Bertillon system

The Bertillon system is a standardised method of criminal anthropometrics that uses a set of bodily measurements, including height and dimensions of the head, ears, nose, limbs, feet, and fingers, alongside forensic identification photographs (i.e. mugshots), one of the full face and a second of the side profile. It was originally devised by Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914), a French policeman, and was widely implemented by police around the world during the nineteenth and twentieth century, though measurements are now largely superseded by the collection of exemplar fingerprints.

Reading

• Bertillon, Alphonse (1896), McClaughry, R. W., ed., Signaletic Instructions, Including the Theory and Practice of Anthropometrical Identification, Chicago, New York, London: Werner Company, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000204224