Physiognomy ...

... makes a comeback: Facial Profiling.

In the last decade, breakthroughs in 3-D modeling and animation software have opened up the field. At the same time, ideas from genetics and evolutionary psychology are reanimating old debates about biological determinism, race and gender differences, and why humans possess the faces and bodies that we do.

Walt Whitman was much taken with phrenology and physiognomy and he alludes to them in his poems. I think you can have a sense of person if you are a good observer.