{raining One's Powers of Observation on the Lines of the Bertillon System Byer since it was discovered quite recently that people had a mind it has been the fashion to train it, with success or what not as_ the ultimate objective. We say advisedly that minds were discovered quite recently; for though plenty of philoso phers in the old days knew that the mind existed and ° discoursed Tearnedly thereon, it has only been within" recent ' years, when psychology emerged from the haphazard into a science, that a study has been made of the mind which remarks the new-comer makes, that all Chinese look exactly alike' and that he cannot tell the difference between them. Why should this be? Chinese are as different from each other as foreigners, yet because their colouring is very much the same, the shade of their eyes and hair always identical and we' are thus deprived of the two most outstanding differences by which we remember and distinguish foreigners, we are at a loss to pick one from other. It is the fault of even remotely comprehensible to the average reader. And quite a number of average renders who ave Possessed of the acquisitive instinct toa rather larger degree than others, have turned this. simplifica lack of observation.
'There are various ways in which we can remedy this fault, One of them is by staring at Chinese whenever one meets' them and registering their features in the mind—a method which is calculated to give offence to the person being so registered; and another is by learning the most likely places to find differences, peculiarities, and attempting in one's round to apply the theory so learned to every day ife. Succeed in this, and it appears Jas though one has unconsciously been nearly blind all one's life. One sees immediately that no two Chinese, speaking generally, are any more alike that any two foreigners, Policemen have to have the faculty of being able to distinguish one Chinese from another, and one system that is used in training the observation is that elaborated by M. Bertillon, whose name in connection with police fdentifieation methods is known the world over.
M, Bertillon studied human types with a view to identifying criminals, and with being able to furnish com-net descriptions of them which any detective might recognise. How many thousands of men and women he examined we do not know, but jthe number is well in the tens of thousands, and. his and tants his theories have perfected his original classifications until it is now possible for a man to be unmistakably identified from a few lines on paper which the detective can hold in the palm of his hand while he moves casually round the man he is examining, without his subject being aware that his features are undergoing searching analysis, tion of the study to their commercial Benefit, practising on the material outlook of most of the world, and advertising increases in efficiency and salaries which accrue from a proper study of the methods they advocate.
If one takes the trouble to analyse some. of these systems of self-train-Sng one will find that the most part lof them depend upon sharpening the Powers of observation, for without 'Something to work on, called techically stimuli, the best mind in the world will be' unable to do itself Justice, And most of' these stimuli Come from the five senses, notably in most people from the sense of sight.
Tt is only when it is pointed out fo us by an expert that we realise There is an impression abroad that the Bertillon system is out of date since the finger-print system of identification was perfected. And in some ways that is true. It is, however, impossible for the detective to take the fingerprints of man whom he only suspects and has no grounds for arresting and hailing to the police station where the finger-prints can be taken properly. And it is, in these cireumstances that the improved Bertillon system is commonly used.
A man's height and bearing, hi girth and any peculiarities, and his colour are, of course, the first things remark. In Ching the Chinese, colouring is of minor importance, being generally the sam But the other generalities appli Then there is an examination of the features—the forehead, the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the angle of the face, the ear. The last, being as marked in its peculiarities as the fingerprint, could be the subject of 'a whole book, let alone an article; 80 here we shall discuss the others out
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.