Classification and uses of finger prints / by Sir E.R. Henry.

  • Edward Henry
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Classification and uses of finger prints / by Sir E.R. Henry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    27/168 page 17
    delicacy of the ridges corresponds with the develop- ment of the child. They grow with the growth of the body, and are most marked in hands that do some- work, though liable to lose their sharpness of defini- tion and even to become partially obliterated on those parts of the hands where from continued pressure callosities form. This may be noticed in labourers and artisans whose hands have become hardened by the use of the tools or other implements of their trades. Injuries do not, necessarily, obliterate the ridges. An ulcerated sore eating so deeply into the flesh as to destroy the sweat glands would certainly destroy the ridges, and from the surface of a lasting scar the ridges disappear. A cut leaves across the ridges a permanent thin mark which, when the impression is taken on paper, shows as a white space somewhat similar to a crease. In addition to the creases which are permanent, such as those marking the divisions between the phalanges of the fingers and those on the palm caused by the doubling up of the hand, creases not permanent may appear on the bulbs of the fingers, which might not again show themselves in a duplicate impression taken after a lapse of time. It is specially needful, therefore, not to place undue reliance upon these creases when impressions are brought under examination in order to establish identity or dis- similarity. The occurrence in two impressions of obviously the same crease is a great aid to the eye, but two impressions of the same finger may be taken, —the second with a well-defined crease, caused by pressing the bulb surface with the blade of a knife or 27491 B
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