knowledge of our subject in the sister isle I am indebted to Professor
D. J. Cunningham. The only place in Ireland where anthropological work
is done is Trinity College. For many years those in charge of the museum
have been collecting skulls, and they were fortunate in obtaining the
greater part of Sir William Wilde’s collection. To these great additions
have been recently made, principally in the form of Irish crania from
different districts. All the anthropological specimens are lodged in one
large room, which is also used as an anthropometric laboratory. Though
there has never been any systematic teaching of Anthropology in Trinity
College, Dr. C. R. Browne (Professor Cunningham’s able assistant), who
takes charge of the laboratory, attends for two hours on three days a
week, and gives demonstrations in anthropological methods to any
students who are interested in the subject. The laboratory was opened in
June 1891, the instruments being provided by a grant from the Royal
Irish Academy, and about 500 individuals have already been measured, the
greater number of them students of the College. This is, however, only
part of the work carried out by the laboratory. Every year the
instruments are taken to some selected district in Ireland, and a
systematic study of the inhabitants is made. The Aran Islands, and also
the islands of Inishbofin and Inishshark, have been already worked out,
and this year excursions are organised to Kerry, to a district in
Wicklow, and to another in the west of Ireland. The Academy makes yearly
grants to the Committee for carrying on this work, the results of which
have been published in admirable memoirs by Professor A. C. Haddon and
Dr. C. R. Browne. The Science and Art Museum in Dublin, under the
direction of Dr. V. Ball, contains a small collection, arranged with a
view to general instruction, showing by means of skulls and casts the
physical characteristics of the different races of man, those of each
race being explained by a short printed label, and its range shown on a
map.
Though the development of anthropological science has thus not been
greatly advanced, in this country at least, by means of endowments, or
by aid of the State, or, till very recently, by our great scholastic
institutions, but has been mainly left to the unorganised efforts of
amateurs of the subject, its progress in recent years has been
undeniably great. I will give an instance of the strides that have been
made in one of its most important branches.
Physical or Anatomical Anthropology, or the study of the modifications
of the human body under its various aspects, the modifications dependent
upon sex and age, the modifications dependent upon race, and those
dependent upon individual variability, studied not many years ago in a
vague and loose manner, has gradually submitted to a rigorous and,
therefore, strictly scientific method of treatment. The generalities
which were formerly used to express the differences that were recognised
between the various subjects compared with each other have been replaced
by terms conveyed in almost mathematical precision. No one acquainted
with the history of the development of this branch of Anthropology can
fail to recognise how much it was accelerated by the genius of Broca,
and the school which he established in France, although all cultivated
nations are now vying with each other in the practice of exactitude in
anthropological research, and the time seems rapidly approaching when a
common agreement will be arrived at, by which all the observations which
may be made, under whatever diverse circumstances, and by whatever
different individuals, will be available for comparison one with
another.
This branch of our science has received the name of “Anthropometry.”
Although, as the name implies, measurement is one of its principal
features, it includes such other methods of comparison as can be reduced
to a definite standard, or to which definite tests can be applied, such
as the colour of the hair, eyes, and complexion, the form of the ear and
nose. The great desiderata that have been sought for, and gradually
attained, in measuring either the skeleton or the living person have
been two in number: 1. Exact definition of the points between which the
measurements should be taken. 2. Exact methods and instruments of
measurement. In both these cases the object looked for has been not only
that the measurements taken by the same observer at different times and
under different circumstances should coincide, but also that those
taken by different observers should be comparable. These requirements
seem so simple and natural at first sight that the majority of persons
whom I am addressing will wonder that I should allude to them. Only
those who are seriously occupied, or perhaps I should rather say, only
those who were seriously occupied a few years ago with the endeavour to
solve these problems can have any idea of their difficulty. The amount
of time and labour that has been spent upon them is enormous, but the
result has, I think, been quite commensurate with it.
We have attained at last to methods of measurement and standards of
comparison which, in the hands of persons of ordinary intelligence, and
with a moderate amount of training, will give data which may be
absolutely depended upon. From these we hope to be able to formulate
accurate information as to the physical conformation of all the groups
into which mankind is divided, and so gradually to arrive at a natural
classification of those groups, and a knowledge of their affinities one
to another.
