Bertillon system

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A system formerly used for identifying persons by means of a detailed record of body measurements, physical description, and photographs. The Bertillon system was superseded by the more accurate procedure of fingerprinting.

from The Century Dictionary.

• See system.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• A system for the identification of persons by a physical description based upon anthropometric measurements, notes of markings, deformities, color, impression of thumb lines, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a system or procedure for identifying persons