Part 116

Engravings and story by the courtesy of Scientific American.

Our Fingers.

One of the most interesting facts about our fingers is that every member of the human race, irrespective of age or sex, carries in person certain delicate markings by which identity can be readily established. If the inner surface of the hand be examined, a number of very fine ridges will be seen running in definite directions, and arranged in patterns, there being four primary types--arches, loops, whorls, and composites. It has been demonstrated that these patterns persist in all their details throughout the whole period of human life. The impressions of the fingers of a new-born infant are distinctly traceable on the fingers of the same person in old age. The fact that these patterns on the bulbs of the fingers are characteristic of and differentiate one individual from another, makes it an ideal means of fixing identity. Even men who look so much alike that it is virtually impossible to tell one from the other so far as facial characteristics are concerned, can be identified by their finger impressions.

Innumerable illustrations can be given of how the perpetrators of crime have been identified and convicted by their finger prints. Impressions left by criminals on such articles as plated goods, window panes, drinking glasses, painted wood, bottles, cash boxes, candles, etc., have often successfully supplied the clue which has led to the apprehension of the thief or thieves. One of our illustrations is that of a champagne bottle which was found empty on the dining-room table of a house which had been entered by a burglar in Birmingham, England. There was a distinct impression of a thumb mark on the bottle. An officer of the Birmingham City Police took the bottle to New Scotland Yard, London, and within a few minutes a duplicate print was found in the records. The burglar was arrested the same evening.

WHORL: RIDGES HERE MAKE A TURN THROUGH AT LEAST ONE COMPLETE CIRCUIT.]

Many similar instances could be given of how thieves have been caught by handling bottles and glasses. On one occasion a burglar entered a house in the West End of London, and before leaving helped himself to a glass of wine. On the tumbler used he left two finger imprints, and these were subsequently found, upon search in the records at New Scotland Yard, to be identical with two impressions of a notorious criminal, who was in due course arrested and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.

A somewhat gruesome relic is a cash-box which bears the blurred thumb mark of a man who was convicted of murder. The box was found in the bedroom of a man and his wife who were murdered at Deptford, London, in 1905. The cash-box was taken to New Scotland Yard, and the impression photographed and enlarged. Two brothers, suspected of the crime, were arrested, and the thumb print of one was found to be identical with that on the lid of the box. Our photograph of a gate recalls a curious case that recently occupied the attention of a London magistrate. In this instance a thief successfully climbed the gate, which was ten feet high. In his attempt to reach the ground on the inner side he placed his feet on the center cross-bar, at the same time holding the spikes with his right hand. In this position he fell, and the ring he wore on his little finger caught on the spike indicated by the arrowhead. This caused him to remain suspended in the air until his weight tore the finger from his hand. The ring with the finger was found on the spike, and in due course was received at New Scotland Yard. An impression was taken of the finger, and search among the records revealed a duplicate print, which led to the man’s arrest.

If a criminal handles a piece of candle or removes a pane of glass and leaves these behind, it is a hundred to one he has left a valuable clue for the police. The candle shown on the following page bears the imprint of a man’s thumb, and was found in a house which a burglar had entered. By handling the candle, the thief virtually signed the warrant for his own arrest.

The system was first used by the police in the Province of Bengal, India, at the instigation of Sir William Herschel. Its value was at once apparent. The work of the courts was considerably lightened, as the natives recognized that a system of identification had been discovered which was indisputable. Then from the police it was introduced into various branches of the public service, and here again its value was quickly demonstrated. When native pensioners died, for instance, friends and relatives personated them, and so continued to draw their allowances. By recording the identity of pensioners by finger prints, this evil was quickly stamped out.

PALMARY IMPRESSIONS OF WHOLE HAND, SHOWING HOW IT IS COVERED WITH RIDGES AND PATTERNS.]

RIGHT HAND LEFT HAND THUMB FIRST FINGER SECOND FINGER THIRD FINGER FOURTH FINGER

FINGER IMPRESSIONS OF AN ORANG-OUTANG (ANTHROPOID APE) TAKEN AT THE LONDON ZOO. THEY WERE MADE BY SCOTLAND YARD.]

