Belgium, and subsequently by Francis Galton, Roberts, and others in this country-and its still more concrete application as an aid in administering justice by methods perfected by Bertillon in France, are striking illustrations of the practical utility of labours originally undertaken under the influence of devotion to science pure and simple.

The importance of being able to determine the identity of an individual under whatever circumstances of disguise he may be presented for examination has, of course, long been apparent to all who have had anything to do with the administration of the criminal law, and rough and ready methods of recognition, depending mainly upon the more or less acute faculty of perception and recollection of differences and resemblances, possessed by the persons upon whom the duty of identification has devolved, have long been in operation. The general conformation, height, form of features, and colour of complexion, hair, and eyes, have also been noted. Much additional assistance has been obtained by the registration of definite physical characteristics, the results either of natural conformation, or of injury, such as mutilations, tattoo-marks, and scars, inflicted by accident or design. The application of one of the most important scientific discoveries of the age, photography, was eagerly seized upon as a remedy for the difficulties hitherto met with in tracing personal identity, and enormous numbers of photographs were taken of persons, the peculiarities of whose career led them to fall into the hands of the police, and who were likely to be wanted again on some future occasion. No doubt much help has been derived from this source, but also much embarrassment. Even among photographic portraits of one's own personal friends, taken under most favourable circumstances, and with no intention of deception, we cannot often help exclaiming how unlike they are to the person represented. With portraits of criminals, the varying expression of the face, changes in the mode of wearing the hair and beard, differences of costume, the effects of a long lapse of time, years perhaps passed in degradation and misery, may make such alterations that recognition becomes a matter at least of uncertainty. That photographs are extremely valuable as aids to identification, when their true position in the process is recognised, cannot be doubted; but as a primary method they have been found to be quite inapplicable, owing partly to the causes just indicated, but mainly to the difficulty, if not impossibility, of classifying them. The enormous expenditure of time and trouble that must be consumed in making the comparison between any suspected person and the various portraits of the stock which accumulates in prison bureaus may be judged of from the fact that, in Paris alone, upwards of 100,000 such portraits of persons interesting to the police have been taken in a period of ten years.

The primary desideratum in a system of identification is a ready means of classifying the data upon which it is based. To accomplish this is the aim of the Bertillon system. Exact measurements are taken between certain well-known and fixed points of the bony framework of the body, which are known not to change under different conditions of life. The length and breadth of the head, the length of the middle finger, the length of the foot, and the length of the forearm, are considered the best, though others are added for greater certainty, as the height, span of arms, length of ear, colour of eyes, &c. All these particulars of every individual examined are recorded upon a card, and by dividing each measurement into three classes, long, medium, and short, and by classifying the various combinations thus obtained, the whole mass of cards, kept arranged in drawers in the central bureau, is divided up into groups, each containing a comparatively small number, and therefore quite easily dealt with. When the card of a new prisoner is brought in, a few minutes suffice to eliminate the necessity of comparison with any but one small batch, which presents the special combination. Then photographs and other means of recognition, as distinctive marks and form of features, are brought into play, and identification becomes a matter of certainty. On the other hand, if the combination of measurements upon a new card does not coincide with any in the classed collection in the bureau, it is known with absolute certainty that the individual being dealt with has never been measured before.

1894.

3 D

One of the most striking results of the introduction of this system into France has been that, since it has been brought fully into operation, a large proportion of old offenders, knowing that concealment is hopeless, admit their identity at once, and save a world of trouble and expense to the police by ceasing to endeavour to conceal themselves under false names.

Various representations upon this subject have been addressed to the Home Secretary of our own Government during the last few years, and among others one from the Council of this Association, which originated in a resolution of this Section, adopted by the General Committee at the meeting at Edinburgh in 1892, to this effect:

That the Council be requested to draw the attention of Her Majesty's Government to the Anthropometric Method for the measurement of criminals, which is successfully in operation in France, Austria, and other Continental countries, and which has been found effective in the identification of habitual criminals, and consequently in the prevention and repression of crime.'

