CHANGE OF FACES.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 14 December 1925, Page 11

CHANGE OF FACES.

CRIMINALS’ EXPEDIENTS NEW SURGERyToR COVERING TRACKS Through, the recent capture in.'Vermont, United. States, of a burglar who had had his facial appearance altered by surgery, attention was called to the increasing use made of plastic surgery by erminals seeking to escape, identification. On this prisoner was found a receipt for 450 dollars, paid to a New kork surgeon for operations chang.ng the contour of his ears, chin, and ncso. He had also dyed his hair; in his automobile was found a bottle of colouring fluid, with directions for using it. Reconstructive surgery was quickened by the World War (says an Ariferican paper). Men wero coming into the base hospitals with chins blown away, with cheekbones splintered, or noses shattered. The .men were utterly disheartened at the prospects, of future uselessness. Pity energised the surgeons to attempt restoration by means ; of plastic surgery. In place of the miss- i ing chinbone, a shinbone was grafted. Where a cheekbone Had been sun tiered ] a plate was inserted. The obliterating i of noses and the grooving of foreheads I were overcomo by rebuilding the bony j structures and grafting skin over them. I -’ton who bad been placed in. the j class of hopeless dependents wero restored to lives of normal usefulness. !

ARTIFICIAL COUNTENANCES Almost immediately criminals ’ began to observe that the expression and aspect of the soldiers whose faces had been rebuilt had been altered with the features. The cheekbone might bo a< little higher or lower, the contour of the nose might show a variation and a slight difference between the original, and the reconstructed forehact mignc completely alter the person’s appearance.

Some soldiers who had undergone facial transformation were so changed as to be unrecognisable by their frionds. Criminals saw a means of disconnecting themselves from their records. Their pictures had been published on police files throughout the world.: hero was a chance to sink their identity and evade recognition. Tho more desperate ones ilockcd to the plastic surgeons and laid at.the doors of the police authorities a new difficulty. Through the art of the reconstructive surgoon almost any kind of fuce desired may be produced. If a criminal has. a conspicuous saddle or depression in his nose, wax can be moulded about it and its outline straightened. If he has a bulging or hawkish nose he can have it made like Apollo’s by having the septum cut down. Other changes can be made in shape or effect by grafting pieces of shinbone on the nose.

A FEW CUTS WITH A KNIFE As to tho lips, a few cuts with the surgeon’s knife and their curve or thickness is changed. The mouth can be made smaller or larger. Eyelids can take on tho Oriental slant by having the muscles shortened, pulled up, and stitched. J.f tho patient dislikes the Oriental slant he may take tho levator nalebri cut, and then bis cye’ids will droop. If ho lias .sagging cheeks lie may have part of the tissues removed and the ends joined in normal features. Each operation gives him a new profile and removes his semblance to his former self.

Then, too, the criminal may have his finger tips altered by /.urgery so that tho prints will not agroo with those taken previously, and it will he difficult to prove him a man with a gaol record. This alteration is performed by cutting away part of the flesh, of the finger tips and then uniting the edges cf the .skin in such a way that- the concon trio lines will record differently in the station-houso impression, s.

BERTH,LON SYSTEM UNBEATEN T'he features noon which the Brrtil- , lon systenl of iifontifi'-a Lion is based, I however, cannot he changed by reem:- •'! truct-iv-e simtcry." In this svxtem five- ’ measurements are used as a basis. The.- { are the loneth r.f ;Tie head, the leiijjcL!i iof the middle linger, of the left font, •land of the forearm from the elbow to I the oxtromltv of the middle fiimor. I _lt is possible for a criminal to have hia middle finger shortened or his left | foot altered, blit the very aiternton ‘ would leave its mark and’ attract the attention of police examiners. The bony structures which the Bcrtillon system uses as a basis of identification , a.re mostly unalterable.