ear ear alphonse

Bertillon's measurements in practice.

Along the same vein of the human desire to classify and regulate - in itself a fascinating topic - is the work of Alphonse Bertillon, father of "anthropometry". The Frenchman was essentially a policeman with a geeky desire to develop a method of identifying criminals more thorough and reliable than that of eyewitness accounts.
Anthropometry identifies a person on the basis of several bodily measurements that allegedly remain constant, a technique that was commonplace until the introduction of fingerprinting.
Fascinating though that is I have yet to discuss my favourite of Bertillon's projects, his 1983 book "Identification anthropomorphique", in which he attempts to prove the atavistic regression in "degenerates"(criminals and prostitutes) literally by ear. Essentially Bertillon is trying to see if you can determine criminal tendencies from the size and shape of peoples ears. His conclusion after several years was, unsurprisingly that no, you can't. What a joker.

That was probably an anticlimax wasn't it, I apologise. (I'm not sure what animal I was, I like to think it was a polar bear though potentially I was a lion, or something crap like a hamster.)