Alphonse Bertillon was born in Paris on April 24, 1853. He was the son of the eminent physician, anthropologist and physician Louis Adolphe Bertillon (bookrags.com). Young Alphonse was considered desperate in his father's eyes. He often suffered from migraines and nosebleeds, was very shy and lacked social skills. However, young Bertillon was not a total loss, he was an intellectual with a thirst for knowledge and sharing his father's interest in statistics and anthropology (http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu). In 1875, Bertillon was enlisted. in the French army. After several years of armed service, Bertillon was demobilized. Without higher education or degrees, Bertillon struggled to find employment. In 1879, at the age of twenty-six, his father found him a job as an assistant criminal records clerk for the Paris police where he transferred arrest and criminal history data from various sources onto standard forms. (http://jimfisher.edinboro.edu)Bertillon was reluctant to accept this monotonous job. However, he saw this work as a way to gain independence from his father. He threw himself into his work with enthusiasm. Very early on, Bertillon realized that the collection of criminal records at the Paris Police Prefecture did not have an organized archiving method. The department had more than five million files including approximately 80,000 mugshots. Bertillon soon realized that due to the large number of files and the lack of an organized filing system, it was virtually impossible to find and retrieve a specific file, making the collection of criminal records completely useless. . Bertillon began looking for a solution to this monumental problem. problem....... middle of paper ...... come from the same person. Although Bertillon's system proved fallible, Bertillon's many advances in criminology paved the way for several advances in criminal identification. Forensic science. Np, January 7, 2008. Web. November 11, 2013. Gale, Thompson. “Biography of Alphonse Bertillon.” BookRags. BookRags, and Web. November 11, 2013. “Bertillon Criminal Identification System.” Bertillon criminal identification system. NATIONAL LAW ENFORCEMENT MUSEUM, nd Web. November 11, 2013. “Visible evidence: forensic views of the body: galleries: technologies: the Bertillon system. » United States National Library of Medicine. US National Library of Medicine, July 18, 2012. Web. November 11, 2013Kiger, Patrick J. "Discovery Online, Dead Inventors -- Alphonse Bertillon." Online discovery, Dead inventors -- Alphonse Bertillon. Np, and Web. November 11. 20