To Dr. Alphonse Bertillon, the celebrated French anthropologist, the world
is indebted for the knowledge of the scientifically demonstrated fact that
no two persons are exactly alike in physical measurements. In fact any
single individual can be identified from thousands of others by this
cleverly thought‐out system, which was first adopted in this country in
1887. The accompanying illustrations are self‐explanatory.
The system embraces three distinct parts: First, the measurement of
certain unchangeable “bony lengths” of the body; second, a careful
description of the features of the face; third, a careful localization of
all scars and marks on the body. While the face may change, be even
mutilated beyond recognition; while the scars and other marks may be
removed, the “bony lengths” of the body remain unchangeable in adults. The
parts measured of the bony lengths of the body are the length and width of
the head, the cheek width, length of foot, the middle and little finger
and the cubit, i. e., from the elbow to the tip of the little finger; the
height standing, the height seated, the reach of outstretched arms, right
ear length (which most authorities assert remains the same through life),
the median line in front from the fork or hollow below the “Adam’s apple”
down, and, in the rear, the spinal column from the seventh vertebra to the
base of the spine, are the anatomical or “guiding points” from which all
descriptions of the body are recorded; in the fingers, the joints and
flanges,—the flanges being the portions of the fingers between the joints.
The calipers for measuring the head are provided with a graduated arch and
are similar to a compass. In taking the length of the head the left point
of the caliper is held at the root of the nose and the right point is
brought against the occipital bone in the back of the head; the thumb
screw is then tightened and the measurement checked by passing the
instrument again over the head. The width of the head over the cheeks is
taken in the same way. The measurement of the foot is taken with a caliper
rule similar to that used by a shoemaker; the prisoner is posed standing
on his left foot and steadying himself as shown in the illustration. The
graduate stem is placed against the inside of the foot with the fixed arm
in contact with the heel and the sliding arm then brought in tightly
against the toe. In measuring the left middle and little finger the back
of the caliper rule is used, two small projections being provided on the
fixed and sliding arms. The finger is bent at right angles to the back of
the hand and the measurement taken from the tip of the finger to the
knuckle.
[Head Length Measurements.]
Head Length Measurements.
The registering and record made of the foregoing, together with an
accurate description of the face and all marks on the body, constitute the
third and complete part of this system. To illustrate this part briefly,—
measurements are all based on the French metric system, viz: Height, 1
metre, 71 centimetres, 3 millimitres; width, 14 centimetres, 5
millimetres; length of right ear, 6 centimeters, 3 millimetres; length of
foot, 2.62; length of middle finger, 11.7; length of little finger, 7.1;
length of forearm, 46.3. A metre is 39 inches, a centimetre about 3/8ths
of an inch and a millimetre, 1‐25th of an inch.
[Measurements of Outstretched Arms and Left Foot.]
Measurements of Outstretched Arms and Left Foot.
[Left Middle Finger Measurement.]
Left Middle Finger Measurement.
The description of heads range in 14 (head) classes, being reckoned from A
to Z. The middle fingers have three classes; forearm, three classes;
height, three classes, and the little finger, three classes. Only one
millimetre or 1‐25th of an inch is allowed as the difference between the
measurements of any two operators of the Bertillon system in the “bony
lengths” of the body. This is so infinitesimal that a measurement taken in
France, England, the United States or in Russia by different operators
will discover the prisoner, no matter where he may be, and there is no
escape unless it be the grave.
The technical terms used in the description of scars or marks are strictly
medical. For instance, if a man has a scar on his left breast it is
described as recitilnal, vertical, horizontal, inal—such a distance from
the median line, and to the right, left, above or below the nipple. Scars
on the fingers are described in the same terms, indicating the flange and
joint, and so on through all parts of the body,—every mark, cut or bruise
being measured in front, from the median line, and in the rear, from the
spinal column, as stated.
With reference to the ears, there are certain external features by which
scientists assert criminals may be instantly detected. Have you a criminal
ear? Dr. D. S. Lamb, at one time curator in charge of the Army Medical
Museum, says there is such a thing as a “criminal ear.” Anthropologists
have been giving a great deal of study to this matter of late, and their
data points to the conclusion that the term “ear‐mark” is something more
than a mere figure of speech. No one has two ears just alike; all ears are
faulty in one way or another, that is, as to size, shape or position, and
these organs do not stop growing when the body pauses in its development.
At all events, chronic malefactors are apt to be disfigured by certain
malformations of that organ. It has been proven that abnormalities in the
ear structure are characteristic features of degenerates. Such
abnormalities are commonly found in idiots, imbeciles and epileptics, and
the prisons contain quite a number of inmates with such ears. The sloping
ear is bad; it shows a tendency to reversion to the primitive animal ear
which slopes. The great Napoleon, Lord Byron, Henry Clay and Alexander
Hamilton had sloping ears. Another objectionable type is the “wing ear,”
which projects wing‐like from the head. This type of ear is said to
indicate a tendency towards degeneracy; are found in one individual out of
every five among sane persons, in two out of five among the insane and in
three out of every five in criminals, occurring twice as often among men
as among women.
[Criminal Ear.]
Criminal Ear.
[Right Ear and Trunk Measurements.]
Right Ear and Trunk Measurements.
Considering all available data, it appears that ape‐like traits, monkey‐
ancestry being commonly exhibited, are found far less frequently in the
ears of women than in men. This fact would seem to prove that our female
race has progressed the farthest from the ancestral type. By carefully
feeling with the thumb inside of the edge of the ear and a little behind
the top a very small lump of cartilage will be found, as if a foreign body
had become imbedded in the tissue. This is a remnant of what was
originally the tip of the ear, when hundreds of thousands of years ago
that organ in our remote ancestors had a point on it. Among men of
note,—statesmen, scientists, politicians, etc., it occurs less frequently
by about ten per cent. The so‐called “Darwinian tubercle” appears, as
stated, less frequently in women than in men, and is unmistakably a trait
reverting to the ape. Certain it is that no part of the body can be
identified with greater accuracy than by the ears. Your own, for example,
are not matched exactly by any other pair in the world; there are
differences which are shown beyond the possibility of mistake, by careful
measurements, as applied in the Bertillon system. In nine out of every ten
persons the ear‐lobe runs into the flesh of the cheek without any
perceptible division between. Experts term this the “confluent lobule,”
and it also is found more often in women than in men. It is said to occur
in 92 per cent of the sane and in 47 per cent of the insane. The most
remarkable feature in regard to the criminal ear, if it can be so called,
is the prominence of the raised area just inside the outer edge, the outer
edge being termed the “helix” and the part referred to the “anti‐helix.”
It appears that the overdevelopment of this portion of the aural structure
is particularly characteristic of criminals.
A student of this subject can tell a person’s age more accurately by
observation of the ears than by any other way. Even women, who, in other
respects, preserve the youthfulness of their appearance to an advanced
period are apt to betray their maturity through this organ, which acquires
a sharp definition of contour, a tiny wrinkle appearing just in front of
it. Some people are able to wag their ears slightly,—another indication of
primeval animal traits: Our remote ancestors unquestionably wagged their
ears, and every human being today is provided with ear‐wagging muscles. In
most individuals, however, these muscles have become so far rudimentary
that they are useless for wagging purposes.