But the exact methods of modern Anthropometry are not only important on
account of the aid they give in studying the race characteristics of
man. As has so often happened when scientific observation has been
primarily carried out for its own sake, it ultimately leads to practical
applications undreamt of by its earlier cultivators. The application of
Anthropometry not to the comparison of races, but to elucidate various
social problems--as the laws of growth, of heredity, of comparative
capacities of individuals within a community, and the effects of
different kinds of education and occupation, as worked out first by
Quetelet in Belgium, and subsequently by Francis Galton, Roberts, and
others in this country, and its still more concrete application as an
aid in administering justice by methods perfected by Bertillon in
France, are striking illustrations of the practical utility of labours
originally undertaken under the influence of devotion to science pure
and simple.
The importance of being able to determine the identity of an individual
under whatever circumstances of disguise he may be presented for
examination has, of course, long been apparent to all who have had
anything to do with the administration of the criminal law, and rough
and ready methods of recognition, depending mainly upon the more or less
acute faculty of perception and recollection of differences and
resemblances, possessed by the persons upon whom the duty of
identification has devolved, have long been in operation. The general
conformation, height, form of features, and colour of complexion, hair,
and eyes, have also been noted. Much additional assistance has been
obtained by the registration of definite physical characteristics, the
results either of natural conformation, or of injury, such as
mutilations, tattoo-marks, and scars, inflicted by accident or design.
The application of one of the most important scientific discoveries of
the age, photography, was eagerly seized upon as a remedy for the
difficulties hitherto met with in tracing personal identity, and
enormous numbers of photographs were taken of persons the peculiarities
of whose career led them to fall into the hands of the police, and who
were likely to be wanted again on some future occasion. No doubt much
help has been derived from this source, but also much embarrassment.
Even among photographic portraits of one’s own personal friends, taken
under most favourable circumstances, and with no intention of deception,
we cannot often help exclaiming how unlike they are to the person
represented. With portraits of criminals, the varying expression of the
face, changes in the mode of wearing the hair and beard, differences of
costume, the effects of a long lapse of time, years perhaps passed in
degradation and misery, may make such alterations that recognition
becomes a matter at least of uncertainty. That photographs are extremely
valuable as aids to identification, when their true position in the
process is recognised, cannot be doubted, but as a primary method they
have been found to be quite inapplicable, owing partly to the causes
just indicated, but mainly to the difficulty, if not impossibility, of
classifying them. The enormous expenditure of time and trouble that must
be consumed in making the comparison between any suspected person and
the various portraits of the stock which accumulates in prison bureaus
may be judged of from the fact that, in Paris alone, upwards of 100,000
such portraits of persons interesting to the police have been taken in
a period of ten years.
The primary desideratum in a system of identification is a ready means
of classifying the data upon which it is based. To accomplish this is
the aim of the Bertillon system. Exact measurements are taken between
certain well-known and fixed points of the bony framework of the body,
which are known not to change under different conditions of life. The
length and breadth of the head, the length of the middle finger, the
length of the foot, and the length of the forearm, are considered the
best, though others are added for greater certainty, as the height, span
of arms, length of ear, colour of eyes, etc. All these particulars of
every individual examined are recorded upon a card, and by dividing each
measurement into three classes, long, medium, and short, and by
classifying the various combinations thus obtained, the whole mass of
cards, kept arranged in drawers in the central bureau, is divided up
into groups, each containing a comparatively small number, and therefore
quite easily dealt with. When the card of a new prisoner is brought in,
a few minutes suffice to eliminate the necessity of comparison with any
but one small batch, which presents the special combination. Then
photographs and other means of recognition, as distinctive marks and
form of features, are brought into play, and identification becomes a
matter of certainty. On the other hand, if the combination of
measurements upon a new card does not coincide with any in the classed
collection in the bureau, it is known with absolute certainty that the
individual being dealt with has never been measured before.
One of the most striking results of the introduction of this system into
France has been that, since it has been brought fully into operation, a
large proportion of old offenders, knowing that concealment is hopeless,
admit their identity at once, and save a world of trouble and expense to
the police by ceasing to endeavour to conceal themselves under false
names.
Various representations upon this subject have been addressed to the
Home Secretary of our own Government during the last few years, and
among others one from the Council of this Association, which originated
in a resolution of this Section, adopted by the General Committee at
the meeting at Edinburgh in 1892, to this effect:
“That the Council be requested to draw the attention of Her Majesty’s
Government to the Anthropometric Method for the measurement of
criminals, which is successfully in operation in France, Austria, and
other continental countries, and which has been found effective in the
identification of habitual criminals, and consequently the prevention
and repression of crime.”
In consequence of these representations a Committee was appointed on
21st October 1893 by Mr. Asquith, consisting of Mr. C. E. Troup, of the
Home Office, Major Arthur Griffiths, Inspector of Prisons, and Mr.
