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pecularities —> peculiarities
indentification —> identification
classfication —> classification.
Inconsistent hyphenation (e.g. fingerprint, finger-print, finger
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illustrations.
[Illustration: Cover]
Dactylography
_Or, THE STUDY OF FINGER-PRINTS_
[Illustration: [Illustration: [Illustration:
GREASY SMUDGE ACCIDENTAL SMUDGE A “NEGATIVE” THUMB-PRINT,
(Vivified by (encircled for furrows and pores black,
white powder).] presentation).] ridges white.]
Dactylography, frontispiece
DACTYLOGRAPHY
OR
_THE STUDY OF FINGER-PRINTS_
BY
HENRY FAULDS
L.R.F.P. & S. F.R. Anthrop. Inst.,
M.R. Archæol. Inst. M. Sociol. Soc.
Illustrated
[Logo]
HALIFAX
MILNER & COMPANY
RAGLAN WORKS
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Introduction: Early Hints and Recent Progress 9
II. Sweat-Pores, Ridges, and Furrows 29
III. Finger-Print Patterns 39
IV. Some Biological Questions in Dactylography 49
V. Technique of Printing and Scrutinizing Finger-Patterns 61
VI. Persistence of Finger-Print Patterns 76
VII. Syllabic Classification of Finger-Prints 83
VIII. Practical Results and Future Prospects 101
GLOSSARY 120
BIBLIOGRAPHY 123
INDEX 125
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Greasy Smudge, Accidental Smudge, and a Negative
Thumb-print _frontis._
Footprints in Ancient Mexican Remains 10
Single Finger-Print 19
Facsimile of Original Outline Forms for both hands 19
Section of Skin showing Sweat-Glands, Ducts and Pores 29
Ripple Marks in Sand 32
Grevy’s Zebra, showing lineations like Finger-print
Patterns 39
Section of Pine-wood Stem and a Human Thumb-print 43
Design-like Patterns in Finger-prints 46
Anthropoid Lineations 51
Reduced Copy of Police Register Form 68
Flexible Curves and Curve Rules 70
Diagrammatic Analysis of Lineations in a Restricted Section 71
Kew Micrometer 72
Glass Disc centred 73
Vowels and Consonants in Syllabic Classification 100
Dactylography
_OR THE STUDY OF FINGER-PRINTS_
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION: EARLY HINTS AND RECENT PROGRESS
Dactylography deals with what is of scientific interest and practical
value in regard to the lineations in the skin on the fingers and toes,
or rather on the hands and feet of men, monkeys, and allied tribes,
which lineations form patterns of great variety and persistence. The
Greeks used the term δάκτυλος του̑ ποδός (_daktylos tou podos_, finger
of the foot) for a toe; and the toes are of almost as much interest to
the dactylographer as the fingers, and present similar patterns for
study.
In primitive times the savage hunter had to use all his wits sharply in
the examination of foot and toe marks, whether of the game he pursued
or the human foe he guarded against, and he learned to deduce many
a curious lesson with Sherlock Holmes-like acuteness and precision.
The recency, the rate of motion, the length of stride, the degree of
fatigue, the number, and kinds and conditions of men or beasts that
had impressed their traces on the soil, all could be read by him with
ease and promptness. Such imprints have been preserved in early Mexican
picture writings.
[Illustration: FOOTPRINTS IN ANCIENT MEXICAN REMAINS.
Inset: Threshold with Foot-Marks (also Mexican).]
In a similar way the palæontologist strives to interpret the impress
made by organisms on primeval mud flats or sandy shores æons ago.
There are numbers, whole species indeed, of extinct jelly fishes the
existence of which has never been known directly, but that there once
were such beings in the world has been confidently deduced from the
permanent impressions their soft and perishable bodies have left in the
fine texture of certain rocks. The Chinese tell us that one of their
sages first learned to write and to teach the use of written characters
by observing the marks made by a bird’s claws.
When we approach the limits of written history we begin to hear faint
inarticulate murmurs of a time when the lines on human fingers began to
arrest notice and interest. Thus we sometimes find in later neolithic
pottery, nail and finger marks, used to adorn the sun-dried pots in
common use. The Babylonians used their finger nails as seal-marks on
commercial tablets, and the Chinese have occasionally done the same.
