| Five cases of Head-length 8·0, and Head-breadth 6·1. | ||||||||||
| Span. | Body. | Finger. | Height. | Eye-colour. | ||||||
| 1. | { | 72·4 | 38·0 | 4·8 | { | 71·2 | { | br. grey | ||
| 2. | 72·6 | { | 37·0 | 4·7 | 71·4 | br. grey | ||||
| 3. | 72·7 | 36·7 | 4·7 | 71·4 | blue | |||||
| 4. | 73·9 | 36·4 | 5·0 | 70·7 | brown | |||||
| 5. | 75·3 | 37·9 | 4·8 | 73·4 | blue | |||||
| Five cases of Head-length 7·8, and Head-breadth 6·0. | ||||||||||
| 6. | 70·8 | 37·8 | { | 4·7 | { | 70·0 | brown | |||
| 7. | { | 71·9 | 36·2 | 4·7 | 69·3 | blue | ||||
| 8. | 72·4 | { | 37·2 | 4·7 | 68·4 | brown | ||||
| 9. | 74·8 | 37·8 | 5·0 | 73·1 | blue | |||||
| 10. | 79·9 | 37·3 | 5·3 | 75·6 | blue grey | |||||
This is satisfactory. It shows that each one of the 500 sets may be distinguished from all the others by means of only seven elements; for if it is possible so to subdivide twenty-four entries that come under one index-heading, we may assume that we could do so in the other cases where the entries were fewer. The other measures that I possess—strength of grasp and breathing capacity—are closely correlated with stature and bulk, while eyesight and reaction-time are uncorrelated, but the latter are hardly suited to test the further application of the Bertillon method.
It would appear, from these and other data, that a purely anthropometric classification, irrespective of bodily marks and photographs, would enable an expert to deal with registers of considerable size.
Bearing in mind that mediocrities differ less from one another than members of either of the extreme classes, and would therefore be more difficult to distinguish, it seems probable that with comparatively few exceptions, at least two thousand adults of the same sex might be individualised, merely by means of twelve careful measures, on the Bertillon system, making reasonable allowances for that small change of proportions that occurs after the lapse of a few years, and for inaccuracies of measurement. This estimate may be far below the truth, but more cannot, I think, be safely inferred from the above very limited experiment.
The system of registration adopted in the American army for tracing suspected deserters, was described in a memoir contributed to the “International Congress of Demography,” held in London in 1891. The memoir has so far been only published in the Abstracts of Papers, p. 233 (Eyre and Spottiswoode). Its phraseology is unfortunately so curt as sometimes to be difficult to understand; it runs as follows:—
Personal identity as determined by scars and other body marks by Colonel Charles R. Greenleaf and Major Charles Smart, Medical Department, U.S. Army.
Desertions from United States army believed to greatly exceed deserters, owing to repeaters.
Detection of repeaters possible if all body marks of all recruits recorded, all deserters noted, and all recruits compared with previous deserters.
In like manner men discharged for cause excluded from re-entry.
Bertillon’s anthropometric method insufficient before courts-martial, because possible inaccuracies in measurement, and because of allowable errors.