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diff --git a/34859-0.txt b/34859-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..481f780 --- /dev/null +++ b/34859-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1374 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Origin of Finger-Printing, by William J. Herschel + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Origin of Finger-Printing + +Author: William J. Herschel + +Release Date: January 5, 2011 [EBook #34859] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ORIGIN OF FINGER-PRINTING *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Hutton and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + THE ORIGIN OF + FINGER-PRINTING + + BY + + SIR WILLIAM J. HERSCHEL, BART. + + + HUMPHREY MILFORD + OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW + NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY + 1916 + + + + PRINTED IN ENGLAND + AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + + + + +DEDICATION + + + _TO SIR EDWARD HENRY, G.C.V.O., K.C.B., C.S.I._ + + _Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police._ + + + _I am offering you this old story of the beginnings of + Finger-printing, by way of expressing my warm and continuous + admiration of those masterly developments of its original + applications, whereby, first in Bengal and the Transvaal, and + then in England, you have fashioned a weapon of penetrating + certainty for the sterner needs of Justice._ + + _W. J. HERSCHEL._ + _June, 1916._ + + + + +PREFACE + + +The following pages have two objects: first, to place on record the +genesis of the Finger-print method of personal identification, from its +discovery in Bengal in 1858, till its public demonstration there in +1877-8; secondly, to examine the scanty suggestions of evidence that +this use of our fingers had been foreshadowed in Europe more than a +hundred years ago, and had indeed been general in ancient times, +especially in China. + +In later years, and in energetic hands, the method has been developed +into a system far more effective than anything I contemplated, and I do +not go into that part of the story; but I believe these pages will +suffice to show the originality of my study of its two essential +features, the strict individuality and the stubborn persistence of the +patterns on our fingers. + +The gift granted to me of lighting upon a discovery which promised +escape from one great difficulty of administration in India is more than +ever appreciated by me since I have lived to see the promise wonderfully +fulfilled there, and in other lands as well. + +For the sake of interest I give, among the illustrations, several +examples of late 'repeats' taken many years after I left India; but +these do not belong to my story. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + Bengalee contract with Rājyadhar Kōnāi, 1858. + (_Collotype_) _Between pages_ 8 _and_ 9 + + Finger-print of Dr. R. F. Hutchinson, Medical Officer at Arrah + Station, June 1859 10 + + Finger-print of Captain H. Raban, Chief of the Police in Lower + Bengal, July 29,1860 12 + + Finger-print of the Mahārājā of Nuddea, April 13, 1862 13 + + Finger-print of Sir Charles Howard, Superintendent of Police, + Nuddea, April 13, 1862; and repeat, 1908 13 + + Finger-print of Sir Alfred C. Lyall, 1877; and repeat, 1908 17 + + Finger-print of Captain A. Coleman, P. & O. SS. 'Mongolia', + February 1877 17 + + Finger-prints of Bechā Rām Dās Adhikāri, + (_a_) made in 1877, (_b_) made in 1892 21 + + Finger-print of W. F. Courthope, 1877; and repeat, 1913 27 + + Finger-print of Captain V. H. Haggard, R.N., 1877, aet. + 2¾ years; and repeat, 1913. (_Collotype_) _Facing_ 27 + + Finger-print of Colonel J. Herschel, R.E., September 22, 1877 28 + + Finger-print of Dr. J. F. Duthie, September 22, 1877 28 + + Finger-print of Sir Theodore Hope, Bo.C.S., 1877 29 + + Finger-prints of William Waterfield, B.C.S., (_a_) July 31, 1860, + (_b_) March 31, 1877 29 + + Finger-prints of W. J. Herschel, (_a_) June 1859, (_b_) July 1859, + (_c_) March 31, 1877, (_d_) February 22, 1916 30 + + Finger-prints, enlarged, of A. E. H. Herschel: 1881, aet. 7¾; + 1890, aet. 17; 1913, aet. 40 31 + + 'Thomas Bewick his mark' 33 + + A 'tep-sai' of Bengal compared with a finger-print 35 + + Caste-marks of illiterates, 1865 36 + + Finger-mark on a Chinese Bank-note. (_Collotype_) _Facing_ 38 + + + + +THE ORIGIN OF FINGER-PRINTING + + +In 1858, after five years' service, as an Assistant under the old East +India Company, in the interior of Bengal, I was in charge of my first +subdivision, the head-quarters of which were then at Jungipoor, on the +upper reaches of the Hooghly river. My executive and magisterial +experience had by that time forced on me that distrust of all evidence +tendered in Court which did so much to cloud our faith in the people +around us. We cannot be too thankful that things have greatly improved +in India in the last sixty years, but the time of which I am speaking +was the very worst time of my life in this respect. I remember only too +well writing in great despondency to one of the best and soberest-minded +of my senior companions at Haileybury[1] about my despair of any good +coming from orders and decisions based on such slippery facts, and the +comfort I found in his sensible reply. + + [1] Till 1857 the East India Company's College. + +It happened, in July of that year, that I was starting the first bit of +road metalling at Jungipoor, and invited tenders for a supply of +'ghooting' (a good binding material for light roads). A native named +Rājyadhar Kōnāi, of the village of Nistā, came to terms with me, and at +my desire drew up our agreement in his own hand, in true commercial +style. He was about to sign it in the usual way, at the upper right-hand +corner, when I stopped him in order to read it myself; and it then +occurred to me to try an experiment by taking the stamp of his hand, by +way of signature instead of writing. There was nothing very original +about that, as an idea. Many must have heard of some such use of a man's +hand; and the correspondence that has taken place has brought to light +old instances of the hand, or the nail of a finger, or the teeth in +one's mouth, being used to certify a man's act, or a woman's. But these +have all been isolated instances. Sir Francis Galton, however, has +pointed out[2] that in our own times the engraver Bewick had a fancy for +engraving his thumb-mark, with his name attached, as vignettes, or as +colophons, in books which he published.