Guide to finger-print identification / by Henry Faulds.

  • Faulds, Henry, 1843-1930.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to finger-print identification / by Henry Faulds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/124 page 1
    GUIDE TO Finger-Print Identification. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Old Methods of Identification. It is not easy for anyone at the present day to imagine how our grandsires dealt with the identifying of prisoners in criminal procedure. An early edition of the Pickwick Papers may afford some help. That work contains a picture showing the greatly embarrassed hero of the famous story having his “ portrait ” taken by an unsympathetic group of Bow Street runners. This was not being done by any fine chemical or artistic process. Each official was simply endeavouring by staring hard and fixedly at the suffering victim to fasten his important image on the memory. Even in the present year (1905) it is stated by The Lancet that, “ Recognition by memory of the prisoner by someone present at his previous trial and conviction is the usual means employed at the present time of proving previous convictions in court. Some police officers, no doubt, have good memories for faces, but the reliance that is to be placed upon such recognition after perhaps an interval of several years is obviously most uncertain. Identification by finger prints is here very valuable, but the identification should be made by properly expert persons.” (13th May.) No doubt in the early days by dint of practice and the driving of necessity many feats of skill in the use of memory were accom-
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