256 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



may have misled. This book contained a method 

 of classification far in advance of what I had published 

 before, and is in most essential points the same as 

 that in present use in Scotland Yard. 



Sir Edward, then Mr. Henry, when in office 

 in India, came to my Laboratory to learn the finger- 

 print process, and he introduced it first into Bengal, and 

 afterwards throughout India. The Bertillon system 

 did not work at all well there, because measurements 

 had to be taken at many different local centres where 

 accuracy could not be guaranteed. Then Mr. Henry 

 was dispatched to the Cape, where great difficulty 

 had arisen about identification, and he introduced 

 finger-prints there also. After this he was called 

 to England, and soon selected to hold his present 

 important post. From what I have seen during the 

 few visits I have paid to Scotland Yard, the finger- 

 print system answers excellently, and can deal easily 

 with many thousands of sets certainly with twenty 

 thousand. 



I hardly know over how large a part of the world 

 this system is now in use to the exclusion of other 

 methods. It is so in England, India, and Argentina. 

 It is used in connection with measurements in Brazil, 

 Egypt, and many other countries. 



It is necessary for its successful employment that 

 the clerks at the central Bureau should be thoroughly 

 acquainted with their work. There is much for them 

 to learn as to the uniform classification of many small 

 groups of often recurring patterns, and in realising 

 what is and what is not essential to identification. 

 Certain changes in the print may wholly depend on 

 the greater or less pressure of the finger. The 



