CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. f)79 



paper aud make comparisons of the contour of tlie head, the shape of 

 the face, the position of the ear and its appearance, and thus one is 

 enabled to make much better and more satisfactory in vestigai ion. If 

 one would rely upon the photograph there should also be added the other 

 l)Osition of a full-length standing portrait. 



At Paris the studio for taking the photographs of criminals is at- 

 tached to the establishment of M. Bertillon and is over his otlice of 

 measuring. Another suggestion which he makes concerning i)hoto- 

 graphs and their benefit aiul advantage concerning identification is 

 the necessity of having them the same proportion, the same relative 

 size, and so he insists that the instruments and the subjects shall always 

 be at the same distance. Therefore he has the chair in which the sub- 

 ject sits, and also the stand for the camera fastened firmly to the floor 

 so that they give the same proportionate size of tiie subject. 



M. Bertillon also remarked the importance of including in the pho- 

 tograph a view of the bust. If the head only be shown it gives it an 

 enlarged appearance and so is deceiving, and besides the setting of the 

 head upon the shoulders is as much a means of identification as is the 

 head itself. 3e said also to throw back the hair off the ears of the 

 subject when taking the profile view, for it is an organ unchangeable 

 upon its owner and with its characteristics may serve as a means for 

 identification. But with all this M. Bertillon uses the photograph more 

 as an auxiliary, and depends principally upon the measurements. 



How to make a search. — Our man, whose photograph and measure- 

 ment is given on the card, is supposed to have just arrived, the meas- 

 urement made, aud his photograph taken. We desire to know if he 

 has ever before passed through the depot and whether his card of 

 measurement is here to be found. The length of his head is 191, there- 

 fore we find it in the highest division ; that is, with the longest heads, 

 aud we know it will be in this row of drawers. The width of his head 

 is 157. That falls within the medium class, and we therefore know it 

 will fall within this row of drawers. We have now, by exclusion, 

 reduced the number of cards to be examined from 00,000 to (3,000. The 

 length of his middle finger is 127, which throws it into the highest of 

 that division, and that has reduced it to 2,000. The like investigations 

 with regard to his foot, which is 278, and the spread of his arms, which 

 are 151, reduces it, as we have said, to an average division of G3 cards. 

 These are divided among the seven distinctive colors of the eyes, aud so 

 the i)ackage of cards within which his description will be found, if at 

 all, is reduced to an average of 9, and in practice is never to exceed 20. 

 And this by depending solely upon the measurement and without con- 

 sulting the photograph. 



As a precaution additional to the normal sizes of the various portions 

 of the body which were selected for measurement, there would be natur- 

 ally employed any abnormal marks which might be found. If these were 

 agreed in the two descriptions we would declare the identification com- 



