Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-03
MEANS OF IDENTIFICATION.
No Two Finger Tip Prints Are Ever
the Same.

The finger-print system of criminal iden-
LITIGATION is said to be meeting with favor
in the various police departments In this
country Mrs P. G. Holland of Chicago,
associate editor of the Detective. the organ
of the police chiefs of the United States,
who was in Washington the other day at
tending the sessions of the International
Association of Police Chiefs, has taken up
this system and is making a study Of 1t.
Through her efforts mainly the finger
print system has been introduced already
in several of the large American cities, and
Others will adopt it, she says. This new
wrinkle In police work VIII require more
study, Mrs. Holland added, than the Ber-
tillon system of measurements. She has
already experimental with thousands Of fin
ger tips from which impressions were taken
and has found no two OF them alike.
'In fact" she said to 6. Star reporter, Il
do not believe any two fingers can be found
in the world that will make the same i'm
preston.
The impressions are made on certain
sort of paper, the finger tips being touched
to pad containing printing ink, and then
pressed rather lightly on the paper.
Col Holland in talking with The Star re-
porter about the new system said one I'M
portant difference between the finger print
and Bertillon systems is that the Bertillon
measurements start at the age of TWEEN V
one years. after the criminal has ceased to
grow, whereas the finger print system can
begin from the earliest infancy as time
does not change certain lines of the fingers.
Good impressions, he said, can be gotten
from the fingers of dead persons and even
mummies that have been dead and shriveled
for long ages.
Some of the classifcations of the lines
and ridges of the fingers are given as
'whorls," arches" loops" etc.
"A prominent Chicago business, man."
said Col. Holland, has put the finger tip
n, II, II 1t,z, l.
he issues the impression of the tip OF his
right forefinger appears on a certain part
of the paper, as though the check had been
carelessly handled by some one with an
inky finger. But the shlewd bank cashier
has his instructions well as duplicate
impression of the business mans finger, and
should a check bearing his name without
the mystic symbol be presented at the
bank, it would be promptly turned down
and stamped N, G.
While the orgination of the finger print
system Is credited to Scotland Yard the
great London detective headquarters, Edi-
tor Holland said it really originated in the
East Indies, under rather interesting and
peculiar circumstances. 1t Is related that
an English army officer in that country eX
perienced considerable difficulty in paying
the East Indian government employees.
There were several hundred of these and
the British officer declared they all looked
alike to him. The result was several cases
of fraud by men drawing the wages of
other men.
One day an East Indian came into the
officers tent and accidentally placed his
thumb tip on a splotch of ink on the army
officers desk. The impression was acci-
dentally transferred to a piece of paper,
and this led the officer 10 make a series
OF experiments with the finger prints of
natives. AS a result he found that while
the natives were similar in face. form and
feature. there was a marked difference be-
tween their finger prints.
attention of the police chiefs in London,
with the result that the system came in
vogue at Scotland Yard and is now ex-
tending to 81 parts of the world.