In consequence of these representations a Committee was appointed, on Oct. 21, 1893, by Mr. Asquith, consisting of Mr. C. E. Troup, of the Home Office, Major Arthur Griffiths, Inspector of Prisons, and Mr. Melville Leslie Macnaghten, Chief Constable in the Metropolitan Police Force, with Mr. H. B. Simpson, of the Home Office, as secretary, to inquire (a) into the method of registering and identifying habitual criminals now in use in England; (b) into the "Anthropo metric" system of classified registration and identification in use in France and other countries; (c) into the suggested system of identification by means of a record of finger marks: to report whether the anthropometric system or the finger-mark system can with advantage be adopted in England either in substitution for or to supplement the existing methods; and, if so, what arrangements should be adopted for putting them into practice, and what rules should be made under Section 8 of the Penal Servitude Act, 1891, for the photographing and measuring of prisoners.'

The Report of this Committee, with minutes of evidence and appendices, was issued as a Parliamentary Blue-book in March last, and not only contains a lucid and concise description of the methods of identification already in use in this country, but also most striking testimony from impartial but well-qualified persons to the value of a more scientific mode of dealing with the subject. No pains seem to have been spared to obtain, both by personal observation and by the examination of competent witnesses, a thorough knowledge of the advantages of the Bertillon system as practised in France, and the result has been the recommendation of that system, with certain modifications, for adoption in this country, 'with the addition of the remarkably simple, ingenious, and certain method of personal identification first used in India by Sir William Herschel, but fully elaborated in this country by Mr. Francis Galton, that called the 'finger-mark system,' about which I shall have a few more words to say presently.

With the concluding words of the Committee's Report I most fully concur: 'We may confidently anticipate that, if fairly tried, it will show very satisfactory results within a few years in the metropolis; but the success of its application in the country generally will depend on the voluntary co-operation of the independent county and borough police forces. This, we feel sure, will not be withheld. When the principles of the system are understood and its usefulness appreciated we believe it will not only save much time and labour to the police in the performance of an important duty, but will give them material assistance in tracing and detecting the antecedents of the guilty, and will afford, so far as its scope extends, an absolute safeguard to the innocent.'

It is very satisfactory to be able to add that in the House of Commons on June 26, in answer to a question from Colonel Howard Vincent, the Home Secretary announced that the recommendations of the Committee had been adopted; and that, in order to facilitate research into the judicial antecedents of international criminals, the registers of measurements would be kept on the same plan as that adopted with such success in France, and also in other Continental countries.

6

I have just mentioned the finger-mark system,' and of all the various

developments of Anthropology in recent times none appears to me more interesting than the work done by Mr. Galton upon this subject; for though, as indicated above, he is not quite the first who has looked into the question or shown its practical application in personal identification, he has carried his work upon it far beyond that of any of his predecessors, both in its practical application and into regions of speculation unthought of by anyone else. Simple and insignificant as in the eyes of all the world are the little ridges and furrows which mark the skin of the under-surface of our fingers, existing in every man, woman, and child born into the world, they have been practically unnoticed by everyone until Mr. Galton has shown, by a detailed and persevering study of their peculiarities, that they are full of significance, and amply repay the pains and time spent upon their study. It is not to be supposed that all the knowledge that may be obtained from a minute examination of them is yet by any means exhausted, but they have already given important data for the study of such subjects as variation unaffected by natural or any other known form of selection, and the difficult problems of heredity, in addition to their being one of the most valuable means hitherto discovered of fixing personal identity.

As an example of the importance of some ready method to prove identity, apart from its application to the detection, punishment, and prevention of crime, to which I have already referred, I may recall to your recollection that remarkable trial which agitated the length and breadth of the land rather more than twenty years ago; a trial which occupied so many months of the precious time of our most eminent judges and counsel, and cost the country, as well as several innocent persons-I am afraid to say how many-thousands of pounds, all upon an issue which might have been settled in two minutes if Roger Tichborne, before starting on his voyage, had but taken the trouble to imprint his thumb upon a piece of blackened paper. It is wonderful to me, on reading again the reports of the trial, to see how comparatively little attention was paid by counsel, judge, or jury, to the extremely different physical characteristics of the two persons claimed to be identical, but which were so strongly marked that they ought to have disposed of the claim, without any hesitation, at the very opening of the case. It was not until the 102nd day of the first trial that the attention of the jury was pointedly called to the fact that it was known that Sir Roger Tichborne had been tattooed on the left arm with a cross, anchor, and a heart, and that the Claimant exhibited no such marks. When this was clearly brought out and proved, the case broke down at once. The second trial for perjury occupied the court 188 days, the Lord Chief Justice's charge alone lasting eight days. The issues were, however, more complex than in the first trial, as it was not only necessary to prove that the Claimant was not Tichborne, but also to show that he was someone else. I feel convinced that at the present time the greater confidence that is reposed in the methods of Anthropometry or close observance of physical characters, and in the persistence of such characters through life, would have greatly simplified the whole case; and I would strongly recommend all who have nothing about their lives they think it expedient to conceal to place themselves under the hands of Mr. Galton, or one of his now numerous disciples, and get an accurate and unimpeachable register of all those characteristics which will make loss of identity at any future period a sheer impossibility.

