394 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



hundred thousand which it would be necessary to look over carefully 

 in comparing with a certain definite case would average about five. 



The data necessary for this latter comparison are abundantly fur- 

 nished by the details of the individual ridges, termed by Galton the 

 'minutiae/ and the farther description and subdivision of the records 

 by means of these he terms the 'Secondary classification.' These and 

 other useful details are appended to the formulge given above by means 

 of 'descriptive suffixes/ arbitrarily selected and described in a table, 

 a copy of which must, of course, be always at hand, at least until it 

 be thoroughly committed to memory by the clerk in charge of the 

 records. The nature of these suffixes and of the details which they 

 describe may be learned from the following examples, taken at random 

 from Galton 's table : 



g. The core to the whorl is very large. 



o. The core of tlie whorl is a detached ring. 



X. Interpretation questionable; the pattern is peculiar. 



t Scar left by a cut. 



The implied suggestion of 'x' brings up a question which probably 

 occurs to the reader at about this time, namely, whether a pattern is 

 ever of a mixed type, or half way between two, thus giving a chance 

 for a difference of interpretation and a consequent embarassment in 

 finding the case from the formula. This certainly occurs occasionally, 

 but Galton has well disposed of the difficulty by comparing it to the 

 doubt experienced when consulting a city directory for a Scotch name 

 beginning with ' Mac, ' variously written, either in full or as Mc or M ', 

 and classed differently by various lexicographers. In both cases the 

 investigator, failing to find what he desires in one place, looks in an- 

 other, and neither here nor there is the difficulty a serious one. 



Each finger tip record is placed on a card measuring 12 x 5 inches, 

 and contains, when complete, rolled impressions of the ten digits, a set 

 of 'dab' impressions of the four fingers of each hand (as duplicates 

 for comparison) and, at the right hand upper corner, the formula. 

 In Scotland Yard a folded paper is used instead of a card, and the 

 arrangement of the prints differs somewhat from the above. 



Concerning the practical adoption of the Galton system at present, 

 it is hard to get details, but the recommendation of the English com- 

 mittee in 1894 has been referred to, and it seems that since that time 

 the method has come into quite general use in England. It is of 

 course impossible to devise a method which in every detail will be per- 

 fect from the start, and as Mr. Galton is continually at work upon his 

 system, the improvements suggested both by him and by those prac- 

 tically engaged in the work can not fail to modify details until it is 

 brought to the highest degree of efficiency. 



