BACK TO BERTILLON.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

BACK TO BERTILLON.

d SCOTLAND YARD CHANGE. t17 ADDITIONAL TO PRINTS. Scotland Yard, which has for more n than 40 years relied on the finger-print n system of identification in crime investie gation, has now added the older and discarded Bertillon method as a supplementy ary measure. e The Bertillon system involves measuring the length of the head, left middle fingar, £ forearm and foot, which vary greatly in „ different persons and do not alter after [I adolescence. e t It was made general in Britain in'lß93, g but was discarded in favour of the fingers print theory of Sir Edward Henry, a former Commissioner of Police. Sir Edward's system has been since perfected by Superintendent Batley, the e officer still in charge of the finger-print e J department at Scotland Yard. ' In recent years two juries have refused • to convict on finger-print evidence, and a third jury disagreed in a case in which finger-prints were the basis of evidence against a man. Criminals have challenged such evidence 1 in many eases since, but experts declare r that tile chance of two persons having ' identical prints is 64,000,000 to 1.