The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-06
FINGER PRINTS AS AID
POLICE LIKELY TO USR THIS SCIENCE IN CONNECTION WITH
 BBRT7LLION gYoTBM.
LenG in Use In the Orient-ThousanAs of IAentsAcations Made by Its h. strumentalfty-A Talk With
 the French Anfhrono-
 metF1eal Expert.

o Brooklyn Eagle.
 "Pudd'n'head" Wilson's wonderful detective work based on thumb printz per. and many people who have read the book or watched Frank Mayo play the part on the stage have looked on the idea as being far-fetched or impos- sible. Yet the police are doing the same thing every day in the present workaday world.
 Some of the greatest crimes have been ferreted out with the assistance of finger prints. So absolutely sure Is this method of detection that 1t has become a part of the police routine fin France and England.
 The Brooklyn police have not yet taken up finger prints" as they have taken up the Bertillon system for measuring criminals. However. 1t Is likely that 1t will not be long before there will be a finger print record of all the criminals of the country added to the anthropometrical measurements now filed away in the police archives.
 It Is considered remarkable that the police have not long ago insisted upon taking finger print impressions of all the criminals arrested. This method is the surest means of detection in all the world. A man can no more change the impression of his thumb than he can fly. The only way to escape this certain evidence is to cut of the fingers.
 It will no doubt be a surprise to most readers that the finger print system has been in use in oriental countries for centuries. For hundreds of years the willy Chinaman has insisted that the lines of 6 persons hand shall be im- pressed upon his passport or other im- portant document to make a transfer of the document an impossibility. For time immemorial the custom in Japan was to have all State papers bear the red hued impress of the Mikado's thumb. This made it impossible for ambitious politicians and reasonable statesmen to issue edicts and decrses in the name of their imperial master.
 Forgery is impossible in tho lands where finger prints are used as sigma lures. The Hindoos found this out before America was discovered and they put the finger print system into use, making a man put the impress of his thumb on every deed, document or paper of any importance. When the English conquered their country the Hindoos still insisted upon having the indisputable and unchanging attesta- ton oI tHelf unBer prints duixeO 10 all papers of importance.
 It was not until eighty years ago that the English people saw the true value of finger prints. Forty years ago Sir William Herschel was struck with the utility of the ancient Hindoo custom and Sir William tried to have law compelling all persons concern ed in the sale or purchase of land afflx their thumb prints to the deeds of transfers and other legal documents This method was used to a certain ex- tent and it proved highly satisfactory in settling disputes. Under English rule the forgery of transfers in India became common. but the adoption of the Hersohei system checkmated the criminals and the forgery of transfers ceased.
 By the advice of Sir William, who published a book on the subject. which, however, did not receive the widespread attention that 1t deserved, the system was extended. For the past eight years receipts for their pensions have been given in India by the finger prints of the pensioners, civil and military alike. As one writer has we'll and wittily put 1t: 'Tn this way imper- sonation is prevented and pensioners no longer live forever"
 
 Francis Galton. was the first to an- nounce to the English world the value of finger print evidence in detective work. He was at one time president of the anthropological section of the British Association, and had studied the question for years
 The chances of two persons finger prints being alike are one in 64,OO0, ,000,- 000." declared Professor Galton. After Professor Cation produced his evidence the English Home once revised its method of Identifying criminals.
 Here was something simpler and more certain than the Bertillon anthro- pometric methods. A new department was opened at the Registry of Habitual Criminals at Scotland Yard. The finger prints of all prisoners convicted for certain classes of crime were to be taken before they quilted the respect i've. goals and sent to Scotland Yard, where they would be examined. classi- fled, indexed and filed
 Last year five thousand identifica- tions were made by its instrumentality. The figures this year probably will be more than double "In no single in- stance said Inspector Collins, in giv-