[3] As a boy I had loved Bewick +on Birds: I regret that it is not now to be found in our library. +Galton's remark has reminded me that I used to see the thumb-mark there, +as well as I recollect, in an ornamental title-page. I mention this +because I dare say it had something to do with my fascination over +Kōnāi's hand-markings. If so, the influence was unknown to me. The +absorbing interests of manhood had blotted out, not Bewick, but his +thumb-mark, from my memory. However that may be, I was only wishing to +frighten Kōnāi out of all thought of repudiating his signature +hereafter. He, of course, had never dreamt of such an attestation, but +fell in readily enough. I dabbed his palm and fingers over with the +home-made oil-ink used for my official seal, and pressed the whole +hand on the back of the contract, and we studied it together, with a +good deal of chaff about palmistry, comparing his palm with mine on +another impression. Here is a facsimile of the whole document, made by +the Clarendon Press. I was so pleased with the experiment that, having +to make a second contract with Kōnāi, I made him attest it in the same +way. One of these contracts I gave to Sir Francis (then Mr.) Galton for +his celebrated paper read before the Royal Society, November 1890, to +which body he presented it; the other lies before me now. Trials with my +own fingers soon showed the advantage of using them instead of the whole +hand for the purpose then in view, i.e. for securing a signature which +the writer would obviously hesitate to disown. That he might be +infallibly convicted of perjury, if he did, is a very different matter. +That was not settled, and could not have been settled, to the +satisfaction of Courts of Justice, till, after many years, abundant +agreement had been reached among ordinary people. The very possibility +of such a 'sanction' (to use a technical expression) to the use of a +finger-print did not dawn upon me till after long experience, and even +then it became no more than a personal conviction for many years more. +The decisiveness of a finger-print is now one of the most powerful aids +to Justice. Our possession of it derives from the impression of Kōnāi's +hand in 1858. + + [2] 'Finger-prints' (Macmillan, 1892), p. 26. + + [3] See Appendix. + +Of trials with my own fingers the oldest impression I possess was taken +in June 1859, when I first began to keep records. I had been transferred +to be Magistrate of Arrah, the most north-westerly district of Bengal, +where the Mutiny still left work to do which allowed little time for +private hobbies; but I took so many prints among the society of the +Station, as well as among Indians of all classes, that my 'fad' about +them was well known. The Medical Officer of Arrah was Dr. R. F. +Hutchinson, who naturally took great interest in the subject. Twenty-one +years later, in 1880, he was still there, and sent me a 'repeat' print +of his fingers. Here is a facsimile of his first Arrah impression. In +1890, being in England, he visited Galton's Laboratory, and gave a +second repeat (after thirty-one years) which was used in 'Finger-prints' +(1892), p. 93, to support Mr. Galton's evidence of 'Persistency'. In the +facsimile 'Collection 1858-1913', which I am attaching to some of the +copies of this narrative, will be found other prints which I took at +Arrah of my whole hand and of my right foot. They agree irresistibly +with prints taken now after an interval of fifty-seven years. + + [Illustration: KONAI'S HAND Bengal 1858] + + [Illustration: Contract for 2,000 maunds of road-metalling, + between W. J. Herschel and Rajyadhar Konai, in Konai's + handwriting] + +In 1860 I was sent as Magistrate to Nuddea, nearer to Calcutta. The +Indigo disturbances in the district had given rise to a great deal of +violence, litigation, and fraud; forgery and perjury were rampant. The +rent-rolls of the ryots put into Court by the Zemindars; the pottahs +(agreements for rent) purporting to be issued by them to each ryot, put +in by the latter; the kabooliyats (acceptances) purporting to be signed +by the ryot, and tendered in evidence against him; all these documents +were frequently worth no more than the paper on which they were written. +In my own jail a notorious convict was found making clay seals of +well-known landlords, and forging their signatures on pottahs smuggled +into his hands. He was detected by the colour of the floor of his cell, +where he kept his stock-in-trade buried. Things were so bad in this and +other ways that the administration of Civil Justice had unusual +difficulty in preserving its dignity. I was driven to take up +finger-prints now with a definite object before me, and for three years +continued taking a very large number from all sorts and conditions of +men. I give here some selected impressions of friends taken in Nuddea +during the years 1860, 1861, and 1862, in order of date, and names of +some others. + + [Illustration: R. F. Hutchinson, June 1859, Medical Officer at + Arrah Station.] + +1860, July. Claude Brown, a prominent merchant of Calcutta, who was +making a tour in the Indigo districts, and was at the time my guest. + +1860, July 29. Captain H. Raban, Head of the Bengal Police, sent to +Nuddea on account of its disturbed state; also my guest. He took extreme +interest in the evidence of his own imprint. It was my habit, of course, +to give duplicates of his 'mark' to every one of importance. + + [Illustration: Captain H. Raban, Head of the Police in Lower + Bengal, July 29, 1860.] + +1860, July 31. W. Waterfield, B.C.S., a college friend, afterwards +Comptroller-General of the Treasuries of India. I have several 'repeats' +of