770 REPORT — 1894. 



One of the most striking results of the introduction of this system into France 

 has been that, since it has been brought fully into operation, a large proportion of 

 old offenders, knowing that concealment is hopeless, admit their identity at once, 

 and save a world of trouble and expense to the police by ceasing to endeavour to 

 conceal themselves under false names. 



Various representations upon this subject have been addressed to the Home 

 Secretary of our own Government during the last few years, and among others one 

 from the Council of this Association, -which originated in a resolution of this 

 Section, adopted by the General Committee at the meeting at Edinburgh in 1892, 

 to this effect : 



' That the Council be requested to draw the attention of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment to the Anthropometric Method for the measurement of criminals, which is 

 successfully in operation in France, Austria, and other Continental countries, and 

 which has been found effective in the identification of habitual criminals, and con- 

 sequently in the prevention and repression of crime.' 



In consequence of these representations a Committee was appointed, on Oct. 21, 

 1893, by Mr. Asquith, consisting of Mr. C. E. Troup, of the Home Office, 

 Major Arthur Griffiths, Inspector of Prisons, and Mr. Melville Leslie Macnaghten, 

 Chief Constable in the Metropolitan Police Force, with Mr. H. B. Simpson, of the 

 Home Office, as secretary, ' to inquire (a) into the method of registering and 

 identifying habitual criminals now in use in England ; (b) into the " Anthropo- 

 metric " system of classified registration and identification in use in France and 

 other countries ; (c) into the suggested system of identification by means of a 

 record of finger marks : to report whether the anthropometric system or the 

 finger-mark system can with advantage be adopted in England either in sub- 

 stitution for or to supplement the existing methods ; and, if so, what arrangements 

 should be adopted for putting them into practice, and what rules should be made 

 under Section 8 of the Penal Servitude Act, 1891, for the photographing and 

 measuring of prisoners.' 



The Report of this Committee, with minutes of evidence and appendices, was 

 issued as a Parliamentary Blue-book in March last, and not only contains a lucid 

 and concise description of the methods of identification already in use in this 

 country, but also most striking testimony from impartial but well-qualified 

 persous to the value of a more scientific mode of dealing with the subject. No 

 pains seem to have been spared to obtain, both by personal observation and by the 

 examination of competent witnesses, a thorough knowledge of the advantages of 

 the Bertillon system as practised in France, and the result has been the recom- 

 mendation of that system, with certain modifications, for adoption in this country, 

 with the addition of the remarkably simple, ingenious, and certain method of 

 personal identification first used in India by Sir William Herschel, but fully 

 elaborated in this country by Mr. Francis Galton, that called the ' finger-mark 

 system,' about which I shall have a few more words to say presently. 



With the concluding words of the Committee's Report I most fully concur : 

 * We may confidently anticipate that, if fairly tried, it will show very satisfactory 

 results within a few years in the metropolis ; but the success of its application in 

 the country generally will depend on the voluntary co-operation of the independent 

 county and borough police forces. This, we feel sure, will not be withheld. When 

 the principles of the system are understood and its usefulness appreciated we 

 believe it will not only save much time and labour to the police in the performance 

 of an important duty, but will give them material assistance in tracing and detecting 

 the antecedents of the guilty, and will afford, so far as its scope extends, an 

 absolute safeguard to the innocent.' 



It is very satisfactory to be able to add that in the House of Commons on 

 June 26, in answer to a question from Colonel Howard Vincent, the Home Secre- 

 tary announced that the recommendations of the Committee had been adopted ; 

 and that, in order to facilitate research into the judicial antecedents of international 

 criminals, the registers of measurements would be kept on the same plan as that 

 adopted with such success in France, and also in other Continental countries. 



1 have just mentioned the ' finger-mark system,' and of all the various 



