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would never do, even if there were no international consideration making it essential that the same measurements should be recorded by the same scale.

So much for the physical operations of our "scientific fad," as practised daily in the Paris bureau; it is time to give some of the results, after which I will give some details as to how these results are obtained and their value in criminal jurisprudence.

Of course the first years of the installation of the Bertillon system in Paris had to be devoted to laying the foundations, accumulating mere measurements without immediate fruit. The early years were handicapped, too, by ignorant and incredulous officials, who put all manner of obstacles in the way of the new scheme.

Here are the complete figures for the ten years of operations:

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542,800

Provincial measurements..

14,965 15,708 19,150 31,289 34,515 34,328
12,035; 28,867 61,505§

Yearly Totals (France) 225 7,336 10,398 14,965 15,708 19,150 43,324 63,382 95,833

95,296 110,339

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It is well to remember that all of the "confessions of false names and many of the re-measurements are really to be credited among "recognitions," the fear of anthropometry being the cause of the admissions of the truth. The great avalanche of confessions in 1888 (there were hardly any before) was due to the abolition in that year of a reward for any officer discovering a false identity. Of course, there was great temptation to bribe or cajole prisoners into purposely giving false names, to be discovered afterwards. It is found much more efficacious to go by fines rather than rewards. The anthropometric service has to pay for each failure, whenever discovered. In the early years these failures were very few, in 1892 but three. The immense development of the last year or two will be noticed. M. Herbette, the director of prison services, was unable to introduce the system into provincial prisons until 1888, but was so pleased with the result of a partial trial

* Not classified.

+ Not previously recorded. Obligatory for first time.

First use in provinces.
Besides six in provinces.

that it was made universal and got into complete working order throughout France in 1890. The portentous flood of statistics now pouring into the central bureau in Paris is most astounding, yet the work of identification goes on without a hitch.

I will now describe how the measurements are used after being taken, so that not only all persons who may be called on to use the same may have an idea of the process, but that the public may understand the affair, and be convinced that any identifications made are absolutely to be relied upon. The last is the most important matter. As the Bertillon system undertakes to replace a defective preceding process, it is necessary that all reasonable persons shall know that they may accept the scientific automatic judgments of the anthropometric scheme with perfect reliance. First, however, I will quote M. Bertillon's own succinct statement of the scientific truths which form the basis of his operation:—

The anthropometric method of description, of which I am the inventor, besides offering a variability as large as do those that we have enumerated, lends itself admirably to classification. That is its aim, its sole aim. It depends on the three following principles, which the experience of the past ten years has proved to be sound: Ist. The facility and the rigorous exactitude with which the principal dimensions of the human skeleton are susceptible of being measured by means of a simply constructed pair of compasses. 2nd. The extreme diversity presented by the human skeleton from one subject to another-such a diversity that it is impossible to find two individuals possessing frames, I will not say rigorously similar, but even sufficiently alike to be confounded with each other. 3rd. The almost absolute fixity of the skeleton after the twentieth year. The height alone, or, at most, the length of the femur, continues to increase for two or three years, but so slightly that it is easy to take this growth into account; while the length and breadth of the head, the length of the fingers, of the hand, of the foot, of the forearm, and of the ear are unchangeable, whatever may be the development of muscle or adipose tissue.*

The use of the stock of measurements after they have accumulated is not in the same order as taken. In the Paris bureau of identification the anthropometric records are in duplicate, arranged in two different collections. The first of these is simple enough. It is merely an alphabetical card catalogue of all the measurements taken, and kept in order of the subjects' names. This collection is for use in the case of the large number of prisoners who confess at once to their having been previously in custody and measured. In order to verify this confession (for

* "The Bertillon System of Identification," in the Forum for May, 1891.

criminals often make false confessions for professional purposes) the old card is fished out in the alphabetical collection, and a slight examination of the subject soon settles the point.

Far more important is the second or anthropometric classification. Here science comes in, mathematics as well as anthropology. There are various cabinets at the Paris bureau for special collections (provincial records, women's records, &c., &c.), but I will now confine myself strictly to the main cabinet used for the Parisian male prisoners. The basis of all the classifications is the number 3, and the infinite discriminations of arithmetical progression are used to sort out and afterwards seek out each case. But also I must remark that four of the nine measurements taken are cast aside for the moment, the five chief reliances being selected in the following order :-(1) Length of head; (2) width of head; (3) the finger; (4) the foot; (5) the forearm. The cabinet is divided from top to bottom into three grand divisions: they denote the length of head in each case, which is made the basis of division as in all other measurements. The length of head has its middle division defined by limits in exact decimals of the French metre (in this instance 185 to *190), while the other two divisions range to indefinite limits indicated by the Greek alpha for the smallest and omega for the largest-whatever those may be-thus, any head ranging from 18 centimetres to 19 centimetres is a head of medium length, while a long head is over 19 and a short head under 18. These figures never vary. Next the width of the head is considered. The cabinet is again divided horizontally into three parts, one above the other, and taking in all the three grand divisions above-mentioned. Now the decimals begin to vary. In the case of the short heads 153 to 157 is found to be the medium width, while under 15 centimetres is considered a narrow head, above 15 being a wide head. Next in the middle grand division (that of the heads of medium length) the medium width. heads' limits are altered to 154 to 158, while in the long heads the limits are raised another millimetre to 155 to 159. (Always, be it remembered, in fractions of a metre.) Of course, the longer the head the greater will be the other dimensions as a general rule. Now the third division, that of the finger, is taken into consideration. As the cabinet has already been divided into nine portions, each of these nine is again subdivided by three vertical divisions. The numbers now get more intricate. First, take the grand division of short heads. Here in the subdivision of narrow heads 109 to 113 is a medium finger, less than 109 a short