Not many years ago, as I myself have often witnessed, when sealing-wax
or wafers were used more than they are now, servant girls were wont to
impress their thumb-mark on the soft wafer or wax. There are several
characters in the Chinese alphabet (of some 30,000 letters) which
suggest such a use of finger-marks as seals, but after many years’
enquiry, I have not yet seen any direct evidence of their use for
such a purpose.[A] The term _Sho-seki_ is used in Japanese to denote
foot-prints, and also the tracking of anyone. I have not met any
passage or expression in which finger-prints are mentioned in Japanese
works, except in regard to fantastical images of footprints of Buddha
and the like. It is claimed, however, that prisoners on conviction were
required to adhibit their mark as a seal of confession.[B] There has
been no evidence adduced that either in China or Japan was there ever
a system of identification by that means, although it is conceivable
that the form of making a sign-manual may have originated from some dim
perception of their value for identification.
[A] In Professor Giles’s _Chinese-English Dictionary_ (1909) on page
223 some characters are given for “to make a finger-print,” etc.
[B] See _Nature_ (January 17th, 1895), “Finger-Print Method,” Kumagusa
Minakata.
In a similar way finger-marks were used, as I have been informed, in
India, even before the mutiny, and were supposed to be used like the
cross made by illiterate people in this country. The numerals up to
five seem to have been obtained by marking off fingers. A dactylic
origin of =V= as an open hand, complete with outstretched thumb, has been
favoured. =X= (ten) might easily then be obtained by placing two =V=’s apex
to apex.
There are certain folds or creases in palms and soles, which are formed
very much as the creases in gloves or boots are formed, and with those
the dactylographer is not much concerned. Such lines were supposed by
many to mark the fateful influence of stars on the destiny of their
owner, and are the basis of palmistry. Similar lines are found in apes.
There are general patterns of lineations all over the palmar surface
of the hands and the plantar surface of the feet which are of some
interest, but the chief practical concern of most students in this new
field is with certain points where patterns run into forms of great
complexity, especially in the palmar skin covering the last joint of
each finger. It is not common to find either in pots or pictures those
patterns printed clearly, but the creases dear to the palmister are
frequently enough shown.
In Mr. C. Ainsworth Mitchell’s _Science and the Criminal_, published in
1911, a case is mentioned of a very early finger-print, if the evidence
has not been fallacious:--
“In the prehistoric flint-holes at Brandon, in Suffolk, there was
found some years ago a pick made from the horn of an extinct elk.
This had been used by some flint-digger of the Stone Age to hew out
of the chalk the rough flints which were subsequently made into
scrapers and arrow-heads. Upon the dark handle of this instrument
were the finger-prints in chalk of the workman, who, thousands of
years ago, flung it down for the last time.”
It is now in the British Museum. A foot-print also has been found of
very early date.
Such white marks on a dark ground are often very clear, showing the
detail of lineations well, and presuming, as is natural, that the
ordinary precautions were taken to secure that they were not recent
accidental additions to the remains, such a record is highly valuable.
It was apparently a common practice in ancient India to adorn buildings
with crude finger-marks made with white or red sandal-wood. The red
hand common on door-posts and the like in Arabia does not usually show
any lineations, but in some few ancient and primitive carvings and in
sun-baked pot-work, patterns occur which appear to me to have probably
had finger-print lineations as a _motif_. Professor Sollas, in writing
of Palæolithic Races in _Science Progress_ (April, 1909)--a subject
of which he is a master--says: “Impressions of the human hand are met
with painted in red in Altamira, but in other caves also in black,
and sometimes uncoloured on a coloured ground. These seem to be older
than any of the other markings.” Some cases are stencilled, as with
Australians to-day.
The same writer, in a foot-note, also states, in describing caves and
paintings of modern Bushmen: “Impressions of the human hand are also
met with on the walls of these caves.”
A traveller, Mr. John Bradbury, who witnessed the return of a war-party
of the Aricara Indians, says:--
“Many of them had the mark which indicates that they had drank the
blood of an enemy. This mark is made by rubbing the hand all over
with vermilion, and by laying it on the mouth it leaves a complete
impression on the face, which is designed to resemble and indicate
a bloody hand.”--[_Travels in the Interior of America_ (1817).]
