FINGAL'S CAVE 



3 1 5O 



FINGER PRINT 



and after his time the title passed 

 to another descendant of the 1st 

 earl. Arthur James, the 8th earl, 

 was made a peer of the United 

 Kingdom in 1831, and in 1881 an 

 other Arthur James became the 

 llth earl. The earl's seat is Killeen 

 Castle, co. Meath, and his eldest 

 son is known as Lord Killeen. 



Fingal's Cave. Cavern in the 

 island of Staffa, the most notable of 

 its kind. Hollowed out of the 

 basalt, the grotto is 228 ft. long, 48 

 ft. wide, and 60 ft. high. It is re- 

 markable for its regular basaltic 

 columns, for its wonderful and 

 varying colours revealed as the 

 light plays upon it, and for its 

 stalactites. On the S. of the island, 

 it was discovered by Sir Joseph 

 Banks in 1772. Sea birds live in the 

 cave, which is also noted for the 

 sound made at times by the wind 

 rushing out of it. In Gaelic speech 

 it is called the cave of music. 



Finger. Terminal member of 

 the hand. The bones or phalanges 

 of the fingers are three in number 

 in each finger, except the thumb, 

 which has only two. The fingers 

 articulate with the metacarpal 

 bones of the palm. Along the 

 backs of the fingers pass the 

 tendons of the extensor muscles, 

 which straighten the fingers, and 

 along the fronts the tendons of the 

 flexor muscles, which close the 

 hand. The blood supply of each 

 finger is derived from two digital 

 arteries which run 

 : along each side of 

 the finger and 

 $Jb unite at its ex- 

 tremity. The 

 nerves which sup- 

 ply the skin of the 

 fingers are derived 

 from the ulnar, 

 radial, and median 

 nerves. 



Supernumerary 

 fingers are not un- 

 common. In a case 

 on record there 

 were twelve fingers 

 on one hand and 

 thirteen on the 

 other, and twelve 

 toes on each foot. Absence of one 

 or more fingers, or part of a finger, 

 may also be a congenital deformity, 

 i.e. present at birth. In webbing 

 of the fingers, or syndactylism, a 

 thin web, usually consisting chiefly 

 of skin, unites one or more fingers. 

 Sometimes the bond of union is 

 thick and fleshy. See Anatomy. 



Finger and Toe. Disease caus- 

 ing malformation of the roots of 

 turnips and other cruciferous crops 

 (cabbage, rape, radishes, etc. ). It is 

 also known by the names of clfci- 

 root and anbury. In a typical speci. 

 men the main root will not be fully 



Finger. Bones oi 

 human finger 



Fingal's Cave, Staffa. The pillared entrance to the grotto 



developed, but the lateral roots will 

 be much swollen. The cause of the 

 disease is a microscopic fungus 

 (Plasmodiophora brassicae), one of 

 a group of organisms (Mycetozoa) 

 regarded by many authorities as 

 animals. The disease is highly 

 infectious and difficult to stamp 

 out. It is scarcely known on soils 

 rich in lime, and the best plan of 

 dealing with it is by application of 

 a dressing 2 to 4 tons per acre of 

 slaked lime, preferably 18 months 

 before the turnip or other crop is to 

 be sown. The remains of diseased 

 plants should be burnt. Judicious 

 rotation is of much importance, and 

 continuous cropping, especially in 

 kitchen gardens, must be avoided. 



Fingerboard. Portion of a 

 stringed instrument against which 

 the fingers press the 

 strings in order to 

 regulate the vibrating 

 lengths of the strings, 

 and so control the 

 pitch of the sounds. 

 Bowed instruments of 

 the violin family have 

 smooth fingerboards 

 on which the player 

 must judge and re- 

 member the correct 

 stopping-places ; the 

 plucked instruments 

 such as the guitar, 

 mandoline, and banjo 

 usually have frets 

 or cross ridges to 

 assist the player. 



FingerPrint. Im- 

 pression of the human 

 finger. It is used 

 to classify human beings ; but 

 chiefly for the identification of per- 

 sons who have passed through the 

 hands of the police. 



The individuality of finger prints 

 and their value in proving identity 

 were known to the Chinese about 

 200 B.C., and an impression of the 

 thumb was used in lieu of signa- 

 ture; but it was not till the 19th 

 century that the classification of 

 the ridges on the finger tips was 

 attempted. In 1823, Purkenje, 

 professor of physiology at Breslau, 



suggested a system 

 o f classification, 

 and in 1858 Sir 

 William Herschel 

 laid the founda- 

 tions of the present 

 system in Bengal. 

 In 1890 Sir Francis 

 Galton pointed out 

 that ridges on the 

 fingers of a new- 

 bom infant were 

 absolutely identi- 

 cal to the day of 

 death. 



The full value 

 of Purkenje's, 

 Herschel' s, and Galton's work was 

 only recognized when Sir Edward 



Finger Print. Two diagrams illustrating (above) the 

 actual thumb print in blood left by a murderer, and 

 (below) the lines of the ridges of this thumb print 

 drawn to facilitate examination. The letters from 

 A to S indicate the various characteristics which 

 distinguish the print, e.g. L is the bifurcated ridge, 

 S B is the line joining the two terminal points of the 

 print, to enable the number of ridges to be counted 

 and compared with a known finger print of the mur- 

 derer, who was caught and sentenced on the evidence 

 furnished by these two diagrams 



Henry devised a numerical formula 

 for classifying the impressions. The 

 Henry system has been widely 

 adopted by the police organizations 

 of the world, and at New Scotland 

 Yard alone the number of cards 

 registered is a quarter of a million, 

 involving some 2,500,000 finger 

 prints. 



During the Great War the system 

 was extensively used as a means of 

 identification by the United States 

 government. Under the American 

 Seaman's Law of 1915 the finger 



