The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1905-07-13

scription OF the methods used IN deter
mining the identity of the body ard says
in conclusions:
Now let us consider the weight to
De attached to the data which had SO
Tar been accumulated. The age, height,
color of the hair, and six dimensions
o. the face of John Paul Jones. which
were known, were also found repeated
IN the corpse. The same is true of GER
tain descriptive characteristics.
Now let us see how far these go
to the Identification OF the body
With this end in view I utilized q
series of two hundred bodies on which
l made. some years ago. a certain num-
Der OF measures
II have carefully examined these
measures to see if any Of them COR
respond with those pertaining to John
Paul Jones.
81 first threw out half Of the subjects
because they were women. This left
one hundred male bodies OF these only
about ten had the right height, and
only half of these ten had hair that
could be said to be brown: nor had
eliminated from this little group those
who were too young to have occasional
gray hairs. But when the face meas-
ures were considered I found that one
had the same length as the admirais
face
The experiment demonstrated the fact
that one hundred corpses taken az
hazard We're Immediately eliminated on
applying to them but three Of the char
acteristics peculiar to the admiral.
Let US suppose that had found
among several thousand bodies five hav-
ing the same height, the same coicred
hair. and the same length of face as the
admiral; it is easy to imagine how
f1rrI t>x BOD fra,
when tried by the five other face dimen-
sions-
This almost complete material impos-
sibilfty TO find two subjects having the
same anthropon1etric proportions Is
due TO the enormous variations which
these proportions present among Diff
ferent individuals. as has been already
stated It Is for this that the Paris
police can 50 rapidly recognize a crins-
inal arrested for the second
1T may be objected with some truth
that We have not perfectly sure meas
ureS. But ii should be remembered that
in the case before US we not re-
CURED to select from thousand differ
ent subjects The uncertainty could af-
feet but very small number of dead
bodies, buried under certain conditions
in lead coffin, for instance, which was
the case with Paul Jones-and in fixed
place. which. in this instance was a
little abandoned Protestanl cemetery.
Criminal Evidence.
Criminals are often condemned on
proofs less concordant than those I have
just given
AT the very start we had carefully
examined all the linen in the coffin, hop
ing to find some initials on Ii. Ali our
efforts in that direction had failed
There remained one article which
a long washing succeeded IN cleansing.
I refer to the linen bag which held the
very long hair of the admiral. neatly
arranged and done up in accordance
with the fashion of the time.
81 found here a mark, whose peculiar
form was significant Looked at in one
position it was a p. the loop being very
small. Turned up side down II became
a j. We evidently had here a mono
gram representing the initials Of the
admirafs name
This discovery was made at the very
moment when l presented my report IN
the presence of the members OF the
American embassy. the project of police,
the project of the Seine. and several
scientific persons invited by General
Porter to be present, ali of whom signed
the written document approving our con-
illusions.
This discover was final anG touch
ing proof OF the correctness Of our.
demonstration"