Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-09
TO IDENTIFY THEM.
THE FRENCH SYSTEM OF MAKING
SURE OF CRIMINALS.

DIR. BertiIIon His AnthrOpometrical
Method Based on Anatomical Science.
Would Enable the Police of All Countries
to Hunt Down Malefactors.
DR.. Alphonse Bertillon, the author of
the French system for the Identification
| Of criminals, writes as follows in re-
gard to the best means for making it of
general use by the police of the large
capitals of Europe
The growing ease and rapidity of
communication between the great cities
of Europe have so lessened distances that
| the intercourse between the police of the
various countries daily becomes more
| frequent. London, for example, may
now be said to extend as far as Paris,
and Brussels is practically suburb of
| the French capital. In the midst of
! these daily exchanges of good services
! where is the officer who has not longed
| for the creation of an international de-
| scriptive-or distinctive mark, signal
! eltiques- method and language?
I'm the other branches of human &C
tivity. especially IN electricity, con-
| crosses have, in proportion to the nee
essity, supplied this want of IA universal
| understanding. 1t Is thus that the cleo
trical watt, ampere. volt, etc.
have been created and unanimously
adopted. Why should not the police of
| civilized-or poliCed, for it is all one
countries do as much for the description
and notation of the different shapes of
| forehead, nose, color of the eye, etc?
There exist under the name of hip
| polOey whole trcatises filled with words
of English origin for the description of
| the coat and the points of the horse.
| For the description of the human being
| all seems left to chance. Nothing was
attempted in this direction until the APP
| pointmcnt by Mr.. Asquith of the COM
mission for comparing the different
methods of identification and descrip-
| ton.
This commission found at Paris, by
| the side of a system of measurement
which has borne some little testimony
| everywhere, Il very carefully considered
method of describing the human body,
and the face in particular. There is i'll
this neither invention nor personal pro-
| prietorship. My Intervention has con-
sisted in transporting and adapting to
the wants of the police the procedures
of description i'll use in anatomical sci
ences and particularly in anthrOpology.
AnthropOmetry, properly so called,
is only part of that whole knowledge
necessary III tracking CRIMINALS, and Its
sole aim is to supply basis of CLASH
fcation.' One is able Ivy means of the
mctrical information supplied by it to
classify several hundrd thousand indi
vldual notifications. But let me hasten
to say that these notifications should
themselves always be accompanied by
an abstract of particular marks found
upon the person examined, and 1t Is this
last document much more than the
agreement of measurements which is
appealed to to give judicial certainty to
an Interior identification.
At Paris photographs of the person
in profile and full face are added, which
by themselves also afford the certainty
of identification. Thus the elements of
certainty are not wanting. \ photo
graph or impression of the ear would
alone suffice to establish an identity. 1t
is, as a matter of fact, impossible among
actly alike-eXcept in the case of twin
brothers.
THE great advantage of adding to the
anthrCpOmttrical notification complete
descriptive photograph Of person is
that the police are provided with a dOcu-
meut which, in case of Il fresh OtfenSe,
of escape. ETC. can be looked to to rem
der the greatest possible assistance.
1t may be we'll to add to these ele-
ments of information, clearly independ
ent of one another measurement, par
ticular marks and profile photograph
which, together, 10 years experience
has shown to be absolutely infallible-
a fourth element, finger tip impress
sions' I'impression DIES tiligrammes du
pouce). 1t goes without saying that
see no major difficulty in it, But l am
afraid that the exercise of the process
may at first sight appear much more
simple than it really is. In the first
place, let me repeat that the finger tip
process neither does away with nor re-
places in any way judicial anthropom-
etry, for these delineatiOns are so diver
sified that they DO not offer an adequate
element of Classihcation-tha is point
which no one disputes. Therefore the
finger tip process should be considered
as atfording supplementary information
only, capable at the most of replacing
photography.
Moreover, does not Mr.. f. Cation
himself say that the examination of
these impressions can be properly made
only ny means of Photographic enlarge
ments: Then why not photograph the
man himself whose measurements have
just been taken?
II must own, however, that up to the
present l have always postponed the full
trial OF the finger tip process on account
of the unpleasantncss of sending all my
subjects before the court with their fin
gers more or less blackened, for every
body knows how viscOus printing ink is
and how difficult to get off. Never
the process should become customary
in England, to petition the minister of
the interior and the project of police for
the requisite authority to add it to the
anthropometric description-so great is
the Importance that attach to interna-
tional uniformity in police communion
tiOns. New York Herald
The Knife Was All Right.
Dumley (who had been asked to carve
the duck and is meeting with poor sue
cess(-Whew!