Finger prints / by Francis Galton.

  • Galton, Francis, 1822-1911.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Finger prints / by Francis Galton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    characterises persons of any of the above races. There is no particular pattern that is special to any- one of them, which when met with enables us to assert, or even to suspect, the nationality of the person on whom it appeared. The only differences so far observed, are statistical, and cannot be deter- mined except through patience and caution, and by discussing large groups. I was misled at first by some accidental obser- vations, and as it seemed reasonable to expect to find racial differences in finger marks, the inquiries were continued in varied ways until hard fact had made hope no longer justifiable. After preliminary study, I handed over the col- lection of racial finger prints to Mr F. Howard .Collins, who kindly undertook the labour of tabula- ting them in many ways, of which it will be only necessary to give an example. Thus, at one time attention was concentrated on a single finger and a single pattern, the most instructive instance being that of arches on the right fore-finger. They admit of being defined with sufficient clearness, having only one doubtful frontier of much importance, namely that at which they begin to break away into nascent-loops, etc. They also occur with considerable frequency on the fore-finger, so the results from a few hundred specimens ought to be fairly trustworthy. It mattered little in the inquiry, at what level the limit was drawn to separate arches from nascent- loops, so long as the same limit was observed in all races alike. Much pains were taken to secure uni- 0