Madeline H. Whiting 
19 
characters of the individual, characters which change only slightly with age, and 
which are only moderately linked with each other and with mentality. They 
are not subject to much influence from environment or occupation, and it appears 
to us that respiration-rate would probably form as good a mark of individual 
identity as most anthropometric characters and, since there is a relatively low rate 
of correlation between these physiological variates, their combined records might 
be even of value as a supplement* to finger prints in the problem of identification. 
The above values undoubtedly indicate that the degree of individuahty which we 
find in the external measurable features of the body and in the mental characteristics 
is maintained, and just possibly exceeded, in the manner in which the various 
organs of the body carry on their functions; in other words the "individual" is 
not only characterised by an individualised framework and an individualised 
controlling faculty for that framework, but its metabolic processes are indi- 
vidualised also. The individual is such not only by his existence in space, but by his 
manner of existing in time. The individuality in the functioning of organs is as 
great as the physical differences in the organs themselves. In the future it may 
well be that heredity will be as effectively studied by measuring the functioning 
of organs as by measuring the organs themselves. The clinical thermometer 
and the sygmograph may gain new scientific value when they are introduced into 
the field of genetics. 
I wish, in conclusion, to express my indebtedness to Professor Karl Pearson 
for his continuous supervision throughout the course of the work and to thank 
him for many ideas and suggestions set forth in this paper. 
* Of course two persons will have the same respiration but hardly an absolute sameness of finger 
prints. What is meant liere is that if finger prints have to be placed in definite descriptive "categories" 
— a loop of so many ridges or a subclass of arches — these categories will hardly be more individual than 
the respiration-rate. Again a pulse tracing would correspond for individuality more closely to an 
actual finger imprint, than a pulse-rate which would represent a certain category of pulse tracings 
like a finger print class represents a certain type of finger prints. 
2—2 
