Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/60

54 at a distance, but in most cases the sending of the formulae either alone or with the addition of a few details would suffice, and could be easily telegraphed.

To insure the rapid selection of a given print, especially in a large collection, some method of classification other than by name and family would be requisite and this could be done by filing the actual prints alphabetically and making a card catalogue of the formulæ and descriptions, the arrangement of which would depend upon certain features selected from these.

By such means it would be easily possible to keep even a great number of records in a very compact form, and in the larger towns and in cities this would demand the use of a special room in the municipal building and the maintenance of a clerk to take and file the prints and to be on hand for consultation in case of need, yet the small expense involved in this would be trivial in comparison with the large amounts which would often be saved by a prompt and accurate determination.

It is, then, a matter of certainty that a system of personal identification founded upon the epidermic markings of palms and soles would endure all the tests required of such a system and would be in point of absolute accuracy, rapidity of application, simplicity and convenience in classification much superior to any system now in vogue. Its uses would be as numerous as are the cases in which the identification of a body, living or dead, becomes for any reason a matter of importance and it may be prophesied that the countless cases where doubt, uncertainty and great expense are involved, and which are now of constant occurrence, may be ultimately prevented through its establishment.