Alphonse Bertillon introduced in 1882 a method to identify criminals by measuring certain body parts. The measures should be unique to a certain individual and should be persistent over an interval of time, at least in adult life.
The body parts that were measured were the hand shape, the head shape, the must and limbs measurements and the face details.
Bertillonage was used for a period of time, before an accident occurred, where a person by the name of Will West was recognized as another criminal William West, very similar to him.
Since then the methodology, heavily criticized by Galton, was abandoned.