The Origin of Finger-Printing

_I am offering you this old story of the beginnings of Finger-printing, by way of expressing my warm and continuous admiration of those masterly developments of its original applications, whereby, first in Bengal and the Transvaal, and then in England, you have fashioned a weapon of penetrating certainty for the sterner needs of Justice._

W. J. HERSCHEL. June, 1916.

PREFACE

The following pages have two objects: first, to place on record the genesis of the Finger-print method of personal identification, from its discovery in Bengal in 1858, till its public demonstration there in 1877-8; secondly, to examine the scanty suggestions of evidence that this use of our fingers had been foreshadowed in Europe more than a hundred years ago, and had indeed been general in ancient times, especially in China.

In later years, and in energetic hands, the method has been developed into a system far more effective than anything I contemplated, and I do not go into that part of the story; but I believe these pages will suffice to show the originality of my study of its two essential features, the strict individuality and the stubborn persistence of the patterns on our fingers.

The gift granted to me of lighting upon a discovery which promised escape from one great difficulty of administration in India is more than ever appreciated by me since I have lived to see the promise wonderfully fulfilled there, and in other lands as well.

For the sake of interest I give, among the illustrations, several examples of late 'repeats' taken many years after I left India; but these do not belong to my story.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE Bengalee contract with Rājyadhar Kōnāi, 1858. (Collotype) Between pages 8 and 9

Finger-print of Dr. R. F. Hutchinson, Medical Officer at Arrah Station, June 1859 10

Finger-print of Captain H. Raban, Chief of the Police in Lower Bengal, July 29,1860 12

Finger-print of the Mahārājā of Nuddea, April 13, 1862 13

Finger-print of Sir Charles Howard, Superintendent of Police, Nuddea, April 13, 1862; and repeat, 1908 13

Finger-print of Sir Alfred C. Lyall, 1877; and repeat, 1908 17

Finger-print of Captain A. Coleman, P. & O. SS. 'Mongolia', February 1877 17

Finger-prints of Bechā Rām Dās Adhikāri, (a) made in 1877, (b) made in 1892 21

Finger-print of W. F. Courthope, 1877; and repeat, 1913 27

Finger-print of Captain V. H. Haggard, R.N., 1877, aet. 2¾ years; and repeat, 1913. (Collotype) Facing 27

Finger-print of Colonel J. Herschel, R.E., September 22, 1877 28

Finger-print of Dr. J. F. Duthie, September 22, 1877 28

Finger-print of Sir Theodore Hope, Bo.C.S., 1877 29

Finger-prints of William Waterfield, B.C.S., (a) July 31, 1860, (b) March 31, 1877 29

Finger-prints of W. J. Herschel, (a) June 1859, (b) July 1859, (c) March 31, 1877, (d) February 22, 1916 30

Finger-prints, enlarged, of A. E. H. Herschel: 1881, aet. 7¾; 1890, aet. 17; 1913, aet. 40 31

'Thomas Bewick his mark' 33

A 'tep-sai' of Bengal compared with a finger-print 35

Caste-marks of illiterates, 1865 36

Finger-mark on a Chinese Bank-note. (Collotype) Facing 38

THE ORIGIN OF FINGER-PRINTING

In 1858, after five years' service, as an Assistant under the old East India Company, in the interior of Bengal, I was in charge of my first subdivision, the head-quarters of which were then at Jungipoor, on the upper reaches of the Hooghly river. My executive and magisterial experience had by that time forced on me that distrust of all evidence tendered in Court which did so much to cloud our faith in the people around us. We cannot be too thankful that things have greatly improved in India in the last sixty years, but the time of which I am speaking was the very worst time of my life in this respect. I remember only too well writing in great despondency to one of the best and soberest-minded of my senior companions at Haileybury[1] about my despair of any good coming from orders and decisions based on such slippery facts, and the comfort I found in his sensible reply.