PERSONAL

IDENTIFICATION
TECHNIQUES

LESSON THREE: BERTILLON SYSTEM AND FINGERPRINTING

Alphonse Bertillon (1853 - 1914) was

a key actor in the history of crime knowledge
at the turn of the century. Influenced by
criminal anthropology, his first contribution
was the design and implementation of novel
police identification methods at the Paris
Prefecture de Police. From the 1880s onward,
he also promoted a specific brand of policing
knowledge, and fostered its dissemination on
a large scale, in France as well as abroad.
FATHER OF PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION
His work was deeply influential all around the globe, and Bertillon is unanimously recognized as one
of the forefathers of forensic science. At the same time, he also fostered brand new forms of judicial analysis,
and developed unheard-of techniques and know-hows in the field of identification. His considerable written
output tackles a variety of subjects, from criminal photography to dactyloscopy through file management and
the analysis of crime-scene traces.

Successively viewed as the founder of anthropometry, the inventor of the mug shot, the forefather of
dactyloscopy and criminalistics, Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914) is one of the key figures of forensic science.
Born to a family of scientists (demographers, physicians, anthropologists, and statisticians), he started his
career in 1879, a mere clerk at the Paris Prefecture de Police whose job consisted in copying out and filing
identification cards and photographs.

BERTILLON SYSTEM

The Bertillon System, invented by French criminologist Alphonse Bertillon in 1879, was a technique
for describing individuals on the basis of a catalogue of physical measurements, including standing height,
sitting height (length of trunk and head), distance between fingertips with arms outstretched, and size of head,
right ear, left foot, digits, and forearm. In addition, distinctive personal features, such as eye colour, scars, and
deformities, were noted. The system was used to identify criminals in the later years of the nineteenth century,
but was soon displaced by the more reliable and easily-recorded fingerprints.
 The anthropometric system made it possible to distinguish between two distinct persons, it did not
bring irrefutable proof of an individual’s identity. While not fully managing to fix this major flaw, Bertillon
designed an incremental physical description system comprised of four areas:

1. anthropometry, a field he enriched with new typological descriptions of the ear, nose, and iris;
2. an incremental, detailed physical description method, which he dubbed “portait parlé” (spoken
portrait) of the body and face;
3. photographic description, which he continually enhanced by defining and refining a general
protocol for face and profile views – in practice inventing the mug shot;
4. an inventory and precise mapping of all specific marks to be found on the body – scars, tatoos,

This Bertillon System, named after its inventor, Alphonse Bertillon, was generally accepted for thirty
years. But it never recovered from the events of 1903, when a man named Will West was sentenced to the
U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. You see, there was already a prisoner at the penitentiary at the
time, whose Bertillon measurements were nearly exact, and his name was William West.

Upon an investigation, there were indeed two men. They looked exactly alike, but were allegedly not
related. Their names were Will and William West respectively. Their Bertillon measurements were close
enough to identify them as the same person. However, a fingerprint comparison quickly and correctly identified
them as two different people.

WILLIAM WEST WILL WEST

FINGERPRINTING (DACTYLOSCOPY)
NATURE OF FINGERPRINTS
A FINGERPRINT is a composite of the ridge outlines which appears on the skin
surface of the bulbs on the inside of the end of joints of the fingers and thumbs. The ridges
appearing in a fingerprint are commonly referred to as papillary or frictional ridges. The ridges
have a definite contour and appear in definite individual details by which positive identification
can be made.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS INVOLVING FINGERPRINTS

