1879.] on Generic Images. 165 



hideous. (5) Nero, from eleven ; (G) A combination of five different 

 Greek female fiices, and (7) A singularly beautiful combination of tlio 

 faces of six different Roman ladies, forming a charming ideal profile.* 



My cordial acknowledgment is due to Mr. R. Stuart Poole, the 

 learned curator of the coins and gems in the British Museum, for his 

 kind selection of the most suitable medals and for procuring casts of 

 them for me for the present purpose. These casts were, with one ex- 

 ception, all photographed to a uniform size of four-tenths of an inch 

 between the pupils of the eyes and the division between the lips, 

 which ex2>erience shows to be the most convenient size on the whole 

 to work with, regard being paid to many considerations not worth 

 while to specify in detail. When it was necessary the photograph 

 was reversed. These photographs were made by Mr. II. Reynolds ; I 

 then adjusted and prepared them for taking the photographic com- 

 posite. 



The next series to be exhibited consists of comjiosites taken from 

 the portraits of criminals convicted of murder, manslaughter, or 

 crimes accompanied by violence. There is much interest in the fact 

 that two types of features are found much more frequently among 

 these than among the population at large. In one, the features are 

 broad and massive, like those of Henry VIII., but with a much 

 smaller brain. The other, of which five composites are exhibited, 

 each deduced from a number of different individuals, varying four to 

 nine, is a face that is weak and certainly not a common English 

 face. Three of these composites, though taken from entirely different 

 sets of individuals, are as alike as brothers, and it is found on opti- 

 cally combining any three out of the five composites, that is on com- 

 bining almost any considerable number of the individuals, the result 

 is closely the same. The combination of the three composites just 

 alluded to will now be effected by means of the three converging magic 

 lanterns, and the result may be accepted as generic in respect of 

 this particular type of criminals. 



The process of composite j^ortraiture is one of pictorial statistics. 

 It is a familiar fact that the average height of even a dozen men of 

 the same race, taken at hazard, varies so little, that for ordinary 

 statistical purposes it may be considered constant. The same may be 

 said of the measurement of every separate feature and limb, and of 

 every tint, whether of skin, hair, or eyes. Consequently a pictorial 

 combination of any one of these separate traits would lead to results 

 no less constant than the statistical averages. In a portrait, there 

 is another factor to be considered besides the measurement of the 

 separate traits, namely, their relative position ; but this, too, in a suffi- 

 ciently large group, would necessarily have a statistical constancy. As 



* The accompanying ilhistrations have been photographically transferred (on a 

 reduced scale) to stone, and hthographed by the Autotype Company, 36, Kath- 

 bone Street. They are very successfully done, and arc nearly equal in clearntss 

 to the originals. The com])osito of the Roman ladies comes out unfortunately a 

 little too dark, and some of the beauty of the original is thereby lost. 



