{RANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 869 
after the lapse of some years to ascertain whether this is the case with Miss 
Dorothy Gardiner. 
The first four sets are much more difficult to deal with. I have scrutinised 
them, and compared them several times with the last two setsand with one another, 
and my conclusions are as follows :— 
(1) The type of the pattern is never doubtful to a practised eye. To an 
unpractised eye the result of a slight twist of the finger at the moment of printing, 
which gives a specious air of circularity, might convey the false impression of a 
whorl to what was really an arch or a loop. (2) The character of the core 
is defined within narrow limits, but not always accurately. Thus in one in- 
stance, the core of a loop in the 2} and 4} year sets was a clear ‘staple.’ At 
17 months the staple was connected to the curve next above it by a small 
isthmus; in babyhood the staple and the ridge were joined—whether by a blot or in 
reality I cannot say. (3) A similar absence of distinction between ridges that are 
afterwards clearly separated is often found nearthe V point. It is thus impossible 
to count the number of ridges with accuracy that lie between the core and the V, 
and the entry has often to take such a form at 9+ ? the P proving to be any number 
between one and perhaps eight ridges. It is, however, a great point to be assured 
that the real number is ot Jess than 9. (4) The doubt (as I pointed out in my 
book) which is always attached to the exact way in which a new ridge arises is 
greatly increased in these prints. No weight should be assigned to the character 
of the junction or ending, but only to the fact that somehow a new ridge has 
become interpolated. 
The study of these prints is an excellent discipline in the art of decipherment. 
I have counted sixty-eight details in the prints of these ten fingers that can be 
identified throughout all six sets, unless obliterated in some one of them by a blot. 
In the majority of cases the identity is unquestionable; in the others it may be 
trusted within narrow limits. I have therefore little doubt that the prints of 
all ten fingers of a baby, if taken as clearly as those I have dealt with, would suffice 
for after identification by an expert, but by an expert only. 
It should be added that I have had as yet no opportunity of taking finger 
prints from infants who are two or even more months younger than babies ordi- 
narily are at the time of their births—I mean such as are now successfully reared 
in warmed glass cases. These premature infants are passive, and in that respect 
easy to deal with, but they are tiny creatures who require great tenderness in 
handling. I think that the impressions most likely to succeed would be those that 
their greasy fingers might leave on a highly polished metal plate, to be afterwards 
photographed under suitable illumination. 
6. Finger Prints and the Detection of Crime in India, describing the System 
of classifying Finger Prints and how all the great Departments in 
India have brought Finger Prints into use. By E. R. Henry, C.S.L., 
Inspector-General of Police, Bengal Civil Service. 
The author refers to the importance of fixing human personality so that no 
efforts made to confuse it subsequently may prove availing. Of this problem the 
Bertillon system offered first scientific solution. But experience has shown that 
the ‘Personal Equation’ error of measures predominates so much as to vitiate 
seriously the correctness of the recorded results under that system. Finger prints, 
on the other hand, being absolute impressions taken from body under conditions 
which eliminate error in transcribing or recording, the ‘Personal Equation’ error 
is reduced to a minimum, Taking the impressions of all ten digits occupies only 
a fraction of the time required for measuring, while search is more exhaustive and 
many times more rapid. This new system has been introduced on a most exten- 
sive scale throughout British India, where the Postal, Survey, Registration, 
Medical, Pensions, Emigration, Police, Opium, and other great Departments have 
adopted it, and the Legislature has recognised it by passing, with the strong 