Are there any ancient records concerning the use of Finger and Palm Prints?
1. On the face of a cliff in NOVA SCOTIA, there has been found prehistoric Indian picture writing of a hand with crudely marked
ridge patterns.
2. Scholars refer to the impression of fingerprints on clay tablets recoding business transactions in ancient Babylon and clay seals of
ancient Chinese origin bearing thumbprints. Some of these seals can be seen in the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION,
WASHINGTON, D.C. Chinese documents identified with the Tang Dynasty (618-907) refer to fingerprint being impressed upon
business contracts. It is conjectural as to what extent these earlier instances of fingerprinting were intended for actual identification
of the persons impressing the prints. History shows that Emperor Te In Shi was the first on to use fingerprint in China.
3. In the Bible, Apostle Paul concludes in one of his epistles with the words, “The Salvation of Paul with my own hand, which is
the token in every epistle, so I write.” Some have inferred from these words that Paul used his finger impressions as a distinctive
signature.
4. In Persia, 14th century, various government papers were reportedly impressed with fingerprints, and a government official who
was also a physician made the observation that no fingerprints of two persons were exactly alike.
5. In Holland and China, identification of individuals was by means of branding, tattooing, mutilation, and also manifested by wearing
clothes of different designs.
6. In Old Mexico, the Aztecs impressed their hands accidentally or intentionally on the molded and still soft clays of their hand-made
idols to serve as their trade marks. The authorities stamped their hands on the death warrants for the men and women who offered
their lives to sacrifice for their idol-gods.
7. In France, numerous rock carvings and paintings featuring hand designs and fingerprints have been found on the granite wall
slabs in the Neolithic burial passage of the L’lle de Gavr’nis. Other specimens were also found in the Spanish Pyrunees caverns,
the numerous digital relics left by Indiana at Keuimkooji Lake in cliff dwellings in Nova Scotia, in the Balearic Islands, Australis,
New England coasts and in Africa.
8. In Babylonia, the first use of fingerprints for personal identification originated when Babylonian Magistrates ordered their officers
in making arrests and property confiscation to secure the defendants’ fingerprints.
9. Kom Ombo Plain, on the east bank of river Nile, Egypt, lump of hundred much found in Sebekian deposit which shows a portion
of an adult palm during 12,000 B.C.
10. In Judea, Paul, the Apostle, used his own fingerprints to sign his letters (II Thessalonians 3:17 – “I, Paul, greet you with my own
hand. This is the mark in every letter. Thus I write.”). Other significant quotations are found in Job 37:7 – “He sealeth up the hand
of all men, that every one may know his works.” Revelations 13:16 – “It will cause all, the small and the great, and the rich and
the poor, and the free and the bond, to have mark on their right hand or on foreheads.”
11. In Jerusalem, fingerprint relics were found in clay lumps during the 4th and 5th centuries of the Christian Era. The excavation of
Palestine by the late Dr. Bade yielded fragments of such specimens (fingerprints).
12. In China, fingerprint is called “Hua Chi”. The value of fingerprints for purposes of identification was found on a Chinese clay seal
made not later than the 3rd century B.C.
13. During the Tang Dynasty, fingerprints were used in connection with the preparation of legal documents. Kia Yung-yen, an author
during this time stated that, “Wooden tablets were engraved with the full terms of the contract, and notches were cut in the sides
where they were identical so that the tablets could later be matched or tallied, thus proving them genuine.”
14. The code of domestic relations as described in the Chinese Law Book of Yang Hwui states: “To divorce a wife, the husband
must write a bill of divorcement and state the reasons or grounds that are due for action, and then impress his palmprint
thereon.” For contracts, fingerprints were also used as signatures of those who were illiterates, who could neither read nor write.
This was under the subject of “Land Tenure.”
 15. Early in the 12th century, in the novel, “The Story of the River Bank,” fingerprinting found itself already in the criminal procedure
of China; and in the 16th century, a custom prevailed in connection with the sale of children.
16. In Japan, deeds, dotes, and certificates to be used as proofs were sealed by the mark of the hand (Palm-print) called “Tegata.”
In the treatment of criminals, the imprint of the thumb (bo-in or bo-an) was taken. The criminal signed only by thumb-print with
regard to his sentence and it was considered as an inferior sort of signature.
17. In Constantinople, in a treaty of ratification, the sultan soaked his hand in a sheep’s blood and impressed it on the document as
his seal.
18. In England, Thomas Bewick, an English engraver, author, and naturalist engraved the patterns of his own fingers on every wood-
work he had finished to serve as his mark so as to establish its genuineness.

Are there any early publication concerning Fingerprints?

