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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    it nearly always does, at B. K is tlie centre of the single triangular plot that, appears in the loop, which may be either I or 0. KNL is a perpendicular from K to the axis, cutting it at N, and the outline beyond at L. In some loops N will lie above H, as in Plate 4, Fig. 8 ; in some it may coincide with H. (See Plate 6 for numerous varieties of loop.) These points were pricked in each print with a fine needle; the print was then turned face downwards and careful measurements made between the prick holes at the back. Also the number of ridges in AH were counted, the ridge at A being reckoned as 0, the next ridge as 1, and so on up to H. Whenever the line AH passed across the neck of a bifurcation, there was necessarily a single ridge on one side of the point of intersection and two ridges on the other, so there would clearly be doubt whether to reckon the neck as one or as two ridges. A compromise was made by counting it as 1-|^. After the number of ridges in AH had been counted in each case, any residual fractions of were alternately treated as 0 and as 1. Finally, six series were obtained ; three for the right thumb, and three for the left. They referred respectively (1) to the Number of Ridges in AH; (2) to ^; (3) to all the three being independent of stature. The number of measures in each of the six series varied from 140 to 176 ; they are reduced to per- centages in Table XXXI. We see at a glance that the different numbers of ridges in AH do not occur with equal frequency, that a single ridge in the thumb is a rarity, and so are