his; see especially p. 29. + +1861, June 24. Ogilvie Temple, Judge of the Court of Small Causes, +Kooshtea. + +1862, April 13. At a gathering at my house at Kishnagar I had the good +fortune to secure the prints of many other notables of the district. + +The Mahārājā of Nuddea. He was the highest of the old nobility of +Bengal. He was much struck, as I was, by the remarkable symmetry of the +'pattern' on one of his fingers at the core. + + [Illustration: + April 13, 1862. Mahārājā of Nuddea. + Enlarged for the remarkable pattern] + + [Illustration: + April 13, 1862. A. C. Howard. + July 20, 1908. Sir Charles Howard.] + +Same day. E. Grey, B.C.S. A college friend, on my staff, afterwards +Civil and Sessions Judge. He, I am happy to say, is still alive (1916), +and his 'repeat' is quite good now. + +Same day. A. C. Howard, District Superintendent of Police, Nuddea, +afterwards Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard, and knighted for his +services there, as Sir Charles Howard. He gladly gave me a 'repeat' in +London after forty-six years. It will be seen how good the persistence +has been. + +Same day. Three other Assistant Magistrates on the unusually large staff +of the district. Among these was F. K. Hewitt, B.C.S., afterwards +Commissioner of Chota Nagpur. Twenty-six years later, at my request, he +furnished Sir Francis Galton with the 'repeat' printed on p. 93 of his +famous work 'Finger-prints' (Macmillan, 1892). I have much later repeats +taken at Oxford. + +Same day. Ninian H. Thomson, Judge of the Court of Small Causes. He +kindly sent me a repeat twenty-eight years later from Florence, and this +also appears in the same work, p. 93. + +Very early in my experiments I entertained misgivings about the +possibility of the impressions being forged by the professional +criminals whom we had so much reason to fear. I therefore submitted some +specimens to the best artists in Calcutta to imitate. Their failure +sufficed to dispel all anxiety on that point. None of them come near +Bewick's engravings in accuracy. + +Before I left Kishnagar (Nuddea) the violence of the Indigo disturbances +had been subdued, but the Courts became choked with suits for +enhancement of rent upon the recalcitrant cultivators, and the sore +point about the genuineness of leases, &c., became aggravated. I took +courage from despair, and in my judicial capacity (if I remember right) +addressed an official letter to the Government of Bengal, definitely +advocating administrative action to enforce the use of 'finger-prints' +by both parties as necessary to the validity of these documents. +Unfortunately I kept no private draft of this letter, and have lost the +date, probably 1862 or 1863. It must, however, be on record, both in +Nuddea and in the Calcutta Secretariat. Nothing came of it, and I took +no more pains about it. But a few years ago I was pleasantly reminded by +Mr. Horace Cockerell, for some time Secretary to the Government, who +gave me the history of its reception, viz. that it had been deemed +inadvisable, when things were quieting down, to raise a new controversy +of the sort. He added that it was a matter of regret now, that no action +whatever had been taken, but he pointed out that legislation would have +been necessary to make the new marks admissible in evidence, and to get +such a law on the spur of the moment would have been hopeless. That +difficulty had certainly never occurred to me when I made the +suggestion. But how weighty an objection it was is shown by the fact +that it was long, even after the value of finger-prints had been +established in practice, before the High Court of Calcutta, in a leading +case, declared that the evidence could not be excluded, nay more, that +it was cogent. This was many years before such a case in England. At the +time I wrote it is quite certain that no Court in India, no pleader, no +solicitor had ever recognized such signatures as these. + +In 1863 I took my first furlough to England, which changed the current +of my thoughts. But I found that my own people had been more interested +than I had supposed by my correspondence on the subject. Among my +brother Alexander's papers was found after his death a letter telling +him my ideas, and asking him to devise a roller of some sort, for +oil-ink, better than my soft office pads. + +During that and later furloughs I took no public steps about the +subject. In society, of course, it was looked on simply as a hobby, +attracting no more serious attention than did Bewick's fancy for +engraving his thumb-mark in his day. But the warm interest shown by my +own people, who had known my early troubles in India, determined me, +during my last furlough, that before completing my service I would give +the thing an open official trial on my own responsibility. I sailed, +1877, in the P. and O. steamer 'Mongolia', Captain Coleman, with my +sister, now Mrs. Maclear, who was an enthusiast on my side. We roused +attention enough on board in the Indian Ocean to obtain the +finger-prints of the Captain and many of his officers, stewards, and +kalāshis; also of many of the passengers, among whom I may especially +mention Sir Alfred and Lady Lyall (as they afterwards became), Colonel +Garrow Waterfield, and Colonel Chermside. Some thirty years later, 1908, +Sir A. Lyall permitted me to take and use his repeat impression. Here +are facsimiles of both, and also of Captain Coleman's, the pattern of +which was thought then to deserve enlargement. Friendship, which for +family reasons sprang up between Colonel Garrow Waterfield and myself, +led him to take special interest in my project, and I cannot doubt that +he carried that with him to the Punjab, where his reputation was high. +Most of the other saloon passengers were business men on their way back +to the Far East, and left us at Ceylon. If any one of them had heard of +the use of these marks, say in China, I could not but have been told of +it. But there was not a breath of the sort. I give here a list of the +remaining signatures still in my possession, in case any may meet with +recognition: F. Slight, Officer of the 'Mongolia', F. A. Owen, J. +Watson, R. Hawkins, F. Wingrove, O. Westphal, J. W. Malet, G. S. Lynch, +Mrs. Philip. It is only reasonable, I think, to believe that such a +novel and evidently useful idea would have spread by their means +wherever they went. My exhibition was frequently asked for, and I always +gave a duplicate of his mark to each person, and sometimes added one of +my own to show the extraordinary persistence of patterns after nigh +twenty years. + + [Illustration: + Sir A. C. Lyall. 