The ancient bloody hand of Ulster is well known, and other examples
occur which might be quoted.
Some “prehistoric pottery” was found last autumn at Avebury, North
Wilts, of which I have not seen full particulars. In a press paragraph,
however, it is stated that its chief interest “centres in the fact
that it is ornamented on both faces--the impressions of twisted grass
(or cord) and finger-nails being clearly defined.” It is temporarily
classified as a type of pottery associated with long barrows and
neolithic pits.
My own attention was first directed to the patterns in finger-prints,
as they occurred impressed on sun-baked pottery which I found in the
numerous shell-heaps dotted around the great Bay of Yedo. The subject
was quite unknown to me till then, in the seventies. No pottery has yet
been found which belongs to the early stone stage of man’s culture. But
with evidence of the use of fire, and of the manufacture of polished
stone weapons, fragments of rude hand-moulded pottery--sun-baked or
fire-burned--begin to be associated. Sometimes these are quite clearly
seen to be moulded with the aid of human fingers, the nails only making
a clear mark, but in other cases the finger furrows are prominently
indented in regular patterns, which cannot, I think, be distinguished
from those made by men of our own race and time. In the formal Japanese
ceremony of social tea-drinking, or _Cha-no-yu_, pottery of this
Archaic kind, with finger patterns indented in the clay, is highly
esteemed. In an article on this kind of pottery by Mr. Charles Holme,
in _The Studio_ (February, 1909), one example is described thus: “It
is modelled in a brown clay entirely by hand, without the aid of a
potter’s wheel. The impressions of the fingers made in shaping the bowl
are carefully retained,” etc. Not till Celtic times in Europe is there
evidence of the use of the potter’s wheel.
I am surprised to find how very little attention has yet been given to
finger imprints on early pottery. My own opportunities for observation
have in late years been severely limited, but I have seldom had a peep
at ancient potsherds without discovering some few traces of the kind of
impressions, accidental or designed, which I have described. I have not
had early Teutonic pottery specially under observation, but Professor
G. Baldwin Brown, who is an accomplished authority in that department,
wrote me thus:--
“In the early Teutonic pottery, so far as I have examined it, the
ornamental patterns are produced by drawing lines and furrows with
some hard tool, such as a shaped point of wood or bone. It is very
rarely that the furrows or circular depressions have the soft edges
which would suggest the use of the finger, and I have never noticed
the texture of the finger-tip impressed on the clay, though I have
not looked specially for this with a glass. Ornaments are also
commonly impressed with a wooden stamp on which some simple pattern
has been cut. The only ornamental motive which seems to spring
directly out of manipulation by the fingers is the projecting boss,
characteristic of a certain class of Teutonic ware. The clay is
forced out from within in the form of a knob or a flute, and the
idea of such an ornamental treatment has probably arisen from the
accidental projections produced in the exterior surface of the vase
by the pressure of the fingers when the vase is being shaped from
within. There is nothing in early Teutonic pottery like the coiled
Pueblo pots, or other products where the pressure of the fingers on
the exterior has generated the whole ornamental scheme.”
Antique references to finger-print patterns are not numerous. In the
anatomical text-books of my student days, I cannot recall a single
example of their having been noticed or figured, and no figure was
printed in the usual plates of anatomy of my time. Malpighi, writing
in 1686, tersely alludes to the ridges which, he says, form different
patterns (_diversas figuras describunt_).
Both Sir William Herschel and myself have publicly called for evidence
of the alleged use in the Far East of finger-prints being used for
identification. During my residence in Japan I was intimate with the
leading antiquarians, and was repeatedly assured that nothing was known
by them of any such legal process. Mr. T. W. Rhys Davids, Secretary of
the Royal Asiatic Society, of which I was formerly a member, wrote me
in answer to an inquiry as to this point, on the 17th May, 1905:--
“Dear Sir,--I have heard of thumb marks being used in the East as
sign-manuals, but I know no single case of thumb or finger marks
being used for identification, and, pending further information, I
do not believe they ever were so used in ancient times in any part
of the East.”
