BERTILLON SYSTEM, a scientific method of identifying suspected male criminals, invented March 1879, and set forth in 1885 by Dr. Alphonse Bertillon of Paris. As now in use it is not a single system, but a combination of the one invented by himself with two others approved by use. It rests on three principles: (1) Simple and exact measurement of certain parts of the body in a living subject; (2) ex treme diversity of the relative dimensions in different subjects, no two correlations ever closely approximating each other; (3) almost absolute fixity of the male skeleton after 20.
The measurements are taken with calipers and include: Height, standiand sitting, reach of outstretched arms; lend and width of head; length and width of right ear; and length of left foot, forearm, middle and little fingers. The descriptive elements are color of eyes (the most important detail of all, as it never changes and is impossible to disguise), hair, beard and deformities and peculiarities of shape; marks on body, as moles, scars, the tattooings frequent among criminals, etc., care fully located— as 'mole six centimetres to left of fifth vertebra,' or °horizontal scar on back of second phalanx of right forefinger, three millimetres below middle'. A photograph of full face and one of profile 'are taken when thought desirable, from a fixed chair and a fixer camera. The entire process, by a meas urer and a secretary who writes from dicta tion, takes five to seven minutes, and the measurements are planned to be accurate within one thirty-second of an inch. De scriptions and photograph are put together on cards of uniform size. The cards are divided into three equal sections according to length of head: short heads, of 187 millimetres and less; medium 187 to 194; long, 194 and above. Experience proves that these divide very closely into nearly equal num bers; and their cards are placed in three tiers of drawers, the short heads uppermost. Each of these is subdivided into three sections ac cording to width of head, without further ref erence to length; each of these into three sec tions, according to length of middle finger ; each of these into three sections, by length of foot; these are subdivided successively by length of forearm, full height, length of little finger, and color of eyes. These last groups contain from
12 to' 14 individual cards, and are classed by length of ear. Thus any new measurement can be compared with its duplicate in this enormous mass, or the absence of such record shown, with marvelous celerity and almost in fallible accuracy. Its index value alone is of the first order. Under the old systems, the entire mass of descriptions and photographs had to 'be searched and compared with any given arrested person, and with the immense number accumulating in great cities it became physically impossible to proceed with any cer tainty. The system was for some years also of great value in distinguishing new crim inals from old offenders: it not merely registered identity, but the fact of a first of fense.
In European cities the Bertillon system has been almost entirely superseded by the finger print system. The great weakness of the former was that the element of personality affected the measurements upon which the identifications depended, hardly any two meas urers getting exactly the same dimensions from the same subject. The delicate instruments used were often injured so that they gave in correct readings. Moreover, the system abso lutely failed as to women and children, whose physical dimensions are subject to constant change. On the other hand, the finger-print records are made without any intervening agency, are as readily classified and indexed as the Bertillon cards, and retain their distinctive characteristics from childhood to old age, re gardless of sex. (See FINGER-PRINTING). Consult Bertillon, A., 'Identification Anthro pometrique) (Paris 1893); Boies, 'Science of Penology) (1901); McClaughry, R. W., (The Bertillon System of Identification) (Chicago 1896).