Jules Dallemagne, *The Degenerate Man*. Lectures Delivered to the Brussels Bar Association [1896]

Title: The Degenerate Man. Lectures Delivered to the Brussels Bar Association.

Author: Dr. Jules Dallemagne (1858–1923), associate professor at the Brussels Faculty of Medicine [Belgian physician and criminologist, author of works on criminal anthropology and degeneration]

Edited by: Translated from French by Dr. Józefa Joteyko, M.D.

Publisher: K. Kowalewski Printing House, Warsaw

Year of publication: 1896.

Format: 23 cm.

Volume: 742, [II] pp.

Binding: Period half-leather.

In 1896, the Warsaw publishing house K. Kowalewski released a Polish translation of a treatise by a Belgian physician and criminologist, known by its full title “The Degenerate Man. Lectures Delivered to the Brussels Bar Association." This was not a treatise written for academia, but a series of lectures addressed to the legal community—hence the emphasis on which findings from medicine and psychiatry could be applied to judicial practice. The author discusses the biological and social determinants of crime, the theory of hereditary degeneration, and conditions that contemporary science associated with criminal responsibility: epilepsy, hysteria, neurasthenia, and mental disorders. The backdrop was the controversy surrounding the concepts of Cesare Lombroso, an Italian psychiatrist regarded as the father of criminal anthropology and the originator of the “born criminal” theory, which posited the heritability of criminal traits recognizable by physical build. The book was distributed as a supplement to the Warsaw magazine *Prawda*. Library catalogs list three Polish editions from 1896–1898; the most common pieces are from 1898, while this one comes from an earlier edition, from 1896.

The author, Jules Dallemagne (1858–1923), a Belgian physician and criminologist, taught at the medical faculty in Brussels. The Polish translation was done by Dr. Józefa Joteyko (1866–1928), a renowned psychologist and physiologist, one of the first Polish women to make a scientific contribution in this field.

The provenance remains partially obscured: a square section of paper was precisely cut out from the lower margin of the title page, where a former ownership stamp once was. It is impossible to determine today who removed this mark or when. A clue as to the former owner is the gilded monogram “M.M.” embossed on the spine next to the title page. The piece bears no postwar library stamps.

A must-have for collectors of early forensic medicine and psychiatry, researchers of the origins of criminology, and enthusiasts of bindings featuring owner’s monograms.

The inner block is compact, heavy, and mechanically stable; the original stitching is strong, the folds are even, and the text is complete. The paper is stiff, bright, free of water stains and mold, with a natural patina: minimal foxing, acid discoloration, and superficial soiling on the margins from old page-turning. The half-leather binding is preserved in presentable condition—the spine is stiff, with minimal scuffing on the bands; the gilding on the letters and monogram is distinct; the endpapers show visible soiling.

Catalog ID: 11248-23-A-Z