NA TURE 



[May 1 1, 1905 



JVOT£5. 



The gentlemen's soiree of the Royal Society will take 

 place at Burlington House on Wednesday next. May 17. 



In a murder trial concluded last week, a finger mark 

 left by one of the prisoners upon a cash-box tray at the 

 shop where the crime was committed was used for pur- 

 poses of identification. An inspector gave evidence that 

 there were So, 000 or 90,000 sets of finger prints in the 

 finger print department of Scotland Yard, and that he had 

 never found two such impressions to correspond. The right 

 thumb print of one of the prisoners agreed in twelve 

 characteristics with an impression made with perspiration 

 upon the cash-box tray, and therefore gave corroborative 

 evidence of identity. It is probable, as Mr. Galton pointed 

 out some years ago, that no two finger-prints in the whole 

 world are so alike that an expert would fail to distinguish 

 between them. The system was largely used in India by 

 .'iir William Herschel nearly fifty years ago, and was found 

 by him to be most successful in preventing personation, 

 and in putting an end to disputes about the authenticity 

 of deeds. He described his methods in these pages in 1880 

 (vol. xxiii. p. 76) ; and in the previous volume (vol. xxii. 

 p. 605) Mr. Henry Faulds referred to the use of finger- 

 marks for the identification of criminals. There is no 

 doubt as to the value of this system of identification, which 

 was described in the pages of Nature long before its 

 practical applications had been realised, and we regret that 

 anything should have occurred to throw discredit upon it. 

 It appears from the reports of the trial referred to that 

 a person who professed to be properly qualified wrote 

 to the Director of Public Prosecutions, and also to 

 the solicitors for the defence, offering to give evidence 

 as an expert on the finger impressions, although he 

 had not seen the impressions. It is not to be 

 wondered at that Mr. Justice Channell should denounce 

 such action in strong language, and whether the jury 

 agreed with him or not — that the witness was "abso- 

 lutely untrustworthy "—they no doubt considered that 

 evidence which could be given on either side could not be 

 of much importance. From the .scientific point of view, we 

 regret that a method which is associated with the names 

 of men of such scientific eminence as Sir William Herschel 

 and Mr. Francis Galton should be brought into disrepute. 

 Finger prints are not only of value for persona! identifi- 

 cation, but also for hereditary investigations, and any 

 action which produces comments like those made by Mr. 

 .lustice Channell is to be deplored, because it tends to shake 

 the confidence of men in methods which rest on secure 

 scientific foundations. 



The council of the Linnenn Society of New South Wales 

 has appointed Mr. Harald I. Jensen to be the first Linnean 

 Macleay fellow. 



The. Athenaeum announces the death of Prof. Otto 

 Struve, who succeeded his father as director of the Nicholas 

 Central Observatory at Pulkowa in 1861. 



Science announces that Prof. L. Warren, for twenty-seven 

 years professor of mathematics at Colby College, died on 

 .'Vpril 21, at the age of sixty-nine years. 



The Times understands that the trustees of the British 

 Museum have expressed their willingness to receive care- 

 fully selected phonographic records of the voices of dis- 

 tinguished living men. The records will be for posterity 

 only, and will in no circumstances be available for con- 

 temporary use. 



NO. 1854, VOL. 72] 



Prof. E. B. Frost has been appointed director of the 

 Verkes Observatory by the trustees of the University of 

 Chicago, in succession to Prof. G. E. Hale, who now gives 

 his whole time to the establishment of the new Solar 

 Observatory of the Carnegie Institution at Mt. Wilson, 

 California. 



A PARTY of zoological students from the Birkbeck College 

 spent part of the Easter vacation trawling, dredging, and 

 shore collecting at West Mersea, on the Essex coast. 

 Although the temperature was very low for the time of 

 year, many specimens were collected, and much experience 

 was gained. 



A Reuter correspondent at Bombay reports that a severe 

 earthquake occurred at Bandar Abbas on April 25. Five 

 shocks were experienced during the afternoon, and shocks 

 have been occurring daily since. Sarn, a town west of 

 Bandar Abbas, is reported to have suffered severely. 



The death is announced, in his eighty-eighth year, of 

 Colonel N. Pike, known for his contributions to the natural 

 history of birds, reptiles, and amphibia. For several years 

 Colonel Pike held the post of American consul in the 

 Island of Mauritius, and during this time he collected 

 extensively the local fauna and prepared from the living 

 specimens many coloured drawings. His most extended 

 work was his " Sub-Tropical Rambles in the Land of the 

 Aphanoptei'yx." 



A Reuter telegram from Christiania reports that the 

 Belgica, with the members of the Due d 'Orleans's Arctic 

 Expedition on board, left Sandefjord on May 6 for Bergen, 

 where the duke will embark. From Bergen the Belgica 

 will go to Spitsbergen, Greenland, and Shannon Islands, 

 where the Due d'Orl^ans intends to visit the depots of the 

 Ziegler Expedition. His intention is to bring the members 

 of that expedition back with him on the Belgica. and he 

 hopes to return to Ostend in September. 



The Rome correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette states 

 that it is again proposed to affix a marble tablet to the 

 Villa Medici, which is French property, to remind passers 

 by and posterity that Galileo was kept prisoner there from 

 June 24 to July 6, 1633. Italy has already erected a small 

 monument to Galileo at the very door of the villa, with the 

 following inscription : — " The neighbouring palace, which 

 belonged to the Medici, was the prison of Galileo Galilei, 

 guilty of having seen the earth revolving round the sun." 



The anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical 

 Society will be held on Monday, May 22. The annual 

 conversazione will be held in the Natural History Museum, 

 South Kensington, on Tuesday, June 27. In place of the 

 annual dinner of the society this year, a banquet in honour 

 of the retiring president. Sir Clements R. Markham, 

 K.C.B., will be held on the evening of the anniversary 

 meeting, May 22, at the Hotel Metropole. 



The Paris correspondent of the Times remarks that 

 about 150 physicians and surgeons have arrived there from 

 England, many of them with their wives and families, to 

 return the visit which the French doctors paid to London 

 last year. The formal reception took place last night at 

 the Sorbonne. During the stay of the English medical 

 men, besides the many attractive excursions and social 

 entertainments arranged in their honour, everv facility is 

 to be given them for inspecting the hospitals. 



In- proposing the toast of " The Japan Society " at its 

 annual dinner on May 3, Sir Frederick Treves referred to 

 the medical and surgical ability of the Japanese. Nothing 



