Bertillon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A systematic method for identifying individuals based on physical measurements and characteristics
2. a historical practice in criminal investigation that uses anthropometry for identification purposes
3. a forensic technique involving the collection and comparison of body measurements to establish identity in legal contexts

Etymology: Bertillon is named after Alphonse Bertillon, a French police clerk who in the 1880s devised a system for identifying criminals by precise body measurements. Before fingerprinting took hold, police had no reliable way to tell whether a man arrested under one name was a repeat offender using another, and photographs alone were unreliable. Bertillon's method recorded eleven measurements, including the length of the head, the left foot and the forearm, along with physical marks such as scars, and filed the cards in a systematic index. Paris police adopted it in 1883, and it spread to other countries. The word "Bertillonage" was used for the system itself, and "Bertillon" as an adjective or noun came into use for the measurement records and the practice. Its success was short-lived: the measurements were tedious to take, and two prisoners could share similar readings. Fingerprinting, promoted in the same years, replaced it in most police forces by the early twentieth century.