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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLY. No. 1169 



simplification of its constituent elements. 

 The main lesson that lie learned by his jour- 

 ney is that France can no longer remain sta- 

 tionary in these matters and that it should 

 make efforts to organize biology as applied to 

 agriculture upon a large and solid basis, and 

 he proceeds with practical suggestions in this 

 direction. He praises the Federal Horticul- 

 tural Board, the Federal Insecticide Board, 

 and the Horticultural Commission of Cali- 

 fornia, and thinks that all of these should be 

 imitated in France. He especially points out 

 the necessity for the introduction into France 

 of such education as our young men get in 

 applied biology in the agricultural colleges 

 and universities like Cornell and Illinois. 

 There is, he points out, in France at the pres- 

 ent time no way of getting a scientific educa- 

 tion in biological studies as applied to agri- 

 culture. 



After pointing out some of the great ex- 

 amples of monetary saving in this country as 

 the result of work in applied biology, he closes 

 with the sentence, " These are great examples 

 which it is well to recall, for they establish 

 with the most complete evidence the fact that 

 there is no other sure way than that of scien- 

 tific organization of work to get full value 

 from the national soil and to give back to 

 agriculture the greatest possible part of the 

 riches which are lost to it annually from 

 pests." 



L. 0. Howard 



CONCERNING THE HISTORY OF 

 FINGER-PRINTS 



Sm William J. Herschel published re- 

 cently a brief pamphlet of 41 pages under the 

 title " The Origin of Finger-Printing " (Ox- 

 ford University Press, 1916). This is mainly 

 an autobiographical sketch, giving in detail 

 the story of how the author during the time of 

 his useful service in India (1853-78) con- 

 ceived the notion of finger-prints and elabo- 

 rated this system, which was subsequently 

 developed and placed on a truly scientific basis 

 by Sir Francis Galton. We are indebted to 

 Sir W. Herschel for his interesting document : 

 it is always valuable when one who has played 



a prominent role in inaugurating a new move- 

 ment presents us with a record of what he 

 believes was his share in bringing about this 

 innovation or invention. The inventor, how- 

 ever, will seldom be able to write impartially 

 the history of his own invention; no one, in 

 fact, whether statesman, artist, poet or scholar, 

 while recording his own history, has the fac- 

 ulty (I should even say, the right) of clearly 

 determining his own place in the long chain 

 of historical development. This judgment 

 must be left to the historian of the future. 

 The principal purpose by which Sir W. Her- 

 schel was guided in writing his account is to 

 demonstrate that he was the real " discoverer " 

 of finger-prints in Bengal in 1858, entirely 

 from his own resources, and to discredit all 

 other claims to priority in this matter, espe- 

 cially those on the part of the Chinese. I 

 regret that the author has failed to take notice 

 of the " History of the Finger-Print System " 

 published by me in the Smithsonian Report 

 for 1912 (pp. 631-652, Washington, 1913). 

 Not only are Sir W. Herschel's great merits 

 and his share in the history of the invention, 

 if invention it may be called, duly acknowl- 

 edged and objectively expounded there, but 

 he would also have found there all the avail- 

 able evidence in favor of the Chinese, Japa- 

 nese and Tibetans, all of whom applied ages 

 ago with full consciousness the system of 

 finger-prints for the purpose of identifying 

 individuals. The few modern traces of evi- 

 dence known to Sir W. Herschel are treated 

 by him slightly, and he wonders that " a sys- 

 tem so practically useful as this could have 

 been known in the great lands of the East for 

 generations past, without arresting the notice 

 of western statesmen, merchants, travelers 

 and students." The Mohammedan authors 

 who visited China did not fail to describe this 

 system. Eashid-eddin, the famous Persian 

 historian, who wrote in 1303, reports as 

 follows : 



When matters have passed the sii boards of the 

 Chinese, they are remitted to the Council of State, 

 where they are discussed, and the decision is issued 

 after being verified by the hhat angusht or ' ' finger- 

 signature" of all who have a right to a voice in 