The wonderful lineations, in the form of ridges and patterns, which adorn the palmar surface of the human hand, had, of course, been known for many years. Mr. Francis Galton, the famous traveler and scientist, was perhaps the first to give serious attention to the subject of finger prints. He discovered many interesting facts about them. Then, in 1823, Prof. Purkinje, of Breslau, read a paper before the University of Breslau on the subject. Up to this date, however, no practical use could be made of the impressions for the want of a system of classification. Prof. Purkinje certainly suggested one, but little notice appears to have been taken of it.

Naturally, to be of any value to the police or to any government department, it is absolutely essential to classify the prints in such a way that they could be readily referred to and identity established without undue delay. It was virtually left to Sir William Herschel, of the Indian Civil Service, to invent a really practical system of classification, so it may be claimed that the finger-print method of identification, as at present adopted, is the discovery of an Englishman. Then it is only fair to add that Sir Edward R. Henry, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police of London, has also devoted much time and study to the subject. His book, “Classification and Uses of Finger Prints,” has passed through many editions, and has been translated into several foreign languages.

A CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE HAVING THUMB IMPRINT, WHICH LED TO ARREST OF A BURGLAR.]

Impressions are divided up into four distinct types or patterns. First, we have arches in which the ridges run from one side to the other, making no backward turn. In loops, however, some of the ridges do make a backward turn, but are devoid of twists. In whorls some of the ridges make a turn through at least one complete circuit. Under composites are included patterns in which two or more of the former types are combined in the same imprint. Although similarity in type is of frequent occurrence, completely coincident ridge characteristics have never been found in any two impressions. It is not necessary here to enter into a detailed account as to how the classification of these wonderful lineations of the human hand is effected. It is based on a number value, attained by an examination, by means of a magnifying glass, of the “deltas” and “cores,” which break up a collection into as many as 1024 separate primary groups, each of which can again, by a system of sub-classification, be further split up into quite a number of sub-groups. When the British police discover finger prints on articles at the scene of crime, the latter are at once conveyed to New Scotland Yard. If the impressions are very faint, a little powder, known to chemists as “grey powder” (mercury and chalk), is sprinkled over the marking and then gently brushed off with a camel-hair brush. This brings out the imprint much more clearly. If one places his dry thumb upon a piece of white paper no visible impression is left. If powder, however, is sprinkled over the spot and then brushed off, a distinct impression is seen. In the case of candles and articles of this nature, a drop of printer’s ink is lightly smeared over an impression, in order the more clearly to define the ridges and patterns.

ON THE SPIKE OF THE GATE (INDICATED BY AN ARROW) A CRIMINAL LEFT HIS FINGER AND RING, WHICH LED TO HIS CONVICTION.]

At the headquarters of the British police at New Scotland Yard they possess special cameras and a dark room for photographing these thumb marks. The dark room is 21 feet long and 7 feet wide. When finger prints are required for production in court they are first enlarged five diameters with an enlarging camera. The negatives are afterward placed in an electric light enlarging lantern, with which it is possible to obtain photographic enlargements of a thumb mark 36 inches square. The lantern is arranged on a specially made table 12 feet long, the lantern running between tram lines, so that when moved it is square with the easel.

Criminals have naturally come to dread the value of their thumb marks as a means of identifying their movements. Some will try to obliterate the markings by pricking their fingers, but so far this has not availed them. To successfully accomplish this it would be necessary to obliterate the whole of the palmary impressions on the tip of each finger of each hand.

Then the system, too, is far in advance of any other, both in reliability and simplicity of working. Compared to anthropometry, for instance, invented by M. Bertillon, in which measurements of certain portions of the body are relied upon as a medium of identification, the finger-print system is certainly preferable. In the first place, the instruments are costly and are liable to get out of order; while the measurements can only be taken by a fairly educated person, and then only after a special course of instruction. In the finger-print system the accessories needed are a piece of paper and ink, while any person, whether educated or not, after half an hour’s practice, can take legible finger prints. Then the classification of the latter is much simpler and readier of access than the former.

At the time of writing there are some 164,000 finger-print records in the pigeon-holes at New Scotland Yard, and the number now being added to it is at the rate of about 250 weekly. The system, too, is not only in use in Great Britain, but in all the provinces of India, including Burma, and in most of the British colonies and dependencies. It is being rapidly extended, not only throughout Europe, but also through North and South America.

SPECIMEN FORM.

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