ANTHROPOMETRIC LABORATORIES 255 



him further information on what had been more 

 recently done, to which he answered, on June 15, 1891, 

 that he was much disposed to add my method to his 

 own, especially for persons under age, but he feared 

 practical difficulties, such as in cleaning the fingers 

 after printing from them. Also it was a question 

 whether his assistants, who were but little educated, 

 would be zealous enough to learn a new method. 

 He ended by asking me, on the next occasion when 

 I happened to pass through Paris, to give a morning 

 to his Depot to experimentalise on the criminals 

 there. It has been stated more than once that the 

 finger-print system was initiated by M. Bertillon, so 

 I have mentioned these historical details, and give 

 his untranslated letter in a footnote. 1 The omitted 

 portion refers to quite another matter, in which he 

 was then assisting me. 



I have said that my method was not so fully 

 elaborated as I should have wished when the 

 Committee examined it, so I worked hard at it after- 

 wards, and published the results in 1895 m tne book 

 already mentioned, bearing the title of Finger Print 

 Directory, using the term ''Directory" in the same sense 

 as in the familiar phrase of " Post Office Directory." 

 It was an unlucky choice of a word, for its equivalent 

 in French means a Board of Directors, so its title 



1 Extract from letter of M. Alphonse Bertillon, 15 Juin 1891 : 

 " Je vous remercie de votre nouvel envoi relativement aux impressions 

 digitales. Je suis fort dispose a ajouter votre precede au signalement 

 anthropometrique surtout pour les enfants. Mais je redoute quelques 

 difficultes pratiques pour le nettoyage des doigts apres 1'impression 

 faite, etc. Puis mes agents si peu instruits mettront-ils le zele necessaire 

 pour apprendre votre methode? Je crois que vous traversez souvent 

 Paris, pourriez vous a votre prochain voyage, me consacrer une matinee 

 au Depot, pour un essayage sur la vile multitude ? " 