1. 1684-Nehemiah Grew published a report which was read before the royal society of London, England. He described the ridges
and pores of the hands and feet.
2. 1685-G. Bidloo published a treaty describing sweat pores and ridges.
3. 1685-Midle wrote a book, “Human Anatomy,” in which he included a drawing of the thumb print showing the ridge configuration
of the whorl pattern.
4. 1686-Professor Marcelo Malpighi, an Italian anatomist (GRANDFATHER OF DACTYLOSCOPY according to Dr. Edmond
Locard – “Father of Poroscopy”), commented in his writings on elevated ridges on the fingertips and alluded to diverse figures
on palmar surfaces.
5. 1751-Hintzo wrote on the ridge formation, but dealt with the subject from the viewpoint of anatomy rather than identification.
6. 1764-Albinus followed along the same lines as Hintzo had written.
7. 1788-J.C.A. Mayer stated in his book (Anatomische Kupfertafein Nebst Dazu Geharigen) that although the arrangement of the
skin ridges is never duplicated in two persons, nevertheless, the similarities are closer among some individuals.
8. 1823-Johannes Evangelist Purkinje, (FATHER OF DACTYLOCOSPY) a Czechoslovakian professor of anatomy at the
University of Breslau, published a thesis in Latin (Commentio de Examine Physiogico Organi Visus Et systematis Cutansi –
A Commentary of the Physiological Examination System: Dec. 22, 1823, Breslau, Germany) describing the ridges, giving
them names and established certain rules for classification (nine groups). He involves vague differentiation of fingerprints or use
them for identification.
9. 1856-Herman Welcker took the prints of his own palm. In 1897, (forty one years later) he printed the same palm to prove that the
prints do not change. (Principle of Permanency).
10. 1883-Kollman, an anthropologist who wrote his book on ridges and pores. He did not associate fingerprints with identification.

What are the historical events concerning Fingerprints as Method of Identification?

1. 1858-Sir William J. Herschel (FATHER OF CHIROSCOPY), in Hoogly, district of Bengal, India, he used fingerprints in India to
prevent fraudulent collection of army pay account and for identification of other documents. He printed the palms of natives in order
to avoid impersonation among laborers. Prints of the entire palms were used instead of signatures. The first person Herschel
printed appears to have been one RAJYADHAR KONAI.
2. 1880-Dr. Henry Faulds, an English (Scottish) doctor stationed in Tokyo, Japan, wrote a letter to the English publication, “NATURE”
– “On the Skin Furrows of the Hand”, (dtd Oct. 28, 1880) on the practical use of fingerprints for the identification of criminals.
He recommended the use of a thin film of printers ink as a transfer medium and is generally used today.
3. 1880-Sir Francis Galton, a noted British anthropologist and a cousin of scientist Charles Darwin began observation which led to
the publication in 1882 of his book “Fingerprints.” Galton’s studies established the individuality of classifying fingerprint patterns.
4. 1882-Gilbert Thompson, a U.S. geological surveyor in charge of a field project in New Mexico used his own fingerprints in
commissary orders to prevent forgery.
5. Isaiah West Taber – A photographer in San Francisco advocated the use of the system for the registration of the immigrant
Chinese.
6. 1883-An episode in Mark Twain’s life on the Mississippi relates to the identification of a murderer by his thumbprint.
7. Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) further developed his theme. Eleven (11) years later, he causes the publication of “Puddin Head
Wilson”, a novel based on dramatic fingerprint identification demonstrated during a court trial. His story pointed out the infallibility
of fingerprint identification.
8. 1888-Sir Edward Richard Henry, succeeded Sir William J. Herschel at his post in India. He became interested in fingerprints
and devised a classification of his own and published his work in book form and titled it “Classification and Uses of Fingerprints.”
9. 1889-Sir Richard Henry at Dove, England read a paper detailing his system before the British association for Advancement of
Science.
10. 1891-Juan Vucetich, an Argentinean police official, installed fingerprints files as an official means of criminal identification; based
his system of the pattern typed by Sir Francis Galton; and he also claimed the first official criminal identification by means of
fingerprints left at the scene of crime.
 11. In 1892, at La Piata, Argentina, a woman named Rojas who had murdered her two sons and had cut her own throat, though not
fatal, blamed the attack on a neighbor. Bloody fingerprints on a door post were identified by Vucetich as those of the woman
herself which led to her confession.
12. 1892-Sir Francis Galton, an English Biologist, wrote his first textbook. He devised a practical system of classification and filing.
1894-Sir Francis Galton’s report on fingerprint as a method of identification, along with his system, was read at Asquith Committee
of London, England. His system was officially adopted on February 12, 1894.
13. 1900-Alphonse Bertillon’s system of body measurement had by this time spread throughout the world.
14. 1901-Sir Edward Richard Henry was appointed assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard. His system was so applicable that
Henry emerged as the “Father of Fingerprints,” at least as the first man to successfully apply fingerprints for identification. 1901-
marked the official introduction of fingerprinting for criminal identification in England and Wales.
15. The system employed was developed from Galton’s observation and devised by Edward Richard Henry, the Inspector-General of
Police in Bengal, India. He later became commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police.
16. 1914-Fingerprints were officially adopted in France, replacing Bertillon age.