1877. + Sir Alfred C. Lyall, May 15, 1908.] + + [Illustration: + Capt. A. Coleman (P. & O. SS. 'Mongolia'), February, 1877. + Enlargements by eye.] + +On my return to India, my position as Magistrate and Collector at +Hooghly, near Calcutta, gave me the control, not only of criminal +courts, but of the jail, and of the modern Department for Registration +of Deeds of all sorts, and among minor duties the payment of Government +pensions. Registration, of course, appealed most strongly to my desires, +but the Sub-Registrar and his clerks had to be trained, and meanwhile +the few pensioners enabled me to break the ice myself. I was not a +little anxious lest, officially introduced, Hindus might take alarm for +their caste. The memory of the greased cartridges of the Mutiny, so near +Hooghly, was indelible. In private experiments I had never met any such +difficulty, but the old lesson had been a severe one, and I thought it +well, when acting officially, to take every precaution. I was careful, +therefore, from the first ostentatiously to employ Hindus to take the +impressions wanted; using, as if a matter of course, the pad and the ink +made by one of themselves from the very seed-oil and lamp-black which +were in constant use for the office seals in the several departments. + +The glad approval of the pensioners was a great pleasure to me, and made +the other registration work astonishingly easy. The clerks took to it +unhesitatingly, and enjoyed the fun of explaining the 'Sahib's hikmat'. +No one ever hesitated to do as he was told, or to take away duplicates +for talk at home. The process of registration at that time was regulated +by a late law devised to afford the best security then possible for the +genuineness of deeds, as far as attestation went. The signatures, +whether in full or by caste mark, or by cross, or, in the case of women +mostly, by touching the paper with the tip of the finger wetted with ink +from the clerk's pen (see p. 35), were always made in the presence and +under the eye of the Registrar, who, in most cases, had to rely on the +sworn evidence of witnesses attesting their personal knowledge of the +executant. The Registrar was, of course, responsible for using his +intelligence in each case to prevent imposture. His part of the work was +never impeached, that I know, in Bengal; nevertheless, fraudulent +attempts did still come to light. Signatures were still denied; +personations in presenting false deeds did take place, either to +swindle, or, in one case, to fabricate an alibi. As long as I was at +Hooghly I was quite satisfied that no will or other deed registered +there with the new safeguard would ever be repudiated by the actual +executant. I have had to think otherwise since then, because many years +afterwards a man (in another district) who had given his finger-print +before a Registrar repudiated it. He was summoned to give his evidence +on oath. It was found that he had cut off the joints of his fingers, +hoping to defeat justice by corrupting the witnesses so as to prove that +he was _not_ the man they had recognized before the Registrar. The High +Court rejected the sworn story of an accident, and confirmed the facts +of the registration, with the necessary consequence to the offender for +his perjury. I do not know of any other repudiation having been pressed +to this bitter end in India or elsewhere. The contrast between the +inherent weakness of the old law and the efficiency of the new test +could not be better exemplified. This case gave the first stern blow to +the foul mischief that had developed such cruel proportions in India +under cover of our conservative legal habits. + +The way the new safeguard was applied at Hooghly in 1877 was +thus:--After the legal formalities of registration had been observed, +the Registrar made the person print his two fingers on the deed, and +again in a diary book which was kept by him in the office, for my own +inspection rather than as evidence. It is, no doubt, preserved at +Hooghly still. + +It was from this book that cuttings were made at my request in 1892 by +Mr. Duke, the magistrate, which formed the subject of Sir Francis +Galton's volume on 'Blurred Finger-prints' (1893), to which, for its +cogency in marshalling the evidence, I must refer my readers. I annex a +tracing of one of his enlargements, by permission of the London +University, to which he left his great collection. + + [Illustration: Bechā Rām Dās Adhikāri. From tracings + by Mr. Galton of enlargements, + (_a_) Made in 1877 when registering his deed; + (_b_) made in 1892 for Mr. Galton.] + +Another form in which I made use of the new system for public purposes +was in the jail. The common device of hiring a substitute to serve out a +term was not unknown, but it involved a long risk of detection. A safer +but very costly, and therefore rare, device was sham death and a +purchased corpse, affording comparative safety after escape. A case of +this kind, carried out with the aid of an irregularly appointed doctor, +was strongly suspected by me at Hooghly.