The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-27
THE BERTILLON PLAN
INFALLIBLE As A
MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION.
An Important Principle i'm Penal
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES to the
System Unfounded.
New York Tribune.

Albany on Dec. Is the association pre-
scented a practical demonstration of the
method. with the aid of Dr. Brown. surgeon
of the army in New York harbor. and of
Major McClaughrey. of Illinois, who have
made 1t a special study; and the immediate
introduction OF 1t into the police practice
of New York and other large cities is
promised the result. while the Legisla-
ture is likely to be asked to legalze it
throughout the State. and to provide for
working it in harmony with other States,
such Illinois. Massachusetts and Mime
sofa, which have already passed laws re-
quiring its use The subject is one of great
scientific interest a branch of anthro-
pology, apart from its immediate applica-
ton to criminals.
Penal Jurisprudence pays more attention
every year TO the distribution between
habitual and occasional criminals. After a
third conviction for felony, for example,
Ohio permits the offender to be imprisoned
for life unless his reformation is proved.
Everywhere sentences are properly length
ened, if the convict is recognized a
member of the criminal class. But this
recognition is far from easy, the worst
enemies of society being the most skillful
graphing the face and forming "a rogues'
gallery" breaks down in practice, not only
by the skill of the subjects i'm changing
their appearance, but by natural changes
possibility of classification when the num-
bers are great Under the scientific teach
have abandoned all reliance upon such SUI
pertcial means, and have adopted a form
OF registration OF every convict; such ,.,, as
| inal records, containing more than 300 900
| personal descriptions and histories. so clas-
| sified that when a prisoner is examined
clerk can determine in two minutes whether
| he has been convicted before, and, if so,
can produce at once the history of his crinl-
inal career.
THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.
The principle of this system is the truth,
learned by observation, that after the
human frame reaches maturity the skee-
| ton is practically Interchangeable in dimen-
| sions. But its parts are not dependent on
| one another, varying within certain limits,
| by no fixed law. Two men may have heads
| CT arms or hands or fingers Of precisely
| the same length, but no two men ever
| have been found to have an these parts
| identical in measurement. 1t is easy to take
the measure Of the permanent structure of
| the body. In from five to seven miruteS
practsed hand can record thirteen indie
| Lendent dimensions Of q given figure no
enc of which can be disguised or varied by
| any ingenuity, with at least accuracy
enough 20 bring the limits of error within
| of variation. Let the same man return
che, five, ten or fifty years later and on
| the repetition or the measurements his
| identity stands revealed, with certainty
beyond all that is attainable by any MEM
DRY or comparison of appearances. In fact,
| tie possibility OF mistake in such an identi-
fication may be said to be represented by
| a fraction whose numerator is one, and
whose denomination is the thirteenth part
| of twenty. That is to say, mistake is I'M
| possible: since ii would occur but once, on
the average, in the application OF the sys-
tenn 10 the entire population or 50OOO,OOO or
worlds like our own.
| TIE practical difficulties in making the
principle universally useful are two. First,
4 that of classifying the recorded measure
| ments so that each of them may be found
| at once among immense numbers; and, sec
ondly, that of combining the information
| acquired by different jurisdictions. The first
| problem has been completely solved by Nj.
Bertillon, in Paris. and his method OF class
which have introduced the system of meas
urement. card, little larger than postal
card. carries the complete data of identifi-
cation. and finds its place in a cabinet.
such cards, so that the whole forms its
own index, and the individual record
presented. as quickly as a name in direc-
tory. Little has yet been done in making
the measurements taken in one jurisdiction
useful in others. A criminal whose body
is inevitably fixed in the Paris registry may
still claim in Chicago or New York TO be
first offender" Christendom will one
Gay unite in measures for the suppression
of crime: and one of its most important
agencies will be system of correspond
ence, by which each bureau of identifna-
ton will receive from every other durli-
cate cards in cases in which criminal his
tory is. sought. and send in return what
ever Information 1T holds. In this wav the
criminal class. that cosmopolitan army of
enemies of mankind. will become known
and distinguished from the mass Of me, men on
all efforts for their suppression and elm
ination will be vastly reinforced.
TTNFOUNDED OBJECTIONS
The objections which have been made in
the Bertillon system are founded almost
wholly on ignorance of its real nature. 1t
is not cumbrous. it is not expensive, it does
not supersede practical sagacity in the po-
lice. True, it does not aid thief-takers in
making arrests. This is another province
of work with which it has nothing to do 1t
degrades no man. The best citizen might
without fear, permit his measurements to
be filed in the bureau, with perfect assur-
ance that his record can never be disturbed
unless he is brought in a criminal and
measured again to determine whether he
has a criminal history. Finally, it is true
that other methods of Identification have
been devised by anthropologists. some of
which-for example, the comparison of the
impressions of the finger-tipS-are just as
trustworthy as the measurements of the
| application and far less easily classified for
reference. They do not enter into practical
| competition with the system of Bertillon.
The only application of this principle
| hitherto made on a large scale is that for
the detection of recidivists among convicts
| But a recent visit to Bertillon's wonderful
bureau in Paris suggested to the writer the
| possibility of other important uses for it.
| Every student of anthropology will under
| stand that the collection of body of Stats
tics upon the comparative development of
| parts of the bony skeleton. accompanied
| by information as to race, place of birth,
| early life, family connec tions, and many
| classes of personal characteristics, may pre-
pare the way for important studies in fields
| hardly yet opened. Apart, however from
its theoretical value, here Is a simple and
easy method by which the identific alton of
| a person can be made absolutely certain for
| all purposes; and it is obvious that its gen.
eral adoption would make passports trust
worthy, and far more useful than they have
been to governments and to military COM
manders; while even in commercial and
| family life instances are not wanting in
ncyance. Had there been in existence at
| the time of the Tichborne trials Bertillon
| card. either of the true heir or of Arthur
| Orion, the cost and waste OF the most ex-
, | pensve litigation ever known would have
fsbeen saved, and question which agitated
| the public of two continents for a year
| would have been settled forever in two
| minutes.
Society Item from Steuben County.
Steuben Republican.