Melville Leslie Macnaghten, Chief Constable in the Metropolitan Police
Force, with Mr. H. B. Simpson, of the Home Office, as Secretary, “to
inquire (_a_) into the method of registering and identifying habitual
criminals now in use in England; (_b_) into the ‘Anthropometric’ system
of classified registration and identification in use in France and other
countries; (_c_) into the suggested system of identification by means of
a record of finger marks; to report whether the anthropometric system or
the finger-mark system can with advantage be adopted in England either
in substitution for or to supplement the existing methods; and, if so,
what arrangements should be adopted for putting them into practice, and
what rules should be made under Section 8 of the Penal Servitude Act,
1891, for the photographing and measuring of prisoners.”
The Report of this Committee, with minutes of evidence and appendices,
was issued as a Parliamentary Blue-book in March last, and not only
contains a lucid and concise description of the methods of
identification already in use in this country, but also most striking
testimony from impartial but well-qualified persons to the value of a
more scientific mode of dealing with the subject. No pains seem to have
been spared to obtain, both by personal observation and by the
examination of competent witnesses, a thorough knowledge of the
advantages of the Bertillon system as practised in France, and the
result has been the recommendation of that system, with certain
modifications, for adoption in this country, with the addition of the
remarkably simple, ingenious, and certain method of personal
identification first used in India by Sir William Herschel, but fully
elaborated in this country by Mr. Francis Galton--that called the
“finger-mark system,” about which I shall have a few more words to say
presently.
With the concluding words of the Committee’s Report I most fully concur:
“We may confidently anticipate that, if fairly tried, it will show very
satisfactory results within a few years in the metropolis; but the
success of its application in the country generally will depend on the
voluntary co-operation of the independent county and borough police
forces. This, we feel sure, will not be withheld. When the principles of
the system are understood and its usefulness appreciated, we believe it
will not only save much time and labour to the police in the performance
of an important duty, but will give them material assistance in tracing
and detecting the antecedents of the guilty, and will afford, so far as
its scope extends, an absolute safeguard to the innocent.”
It is very satisfactory to be able to add that in the House of Commons
on 26th June, in answer to a question from Colonel Howard Vincent, the
Home Secretary announced that the recommendations of the Committee have
been adopted; and that, in order to facilitate research into the
judicial antecedents of international criminals, the registers of
measurements would be kept on the same plan as that adopted with such
success in France, and also in other continental countries.
I have just mentioned the “finger-mark system,” and of all the various
developments of Anthropology in recent times none appears to me more
interesting than the work done by Mr. Galton upon this subject; for
though, as indicated above, he is not quite the first who has looked
into the question or shown its practical application in personal
identification, he has carried his work upon it far beyond that of any
of his predecessors, both in its practical application and into regions
of speculation unthought of by any one else. Simple and insignificant as
in the eyes of all the world are the little ridges and furrows which
mark the skin of the under-surface of our fingers, existing in every
man, woman, and child born into the world, they have been practically
unnoticed by every one until Mr. Galton has shown, by a detailed and
persevering study of their peculiarities, that they are full of
significance, and amply repay the pains and time spent upon their study.
It is not to be supposed that all the knowledge that may be obtained
from a minute examination of them is yet by any means exhausted, but
they have already given valuable data for the study of such subjects as
variation unaffected by natural or any other known form of selection,
and the difficult problems of heredity, in addition to their being one
of the most valuable means hitherto discovered of fixing personal
identity.
As an example of the importance of some ready method to prove identity,
apart from its application to the detection, punishment, and prevention
of crime, to which I have already referred, I may recall to your
recollection that remarkable trial which agitated the length and breadth
of the land rather more than twenty years ago; a trial which occupied so
many months of the precious time of our most eminent judges and counsel,
and cost the country, as well as several innocent persons--I am afraid
to say how many--thousands of pounds, all upon an issue which might have
been settled in two minutes if Roger Tichborne, before starting on his
voyage, had but taken the trouble to imprint his thumb upon a piece of
blackened paper. It is wonderful to me, on reading again the reports of
the trial, to see how comparatively little attention was paid by
counsel, judge, or jury, to the extremely different physical
characteristics of the two persons claimed to be identical, but which
were so strongly marked that they ought to have disposed of the claim,
without any hesitation, at the very opening of the case. It was not
until the 102nd day of the first trial that the attention of the jury
was pointedly called to the fact that it was known that Sir Roger
Tichborne had been tattooed on the left arm with a cross, anchor, and a
heart, and that the Claimant exhibited no such marks. When this was
clearly brought out and proved, the case broke down at once. The second
trial for perjury occupied the court 188 days, the Lord Chief-Justice’s
charge alone lasting eight days. The issues were, however, more complex
than in the first trial, as it was not only necessary to prove that the
Claimant was not Tichborne, but also to show that he was some one else.
