The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1891-12-20
CORNERING CRIMINALS.
WHAT FRENCH INGENUITY HAS
DONE TO AID THE POLICE.
The Bertillon System of Identification
and How it works-Individual Pecu-
liarities Noted and Recorded in a Way
That Leaves Little Chance of Mistake.

At Paris in 1882 there was inaugurated by
the Prefecture OF Police system of identih-
cation of criminals which in it's minute COM
pleteness was without precedent even In that
home of perhaps the shrewdest police depart
ment in the world. Until that time the police
OF the French capital employed for the identi-
fcation of criminals system which time and
experience had demonstrated to be not only
faulty but also inadequate Under the old
French system the color of the hair, for In
stance, was described as being one of four
shades, brown, blonde, black, or red Sta
tistics carefully gathered showed that .S7 of
criminals examined had brown hair, 10 had
blonde hair, .027 had black hair, and .003 had
red hair Respecting the color of the eyes,
.33 had hazel eyes, ,25 had gray eyes, II had
blue eyes, and in .25 the color was indistinct.
There were three degrees or limits as to the
height of the criminals examined, 335 per
cent. were included in the class between short
and dwarf height, 333 per cent. in the class
between short and tall, and 33s per cent. in
the class designated as tall. Describing
criminal as tall with brown hair and hazel
eyes would therefore have been description
which would have exactly fitted the great ma
jority Of criminals examined. Something
much more minute system much less vague
was needed to do away with the chances of
mistaken identity which the old system made
possible To obviate such difficulties sys-
tenn of Identification was invented by M
Alphonse Bertilon, and to-day the Bertillon
system is recognized the world over as the
most complete and accurate system ever de-
yised.
About two years ago the Bertilon system
was adopted by the Police Department of the
District. In 1887 the system was adopted by
the Wardens' Association Of the United States
and Canada at its annual meeting held at
Toronto during the month of September At
the Joliet (Illinois) Penitentiary a school of
instruction, having for its object the elucida-
tion Of the Bertillon system, was held in
February, 1888, which was attended by repre-
sentatves from some ten or twelve of the
most noted prisons in this country and Canada
Although the system is universally scknowl-
edged to be all that its advocates claim for It,
It's adoption cannot be said to be general
throughout the United States. Inspector
Byrnes, of the New York City Police Depart
ment, believes that the old system, reinforced
by the aid of photography, is quite good
enough, and for that reason has 80 far refused
to use the Bertillon system. Photographs,
however, while being great aid In establish
ing or verifying the identity of criminal are
altogether impotent as an aid In discovering
the criminals identity. But. MS the photo
graph is one OF the means used In the French
system, that system not only serves as means
of discovering, but equally as well as a means
of verifying the identity of the criminal.
Inspector Swindells, OF the District Police
Department, explained to reporter of THE
HERALD the other day the details of the
Bertillon system.
The Bertillion system is based upon certain
anatomical features or characteristics Of the
human body, the theory of the inventor being
that, as the dimensions of these features or
characteristics remained unchanged once the
growth of the person is attained, an exact and
fully recorded measurement, reinforced by the
noting OF such peculiarities of, or marks or
scars on, the body as appeared during the
examination would, together with photo
graph OF the subject examined, prove a
reliable and ineffaceable record of Identified
tion. Therefore, the following measurements
are first made:
l. The length and width of the head.
2. The length Of the left middle and little
finger.
8. The length Of the left foot.
4. The length Of the left forearm.
5. The length of the right ear.
6, The height of the figure.
T. The length, from finger tips, Of the out
stretched arms.
s. The height OF the trunk, 4. G., the height
from the bench or stool to the top of the head
of subject sitting upright.
The first measurement, that Of the head, is
made by means Of a scalpel-like instrument,
especially designed for the purpose, the rule
or tape being, Of course, impracticable A
noteworthy fact discovered In head measure
,ment is that in heads of the same length the
width is never the same.
The length of the fingers and of the ear is
made by the use of small sliding rule. The
measurements of the foot and forearm are
made by the means OF long sliding scale
placed upon the floor or upon table. The
height of the subject is attained by standing
him harefOoted I'm an erect military nOstion