Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/59

Rh and all other parts than could possibly be the case with any other two individuals, but even here, although the correspondence as to the general formulæ is, as a matter of fact, identical or nearly so, the variation in proportions, in the number of ridges forming a given area, and in other similar details, is so great that no one would be deceived into considering them really identical.

If the use and practical application of the system above outlined may be briefly alluded to here, it will be seen that the cases where such a system would be of great importance are numerous and varied. Aside from the case of criminals where the possession of a set of prints by the authorities would be a far better and surer guide than the usual 'Kogues Gallery' photograph or even a set of Bertillon measurements, there are cases of accidents of various sorts in which the bodies may be sufficiently mutilated to render recognition uncertain or impossible; cases of claimants of estates, like the famous Tichbourne claimant; cases of the supposed restoration of lost children, and many others.

With regard to criminals, prints could be made and filed away at headquarters, as is now done with photographs and written descriptions, for in the case of a suspect who has taken refuge under an alias, the mere hesitation to submit to the process would increase suspicion, and one could have no just ground for refusal. Should a refractory case occur, the use of chloroform would violate no principle of humanity, and the mere threat of it would be apt to enforce compliance.

In accident cases, as in the classical one of Jezebel, to whom Galton has feelingly alluded, the palms and the soles are apt to be the last external parts to be destroyed, being protected respectively by the involuntary clenching of the hands and by the heavy soles of the shoes. With regard to the durability of the epidermic ridges Galton states that they are still present and plainly seen in many Egyptian mummies and in an experiment made by the author upon the feet of an infant belonging to the prehistoric cliff-dwellers of southern Utah, where the bodies were not even embalmed but simply dried in the rarefied mountain air, the thenar and apical patterns could be definitely traced after a comparatively simple preliminary treatment.

To provide for both accident cases and those involving all forms of claimants, it would be a very simple matter for families to take and preserve a set of prints of each individual, although it would be still better, as in all cases of public versus private supervision, if each community were required by law to add such a set of prints to the birth records of each of its citizens, records which could be easily taken at the entrance to the public schools or at some other definite time when the child is old enough to voluntarily assist in the process. These records could be easily duplicated by photography if wanted for