g adult life. He concluded from this that when these measurements
were made and recorded systematically every single individual would be
found to be perfectly distinguishable from others. The system was soon
adapted to police methods, as the immense value of being able to fix a
person's identity was fully realized, both in preventing false
personation and in bringing home to any one charged with an offence his
responsibility for previous wrongdoing. "Bertillonage," as it was
called, became widely popular, and after its introduction into France in
1883, where it was soon credited with highly gratifying results, was
applied to the administration of justice in most civilized countries.
England followed tardily, and it was not until 1894 that an
investigation of the methods used and results obtained was made by a
special committee sent to Paris for the purpose. It reported favourably,
especially on the use of the measurements for primary classification,
but recommended also the adoption in part of a system of "finger prints"
as suggested by Francis Galton, and already practised in Bengal.

M. Bertillon selected the following five measurements as the basis of
his system: (1) head length; (2) head breadth; (3) length of middle
finger; (4) of left foot, and (5) of cubit or forearm from the elbow to
the extremity of the middle finger. Each principal heading was further
subdivided into three classes of "small," "medium" and "large," and as
an increased guarantee height, length of little finger, and the colour
of the eye were also recorded. From this great mass of details, soon
represented in Paris by the collection of some 100,000 cards, it was
possible, proceeding by exhaustion, to sift and sort down the cards till
a small bundle of half a dozen produced the combined facts of the
measurements of the individual last sought. The whole of the information
is easily contained in one cabinet of very ordinary dimensions, and most
ingeniously contrived so as to make the most of the space and facilitate
the search. The whole of the record is independent of names, and the
final identification is by means of the photograph which lies with the
individual's card of measurements.

Anthropometry, however, gradually fell into disfavour, and it has been
generally supplanted by the superior system of finger prints (q.v.).
Bertillonage exhibited certain defects which were first brought to light
in Bengal. The objections raised were (1) the costli