(CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 681 



prisoners per lionr. As it is important tbat prisoners should be exarn- 

 iued in court without dehiy the entire day is not at their disposal, and 

 so they have four squads of operators, who endeavor to conclude their 

 measurements each day before breakfast, as they call it; that is, before 

 12 m., the afternoon being- devoted to the routine business at the office. 



Of the 31,849 offenders or suspects measured in 1888 615 were recog*- 

 nized as having been measured before, but who sought to conceal their 

 identity by .giving false names and reporting falsely the number of their 

 arrests. There were only four failures of identification. Four failures 

 out of 31,849 measurements was considiered by M. Bertillon to be prac- 

 tically perfection. 



This system ofM. Bertillon for identification of individuals by means 

 of anthropometry is having much success. The most superficial exam- 

 ination seems to convince every one of its efficacy and superiority. 

 M. Cantilo, Procureur General at Buenos Ayres, the delegate from the 

 Argentine Republic, bore his testimony before the congress of the mar- 

 velous results obtained in the determination of individual identity. He 

 said that the method had been adopted by several of the States of the 

 United States of North America, and also by his own country, the Ar- 

 gentine Eepublic, the capital, Buenos Ayres, already possessing an in- 

 stallation of the anthropometric system of Bertillon. He spoke of the 

 necessity for its adoption by all civilized countries, and he proposed to 

 the congress a resolution inviting all governments to adopt it whenever 

 they might have need for the identification of any considerable number 

 of their citizens, which resolution was unanimously adopted. 



M. Bertillon stated that after France the Argentine Republic was the 

 first government to adopt the anthropometric system by law or official 

 decree. He complimented the admirable application made in the State 

 of Illinois, principally at the p-puitentiary of Joliet, by the private 

 efforts of MM. Mac-Claughry, Gallas, Muller, Porteous, of Chicago, etc. 



Monsieur Herbette, in his presentation of this matter at the congress 

 of Rome, following the communication of M. Bertillon,* pointed out 

 how this verifying of the physical personality and the indisputable 

 identity of people of adult age should in modern society fulfill real 

 requirements and under the most varied services. If it were a ques- 

 tion, for instance, of identifying the soldiers of an army, or travellers 

 going to distant lands, they could have personal cards having recog- 

 nizable signs enabling them always to prove who they are; if it were 

 a question of completing the records of the etat civil by sure indica- 

 tions to prevent error or substitution of persons; if it were a question 

 of recording the distinctive marks of an individual in documents, titles, 

 contracts so that his identity could be established either for his own 

 interest, for the interest of third parties, or for that of the state, the 

 full benefit of the anthropometric system would be realized. If there 

 should arise a question of identity in a life certificate, a life insurance 



• Translation by Mr. Spearmau. 



