Paper, 'Method of indexing finger-marks' by Francis Galton

Description

Galton writes: 'Sufficient proof was adduced by me in a memoir read November 27, 1890, before the Royal Society ("Phil. Trans.", B, 1891) ['The patterns in thumb and finger Marks.—On their arrangement into naturally distinct classes, the permance of the papillary ridges that makes them, and the resemblance of their classes to ordinary genera'], of the extraordinary persistence of the papillary ridges on the inner surface of the hands throughout life. It was shown that the impression in ink upon paper of each finger tip, contained on the average from twenty-five to thirty distinct points of reference, every one of which, with the rarest exception, appeared to be absolutely persistent. Consequently that it was possible to affirm with practical certainty whether or no any two submitted impressions were made by the fingers of the same person. In the present memoir I shall explain the way in which finger prints may be indexed and referred to after the fashion of a dictionary, and on the same general principle as that devised by A Bertillon with respect to anthropometric measures, whose ingenious method is now in regular use on a very large scale in the criminal administration of France and elsewhere. I desire to show how vastly the practical efficiency of any such method as that of A Bertillon admits of being increased by taking finger prints into account in the way about to be described.'

Annotations in pencil and ink. Includes pencil sketches and tables of finger-marks.

Subject: Fingerprints / Dactylography / Anthropometry

Received 30 April 1891 / 15 May 1891. Read 28 May 1891.

A version of this paper was published in volume 49 of the Proceedings of the Royal Society as 'Method of indexing finger-marks'.

Reference number

PP/17/41

Earliest possible date

1891

Physical description

Ink and graphite pencil on paper

Page extent

9 pages

Format

Manuscript
Diagram