Partly with this object in view the Association has, for several years past, during each of its meetings, opened, under the superintendence of Dr. Garson, an Anthropometric Laboratory, on the plan of the admirable institution of the same name which has been carried on in the South Kensington Museum since the beginning of the year 1888, under the direction and at the sole cost of Mr. Francis Galton, in which up to the present time more than 7,000 complete sets of measurements have been made and recorded. The results obtained at the British Association meetings have been published in the Annual Reports of the Association, and, though on a smaller scale than Mr. Galton's, the operations of the laboratory have been most useful in diffusing a knowledge of the value of anthropometric work, and of the methods by which it is carried on.

For many years an 'Anthropometric' Committee of the Association, in which

the late Dr. W. Farr, Mr. F. Galton, Mr. C. Roberts, Dr. Beddoe, Sir Rawson Rawson, and others, took an active part, was engaged in collecting statistical information relating to the physical characters, including stature, weight, chestgirth, colour of eyes and hair, strength of arms, &c., of the inhabitants of the British Isles; and their reports, illustrated by maps and diagrams, were published in the annual volume issued by the Association. This Committee terminated its labours in 1883, although, as was fully acknowledged in the concluding report, the subject was by no means completely exhausted.

A great and important work which the Association has now in hand, in some sense a continuation of that of the Anthropometric Committee, though with a more extended scope of operation, is the organisation of a complete ethnographical survey of the United Kingdom based upon scientific principles. In this work the Association has the co-operation of the Society of Antiquaries of London, the Folk-lore Society, the Dialect Society, and the Anthropological Institute. Representatives of these different bodies have been formed into a Committee, of which Mr. E. W. Brabrook is now chairman. It is proposed to record in s systematic and uniform character for certain typical villages and the neighbouring districts (1) the Physical Types of the Inhabitants, (2) their current Traditions and Beliefs, (3) Peculiarities of Dialect, (4) Monumental and other Remains of Ancient Culture, and (5) Historical Evidence as to Continuity of Race. The numerous Corresponding Societies of the Association scattered over various parts of the country have been invited to co-operate, and the greater number of them have cordially responded, and special local committees have been formed in many places to carry out the work.

The result of a preliminary inquiry as to the places in the United Kingdom which appeared especially to deserve ethnographic study, mainly on account of the stationary nature of the population for many generations back, was given in the first Report of the Committee presented at the Nottingham meeting of the Association last year, in which it was shown that in the British Isles there are more than 250 places which, in the opinion of competent authorities, would be suitable for ethnographic survey, and in which, notwithstanding the rapid changes which have taken place during the last fifty years in all parts of the country, much valuable material remains for the Committee to work upon. Without doubt, as interest in the subject is aroused, this number will be greatly increased.

A most important step in securing the essential condition that the information obtained should be of the nature really required for the purpose, and that the records of different observers should be as far as possible of equal value and comparable one with another, has been the compilation of a very elaborate and carefully prepared schedule of questions and directions for distribution among those who have signified their willingness to assist, and as a guarantee that the answers obtained to the questions in the schedules will be utilised to the fullest extent, certain members of the Committee specially qualified for each branch of the work have undertaken to examine and digest the reports when received.

It may be remarked in passing that the Anthropological Society of Paris has within the past year formed a Commission of its members to collect in a systematic manner the scattered data which, when united and digested, shall form'une anthropologie véritablement nationale de la France,' and has issued a circular with schedules of the required observations. These are, however, at present limited to the physical characters of the population.

