessors on the field of science have left behind as indelible traces of their struggle against the unknown in that brilliant and irksome domain.  For this reason, the adherents of the positive school of criminology feel the most sincere reverence for the classic school of criminology.  And I am glad today, in accepting the invitation of the students of Naples, to say, that this is another reason why their invitation was welcome to me.  It is now 16 years since I gave in this same hall a lecture on positive criminology, which was then in its initial