[4] The precaution I adopted +was to take the finger-prints of each offender when passing sentence of +imprisonment, both on the records of the Court and also on the warrant +to the jailer. + + [4] I had him dismissed soon after for a different offence. + +All these processes were in full use when I left India, on the +completion of twenty-five years' service, in 1878. I was by that time +almost broken down in health, and more so in energy. Sir Ashley Eden, +the Lieutenant-Governor, offered me a substantive Commissionership. I +had already held such an appointment twice, and nothing but an honest +sense of inability made me decline it now. I mention this in explanation +of the slackness on my part, but for which the finger-print system would +certainly have been put in force in the Registration Department, at +least throughout Bengal, forty years ago. As it was, I only tried to +induce the Inspector of Jails and the Registrar-General of the day to +give the system a trial. Fortunately I kept an office copy of this +letter, which, in reply to outside criticism, I published in 'Nature', +Nov. 22, 1894, and repeat here to complete this narrative. + + +(TRUE COPY OF OFFICE COPY.) + + HOOGHLY, _August 15, 1877_. + + MY DEAR B----, --I enclose a paper which looks unusual, + but which I hope has some value. It exhibits a method of + identification of persons, which, with ordinary care in + execution, and with judicial care in the scrutiny, is, I can + now say, for all practical purposes far more infallible than + photography. It consists in taking a seal-like impression, + in common seal ink, of the markings on the skin of the two + forefingers of the right hand (these two being taken for + convenience only). + + I am able to say that these marks do not (bar accidents) change + in the course of ten or fifteen years so much as to affect the + utility of the test. + + The process of taking the impression is hardly more difficult + than that of making a fair stamp of an office seal. I have been + trying it in the Jail and in the Registering Office and among + pensioners here for some months past. I have purposely taken no + particular pains in explaining the process, beyond once showing + how it is done, and once or twice visiting the office, + inspecting the signatures,[5] and asking the _omlah_[6] to be + a little more careful. The articles necessary are such as the + _daftari_[7] can prepare on a mere verbal explanation. + + Every person who now registers a document at Hooghly has to sign + his 'sign-manual'. None has offered the smallest objection, and + I believe that the practice, if generally adopted, will put an + end to all attempts at personation. + + The cogency of the evidence is admitted by every one who takes + the trouble to compare a few signatures together, and to try + making a few himself. I have taken thousands now in the course + of the last twenty years, and (bar smudges and accidents, which + are rarely bad enough to be fatal) I am prepared to answer for + the identity of every person whose 'sign-manual' I can now + produce if I am confronted with him. + + As an instance of the value of the thing, I might suggest that + if Roger Tichborne had given his 'sign-manual' on entering the + Army on any register, the whole Orton case would have been + knocked on the head in ten minutes by requiring Orton to make + his sign-manual alongside it for comparison. + + I send this specimen to you because I believe that + identification is by no means the unnecessary thing in jails + which one might presume it should be. I don't think I need + dilate on that point. Here is the means of verifying the + identity of every man in jail with the man sentenced by the + court, at any moment, day or night. Call the number up and make + him sign. If it is he, it is he; if not, he is exposed on the + spot. Is No. 1302 really dead, and is that his corpse or a sham + one? The corpse has two fingers that will answer the question + at once. Is this man brought into jail the real Simon Pure + sentenced by the magistrate? The sign-manual on the back of the + magistrate's warrant is there to testify, &c. + + For uses in other departments and transactions, especially among + illiterate people, it is available with such ease that I quite + think its general use would be a substantial contribution + towards public morality. Now that it is pretty well known + here, I do not believe the man lives who would dare to attempt + personation before the Registrar here. The mukhtears[8] all + know the potency of the evidence too well. + + Will you kindly give the matter a little patient attention, and + then let me ask whether you would let me try it in other jails? + + The impressions will, I doubt not, explain themselves to + you without more words. I will say that perhaps in a small + proportion of the cases that might come to question the study + of the seals by an expert might be advisable, but that in most + cases any man of judgement giving his attention to it cannot + fail to pronounce right. I have never seen any two signatures + about which I remained in doubt after sufficient care. + + Kindly keep the specimens carefully. + + Yours sincerely, + W. HERSCHEL. + + [5] The words 'signature', 'sign-manual', 'seal', were used + indifferently in this letter for 'finger-print'. + + [6] Clerks. + + [7] Man in charge of stationery. + + [8] Solicitors. + +I received one answer, but its tenor was not so encouraging as I had +hoped. I was out of heart, and did not press my request. + +How much all this was regretted afterwards by others I must in simple +justice record. It came about so quietly and so honourably that it is +only now that I feel myself free to say publicly how deeply I was +touched. My first substantive Commissionership had been given me by Sir +George Campbell, to whose house I was not long after brought back in a +dying condition from malarial fever. Sir George and his private +secretary, Mr. Luttman Johnson, took us, my wife and myself, into the +tenderest care. Years afterwards, in 1906, the latter befriended me in +the kindliest manner at the annual I.C.S. garden-party, which I but +rarely attended, and invited me to dine with him that evening. It was a +party of seven or eight, and the next to arrive were Sir James and Lady +Bourdillon. His name, when our host introduced us, I only recognized as +lately Acting Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. To my great surprise, +before our hands parted, he told me how often he had wished to meet me, +to express his constant regret at having let my suggestion slip through +his hands when he was Registrar-General. He remembered