Personal Identification and Description 159 



had on his life, converting his conception of travel from pleasure to purpose, 

 Galton could not refrain from discussing finger-prints. It is almost impos- 

 sible to overrate the energy Galton displayed in making the general public 

 familiar with the idea of finger-print identification. We have not only a 

 whole series of letters to such journals as the Times and Nature, but Galton 

 did not despise more popular organs of communication. Thus there appeared 

 a paper in the Sketch, entitled: "The Wonders of a Finger- Print," with a 

 portrait of Galton (November 20, 1895), and another in Gassell's Saturday 

 Journal, March 25, 1896. The latter took the form of an interview, and 

 perhaps a few lines of it are still worth recalling : 



"There are about thirty characteristic points on an average in a finger-print," Mr Galton 

 continued. " As I have said you will find no two pairs of fingers alike ; it is like comparing the 

 ground plans of two different cities." 



"But suppose an old and hardened criminal, whose finger-print was in your possession, 

 hacked his fingers about with a knife," I asked: "would that cause you confusion on his re- 

 capture 1" 



"Plenty of material for identification would still be left. He would never be able to 

 obliterate all the ridges unless he cut off both his hands. But I don't want you to think that 

 finger-prints are only of value for the identification of criminals. I want other people to take 

 the finger-prints of their children for possible use in identification in after life." 



"You remember what a stir there was when the rumour spread of a plot to kidnap the Duke 

 of York's baby*. Think of all the national difficulties that would have arisen had he been lost 

 and then professed to be found, but his identity doubted. Many people urged me at the time 

 to propose that his finger-prints should be taken, but I hesitated to move seriously in the 

 matter." 



In the same year Galton read a paper entitled "Les empreintes digitales" 

 at the Fourth International Congress of Criminal Anthropologyf . In this 

 paper he briefly describes the facts he had demonstrated in his Finger Prints, 

 then he turns to the question of nomenclature and classification, and notes 

 his "shorthand" method of indexing. What, however, he particularly insists 

 upon is the need for an international concordat in the matter of nomenclature 

 and indexing so that it would be at once feasible to telegraph the finger-print 

 formula of a suspected person. Galton proposed : 



"Qu'il soit fait des recherches dans les administrations de police des diffeYentes nations pour 

 determiner la nomenclature la plus convenable et les autres details relatifs aux empreintes 

 digitales pour les services internationaux, c'est-a-dire pour communiquer, par lettre ou teld- 

 graphe, et en termes generalement intelligibles, le signalement par les empreintes digitales des 

 personnes soupcpnnfes." (p. 37.) 



The noteworthy points about this paper are : 



(i) That as early as 1896 Galton had freed himself entirely from the 

 anthropometric system; there is not a reference to bertillonage as a system 

 of indexing, but the indexing is to depend entirely on finger-print classification. 



(ii) That although the system had only been a few years at work in 

 England and was just started in India, Galton envisages an international 



* The present Prince of Wales. 



t Comptes-rendu8, Session de Geneve, 1896, pp. 35-38. 