Every now and again I receive letters telling me of some one who thinks
he remembers some one saying that he saw, etc., etc. Now, surely, it
would not be difficult if anyone were to find such evidence, to send a
copy or photograph duly authenticated, and a date attested subsequent
to the date of publication by _Nature_, in 1880, of the correspondence
on this subject. A good deal has been written about Professor
J. E. Purkenje (or Purkinje) in this connection. One enthusiastic
fellow-countryman has mentioned with eulogy a purely imaginary course
of lectures on Identification by Finger-Prints. Purkinje does not
seem ever to have dreamed of putting them to such a use. In _The
Daily News_ of January 23rd, 1911, an interview is reported with
Sir Edward Henry, who is made to state that Purkinje “wrote about
the value of finger-prints for purposes of identification”; but on
enquiry Sir Edward assured me he had not said anything beyond what
was stated in his work on Finger-Prints, and in that work, of course,
no such statement is hinted at as that Purkinje proposed to secure
identification by finger-prints.
As a student I was fairly well acquainted with much of what that keen
observer had written, and when I was lecturing to medical students in
Japan on the Testimony of the Senses, I could not help noticing that
while Purkinje had been busy with the fingers and with the special
development in their sensitive tips of the organs of touch, no records
had been preserved which mentioned his notice of the finger-furrows or
the patterns made by them. I took much trouble in the matter, writing
to eminent authorities and to librarians, and found no trace of any
such work. Sir F. Galton, in his published writings, is quite in
accord with me so far, but he has not explained how he came to think
of Purkinje’s work. Writing in 1892 on _Finger-Prints_, (p. 85) he
says of the subsequent discovery of a thesis of 58 pages: “No copy of
the pamphlet existed in any public medical library in England, nor in
any private one, so far as I could learn; neither could I get a sight
of it at some important Continental libraries. One copy was known of
it in America.” The American copy was not known generally till I had
made vigorous enquiries there. Sir F. Galton adds, “The very zealous
librarian of the Royal College of Surgeons was so good as to take
much pains at my instance to procure one: his zeal was happily and
unexpectedly rewarded by success, and the copy is now securely lodged
in the library of the college.”
As Sir Francis began to give attention to this subject in 1888 (p. 2
of work just quoted) it is only justice to myself in the matter to
state that in June, 1886, I called on the then librarian of the
Royal College and impressed upon him my conviction that as nothing
had then been known of any printed work by Purkinje on this topic, a
search among his remaining papers should be made, as to me it seemed
improbable that, working so closely in that field, Purkinje could fail
to observe the patterns of the finger-furrows. It seemed as certain a
deduction to me as was that of the existence of Neptune before that
planet had been actually discovered. The pamphlet is in Latin, a work
of 58 pages, printed at Vratislav, (i.e., Breslau) in 1823. In the
article on “Finger-Prints,” in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ (1911) it
is stated that “the permanent character of the finger-print was put
forward scientifically in 1823 by J. E. Purkinje, an eminent professor
of physiology, who read a paper before the university of Breslau,” etc.
But he was surely not a professor when graduating, and what passage
in that thesis, may I ask, deals scientifically with the _permanent
character_ of the finger-print? Purkinje had studied the lineations of
monkeys as well as those of men.
In _Tristram Shandy_ (1765) we read of “the marks of a snuffy finger
and thumb.”
_Jack Shepherd_, a novel of Ainsworth’s, was published in 1839. One Van
Galgebrook, a Dutch conjuror, therein foretells Jack’s bad end: “From a
black mole under the child’s right ear, shaped like a coffin ... and a
deep line just above the middle of the left thumb, meeting round about
in the form of a noose.” It would be interesting to know how Ainsworth
happened upon the suggestion.
[Illustration: SINGLE FINGER-PRINT]
Bewick sometimes jestingly left his sign-mark on his fine
wood-engravings, and those thus attested by his thumb-print are now
specially valued.
Many references occur in modern literature to fingerprints, and in
_David Copperfield_, published in complete form in 1850, Charles
Dickens tells how Dan’l Peggotty, in the old boat-house at Yarmouth,
“printed off fishy impressions of his thumb on all the cards he found.”