finger, more than 113 a long finger. In the medium width of heads. (still in the short length of heads) the medium finger length is raised to 111-115, while in the wide and short heads the medium finger is 112 to 116. In the medium length heads the medium finger lengths in the three width-of-head subdivisions are: Narrow, 'III to 115; medium, 112 to 116; wide, 113 to 117. In the long heads, the medium. finger figures are all kept at 113 to 117, for all the width of head subdivisions. Having now divided the cabinet into twenty-seven sections, still another division by three brings us to the separate shelves, three in each of the twenty-seven sections. The three shelves indicate the foot measurement, and are governed as follows:

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gers Medium fingers 248 to 255 253 to 259 257 to 263 253 to 259 256 to 265 259 to 265 257 to 264259 to 265 259 to 266 Long fingers

239 to 246 244 to 251 247 to 253 243 to 250 *247 to 253 250 to 257 248 to 254249 to 256 250 to 257

258 to 264 264 to 270 265 to 272 262 to 270 264 to 271 267 to 275 266 to 274268 to 275 269 to 276

Lastly, we now come to the fifth division, indicated by the separate boxes, three in each shelf, in which the card measurements are kept. These boxes indicate the forearm measurements, and the medium limits of this measurement through the whole eighty-nine shelves are as follows, it being understood that the short arms are those below and the long arms those above these figures in each separate case :

Limits (in decimals of a metre) to each medium division of forearm measurements, including one-third of all forearms: all less in each category being grouped as short forearms, all more as long forearms (243 classes in all).

NARROW HEads.

MEDIUM WIDTH HEADS.
Short Medium Long Short Medium Long
Fingers. Fingers.
Fingers. Fingers. Fingers. Fingers.

WIDE HEADS.

Short Medium Long Fingers. Fingers. Fingers.

SHORT HEADS:

Short feet.."409 to 419 428 to 438 445 to 455415 to 425 437 to 447 453 to 463||*420 to 430 441 to 451 458 to '468 Medium

feet 417 to .427435 to 445 452 to 462 425 to 435 442 to 452 Long feet..427 to 457 441 to 451 463 to 473 433 to 443 449 to 459 MEDIUM LENGTH HEADS:

460 to 470429 to 439 449 to 459 463 to 473 470 to 480 | 438 to 448, 451 to 461 473 to 483]

Short feet..413 to 423 437 to 447*452 to 462 1422 to 432 440 to 450*455 to 465||*424 to 434 445 to 455 458 to 468 Medium

feet 425 to 435 441 to 451 461 to 471 Long feet..434 to 445 445 to 458 470 to 480 LONG HEADS:

429 to 439 446 to 456 464 to 474
437 to 447, 453 to 463 470 to 480

433 to 443 451 to 461 468 to 478 442 to 452 457 to 467 *476 to 486

Short feet..['424 to 434 ·443 to 453 460 to 470 425 to 435 444 to 454 460 to 470 425 to 435 443 to 453 462 to 472 Medium

feet 432 to 442 450 to 460 468 to 478434 to 444 450 to 460 468 to 478 Long feet..439 to 449 456 to 466 478 to 488 442 to 452 456 to 466 479 to 489

433 to 443, 450 to 460 470 to 480

445 to 455 459 to 469 479 to 489

It would have been much more simple to have kept the same limits for division in each case, but such a rule would only be arbitrary ignorance as opposed to practice. The value of the above data is in the figures being the result of experience in measuring over half a million people in France since 1882. Anthropological evidence of

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almost inestimable value is thus recorded. The figures would be doubtless sensibly affected by application to a very diverse race, say, in India or China they are probably approximately typical of Western Europe and its near relatives, as to general dimensions, but would have to be seriously modified as to details. Thus it has been found that in England the heads are almost invariably longer and narrower than in France. Each country would have to regulate its cabinet according to its own experience, the matter not in the least affecting international considerations, where the exact measurements are the only things taken into consideration. Thus the same subject might be docketed in one country among the "long heads" and the "short fingers," while in another he would appear with a "short head" and a "long finger." There would be no difficulty in one office identifying from the other, the division into threes being purely fanciful and merely for the purpose of sorting and easy access. Were hard and fast figures given for the limit, in each case, it would result in a mass of cards overloading some boxes, while others would be empty. Thus it will be seen that in many of the above divisions the higher limit of the medium in one class does not overlap the lowest limit of the medium in the next class, nor even touch it. Although, again, as a rule, the measurements all increase in a general progression, there are some significant exceptions. Thus it is a curious result that among the long-headed persons with medium fingers and short feet, those with wide heads have slightly shorter forearms than those of medium width of head, while the three adjoining medium feet divisions are the same as to forearm, and in the long feet the wide heads have the longer forearms. However, the figures are wonderfully uniform taken as a whole, and from these anyone can easily construct a "perfect man as regards physical dimensions, so far as beauty is understood in Western Europe. Given his skull dimensions, each bone can be developed. Of course, these figures refer to criminals, or accused persons, but probably the persons who keep outside of prison walls do not differ much in physical dimensions from those within. The so-called "criminal type" includes all the varieties of size and shape.

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It will be readily seen that an immense stock of anthropometric

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