BERNSTORFF 



699 



BERYL 



tion of her great talents she was elected to 

 membership in the French Legion of Honor in 

 1914. As an actress she represents the perfec- 

 tion of the art of acting in all its forms, and 

 it is said with truth that "where inspiration 

 fails her she triumphs by sheer technique." 



A number of peculiar mannerisms and oddi- 

 ties are associated with her acting, but these 

 give her individuality without detracting from 

 the flawlessness of her art. B.M.W. 



Consult Jules Huret's Sarah Bernhardt, with 

 a preface by Edmond Rostand. 



BERNSTORFF, JOHANN HEINRICH, Count 

 (1862- ), a German diplomat, in 1908 ap- 

 pointed ambassador to the United States. His 

 father, Count Albrecht Bernstorff (1809-1873), 

 was also prominent in German diplomacy, and 

 was for many 

 years ambassador 

 at London, where 

 his son was born. 

 After serving in 

 the army for 

 eight years, the 

 son entered the 

 German diplo- 

 matic service in 

 1889 as an at- 

 tache of the em- 

 bassy at Constan- 

 tinople. There- 

 after he served in COUNT VON BERNSTORFF 

 various diplomatic capacities at Belgrade, Dres- 

 den, Munich, Petrograd and London, and was 

 German consul-general in Egypt for two years 

 prior to his appointment as ambassador to the 

 United States. In this position he conducted 

 many delicate negotiations with America after 

 the beginning of the great war in Europe, and, 

 especially as he had an American wife, he was 

 believed to be honestly friendly toward the 

 United States. However, it soon developed that 

 he was the virtual head of the intricate spy sys- 

 tem maintained in America by his government, 

 and therefore he was grossly abusing the privi- 

 leges of his honorable office. The American 

 government sent him home in February, 1917. 

 He was then ambassador to Turkey until the 

 Empire crumbled. 



BERSAGLIERI, oersalya're, the famous 

 fast-marching sharpshooters of Italy, whose 

 picturesque uniform of dark green is distin- 

 guished by the full plume of cock feathers 

 surmounting a broad-brimmed felt hat. They 

 are said to be able to march farther in a day 

 than any other body of troops in the world, 



and their normal gait is a rapid, swinging walk 

 by which good pedestrians are soon outdis- 

 tanced. The Bersaglieri won distinction as 

 fighters in the Crimean War, especially at the 

 battle of Tchernaya (August 16, 1855), and up- 

 held their traditions in the War of the Nations. 

 BERTILLON, berteyoN', SYSTEM, a sys- 

 tem for the identification of criminals, named 

 after its inventor, Alphonse Bertillon. The 

 object of the system was to arrive at so 

 complete a description of a criminal that, no 

 matter how he might disguise himself in future, 

 his recognition and identification would be 

 certain when the Bertillon tests were applied. 

 The means of identification are based on meas- 

 urements of certain parts of the body and 

 description of general appearance. It is known 

 that the bones of adults over twenty years of 

 age do not change, neither are the measure- 

 ments of any two persons exactly similar. In 

 the Bertillon system the following measure- 

 ments are taken: 



Body: Height standing; height sitting ; inches 

 from finger tips to finger tips, with arms out- 

 stretched. 



Head : Length and width ; length and width 

 of right ear. 



Limbs : Length of foot, left middle finger, 

 little finger and forearm. 



The system has proved successful and its effi- 

 ciency has been greatly increased by the in- 

 clusion of thumb and finger prints, which by 

 themselves are considered an almost infallible 

 means of identification. See FINGER PRINT 

 IDENTIFICATION. 



Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914), the inventor 

 of the system named after him, was born in 

 Paris, and after years of study devoted to 

 criminology became the head of the identifi- 

 cation department of the police of Paris. In 

 recognition of his services he was made cheva- 

 lier of the Legion of Honor. He was a prolific 

 writer on criminology and kindred subjects, 

 on which he is regarded as the world's chief 

 authority. 



BERYL, ber' il, a mineral which occurs some- 

 times in great six-sided prisms and sometimes 

 in smaller crystals, which are among the most 

 valuable of the precious stones. Some beryls 

 are bright green, and are called emeralds; some 

 are a bluish sea-green, when they are known 

 as aquamarines; and some are light blue or 

 yellowish. The best beryls are found in Brazil, 

 in Siberia and in Alexander County, North 

 Carolina, but various other parts of the United 

 States produce the coarser, less valuable varie- 

 ties. The scholars of the Middle Ages credited 