my letter well, +and had indeed taken action by inquiry concerning my doings in his +department, but for some reason he had lost sight of the matter. +Needless to say, we became the firmest of friends on the spot, and I had +the pleasure of a visit from him afterwards at Oxford. It is some years +now since he and Mr. Luttman Johnson died. None of us, as far as I know, +has ever spoken of this fine act of Sir James's except in strict +privacy. + +The Inspector of Jails of 1877, Mr. Beverley, afterwards a judge in the +High Court of Bengal, is still alive. Writing in 1906, he says, +regretfully, 'I have no recollection of writing the letter you refer to, +but I know that, both as Registrar-General and as Inspector of Jails, I +took great interest in the Finger-print system of identification, of +which I always regarded you as the Apostle in India'. He too came to see +me at Oxford after that, with one of his successors in the High Court. + +I shall say more farther on in regard to my statement in this 1877 +letter that 'these marks do not change in the course of ten or fifteen +years'. + +During my stay at Hooghly, so near Calcutta, I saw more society in my +own house than in other stations, and interested my friends with the +novelty of finger-printing. I give a few of their names to which special +interest attaches. + +Among Indian gentlemen, whose prints were taken at Hooghly in 1877, I do +not know who are still living; I can only give the names of + + (1) Bābu Dinonāth Pāl, of Hooghly; + (2) Bābu Lalit Mohun Singh, of Sibpur; + (3) Bābu Upendra Nārāyan Nandi, of Shāhāganj. + +Of English friends still living I am allowed to reproduce the print of +1877, and its repeat in 1913, of Mr. Frank Courthope, well known in +Sussex and in banking circles in London, (next page). + +The next is remarkable. Captain V. H. Haggard, R.N., was a child of +2¾ years old at Hooghly, 1877. By much ingratiation I succeeded in +getting a print of his whole hand, and another of three fingers. In +1913, when on special duty in H.M.S. 'President', he kindly gave me (not +for the first time) a repeat, this time at the age of 38. The baby print +bears enlargement beautifully, and I am sure my readers will be +delighted with the comparison I am thus able to lay before them. + + [Illustration: CAPTAIN V. H. HAGGARD, R. N. + 1877 aet. 2¾ + r. 3 1877 (magnified) + Repeat 1913 (magnified)] + + [Illustration: W. F. Courthope. + r. 1 At Hooghly, 1877. + r. 1 r. 2 Oct. 21, 1913. + r. 2 At Hooghly, 1877.] + +One of the prints I value most, on personal grounds, is that of Sir +Theodore Hope, at that time in the Legislative Council of India for +Bombay. I grieve to say he has died since these words were written. He +was one of my most honoured college friends in the old Haileybury days +of 1853. + +Among the last prints that I took in India were two at Mussoorie, in the +Punjab Himālayas, in Sept. 1877; one of my brother Colonel J. Herschel, +R.E., and one of Dr. J. F. Duthie, of the Forest Department. They are +both living still, and their repeats to-day are quite good. + +To return now to my letter of 1877. I was 'able to say that these marks +do not change in the course of ten or fifteen years'. I might have said +eighteen years, for my own marks reached back to 1859; but I was +steering for safety. + +The conviction of the unchanging character of finger-patterns had, +of course, grown on me only by degrees, as the evidence of time +accumulated. Among my friends, from Nuddea days onwards, I often took +second impressions, invariably drawing attention to their identity with +the former ones. I never came upon any sign of change, bar accident. But +such comparisons were generally limited to intervals of no more than two +or three years, owing to the frequent changes of residence incidental to +Indian service. As time went on it was chiefly the incessant evidence of +my own ten fingers, and of my whole hand, which wrought in me the +overwhelming conviction that the lines on the skin persisted +indefinitely. + + [Illustration: Colonel J. Herschel, Sept. 22, 1877.] + + [Illustration: J. F. Duthie, 1877.] + +But besides my own evidence of eighteen years, I had that of my oldest +college friend, William Waterfield, of almost as long. On March 31, +1877, he and Mr. (afterwards Sir Theodore) Hope and Mrs. Hope were my +guests at Hooghly. I took all their impressions and my own on that day, +noting on Waterfield's that we compared it with his earliest print of +1860, in Nuddea, seventeen years earlier. We found the agreement, of +course, complete. Here are the facsimiles. + + + [Illustration: T. C. Hope, Bo.C.S., at Hooghly, 1877.] + + [Illustration: W. Waterfield + July 31, 1860, Nuddea. + March 31, 1877, Hooghly.] + +If more evidence were required, I was prepared, without hesitation, +to call on any person whose mark I had taken since I began. It was in +fact from among those very persons, Natives as well as English, that +thirteen years later, at Mr. Galton's request, I obtained the repeats +which, by their much longer persistence then, went so far to prove his +case to universal conviction. + +I close this record with a comparison between three of my own prints, +taken, one in 1859, one in 1877, and the last to-day, after fifty-seven +years. For length of persistence they cannot at present be matched. + + [Illustration: + (_a_) (_b_) W. J. H., 1859, Arrah (aet. 26). + (_c_) W. J. H., March 31, 1877 (aet. 44). + (_d_) W. J. H., February 22, 1916 (aet. 83).] + +It goes beyond the proper scope of this narrative, but I cannot refrain +from offering my readers here a striking instance of the almost +incredible persistency of atomic renovation that takes place in the pads +of our fingers, in spite of their being more subject to wear than any +other part of the body. The first was taken at the age of 7¾; the +next, for Mr. Galton, nine years later. In 1913 my son was in Canada +when I asked him to send me several repeats. Every print showed the +minute tell-tale dot which Mr. Galton's sharp eye had noticed twenty-two +years before. No doubt it was a natal mark. It has anyhow already +persisted for thirty-two years. + + [Illustration: A. E. H. Herschel, r. 3. + 1881, aet. 7¾. + 1890, aet. 17. + 1913, aet. 40.] + + + + +APPENDIX + + +When I speak of the 'discovery' of finger-prints nigh sixty years ago, I +should wish to be understood correctly. I cannot say that I thought of +it as such until Mr. Galton examined old records in search of earlier +notices of the subject. What he found had been beyond my ken, and I +never inquired for myself. The fascination of experiments and the +impelling object of them were all I cared about. Had it been otherwise I +should have had an open field for egoism to any extent, for no one +questioned the novelty of the thing. + +The time that has elapsed since Galton's inquiries, without any material +addition to his ascertained facts, justifies me, I venture to think, in +speaking of my work as the 'discovery' of the value of finger-prints. + +I proceed to show what has been brought to light from other sources. + + +Bewick. + +Of modern cases the first known is that of Thomas Bewick. He was a +wood-engraver, as well as an author, and had a fancy for engraving his +finger-mark. He printed, as far as I can ascertain, only three +specimens, by way of ornament to his books. + +1. 1809. 'British Birds', p. 190. The impression of the finger appears +as if obliterating a small scene of a cottage, trees, and a rider, but +the paper between the lines of the finger is almost all clean. + +2. 1818. The 'Receipt'; of which, by Mr. Quaritch's favour, I possess +one. This is, beyond all possibility of doubt, quite free from any +tooling. How it was transferred to paper in those days (of which there +is an indication) I am unable to say, but for his purposes it was an +original 'finger-print' of Thomas Bewick. Even the fine half-tone +process of this facsimile cannot reproduce its delicacy. + + [Illustration: Thomas Bewick his mark] + +3. 1826. Memorial Edition of Bewick's Works, 1885, on the last page of +the last volume, under a letter dated 1826, in which he rates some one +for copying his woodcuts. When I saw it at the British Museum some years +ago I thought it showed toolwork. + +These three seem to be all the specimens now available, and they are +from three different fingers, of which two are certified to be his own. + +Gathering that Mr. Quaritch was exceptionally familiar with Bewick's +life, I told him that I wished to leave no stone unturned to do ample +justice to him, if he was known to have done anything more than appears +above. Mr. Quaritch took the matter up very kindly, and finally informed +me that he had been unable to trace any writing of Bewick's concerning +these prints. There seems, therefore, no evidence that he ever took +impressions of any finger but his own. Now it is true that no one of +observant habits, and least of all an engraver, could fail to perceive +the peculiarities of his own finger. The brick-makers of Babylon and +Egypt, and every printer since fingers were dirtied by printer's ink, +must have noticed them. But it is a long step from that to a study of +other men's marks, with a view to identification. What Bewick certainly +did do might easily have led him to such a study, but it looks as if he +was satisfied with recognizing his own mark. + +Remembering, as I have already said, how one of his marks had struck my +fancy as a boy, I am disposed to believe that, all unwittingly, I was +guided to seize upon a thread which Bewick had let fall. + + +Purkinje. + +Five years after Bewick, Johannes Purkinje, of Breslau, in 1823, read an +essay which has been found and examined by Mr. Galton, and partly +translated on p. 85 of his 1892 work. Purkinje carried his study of the +patterns on fingers beyond all comparison with Bewick's use of them, of +whose existence indeed he could hardly have been aware. He worked hard +on them for a scientific (medical) purpose. It seemed to me strange +that, going so far as he did, he had not hit upon our idea. To satisfy +myself I read his work through in 1909. The very last sentence in it +seemed to strike a light. Referring to 'the varieties of the tonsils, +and especially of the papillae of the tongue, in different individuals' +(no mention of fingers), he finishes the sentence and his essay by +saying: 'from all which [varieties] sound materials will be furnished +for that individual knowledge of the man which is of no less importance +than a general knowledge of him is, especially in the practice of +medicine.' A fine conclusion indeed, and a stimulating; but no part of +his essay conveys an inkling of identification by means of any of the +individual varieties on which he always lays stress, not even his +pioneer work in the classification of the markings on fingers. + + [Illustration: A _tep-sai_ of Bengal.] + + [Illustration: A finger-print.] + + [Illustration: THE TOKEN-SIGNATURES OF THOSE WHO CANNOT WRITE OR + READ, IN SEVERAL CASTES. YEAR 1865. DATE 8 FEBRUARY. + + 1. Cultivator; a harrow. 2. Barber; a mirror. 3. Shop-keeper; + scales. 4. Carpenter; a chisel. 5. A Washerman's board. 6. + Female; a bracelet. 7. Widow; a spindle. 8. Caste uncertain; + scissors. 9. Family Priest; an almanac roll.] + + +Bengal. + +The common way for illiterates to sign is to wet the tip of one finger +with ink from a pen, and then touch the document (leaving a small black +blot) where we touch a wafer. The mark so made is called '_tep-sai_', +'tep' meaning 'pressure' by touch or grip, and 'sai' meaning 'token' +(I do not know the etymology). I ask my readers now to compare the +'_tep-sai_' with the 'finger-print' alongside it, and to say whether the +_tep-sai_ could afford any means of identification by comparison with +another blot from the same finger. Illiterates who can hold a pen make a +cross, as we do, called '_dhera-sai_'; others, more ambitious, indicate +their caste by symbols. For the interest of the thing I give some +tracings from a collection of such caste-marks which I had made for this +purpose when I was Magistrate of Midnapore in 1865. + +When I was introducing actual registration I asked the principal member +of my Bar to