- a system of identifying persons, especially criminals, by a record of individual physical measurements and peculiarities: fingerprinting soon supplanted the Bertillon system as the primary identifying technique in forensic science: The suspect’s facial measurements, taken and assessed through the Bertillon system, were used to prove her guilt, even though she had a very sound alibi.
- a system formerly in use for identifying persons, esp criminals, by means of a detailed record of physical characteristics
