35 French police four years ago, and is now in operation throughout the whole of France. It was found that many old offenders escaped detection. The classification of criminals under their names was not satisfactory. It is in their interest to keep their antecedents hidden, and to give false names. The Paris police had amassed in ten years one hun dred thousand photographs, but it was im possible to search this collection every time an arrest was made. Now the search can be made in a few minutes. We now classify our photographs and cards, giving the ante cedents of prisoners under measurements, based on a system of anthropometrical de scriptions. This system is simple and certain. Identification does not depend on the uncer tainty of a name or the doubtfulness of a photograph. We take no notice of names, and photographs might be dispensed with. Criminals are classified under measurements of certain bony parts of the human frame. We have here sixty thousand photographs and cards, with the record of adult male pris oners who have passed through the hands of the police. We begin our classification with the measurement of the length of the head. We found, by experience, that it was better to begin with the head rather than the stat ure. The size of the skull cannot be changed, but prisoners refuse to stand up straight when their height is being taken. The exact height could not be obtained, except to with in three centimetres, while the length of the head can be measured to a millimetre. We divide the length of the head into three classes,— short, medium, and long, — which reduces our collection to twenty thousand. Then we take the width of the head, and making three subdivisions — of narrow, me dium, and wide — we have six thousand left. Next, we take the length of the middle finger, and again, making three classes, as we do with all our measurements, we have two thousand photographs left. We continue, on the same system, with the measurement of the foot, the forearm, the height, etc., until we re duce our collection of sixty thousand photo
graphs to six. But you will see the system in operation. "' Call in that man who was arrested on the race-course yesterday,' said M. Bertillon to an assistant. The charge against the man was watch-stealing, but he swore that it was all a mistake. "' Have you ever been here before?' "' Mon Dieu, no.' "' Never been measured here? ' "' Certainly not.' "' Where did you come from? ' "' Geneva.' "' Where did you reside last? ' "' Brussels.' "A peculiarity of the international thief," remarked M. Bertillon. The prisoner sub mitted calmly to be measured. He was placed on a stool, and the length of his head taken with a special compass made for the purpose. One leg of it -was placed in the hollow above the bridge of the nose, and the other moved round to find the greatest length behind. The compass shows the length to a millimetre. Next the breadth of the head was taken, — from one parietal bone to the other. Another instrument was used for taking the length of the middle finger. "These three are the surest measurements," said M. Bertillon, "and give the best re sults." The measurement of the left foot was next taken. The prisoner was bare footed, and was made to stand on the left foot when its measurement was being taken. The process continued with the length of the ear, of the forearm, length of the arms ex tended, the height, and the color of the eyes. The color of the eye is registered according to the intensity of the pigmentation of the iris, but it requires some experience to record this description accurately. It is used most in the classification of young persons who have not reached maturity. After the man was measured, a search of five minutes showed that he was an old thief who had been expelled from France, and was now liable to a very heavy punishment. — Pall Mall Gazette.