Pater, in 1871, writing of the Poetry of Michelangelo, mentions “the
little seal of red wax which the stranger entering Bologna must carry
on the thumb of his right hand.”
Later references are very common after the eighties. Alix in 1867-8
wrote on the papillary lines of hand and foot in _Zoologie_, vols.
viii. and ix., contributions which were first brought to my notice
after the publication of my _Guide_.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE (REDUCED) OF THE ORIGINAL OUTLINE FORMS FOR
BOTH HANDS.
Done in copperplate for the author in Japan at close of 1879 or in
January, 1880. The lineations were filled in with pencil at the same
period.]
In 1879 I engaged a Japanese engraver in Tokyo to make for me
copperplate forms in which to receive impressions of the fingers of
both hands in their consecutive or serial order. There were spaces for
information to be recorded which might be useful in anthropology, and
a place to which a lock of hair of the subject was to be attached. The
original proof sheet, marked by me in red pencil where special points
in the rugæ were to be carefully printed, is now in the library of
The Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow, along with a
letter to me from Charles Darwin on the subject of finger-prints. The
figures are from reduced photographs of those two original copperplate
forms, which have never before been published except as accompanying
the circular mentioned below. Many of those forms were sent to
travellers and residents in foreign countries, with a written circular,
as follows:--
“January, 1880.
“Dear Sir,
“I am at present engaged in a comparative study of the _rugæ_, or
skin-furrows, of the hands of different races, and would esteem it
as a great favour if you should obtain for me nature-prints from
the palmar surface of the fingers of any of the..................
race in your vicinity, in accordance with the enclosed forms. The
points of special interest are marked [with red crosses] and no
others need specially be attended to. Each point must be printed
by itself separately. Printer’s ink put on very thinly and evenly,
so as not to obliterate the furrows of the skin, is best. It can
easily be removed by benzine or turpentine. In place of that, burnt
cork mixed with _very little_ oil will do very well. One or two
trials had better be made before printing on the forms. If printing
should be found too difficult, sketches of leading lines--at the
points indicated--would still be of very great value, taking care
that the directions corresponded with the furrows, and not in
_reverse_, as when a simple impression is taken. If any one finger,
and so on, comes out badly, a piece of paper can be printed and
pasted on at the proper place. I enclose as a specimen a filled-up
form. [The fingers printed in the proper spaces and the important
‘points’ each marked with a cross in red pencil.]
“As novel and valuable ethnological results are expected from this
enquiry, I trust this may form a sufficient excuse for asking you
to take so much trouble. Please return any forms which may be
filled up to the above address.
“I am, etc.,
“HENRY FAULDS.”
Many of these circulars were posted with great care to recent
addresses, but the response was quite disappointing. No useful prints
were obtained, and most recipients took no notice whatever of the
request. I have since thought the question may have been confused with
palmistry. It was not easy to get impressions from the paws of monkeys,
apes, and lemuroids in Japan. Some few that were obtained at once
betrayed a very strong similarity to those of man, and it seemed that a
wider study would yield some hints, perchance, as to the path of man’s
ascent.
On the 15th February of the same year (1880), I wrote to the great
pioneer in this field, Charles Darwin, sending specimens of prints and
some outline of my first tentative results, and requesting him to aid
me in obtaining access to imprints from lemurs, lemuroids, monkeys and
anthropoid apes, as I had found them to show lineation patterns which I
hoped might be serviceable to elucidate in some degree the lineage of
man. I had failed to find any trace of references to these phenomena in
any anatomical or biological work within reach. The few Oriental works
I had seen were full of absurd phantasies and were allied to palmistry,
but contained Buddhist and Taouist figures nowhere to be found in
nature.
The great naturalist’s reply, in his own handwriting, sent to me two
years before his death, was as follows:--
“_Via_ Brindisi.
_April 7th_, 1880.
Down,
Beckenham, Kent,
Railway Station,
Orpington, S.E.R.
