144 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



A serious mis-statement more or less frequently made was that Bertillon 

 who ultimately adopted the finger-print system of identification had initiated 

 it. This pained Galton extremely, because he actually introduced Bertillon to 

 the method, but the latter at the time feared practical difficulties such as the 

 want of education in his employees. Bertillon's letter of June 15, 1891, in 

 a reply to a letter of Galton's suggesting that he should try the system, has 

 luckily been preserved. The essential paragraph runs as follows : 



" 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 difficult^ pratiques pour le nettoyage des doigts apres l'impression 

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

 mdthode? 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?" 



The words "votre proc^de" and "votre mdthode" clearly indicate that 

 Bei'tillon was fully aware of the originator of this process of criminal inves- 

 tigation. Notwithstanding, even as late as 1896, in the English translation 

 of Bertillon's Instructions signaletiques, the date of the introduction of the 

 prints of the thumb and three fingers of the right hand into the French 

 schedule for the criminal is given as 1884, instead of 1894, and "conveys the 

 idea that the use of finger-prints in Paris is much older than it really is, and 

 previous instead of subsequent, to its use in England*." The 1893 edition of 

 Bertillon's Identification Antliropometrique, Instructions signaletiques has 

 no reference to finger-prints. It is still over-confident as to the infallibility 

 of bertillonage f. Galton claimed neither finality nor infallibility for his 

 methods ; as to finger-print identification he found it a suggestion and he 

 left it an art. 



In 1905 M. Bertillon wrote in reply to a question of Dr Faulds: 



"Les impressions digitales a Paris sont adjointes au signalement anthropometrique depuis 

 l'annee 1894. J'ajoute que nous nous en trouvons fort bien. Quoique nous n'ayons jamais fait 

 d'identification erronee antierement nous sommes encore mieux garantis, si possible, en ce qui 

 regarde l'avenir." {Guide to Finger-Print Identification, pp. 4-5.) 



* See Nature, Vol. liv, p. 569, where there is a review by Galton of the Signaletic 

 Instructions, emphasising the superiority of the English finger-print system and direct in- 

 dexing of the prints to the French anthropometric system or "bertillonage." Galton therein 

 prophesies what has since come to pass, that the former would ultimately supplant the latter 

 completely. 



•)• "L'absolu de nos affirmations dans les questions d'identite, et notamment dans les cas plus 

 difficiles d'identification entre deux photographies, etonne encore les fonctionnaires de la police 

 ou de l'ordre judiciaire auxquels une longue pratique n'a pas deja enseigne ce qu'on appelle au 

 Palais notre in/aiUibilile. Nous nous devions a nous-meme de d<5montrer que le peremptoire 

 habituel de nos reponses ne resultait pas d'un temperament risque-tout, mais ^tait la consequence 

 raisonnee de la combinaison de divers precedes dont l'application, quand elle en a ete correcte- 

 ment faite, ne laisse pas la moindre place a 1'indecision. 



"Puisse le present volume satisfaire a ce programme et contribuer ainsi a assurer la survi- 

 vance de la rn&hode dont nous sommes a la fois et L'lN VENTEUR EXCLUSIF ET 

 PARTOUT UN PEU L'ORGANISATEUR " (pp. x-xi). Capitals in original. Galton's 

 view was that bertillonage could not be infallible owing to the high correlations of many of 

 its measurements which its creator neglected. 



