That's "somewhat" similar to Bertillon's ID system before fingerprints. I learned that in a Criminal law course.Dr Joseph Bell
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"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective with the knack for solving crimes through observation and reason was modeled after Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Conan Doyle’s medical school professors. ... A fellow Scotsman born in 1837, the charismatic Bell dazzled his students with demonstrations in which he was able to determine a patient’s occupation and other personal details just by studying his appearance and mannerisms. ... Years later, Conan Doyle wrote to Bell: “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes and though in the stories I have the advantage of being able to place him in all sorts of dramatic positions, I do not think that his analytical work is in the least an exaggeration of some effects which I have seen you produce in the outpatient ward.”"
https://www.history.com/news/was-sherlock-holmes-based-on-a-real-person
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Bertillon#cite_ref-1