Verbal Portrait

VERBAL PORTRAIT, a description of human appearance using a conventional vocabulary, applied for the purposes of search and identification in forensic medicine (see). A. Bertillon proposed a method of describing appearance by means of which a required person can be found and identified. The method consists in the fact that the apparent diversity of various features characterizing human appearance is reduced to a few basic types. Conventional designations of these features are entered on a special card of the 'verbal portrait.' The person entrusted with the search for a criminal must study the card of the V. p., which significantly facilitates the search. The conventional designations concern the size, shape, and color of the organ. With respect to sizes, the definitions small-medium-large are applied. Under these definitions are subsumed the sizes of both human height and organs. This initial classification already allows the sub-division by sizes of individual parts of the body. Thus, for example, if the average height of a person is taken as 165 cm, small as 155 cm and large as 175 cm, then the person being sought will not be difficult to assign to one or the other category. But subjects with an intermediate height between the three basic ones, for example 160 cm, occur, and such a subject may be assigned by some to short stature, by others to medium stature. Therefore, for greater precision, 7 groups of height have been introduced: 1) very small (141-152 cm); 2) small (153-158 cm); 3) below average (159-162 cm); 4) average (163-166 cm); 5) above average (167-170 cm); 6) large (171-176 cm); 7) very large (177-189 cm). Thanks to such a fairly detailed classification, it is possible to easily and fairly accurately distribute all the persons being sought by height. The definitions 'below and above average' are designated by the words large and small, but with their inclusion in parentheses, and 'very small' and 'very large' by underlining. Schematically: small-small-(small)-average-(large)-large-large. The same classification is applied to the description of almost all organs. Also with respect to hair color. Three colors are accepted as basic: fair, brown, and black. In further subdivision, to fair and brown are added the words light, medium, and dark. To compose the card of the V. p. of the subject under study, they are seated in good lighting, preferably in a special chair used for photography, then the individual organs are described in a known sequence with conventional designations, noting on the card this or that feature. The face is examined in profile and en face. Sizes are determined by eye, without measuring. Normal appearance is taken as that whose profile is divided into three equal parts: 1) the frontal part-from the beginning of hair growth to the bridge of the nose, 2) the nasal part-from the bridge of the nose to the base of the nose, and 3) the oral part-from the base of the nose to the end of the chin. If the forehead in height equals one of the other two parts, it is designated as average; if its height is lower than the height of the other two parts, it is designated as a forehead of small height; the nose is smaller than the frontal and oral parts, as a small nose, etc. The description begins with the size and shape of the forehead, noting the degree of convexity of the brow arcs, the slant, height, width, and features (large brow arcs, large frontal eminences, a curved profile line). Next, the nose is described (bridge or root, base, height, projection, width, and features). For example, in describing the back of the nose, i.e., the profile line from the bridge to the tip, three basic forms are distinguished: concave, straight, and convex. Since between these three basic forms there may be a number of transitional forms, for designation the same classification of transitional degrees is applied as for height: concave-concave-(concave)-straight-(convex)-convex-convex, or humpbacked, eagle-nosed. The ear, a very important organ for recognition, is carefully studied and entered on the card. The diversity of the structure of various details of the auricle practically reduces to zero the possibility of meeting two people with the same structure of all parts of the ear. In the description, the following parts of the auricle are noted: the helix, or concha, the lobe, or earlobe, the tragus, the antitragus, the antihelix, and three depressions: the scaphoid fossa, the finger fossa, and the auditory canal. All these parts of the auricle have a number of smaller subdivisions and features. In addition, the tubes, mouth, chin, profile, configuration of the face, eyebrows, eyelids, orbits, eyeball, neck, wrinkles, hair, etc. are described. Then the following are entered on the card: posture and carriage, position of the head, bends of the neck and back, habitual position of the hands, manners, i.e., habitual voluntary movements of the face and torso (gait, gestures, mimicry), voice and pronunciation (e.g., lisp, stuttering), and special marks (scars, moles, tattoos). The card of the V. p., proposed by A. Bertillon, is divided into a number of sections where anthropometric data (hair, skin, irises), morphological data (shape of the organ), and other notes are marked. The columns in the card are filled with conventional abbreviated designations. If the person being sought was previously registered and a card has been made for him, the search employee should study the card and remember the most characteristic features, i.e., those that catch the eye (usually the ones underlined on the card), for example, a humpbacked nose, a protruding upper or lower lip, etc. Upon meeting a person with such a feature, the other features entered on the card are checked. By the V. p., comparison can also be made with a photographic card. For transmitting the V. p. by telegraph, a special digital cipher was developed. The 'verbal portrait' was introduced into use in France, Switzerland, Romania, and was also applied in Russia. With the introduction of dactyloscopy into search practice, a far simpler and more reliable method, the V. p. was displaced from use and has limited application at the present time.