“Dear Sir,
“The subject to which you refer in your letter of February 15th
seems to me a curious one, which may turn out interesting; but I
am sorry to say that I am most unfortunately situated for offering
you any assistance. I live in the country, and from weak health
seldom see anyone. I will, however, forward your letter to Mr. F.
Galton, who is the most likely man that I can think of to take up
the subject to make further enquiries.
“Wishing you success,
“I remain, dear Sir,
“Yours faithfully,
“(_Signed_) CHARLES DARWIN.”
This letter, with the envelope addressed by Mr. Darwin himself, and
showing its postmarks, is in the library of the Royal Faculty of
Physicians and Surgeons. Mr. F. Galton, afterwards Sir Francis Galton,
a cousin of Charles Darwin, wrote in _Finger-Prints_, which was
published by him in 1892, that his “attention was first drawn to the
ridges in 1888 when preparing a lecture on Personal Identification for
the Royal Institution, which had for its principal object an account of
the anthropometric method of Bertillon, then newly introduced into the
prison administration of France.” [p. 2.]
In _Nature_, October 28th, 1880, appeared my article which was indexed
shortly afterwards as the first contribution on the subject, in the
_Index Medicus_ of the United States, thus: “Faulds, H.--On the
skin-furrows of the hand, _Nature_, London, xxii, 605.”
Professor Otto Schlaginhaufen, while my _Guide_ was going through
the press in England, published in the August number of _Gegenbaur’s
Jahrbüch_ for 1905 a copiously illustrated and well-informed article
on the lineations in human beings, lemuroids, apes and anthropoids.
The writer does me the honour of stating (p. 584) that with my
contribution to _Nature_ in 1880, there begins a new period in the
investigation of the lineations of the skin, that, namely, in which
they were brought into the service of criminal anthropology and
medical jurisprudence. This publication, he says, is the forerunner
of a copious literature which flowed over into the popular magazines
and daily press, and promises to keep no bounds. He thinks that I
pointed the right way to attain a knowledge of man’s genetic descent
by a study of the corresponding lineations of certain lower animals,
such as lemuroids, and that I had suggested other directions in which
medical jurisprudence might profitably engage in the study of this
subject. A claim was shortly afterwards made in _Nature_, by Sir
William Herschel, that he had, prior to my efforts, taken finger-prints
for identification in India. I have entered into this personal matter
elsewhere. Sir William has more than once publicly conceded priority
of publication to me, and that is not at all disputable. We quite
independently reached similar conclusions. Schlaginhaufen sums up the
matter at least impartially, thus:--
“Zeitlich erschien die Publikation FAULDS’ früher; aber HERSCHEL
wies durch die Veröffentlichung eines halboffiziellen Briefes nach
dass er sich schon 1877 mit dem Gegendstand beschäftigt habe.
Jedenfalls sind beide Beobachter unabhängig voneinander auf die
gleiche Idee gekommen, und wenn auch die Materialien, die HERSCHEL
lieferte, für die kriminelle Anthropologie speziell von grösserer
Bedeutung waren, so hat FAULDS’ doch in seiner ersten Mitteilung
die Erforschung der Hautleisten von einem höheren Gesichtspunkt aus
erfasst und ihr in einem umfassenderen Plan den Weg vorgezeichnet.”
That is to say:--
“Faulds’s publication was earlier in time, but Herschel showed by
the publication of a half-official letter that he had been engaged
with the method from 1877 onwards. In any case both observers had
independently come to the same idea, and while the material which
Herschel supplied was of greater service for criminal anthropology,
Faulds had in his first communication grasped the investigation of
the skin lineations from a higher standpoint, and had indicated the
way to it through a more comprehensive plan.”
My own plan laid stress on the serial imprint of five or ten fingers
according to the size of the registers anticipated. Sir William
Herschel used one, two, or three fingers only, and chiefly as
sign-manuals. Sir William has since published a hand imprint used as a
sign-manual and printed in 1858. On seeing the announcement I wrote to
the publishers, who regretted they could not supply me with a copy as
it was printed for private circulation only. Sir William Herschel has
nowhere claimed to have had any methodic way of storing or indexing the
records, and indeed, from his indications, they cannot have been at all
numerous.
