For instance, the resemblance may lie in the pattern being made up of
loops or whorls in both, but the smaller details, such as the number of
the ridges or their minute peculiarities (_e.g._, dividing and then
reuniting to form a small island), will not be shared.
The results of other observations tended to show that the influence of the
mother upon the type of finger-print is more pronounced than that of the
father.
The existence of racial peculiarities in finger-prints, which Dr. Faulds
believed that he had discovered in the case of the Japanese, has not been
borne out by the experience of others.
The observations of Sir Francis Galton upon numbers of prints
representative of pure English, pure Welsh, Hebrew and Negro proved
unquestionably that there was no pattern peculiar to any of these races.
The only suggestion of any difference was that the width of the ridges
appeared to be more uniform and their direction more parallel in the
finger-prints of negroes than in those of the other races.
The same conclusions were drawn from the observations upon the
finger-prints of different classes of individuals, those of art students
being compared with those of science students, of field labourers, and of
idiots. In each instance it was possible to match the type of patterns in
one class with those in any of the others. The patterns of the
finger-impression of a statesman, for instance, could be matched by those
of an idiot.
The first attempt to classify the various patterns formed by the ridges
was that of Purkenje, a doctor of medicine who, in 1823, delivered a
thesis upon the subject at the University of Breslau.
He concluded that all the varieties of curves might be grouped under nine
main heads or standard types, which he described as follows:--
(1) _Transverse curves._ (2) _Central longitudinal stria._ (3) _Oblique
stria._ (4) _Oblique sinus._ (5) _Almond._ (6) _Spiral._ (7) _Ellipse or
elliptical whorl._ (8) _Circle_ or _circular whorl_; and (9) _Double
whorl_.
The differences between these different types are best shown by diagrams,
and the accompanying figure, reproduced by permission of Sir Francis
Galton, represents the cores of the nine standard patterns.
This classification, resting as it does upon merely superficial
appearances, does not afford a certain means of separating the types,
since factors, such as the depth of printing, the size of the patterns,
and the prominence of secondary details may have an undue influence in the
placing of a particular print in one or the other group.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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