Table XV.
No. of entries in 500 cases, under each of the thirty-six possible index-letters
for the fore, middle, and ring-fingers of the right hand by
the “i-o fore-finger” method.
| a | a | a | 4 | i | a | a | 1 | o | a | a | 1 | w | a | a | — |
| l | 17 | l | 3 | l | 2 | l | — | ||||||||
| w | 5 | w | — | w | 1 | w | 1 | ||||||||
| a | l | a | 3 | i | l | a | — | o | l | a | 2 | w | l | a | 1 |
| l | 45 | l | 54 | l | 88 | l | 40 | ||||||||
| w | 11 | w | 33 | w | 59 | w | 52 | ||||||||
| a | w | a | — | i | w | a | — | o | w | a | — | w | w | a | — |
| l | — | l | 3 | l | — | l | 10 | ||||||||
| w | — | w | 11 | w | 6 | w | 47 | ||||||||
| a = Arch. i = Inward-sloped Loop on the fore-finger. o = Outward-sloped Loop on the fore-finger. l = Loop of either kind on the middle or ring finger. w = Whorl. |
These 500 cases supply no entries at all to eleven of the thirty-six index-headings, less than five entries (or under 1 per cent) to ten others, and the supply is distributed very unevenly among the remaining fifteen. This table makes it easy to calculate beforehand the spaces required for an index of any specified number of prints, whether they be on the pages of a Register, or in compartments, or in drawers of movable cards.
CHAPTER X
PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION
We shall speak in this chapter of the aid that finger prints can give to personal identification, supposing throughout that facilities exist for taking them well and cheaply, and that more or less practice in reading them has been acquired by many persons. A few introductory words will show this supposition to be reasonable. At the present moment any printer, and there are many printers in every town, would, at a small charge, blacken a slab and take the prints effectively, after being warned to use very little ink, as described in [Chapter III.] The occupation of finger printing would, however, fall more naturally into the hands of photographers, who, in addition to being found everywhere, are peculiarly well suited to it, for, taken as a class, they are naturally gifted with manual dexterity and mechanical ingenuity. Having secured good impressions, they could multiply them when necessary, and enlarge when desired, while the ticketing and preservation of the negatives would fall into their usual business routine. As they already occupy themselves with one means of identification, a second means of obtaining the same result is allied to their present work.