In finger-prints, therefore, we have the only means of proving the
identity of an individual beyond all question.
In the prehistoric flint-holes at Brandon, in Suffolk, there was found
some years ago a pick made from the horn of an extinct elk. This had been
used by some flint-digger of the stone age to hew out of the chalk the
rough flints which were subsequently made into scrapers and arrow-heads.
Upon the dark handle of this instrument were the finger-prints in chalk of
the workman, who, thousands of years ago, flung it down for the last time.
It is strange to reflect that in these perishable impressions he had left
a far more permanent record of his identity than he could have done by any
other conceivable means.
A striking feature in the scriptural account of the death of Jezebel is
that her body was devoured by the dogs, which left nothing but the skull
and the palms of her hands and soles of her feet, so that no man might say
"this is Jezebel." Yet, as Sir Francis Galton pointed out, it was upon
those parts that the dogs had spared that Jezebel carried the only certain
proofs of her identity.
The question of heredity in finger-prints is not only interesting but
might also conceivably be a point of some importance in a criminal trial.
Dr. Faulds concluded that heredity played a great part in the particular
form of the markings. "The dominancy of heredity in these patterns is
sometimes very striking. I have found unique patterns in a parent repeated
with marvellous accuracy in his child."
He suggested that there might thus possibly be an Orton type of pattern
and a Tichborne type, to one or other of which experts might have referred
the finger impressions of the claimant in the celebrated case.
While there is unquestionably a general tendency for a particular type of
finger-prints to be inherited just as any other bodily peculiarities are
liable to be passed on from the parents to the children, there is by no
means that definite relationship that Dr. Faulds hoped to establish.
The observations made by Sir Francis Galton upon this point, and the
mathematical considerations based upon them render it impossible to doubt
that the average resemblance between the finger-prints of two brothers or
of a brother and sister is greater than in those of two persons selected
at random.
The general similarities in the finger-prints in rows A and B in the plate
(p. 66), which are those of two sisters, are obvious.
The case of twins is particularly interesting, for it is well known that
when of the same sex they frequently show remarkable physical and mental
resemblances or the reverse. Here, too, it was found by Sir Francis
Galton that the finger-prints exhibited a strong tendency to similarity,
although in no case were the resemblances so close that the prints of one
twin could be mistaken for those of the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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