Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-02
TO IDENTIFY CRIMINALS.
Lecture in London On the System of Measure
ment Used at Joliet Prison.
London Times.

1
London Times.
HLast evening NJ. Jacques Bertiilon
| (bead of the Municipal Bureau of Sta
| tics in Paris) delivered a lecture before
the Anthropological institute of Great
Britain and ireland on the method now
practiced in France of identifying crimi-
nails by comparing their measures with
those of convicted persons in the prison
registers. Mr.. Francis Gallon f. r. s. i,
pI esided.
Nj. Bertillon said that the system
which he had come there to explain was
an essentially practical one. 1t had for
its object the recognition of person ten,
fifteen, twenty, or even 100 years after
he had been measured, for by that
method it was possible to recognize q
person after death if access could be had
to his skeleton. In Paris, when 100, 900
photographs had been collected by the
police ID was impossible to turn them to
profitable account. Photography was
now, therefore, relegated to secondary
position, and only used as an aid to iden-
LITIGATION established by other means.
The basis of the antbropometio system
was to obtain measurements of those
bony parts of the body which underwent
little or no change after maturity, and
could be measured with extreme ac-
curacy to within so small a figure as to be
practically exact. These parts were the
head, the foot, the middle finger and
the extended forearm from the elbow.
To clearly illustrate the system let
them suppose 80 600 photographs of men
to have been collected. These would be
divided into three groups of 80 200, ao-
cording TO the height of the men. There
would be short men, men of medium
height and tall men. That these three
Glasses might be approximately equal, it
was evident that the limits of men of
medium height must be restricted more
than those of the other two Glasses.
Each of these primary divisions should
again be divided on the same principle,
without taking any further notice Of the
height, into three Glasses, according to
the length of the head of each individual
The three ella SEES of short, medium and
long heads would each again be sub
divided into three, according to the
widths of the heads, and would contain
narrow, medium and wide heads. Ex-
perience had proved that with most peo-
pie the breadth of the head varied in
dependently of the length-that was,
tain length. of head, it by no means fol-
lowed that the breadth Of his head could
be determined priori.
The length of the middle finger gave a
fourth and still more precise indication
by which to divide again each one of the
packets Of photographs; and these might
be divided again, according to the length
of the foot, the length of the arms out
stretched at right angles to the body,
and also according to the color of the
eyes. Thus by these anthropomefrieal
cocificisuts they would be able to divide
their collection of photographs into very
small groups of about fifteen each, which
they could easily and rapidly examine.
Mr.. Bertillon then proceeded to give O
practical demonstration of the way in
which the measurements were taken.
The instruments employed by him were
simple, but very accurate in their con-
struction, and the measurements were
taken with great exactltude. The I c.
turer explained that the instrument for
could be taken within one
millImetre. 1t had been found By expe-
rience that the length of the heads Of
different individuals differed more than
three eentimetres (say, thirty millime-
tres.) 1t was admitted that we had no
power to iengthen our heads, and it was
we'll known that the skulls developed
very little after an individual had ar
rived at maturity. With our statue & |
was not the same, for as years passed by !
we became bent, and our height |
became less; besides it was
possible to cheat TO the ex-
tent of two centimefres without its |
being discovered by the operator. As an /
Instance OF the exactitude with which /
these measurements were taken, the /
lecturer stated that three American gen.
tIemen had visited his brother in France, |
and requested him to measure them in /
order to test the accuracy OF measure.
nents made In Chicago, and it was
found that the measurements CORES
pended to the most minute detail. The !
length Of the middle finger was the best /
Of the Indications, for it could be meas
ared to millimetre, provided that care /
was taken that the finger was bent at az
sxact right angle with the back of the
hand. There could be no cheating with
This. snd IL underwent no alters-