What are the important dates concerning the development and use of fingerprint in the United States?
1. 1882-Gilbert Thompson of the Us Geodetic survey used thumb print for camp orders on an expedition to New Mexico. This was
not official but it was proven useful (the record was dated Aug. 8, 1882).
2. 1902-Sir Henry P. Forest, chief Medical examiner of New York Civil Service Commission and an American preacher in fingerprint
science in the US for the New York Civil Service commission to prevent applicants from having better-qualified persons to take the
test for them.
3. The New York Civil Service Commission, on Dec. 19, 1902 required all civil service applicants to be fingerprinted. Dr. Henry P.
Forest, put the system into practice.
4. 1903-New York State Prison in Albany claims the first practical, systematic use of fingerprints in the US to identify criminals.
5. 1903-Fingerprints identification was adopted in the following penitentiaries: Singing Sing, Napanoch, Auborn and Clinton prisons
6. Captain James Parke of the institution installed the identification system where the fingerprints of prisoners were taken and
classified and the fingerprint system was officially adopted in June of the year. Today, New York State uses the American system
that is similar to the Henry System and represents the system initiated by Capt. Parke in 1903.
7. 1904-Maj. R. Mccloughry, the warden of the Federal Penitentiary of Leavenworth when the office of the Atty. General of the U.S.
granted permission to establish a fingerprint bureau therein. It was the first national government use of fingerprints.
8. 1904-John Kenneth Ferrer (Perrier) of the Fingerprint Branch of the New Scotland Yard, attended the St. Louis Missouri Worlds
Fair. He had been assigned to guard the British Crown Jewels. American police officials became interested in fingerprint through
him and he became their instructor.
9. 1904-The City of St. Louis Missouri, became the first city to adopt fingerprint. The police department officials adopted the system
on October 29, 1904.
10. 1905-Fingerpritning was officially adopted by the U.S. Army. It was known as the first military use of fingerprint.
11. 1907-Fingerprinting was officially adopted by the U.S. Navy (January 11, 1907).
12. 1908-Fingerprinting was officially adopted by the U.S. Marine Corps.
13. 1910-Frederick A. Brayley published what appears to be the first American book in fingerprints.
14. 1911-The State of Illinois, made the first criminal conviction based solely upon fingerprint evidence. It was known as the first
judicial ruling on such evidence, (People vs Jennings, 252 Illinois 543-96 NE 1007, 43 LRA (NS) 1206 for 1991).
15. 1915-The International Association for Criminal Identification was founded. The word “criminal” was later dropped from the
Association’s name. It is the first organized body of professional identification experts.
16. 1916-The Institution of Applied Science established at Chicago, Illinois was the first school to teach fingerprint identification
(June 16, 1916).
17. 1916-Frederick Kuhne published a book entitled “The Fingerprint Instructor,” which probably the first authoritative book in
fingerprint to be circulated in the U.S. Munn and Co., served as the publisher.
18. 1919-Marked the publication of “Fingerprint and Identification Magazine” (Chicago). The first monthly journal devoted
exclusively to fingerprint science, (July 1919).
19. 1920-The Exceptional Arch, a new pattern, was adapted to Henry’s system by American experts. The pattern was added after
the study made by the assembly members at annual convention of the International Association for Identification in 1920.
20. 1922-Haken Jersengen, the sub-director of police in Copenhagen, Denmark introduced first a long distance identification to U.S.
at a police conference here. The method was adopted and published in a magazine entitled “Publications” of the International
Police Conference, (New York City Police Department, 1932).
21. Mary K. Holland – the first American Instructress in Dactyloscopy.
22. 1924-The Identification Division of the FBI was established after J. Edgar Hoover was appointed Director.
23. 1924-The book entitled “Single Fingerprint System” by T.K. Larson, was first published in U.S., (Berkley, Police Monograph
Series) D. Application and Co., New York City.
24. 1924-The First National Bureau of Identification was created by the act of Congress. The bureau was established within the
U.S. DOJ (Washington DC).
 25. 1925-Harry J. Myers II installed the first official fact fingerprint system for infants in Jewish Maternity Hospital in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
26. 1925-The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania used compulsory foot and fingerprinting of new born infants and mothers which was
enacted into law by Act of General Assembly as approved on April 20, 1925.
