68 
On the Inheritance of the Finger-Print 
The only physical character in parent and child with which the inheritance 
of type of finger seems to agree is that of general health where the following 
coefficients were found. 
TABLE IV. 
Corrected for 
grouping only 
Father and Son 
•4,38 
Father and Daughter 
•314 
Mother and Son 
•401 
Mother and Daughter 
•393 
Mean 
•387 
When no correction for the number of cells is applied, the parental inheritance 
of general health and of type of finger appear practically the same, but in the 
case of general health there is a reason for the low value found which does not 
fipply in the other case, and the resemblance is apparent rather than real. The 
larger number of deaths among delicate children is probably sufficient to account 
for the lower parental value but the whole question is discussed in detail in 
Bionietrika*. 
(6) Fraternal resemblance. 
In this case we have two sets of data (1) the long series for the first finger only 
•and (2) the series for the whole hand. In the long series which we will consider 
first, there are 840 pairs of brothers, 886 pairs of sisters and 869 pairs of brothers 
and sisters. 
TABLE V. 
Eight fii 
st finger 
Left first finger 
Uncorrected 
Corrected 
Uncorrected 
Corrected 
for grouping 
for grouping 
for grouping 
for grouping 
Brother-Brother 
•369 
■424 
•335 
•385 
Sister-Sister 
•316 
•356 
■305 
•348 
Brother-Sister 
•336 
•382 
■340 
•387 
Mean 
•340 
•387 
•327 
•374 
The probable error, if we use the formula for the probable error of r, is of 
the order ■02 and the values are very similar to those found for the paternal and 
maternal correlation. The correlation between sisters is the lowest for both right 
* "On the Hereditary Character of General Health," by Karl Pearson and Ethel M. Elderton, 
Biomctrika, Vol. ix. pp. 3'20 et seq. • 
