680 CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 



plete. Every person has on his body some particnlijr marks, such as 

 moles, scars from cuts, boils, etc. Three or four of these corresponding 

 would be quite enough to identify a man out of a million provided 

 always that the nature, etc., of the marks has been accurately recorded. 



It is very seldom that one finds on an individual identically the same 

 mark and in the same xilace that has been previously noticed on another, 

 but that two persons should be found bearing three or four scars pre- 

 cisely similar would be a co incidence w hich appears impossible, and we 

 have certainly never met with such a case. 



These marks and cicatrice are set forth under the appropriate head 

 on the back on the card of Feillier. 



I will not attempt to translate that description. It is too intricate 

 and with too many abbreviations and private marks for me to do so 

 with certainty. But as an illustration I may quote those which were 

 presented by M. Bertillon to the congress at Rome, and which had 

 been translated by Mr. Spearman : 



(1) Oblique outward scar between second and third joint middle of 

 first finger left hand. 



(2) Scar oblique inward of 5 centimetres, left palm, 3 centimetres 

 above third finger. 



(3) Mole 8 centimetres below left nipple, and at 10 centimetres from 

 center of body. 



(4) Mole 4 centimetres left of spinal column, 20 below prominent 

 vertebra of neck. 



If this series of private marks be found to correspond on the two 

 cards, one would say they were both made from the same individual 

 and that the identification was perfect. 



It is not to be expected that an inexperienced person w ill be able to 

 do this work of anthropometry without error. In the beginnings of 

 the system there w^ere fewer identifications of former criminals and 

 more lailures, but as time has progressed and a certain expertness with 

 regard to measuring and accuracy in making and keeping the records, 

 these errors and failures have been so far eliminated as that Monsieur 

 Bertillon claims it to be ])ractically perfect. 



The anthropometric service in the penitentiary and police system 

 of France was established in 1882. The annual examinations were as 

 follows: In 1882, 225; 1883, 7,330; 1884, 10,398; 1885, 14,965; 1886, 

 15,703 ; 1887, 19,150. Up to this time the service was considered more 

 or less experimental, and onh' certain classes were subject to measure- 

 ment. 



In the year 1888 the application of the system was extended to in- 

 clude all iiersons arrested for any except the lower grades of offenses, 

 and the number in this year who passed through the depot at Paris was 

 increased to 31.849. This gives an average of about 100 measurements 

 per day. M. Bertillon told me that in i)ractice it took the two men, one 

 to measure the other to record, about 7 minutes to each prisoner, or 8 