27. 1932-The International Exchange of Fingerprint date was initiated with a number of other nations on February 15, 1932.
28. 1933-The Bureau of Identification, U.S. Department of Justice, adopted the single fingerprint identification system. The first
national use of single print for identification purposes for certain crimes only, (Feb. 1933).
29. 1933-Latent fingerprints section, for making technical examination of latent prints or have inked prints on an individual basis was
instituted on November 10, 1933. The Civil Identification on Section was established.
30. 1937-The Institute of Applied Science installed Photographic and Firearms Identification (Forensic Ballistics) laboratories. The
institute was the first private school in U.S. which installed laboratories for instructional purposes only.
31. 1938-A book by Harry J. Myers II, “History of Identification of fingerprints in U.S.” was published in Fingerprint and
Identification Magazine (Chicago, Illinois, Vol. 20, no. 4, Oct. 1938).
32. 1946-the 100th millionth fingerprint card was received in the identification division of the FBI. The total grew to 152 million in May
11, 1959.
33. 1967-“Minutiae” was initiated by the FBI, a computerized scanning equipment to read and record fingerprint identifying
characteristics.
34. 1972-the prototype automatic fingerprint reader was delivered.
35. 1973-implementation of the first phase of the automated Identification System (AIS-1), which was to establish the database
consisting of the name, description, and criminal record of all first offenders with birthdates of 1956.
36. 1978-Journal of Forensic Science – reported that certain properties of perspiration and body oils contained in latent print residue
will luminesce without pre-treatment and to a degree that photographs could be taken when activated by continuous Argon-ION
Laser. Hence, the FBI’s Latent Print Detection System was put into use.
37. 1979-AIS-2 replaced AIS-1. This phase involved the automated searching by name and other descriptor information of incoming
fingerprint cards against the database.
38. 1979 (Oct. 17, 1979)-A latent fingerprint was developed and lifted from the hand of a victim in Miami, Florida murder resulting in
identifying the suspect. This was the first known case where a fingerprint from a human skin was used in the identification,
prosecution and conviction of a perpetrator of a crime.
39. 1982-Missing Children Act was signed into law which requires the Attorney General to acquire, collect, classify, and preserve
any information which would assist in the location of any missing person (including an unemancipated person as defined by the
laws of the place of residence of such person) or assist in the identification of any deceased individual who have not been identified.
40. 1983-Completion of the conversion of the FBI criminal fingerpint searching from manual to automated searching. Also, AIS
records became available by mail upon request of the National Crime Information Center’s (NCIC’s) interstate identification index
(III) – an interstate record exchange.
41. 1984-AIS records became available “ON-LINE” through the NCIC program. Records from the NCIC and AIS, and participating
state and local telecommunication networks became available w/in seconds to authorized criminal justice agencies.
42. 1985 (Jan. 2) – a contract was awarded for building the final phase of the Identification Division Automated System (IDAS).
43. 1989-IDAS implementation. Its features are: integrated document transport equipment; on-line automated technical fingerprint
search; and simplified processing flow. All, for expeditious response time of fingerprint cards.

What about Historical Development of Fingerprints in the Philippines?

1. 1900-Mr. Jones was the first to teach fingerprints in the Philippines in the Phil. Constabulary.
2. 1918-The Bureau of Prisons records show that carpetas (commitment and conviction records) already bear fingerprints.
3. Under the management of Lt. Asa N. Darby during the American occupation in the Philippines, a modern and complete fingerprint
file has been established for the Philippine commonwealth.
4. 1937-The first Filipino fingerprint technician employed by the Phil. Constabulary was Mr. Generoso Reyes. Capt. Thomas
Dugan of New York City Police Department and Mr. Flaviano C. Gurrero of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) gave the first
examinations in fingerprints.
5. 1933-The first conviction based on fingerprints was handed by the Supreme Court of the Phil. in the case People vs. Medina and
this case is considered the leading judicial decision in the Philippine jurisprudence concerning fingerprinting (December 23).
6. The science of fingerprinting was first offered as a subject in the Philippines through the effort of the Plaridel Educational Institution.