give me his opinion about the new marks. His answer was as +follows (the English is of course his own): + + Hooghly, + The 21st Aug./77. + + DEAR SIR, + + I have examined the impressions made in these papers, and I + think each can be distinguished from the others. There are also + so many peculiarities in each impression that it cannot be + forged, and I think it would be a preventive to forgery if all + documents, specially by females, or males who do not know to + read or write, would contain impressions by fingers. + + Yours faithfully, + ESHAN CHUNDRA MITRA. + +I value this letter highly, for Eshan Chundra was Government Pleader at +Hooghly, and in frequent request in Calcutta. No native lawyer of his +large practice could have written thus if he had ever known of this +method of signature before. + +Trustworthy information in my hands is to the effect that attestations +by the finger in China are like Bengali _tep-sais_, and nothing more. + + +China. + +The nearest approach to our use of finger-prints that I have found in +China came to hand thus: + +An Oxford friend, Mr. Bullock, subsequently elected Professor of +Chinese, had been interpreter to the Legation in Peking. Talking with +him about the methods of signing deeds in China, he told me that the +finger-tip (not finger-print) method was in ordinary use, but he was +careful to point out also that to his knowledge ever since he went to +Peking, about 1868, Chinese bankers had been in the habit of impressing +their thumbs on the notes they issued; and he had no doubt the custom +was much older than that. This was startling, but he kindly procured for +me the bank-note which I here show in facsimile; with it came this +explanation of such thumb-marks, given by his friend in China: + +'They are imprinted partly on the counterfoil and partly on the note +itself, so that when presented its genuineness can be tested at once.' + +That is, they play the part of what is technically called the 'scroll' +in our cheques. + + [Illustration: A CHINESE BANK NOTE, 1898] + +My readers may accept it that the ink used was the same Indian ink with +which the Chinese characters on the note were written. That is the +unhesitating judgement of such an expert as Mr. Galton, who examined it. +The difference between a water ink and printer's ink for identification +is enormous. Blood on the fingers has occasionally left impressions that +fortunately sufficed to reveal the murderer; but, as a rule, wet fingers +leave only smudges as useless as this one. It is quite certain, +therefore, that no one in the habit of impressing his thumb-mark as this +banker did, would use water ink, if he depended on recognizing it as his +own. In short, the smudge on the bank-note was placed there in order to +identify the two parts of a piece of paper after severance, not to prove +who placed it so. My readers may see what exquisite delicacy of detail +can be obtained by printer's ink, when so desired, if they will examine +a fine skin impression with a magnifying-glass; even the pores along the +ridges can be seen as white dots. For practical purposes, however, such +extreme delicacy as this is not needed. + +This difference of ink suggests a further remark. The Chinese have used +printer's ink for ages. If they aimed at identification they would +surely have discovered its great value for clear impressions, and its +use could never have died out. On the other hand, a method of +identification depending on water ink could never have survived for such +strict work as our finger-prints. On the palm of the hand it can give a +fairly good impression for such simple identification as is wanted +(say) for passports, because the large creases will obviously be those +of the bearer of the passport, or as obviously not. These lines of the +palm, so well known in palmistry, are as clear to a man as the shape of +his hand, while those on the pads of his own fingers are scarcely +noticed even now by one man in a million. The science of identification +by means of the pads cannot, in my opinion, date farther back than 1858, +when I happened to use oil-ink, which was not used for _tep-sais_. + +The ablest defence of the claims of antiquity that I have seen is by a +Japanese writer, Kumagusu Minakata, whose letter to 'Nature', Dec. 27, +1894, appears to be as exhaustive as it is able; but I hope that this +paper will satisfy him that the finger-print system of our day has no +connexion with the methods he describes. The 'nail-marks' of which he +speaks must be utterly useless for identification; yet he treats all +manner of impressions alike, and tells us indeed that they are all known +by the one name of 'hand-mark'. I fear that he has failed, like some +other writers,[9] to see the definite force of the word 'identification' +in the finger-print system. It means that if a man can be indicated +whose finger-print agrees with that on a document, he is identified with +the man who put that one there. That is all we want. But it will be seen +that there must be two impressions at least, that will bear comparison, +to constitute 'identification'. + + [9] I include a too brief notice of the subject by Professor Giles + of Cambridge, in his recent work 'Civilization of China', p. 118, + and an article in the 'Nineteenth Century' of December 1904. + +None of the writers who have undertaken the defence appears to perceive +this need of a second impression if the issue of identity turns on any +kind of finger-mark. Repudiations cannot have been rare; tribunals must +occasionally have been invoked; yet no instance is quoted of decision by +demand for a second impression. + +It seems then that these marks were not made, as ours are, expressly to +challenge comparison; that, in fact, they offer no points for +comparison. + +In conclusion, it is hard to believe that a system 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, travellers, and students. Yet the knowledge never reached us. + + + FINIS. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Origin of Finger-Printing, by +William J. 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