Among the many services rendered to the science of Anthropology by the British Association, not the least has been the aid it has afforded in the publication of that most useful little manual entitled 'Notes and Queries on Anthropology,' of which the first edition was brought out exactly twenty years ago (1874), under the supervision and partly at the expense of General Pitt-Rivers. Since that time the subject has made such great advances that a second edition, brought up to the requirements of the present time, was urgently called for. A Committee of the British Association, appointed to consider and report upon the best means of doing this, recommended that the work should be placed in the hands of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. This recommendation

was approved by the Association, and grants amounting to 70l. were made to assist in defraying the cost of publication. The Council of the Anthropological Institute appointed a Committee of its members to undertake the revision of the different subjects, with Dr. J. G. Garson and Mr. C. H. Read as editors respectively of the two parts into which it is divided. The work was published at the end of the year 1892, and is invaluable to the traveller or investigator in pointing out the most important subjects of inquiry, and in directing the observations he may have the means of making into a methodical and systematic channel.

Besides those I have already mentioned, the Association has aided many other anthropological investigations by the appointment of Committees to carry them. out, and in some cases by the more substantial method of giving grants from its funds, and by defraying the cost of publication of the results in its journal. Among these I may specially mention the series of very valuable Reports upon the Physical Characters, Languages, and Industrial and Social Condition of the NorthWestern Tribes of the Dominion of Canada, drawn up by Mr. Horatio Hale, Dr. F. Boas, and others, the importance of which has been recognised by the Canadian Government in the form of a grant in aid of the expenses.

Another very interesting investigation into the Habits, Customs, Physical Characteristics, and Religion of the Natives of Northern India, initiated by Mr. H. H. Risley, and carried on under his supervision by the Indian Government, though it has received little more than moral support from the Association, may be mentioned here on account of the illustration it affords of the value of exact anthropometric methods in distinguishing groups of men. Although a practised eye can frequently tell at a glance the tribe or caste of a man brought before it for the first time, the special characters upon which the opinion is based have only lately been reduced to any definite and easily comparable method of description. In Mr. Risley's examination, the nose, for instance (which I have always held to be one of the most important of features for classificatory purposes), instead of being vaguely described as broad or narrow, is accurately measured, and the proportion of the greatest width to the length (from above downwards), or the nasal index,' as it is termed (though it must not be confounded with the nasal index as defined by Broca upon the skull), gives a figure by which the main elements of the composition of this feature in any individual may be accurately described. The average or mean nasal indices of a large number of individuals of any race, tribe, or caste offer means of comparison which bring out most interesting results. By this character alone the Dravidian tribes of India are easily separated from the Aryan. Even more striking is the curiously close correspondence between the gradations of racial type indicated by the nasal index and certain of the social data ascertained by independent inquiry. If we take a series of castes in Bengal, Behar, or the NorthWestern Provinces, and arrange them in the order of the average nasal index, so that the caste with the finest nose shall be at the top, and that with the coarsest at the bottom of the list, it will be found that this order substantially corresponds with the accepted order of social precedence. The casteless tribes-Kols, Korwas, Mundas, and the like-who have not yet entered the Brahmanical system, occupy the lowest place in both series. Then come the vermin-eating Musuhars and the leather-dressing Chamárs. The fisher castes of Bauri, Bind, and Kewat are a trifle higher in the scale; the pastoral Goala, the cultivating Kurmi, and a group of cognate castes-from whose hands a Brahman may take water-follow in due order; and from them we pass to the trading Khatris, the landholding Bábhans, and the upper crust of Hindu society. Thus, it is scarcely a paradox to lay down as a law of the caste organisation in Eastern India that a man's social status varies in inverse ratio to the width of his nose.' The results already obtained by this method of observation have been so important and interesting that it is greatly to be hoped that the inquiry may be extended throughout the remainder of our Indian Empire.

But for want of time I might here refer to the valuable work done in relation to the natives of the Andaman Islands, a race in many respects of most exceptional interest, first by Mr. E. H. Man, and more recently by Mr. M. V. Portman, and for the same reason can scarcely glance at the great progress that is being