214 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



" natural order" (see our p. 200). We have seen that in the earlier publications 

 Galton used o and *', "outer" and "inner," to mark his directions; in this work, 

 to begin with, he uses "ulnar" and "radial" and the symbols U and R (or 

 u and r) instead of o and i. He now appears to discard U and R, writing as 

 follows : 



"As regards the Z7and R notation, I am now decidedly in favour of the plan tentatively 

 suggested in my answer to Question 207 [Departmental Committee Report (Evidence)], namely 

 that it would be far better, on the grounds of diminishing error and fatigue, to regard the 

 slope of the print relatively to the paper on which it is made, and not relatively to the Radial 

 or Ulnar direction in the hand that made it. The slope relatively to the paper admits of uniform 

 interpretation ; the slope relatively to the hand does not, for what is R in the one hand is U 

 in the other*." (p. 112.) 



Galton next suggests a symbolic notation for the arch, whorl and two 



kinds of loops, i.e. 



r\ \ / O 



Arch Loop Loop Whorl 



He says that the relief to eye and brain by this simple notation is very 

 great. The pencil seems inclined to gallop over the cards automatically, because 

 the attention is no longer strained by an endeavour to interpret the prints 

 into alien symbols. The hand has merely to make abbreviated copies of what 

 the eye sees, and thought is almost passive while doing so (p. 112). Galton 

 does not, however, suggest how with such symbols the secondary classification 

 is to be worked out. 



This chapter concludes with an account of Galton's finger-print enlarging 

 camera, which will magnify up to sixfold. We have already referred to this 

 instrument (see our p. 197). Chapter VIII (pp. 116-123) contains the Specimen 

 Directory of 300 Sets. At first the variety of symbols in the Secondary Classi- 

 fication is somewhat trying, but after a little becomes easily interpretable. 

 Besides the numerals which are provided for the forefinger in the case of the 

 ridge-counts in the formula III, III, 11, 11, other numerals occur in the index ; they 

 never exceed 4, and they may stand alone or be associated with a or I. They 

 are in the Secondary Classification, and I cannot find that Galton has any- 

 where explained their meaning. This I am unable to supply. As I have said, 

 I think the secondary classification needs condensation. It is also desirable 

 that the method should be applied to several thousand sets of prints to 

 ascertain, by an actual statistical experience, where the grading is still too 

 coarse, or where it is over fine. If a student of finger-prints should, however, 

 question me as to where he could learn how to index several thousand sets 

 of finger-prints, I still could not refer him to anything better than Galton's 

 Finger Print Directories of more than thirty years ago ! 



* Galton does not say how he proposes to symbolise the particular slope. As far as I can 

 see, the result would be that two radial whorls on homologous fingers, say, which might be 

 practically identical instead of being represented by the same symbol, would be represented by 

 different symbols, which for any scientific purpose (e.g. inheritance) would be disastrous. If 

 the finger-prints are taken in natural order, I see no difficulty in inscribing the letter U outside 

 both.little fingers and the letter R in the middle of the set of prints, between the adjacent 

 thumbs. They might even be printed in these positions on the blanks which serve for the 

 finger impressions. If the slope is then downwards from forefinger towards the little finger it 

 is ulnar, otherwise radial. 