+-------------------------------------+
| |
| |
| _J. B. TUNBRIDGE_, |
| _Inspector_ |
| |
| C.I. DEPARTMENT, |
| GREAT SCOTLAND YARD |
+-------------------------------------+
In 1887 and 1888, after my final return to England, I brought the
method under the notice of the Home Authorities, who merely dealt with
it in the usual red-tape methods. Finally, I asked to have one of their
most intelligent officers appointed to meet me, so that I might enter
fully into practical details. In reply there came to me a gentleman
who sent in his official card, which I have in my possession now.
This was the able officer so well known by his dramatic capture of
Mr. Jabez Balfour. I showed him how printing was done, the method of
classification adopted by me, and offered to form a model bureau from
the hands of the London police. A few years ago Mr. Tunbridge wrote
me:--
“I have a most distinct and pleasant recollection of our interview,
and since the ‘F. P.’ system has been adopted as a means of
identification of criminals with such marked success, have often
wondered how it was that you have not been more actively connected
with the carrying out of the system. When the Home Authorities
recognized the value of the system, I was Commissioner of Police
in New Zealand, and it was owing mainly to my recommendation that
the system was introduced into the New Zealand prisons, although
the Prison Authorities were somewhat opposed to it.... Some of the
Australian States also adopted the system, with the result that
an interchange of prints took place, which soon manifested its
value. The system is now in full working order in Australia, and
is carried on by the police, of course, with the assistance of the
Prison Authorities.”
No report has been published of Mr. Tunbridge’s impressions. At the
close of our long interview he told me he was disposed to think the
method would be rather delicate for practical application by the
police, and that fresh legislation would be required before any
beginning could be made.
In 1897, the finger-print system associated with Monsieur Bertillon’s
anthropometric system was adopted in India; but soon the bodily
measurements were abandoned, and the finger-print method alone was
officially employed; and in 1901 it was tentatively used in England
and Wales, but did not come into much public use till a year or two
afterwards. The ten-finger method in serial order, as I had from the
first recommended for a large register, and prepared forms to receive
imprints (as shown in _facsimile_), was adopted and is that now in
official use. The methods of Sir William Herschel, followed by that of
Sir F. Galton, were much more restricted, and could never have been
worked practically in anything but a very small and limited register.
The finger-print system of identification is all but universally
applied now throughout the civilized world for criminal cases, and bids
fairly well to be soon adopted for other methods of identification than
that of professional criminals or recidivists. After great earthquakes,
floods, or battles, multitudes of people have to be hastily buried
who have never been fully identified. In such cases the existence
of a civil or military Finger-print Register would be a very great
means of security, and this it is my great wish to see recognized and
established.
I wish to make it clear that in 1880 no printed proposal existed to
use finger-prints for identification. Sir F. Galton has referred to a
United States expedition in which the method was used, but the date
was 1882, and the example printed could not identify. He also refers
to Mr. Tabor, of San Francisco, who had proposed the registration of
Chinamen by this method, as their identity was difficult to establish.
I believe this also was in 1882. In a criticism of Dr. Schlaginhaufen’s
Bibliography (“F.G.” is the signature) in _Nature_, the omission of
Mr. Tabor’s name is regretted, but why? Did he write on the subject
anything which has been preserved? Why, before this period, Dr.
Billings, of the United States Army, said at the International Medical
Congress: “Just as each individual is in some respects peculiar
and unique, so that even the minute ridges and furrows at the end
of his forefingers differ from that of all other forefingers, and
is sufficient to identify,” etc. So that in America the matter was
widely known, and Dr. Billings’ own work on the “Index” attributed its
initiation to me.
Again, in 1883, “Mark Twain” published his charming _Life on
the Mississippi_, a very valuable human document. It contains a
well-thought-out story of an identification by means of a thumb-print
on a system supposed by him to have been invented by a French prison
doctor. His _Pudd’nhead Wilson_, in which a still better study
of the subject occurs, did not come out till 1894, the year in
which the sitting of Mr. Asquith’s Committee on Identification of
Habitual Criminals had set journalists agoing again on the theme of
“thumb-prints.” Prior to that year a great deal had been written on
the subject, the facts being chiefly taken from the correspondence in
_Nature_, to which reference has been made.