I feel convinced that at the present time the greater confidence that is
reposed in the methods of Anthropometry or close observance of physical
characters, and in the persistence of such characters through life,
would have greatly simplified the whole case; and I would strongly
recommend all who have nothing about their lives they think it expedient
to conceal to place themselves under the hands of Mr. Galton, or one of
his now numerous disciples, and get an accurate and unimpeachable
register of all those characteristics which will make loss of identity
at any future period a sheer impossibility.
Partly with this object in view, the Association has, for several years
past, during each of its meetings, opened, under the superintendence of
Dr. Garson, an Anthropometric Laboratory, on the plan of the admirable
institution of the same name which has been carried on in the South
Kensington Museum since the beginning of the year 1888, under the
direction and at the sole cost of Mr. Francis Galton, in which up to the
present time more than 7000 complete sets of measurements have been made
and recorded. The results obtained at the British Association meetings
have been published in the Annual Reports of the Association, and though
on a smaller scale than Mr. Galton’s, the operations of the laboratory
have been most useful in diffusing a knowledge of the value of
anthropometric work, and of the methods by which it is carried on.
For many years an “Anthropometric” Committee of the Association, in
which the late Dr. W. Farr, Mr. F. Galton, Mr. C. Roberts, Dr. Beddoe,
Sir Rawson Rawson, and others, took an active part, was engaged in
collecting statistical information relating to the physical characters,
including stature, weight, chest-girth, colour of eyes and hair,
strength of arms, etc., of the inhabitants of the British Isles; and
their reports, illustrated by maps and diagrams, were published in the
annual volume issued by the Association. This Committee terminated its
labours in 1883, although, as was fully acknowledged in the concluding
report, the subject was by no means completely exhausted.
A great and important work which the Association has now in hand, in
some sense a continuation of that of the Anthropometric Committee,
though with a more extended scope of operation, is the organisation of a
complete ethnographical survey of the United Kingdom based upon
scientific principles. In this work the Association has the co-operation
of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Folk-lore Society, the
Dialect Society, and the Anthropological Institute. Representatives of
these different bodies have been formed into a Committee, of which Mr.
E. W. Brabrook is now chairman. It is proposed to record in a systematic
and uniform character, for certain typical villages and the neighbouring
districts (1), the Physical Types of the Inhabitants, (2) their current
Traditions and Beliefs, (3) Peculiarities of Dialect, (4) Monumental and
other Remains of Ancient Culture, and (5) Historical Evidence as to
Continuity of Race. The numerous Corresponding Societies of the
Association scattered over various parts of the country have been
invited to co-operate, and the greater number of them have cordially
responded, and special local committees have been formed in many places
to carry out the work.
The result of a preliminary inquiry as to the places in the United
Kingdom which appeared especially to deserve ethnographic study, mainly
on account of the stationary nature of the population for many
generations back, was given in the first Report of the Committee
presented at the Nottingham meeting of the Association last year, in
which it was shown that in the British Isles there are more than 250
places which, in the opinion of competent authorities, would be suitable
for ethnographic survey, and in which, notwithstanding the rapid changes
which have taken place during the last fifty years in all parts of the
country, much valuable material remains for the Committee to work upon.
Without doubt, as interest in the subject is aroused, this number will
be greatly increased.
A most important step in securing the essential condition that the
information obtained should be of the nature really required for the
purpose, and that the records of different observers should be as far as
possible of equal value and comparable one with another, has been the
compilation of a very elaborate and carefully prepared schedule of
questions and directions for distribution among those who have signified
their willingness to assist, and as a guarantee that the answers
obtained to the questions in the schedules will be utilised to the
fullest extent, certain members of the Committee, specially qualified
for each branch of the work, have undertaken to examine and digest the
reports when received.
It may be remarked in passing that the Anthropological Society of Paris
has within the past year formed a Commission of its members to collect,
in a systematic manner, the scattered data which, when united and
digested, shall form “une anthropologie véritablement nationale de la
France,” and has issued a circular with schedules of the required
observations. These are, however, at present limited to the physical
characters of the population.