Classification and uses of finger prints.

  • Henry, E. R. (Edward Richard), Sir, 1850-1931.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Classification and uses of finger prints. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Figs. 39, 40, 41 are copies of the enlargements made from the actual marks by the Survey of India, placed before the Courts that tried the case, and proved in the usual way. Fig. 42 is a drawing by hand to show the ridge characteristics relied on ; they are marked by the small capital letters, and are fully described. They appear in all three impressions—in the blood print on the calendar (Fig. 41), in the print on record in the Central Police Office (Fig. 39), and in the print taken from Kangali Charan's thumb after his arrest (Fig. 40). What probative value shall we assign to such distinctive similarities being found in three prints made at intervals of time, and what inference are we in the circumstances of this par- ticular case justified in drawing ? The question is of such importance that some space may be devoted to discussing it. Probative significance of existence in two finger prints of distinctive similarities, —It is known that many of the constituents of the sun and stars have been determined by spectro- scopic analysis of the light from them which comes to us as a message through space. Transmitted through a glass prism, light so simple in appear- ance, but in reality complex in its nature, is resolved into its constituent rays, these appearing as bands of various colours with narrow gaps wanting in brightness which show out as dark lines traversing the colours of the spectrum. For nearly half a century after their first discovery by Fraunhoffer