Evening star., 1898-07-23
THE BERTILLON SYSTEM

Although 1t appears that the alleged
murderer Funk has not been corralled after
all, ii does not seem possible to me that
ne will be able to hide himself for any
great length of time. elaborate is the
description of him possessed by the DO
lice authorities all over this continent" :"
said gentleman connected with the en-
listment division of the War Department
Had 1t not been for the data on file in
the War Department, the Washington po-
lice authorities would not have been able
to furnish description of the man, even
approXImating that contained in the cir
cular for exactness. The police authorities
knowing that Funk had served In the regu-
lar army. of course had access to this data
concerning his physical e-up-data TAX
en- at the time the man was examined by
the surgeon for enlistment in the army
ana, or course, this absolutely exact de-
scrlption of him, from the soles of his feet
to the crown of his head. was used in max
ing up the police circular. The BertiI-
Ion system of measuring soldier who pass
Ine examination for enlistment in the
Cmted states army has been used with
conspicuous success for more than ten wears
and there is no likelihood of its ever being
abandoned on account of the work its thor
ougn operation causes the examining Of
hcers OF the medical department When a
man goes through the examination for the
regular army, and is accepted the meas
uring process begins. 1t takes not so much
account of ordinary measurements as it
does OF physical peculiarities, and the
strongest point in the Bertillon system is
the complete account given of a mans
scars, birth-marks moles, etc, all over his
pooy. For example, the examining sur
geons OF the army are furnished blank
charts OF a man standing in state of ma
tCre, and two of these a front view and a
back view. are made up for each man
taken into the army. The cards are about
foot in length by about eight inches in
width. The examining surgeon goes over
the front service of the accepted recruit $
body anC marks on the chart every scar
mole, tattoo mark, ETC., that he finds with a
closely-written description of unusual
markings over the spots on the chart where
the markings are entered. Then he takes
ms rear-view chart and makes a perfect
picture of the recruit as he stands in that
position. When these two charts are made
up the recruits physical peculiarities are
down IN black and white to T. If the
man has got a tattooed anchor on one of
his forearms, the anchor appears on the
chart, and so on One of the reasons why
sailors in the navy are gradually giving up
the practice of having themselves tattooed
is that the markings render it too simple
to identity them i'll case they happen to
get into trouble. A great number of regu-
lar army soldiers who have got into scrapas
after leaving the service have been identi-
he'd by means of the Bertillon charts on
file in this department. The Bertillon sys-
tenn is employed by the police departments
of many American cities nowadays and
it has completely knocked professional
criminals out of their old-time habit of
tattooins themselves. In fact. many of the
criminals who have been Bertlloned, have
gone to tie pains of trying to have their
tattoo marks, and even other natural
marks, removed by the electric needle. The
needle always leaves evidences, in the shape
of scars, of this attempt, however and it
doesn't do. Some of the criminals pick out
their tattoo marks with tooth picks dipped
in milk, and this is a better way than the
work with the electric needle, but it leaves
a bad scar in pace of the tattoo mark all
the same. If man deserts from the
United States army. and re-enlists under
another name. he is very liable to be dis
covered and punished for fraudulent en-
listment, as well as for deserting, not long
after he takes eli the second time. The Sec
ond time he onllsts. the two charts. front
and rear VIEW, are sent on to the War De-
partment by The examining surgeon, and
there are men always comparing the old
charts wan the new ones in the DEPART
ment These men are bound to run across
the pair OF charts made of the soldier wnen
he first enlisted, and the exact similarity
Of the charts is bound to result in the
fraudulent enlister's being detected"