Considered from a medical standpoint, habit may be regarded as a tendency which certain correlated brain cells have to act together from frequent repetition having rendered it easy for an impulse to pass from one to the other, with the production of a more or less uniform result. Thus we are indeed literally creatures of habit.
By the time an individual has reached maturity it is observed that he responds to the influences of his environment with more or less uniformity, and in a way peculiar to himself. The nature of this response constitutes his character. If he has strong impulses, which he uniformly inhibits in a manner favorable to the best interests of the society in which he lives, he becomes known as a man of strong character, and finally of established character, and is trusted accordingly. On the other hand, there are individuals
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in whom the response to their environment is so variable that they never succeed in establishing a character, and are never trusted.
At one extreme are found individuals with cerebral tissues of so high a quality that they would establish a high character under the most unfavorable circumstances; and at the other extreme, individuals who would never establish a character under the most favorable conditions; but the great mass of individuals lies between these extremes, and with them the influences of the environment determine their status.
The social and legal penalties visited upon transgressors undoubtedly form a strong and constant stimulus to the inhibitory centers, and the more so in proportion as the individual feels sure that he can not escape from them. A strict and speedy administration of the penal laws should go hand in hand with an intelligent system of training.
