Morning journal and courier., 1890-07-16

most minute detail. The length of the mid de finger was the best of the indications, for 1t could be measured to @ millimetre, previ- ded that care was taken that the finger was bent at an exact right angle with the back of the hand/ There could be no cheating with this, and it underwent no alteration from adult to old age. It occasionally happened that the person to be measured was refracto- " and declined to allow the necessary ma, nipulation of his person. In these cases, by means of his shoes, hat, gloves, &o., @ suf- hciently near measurement could be arrived at. The experience in Paris, however, was that the criminal made no objection to the formality. Sometimes because he regarded 1t as mere formality, and sometimes per- haps because he apprehended that any resis- tance on his part might make the authorities suspicious of his past history, and thus in- duoe them to make @ more careful search. Besides the above measurements and obser- vations, a photograph of the criminal was taken. This proceeding was now, however, considered as of secondary importance, and was used only as further test to secure ab- soluts accuracy. All evidence of scars, moles or characteristic indications of any kind was recorded on the backs of the pho tegraphs, with anatomical precision as to their nature, dimensions, situation, &c., and much importance had always been attached to some of these. Considerable stress was laid by M. Bertillon on the importance of the hand and the ear as marks of reoegni- tion. The hand, because it was the organ in most constant use in almost every calling and in many trades and professions, became modified according to the particular charac- ter of the work which 1t had to do. The ear was the precise opposite to this. It changed very slightly, if at all, except perhaps in the culiarity of the ear which it was easy to recognize. The ear, therefore, was an im- portant organ to measure, inasmuch as the results were not likely to be nulliied by a change in its conformation.
 The examination of criminals under this system had been extending with great rapid- ity in France. In 1882 there were two hun- dred and twenty-five examined, and the number had increased year by year until In 1888 the number was 31 ,S49. Of this last total six hundred and fifteen persons were recognized as having rslapsed into crime and gave false names. The number 31, ,S49 repre- sented nearly the whole number of persons arrested during 1888 for offenses under the common law, and having passed through the depot A striking proof of the efficacy of tho system of anthropometry was furnished by the complete disppearance of dissimula- tion of identities in the prisons other than the depot, SO that while in 1S84-e5 the num- Der of recognitions made in the prison after conviction amounted to two or three hun- dred a year, the number of cases of this class in the whole year 1888 was fourteen, oi whom ten were individuals who, never hav- ing been measured before, were of necessity not recognizable by the service. This left four omissions to be distributed among thir- y-one thousand examined in the year. The lecturer explained that the system of meas. urement required no further instruction than was contained in a small manual, and that it the directions were followed it would be easy to get records made in any country, which might be in the highest degree serviceable in the detection of criminals, and for other useful purposes.