The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-09-03
SISTER SCIENCES
 GO HAND IN HAND Value of Finger Prints to the
 Bertillon Syslem BERTlLLON IS VERY MODEST Great Anthropometrical Expert Is a Scientist of the CIoister Rather Than of the Rostrum-An
 Interview.
BERTILLON IS VERY MODEST

Special correspondence of the Washing
 ton post.
 London.-'T learned the foundation of my anger-print knowledge from the English.
 This striking and at the same time characteristically modest utterance was made in an interview by M. Alphonse Bertillon. the great French anthropomet- rical expert, the man whose name Is closely associated the world over with the Identification of criminals by measure ments and finger-prints. M. Bertillon was fresh from the witness box at Bow street. where he had been giving some of his deadly fnger-print evidence with regard to the recent ghastly crop of Paris mur- ders.
 In appearance M. Bertllon is the serene thinker rather than the man of action, the scientist of the closter rather than the public figure of the forum. To talk with him Is to see that he has thought out the finger-print system bit by bit, arch by arch, loop by loop, whorl by whorl, even as he has thought out the science of anthropometry millimeter by millimeter.
 A high forehead, a well-balanced brow, A thin. oval face, a pair of serene dark eyes, dark mustache, obviously French, but not too pronounced in cul, trim, dark beard, a complexion strongly remi- niscent of parchment, long and delicate fingers, a tallish, lightish frame, and the ribbon of the Legion of Honor almost imperceptihle on the lapel of his coat such, in brief, is M. Alphonse Bertillon, the terror of criminals.
 Two Sister Sciences.
 .'Do you think, M. Bertllon. that the science of measurements will ever sup plant the science of finger prints?'
 Nc" he answered very quietly. "I think the human measurement system will supplement and assist the finger print system in the ultimate marking down and tabulating of practically every known potential criminal In the civil lized world. The sister sciences will go hand in hand. The science that is based upon the fact that each different indlvid- ual has among his bones certain charae- teristic in unison with the science which arises from the circumstance that the fnger-prints of practically everybody are different from the finger-prints of every body else. Both these truths and the ap plication of them in every day criminal search and detection have been of enor- nous service to us in France. and have helped to rid respectable society of many of the human harpies who prey upon 1t.
 
 and practice of finger-prnt science?"
 Reading of the work of Herschel and Csalton I looked into what they were doing as pioneers of tine flnger-prnt sys- tenn. became deeply interested I soon found that they were right. and started collecting f1nger-prints of friends and of criminals myself.
 Need to Identify Criminals.
 My subsequent experience in actual aI cl,x hot two finger prints tally exactly it is prac- tically certain that they are the prints of one and the same person, however many of the population of the entire world may have passed that way and have handled the article on which the print has been made"
 And the sister science to finger prints, you own gift to the world. the science of khe measurement of man, how did you first come to think that outP"
 well" answered M. Bertillon, with the ghost of a smile and a tiny deprecat- ing shrug of the shoulder, "I saw the need for some such system for the identfca- tion of criminals I saw that the evidence of the photograph and the official descrip lion might very easily be made useless; md. indeed, has in many. many cases been quite nullifed by the criminals own little tricks of disguise. All the pre- viously photographed and officially de- scribed criminal had to do was to alter the style of doing his hair and the color of it, to distort his features nj one of of it, to distort his feature Is one of mustache, a beard to alter the eyebrows or what not, and he had passed beyond the likelihood of recognition.
 'But q man cannot change his bones, He cannot disguise the exact length of his nose. of his forearm. the length and width of his head the length of the left middle finger the length of the left foot.
 Terror to Evi-Doers.
 Experience soon taught me that these bony portions of the human frame rarely undergo any material change in the adult, and that practically no two persons in the civilized world have the same combina- tion of measurements This great central fact, together with the marvellous faith fitness of the finger-print record has been of immense assistance to us In France in the detection of criminals, and the more of these records we take, the more strongly Is the efficacy of the two systems of finger printing and measure ment substantiated and proved"
 Sir William Herschal, cited above by M Bertlllon as one of his teachers took many finger-print observations while in India and was so convinced of the effica- cy of the principle that he brought back to England mass of evidence on the subject. This was of great value to M. Bertllon.
 MT. fTdncls rditoIi' the othel niiSii9h fnger-print pioneer. after long and close study of vast number of finger prints. estimated that the chance of two sets of finger prints being identical is less than one in GA GOO, 0o000.
 Thus is the march of science going tri- umphantly on, to the harassing and hin- dering of the human pest in his malignant deeds against society and social peace and safety By a gracious feature of the internationally of brains, France, by M. Bertllon. has learned from us, and we, by Scotland Yard. have learned from France
 To the comfort of peace-loving citizens. and to the terror of evil-doers. be 1t known that there has long existed be- tween Paris and Scotland Yard real, deep-seated entente cordiale.
 A Brave Man.