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ANTHROPOMETRY (Gr. avOpwnros, man, an...

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 120 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ANTHROPOMETRY (Gr. avOpwnros, See also:man, and See also:Air poi', measure) , the name given by the See also:French savant, See also:Alphonse See also:Bertillon (b. 1853), to a See also:system of See also:identification (q.v.) depending on the unchanging See also:character of certain measurements of parts of the human See also:frame. He found by patient inquiry that several See also:physical features and the dimensions of certain bones or bony structures in the See also:body remain practically See also:constant during adult See also: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 See also:police methods, as the immense value of being able to See also:fix a See also:person's identity was fully realized, both in preventing false See also:personation and in bringing See also:home to any one charged with an offence his responsibility for previous wrong-doing. " Bertillonage," as it was called, became widely popular, and after its introduction into See also:France in 1883, where it was soon credited with highly gratifying results, was applied to the See also:administration of See also:justice in most civilized countries. See also:England followed tardily, and it was not until 1894 that an investigation of the methods used and results obtained was made by a See also:special See also:committee sent to See also:Paris for the purpose. . It reported favourably, especially on the use of the measurements for See also:primary See also:classification, but recommended also the See also:adoption in See also:part of a system of " See also:finger prints " as suggested by See also:Francis See also:Galton, and already practised in See also:Bengal. M. Bertillon selected the following five measurements as the basis of his system: (1) See also:head length; (2) head breadth; (3) length of See also:middle finger; (4) of See also:left See also:foot, and (5) of cubit or forearm from the See also:elbow to the extremity of the middle finger. Each See also:principal heading was further subdivided into three classes of " small," " See also:medium " and " large," and as an increased See also:guarantee height, length of little finger, and the See also:colour of the See also:eye were also recorded. From this See also:great See also:mass of details, soon represented in Paris by the collection of some See also:ioo,000 See also:cards, it was possible, proceeding by exhaustion, to sift and sort down the cards till a small bundle of See also:half a dozen produced the combined facts of the measurements of the individual last sought.

The whole of the See also:

information is easily contained in one See also:cabinet of very See also:ordinary dimensions, and most ingeniously contrived so as to make the most of the space and facilitate the See also:search. The whole of the See also:record is See also: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 See also:fell into disfavour, and it has been generally supplanted by the See also:superior system of finger prints (q.v.). Bertillonage exhibited certain defects which were first brought to See also:light in Bengal. The objections raised were (1) the costliness of the See also:instruments employed and their liability to get out of See also:order; (2) the need for specially instructed measurers, men of superior See also:education; (3) the errors that frequently crept in when carrying out the processes and were all but irremediable. See also:Measures inaccurately taken, or wrongly read off, could seldom, if ever, be corrected, and these persistent errors defeated all See also:chance of successful search. The See also:process was slow, as it was necessary to repeat it three times so as to arrive at a mean result. In Bengal measurements were already abandoned by 1897, when the finger See also:print system was adopted throughout See also:British See also:India. Three years later England followed suit; and as the result of a fresh inquiry ordered by the Home See also:Office, finger prints were alone relied upon for identification.

End of Article: ANTHROPOMETRY (Gr. avOpwnros, man, and Air poi', measure)

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