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A reissue of two accounts, from 1912 and 1916, discussing the development of fingerprinting as a forensic tool.
List of contents
Part I: 1. Introduction: early hints and recent progress; 2. Sweat-pores, ridges, and furrows; 3. Finger-print patterns; 4. Some biological questions in dactylography; 5. Technique of printing and scrutinizing finger-patterns; 6. Persistence of finger-print patterns; 7. Syllabic classification of finger-prints; 8. Practical results and future prospects; Glossary; Bibliography; Index: Part II: The origin of finger-printing.
About the author
Doctor, missionary, and scientist Henry Faulds was born on June 1, 1843, and died on March 24, 1930. He is famous for creating fingerprinting. The family that Faulds was born into was not very wealthy. He was born in Beith, North Ayrshire. He had to quit school when he was 13 and go work as a clerk in Glasgow to help support his family. When he was 21, he chose to go to Glasgow University and study math, logic, and the classics at the Faculty of Arts. He later went to Anderson's College to study medicine and finished with a license to practice as a doctor. When Faulds graduated, he went to work for the Church of Scotland as a medical missionary. He was sent to British India in 1871 and worked at a hospital for the poor in Darjeeling for two years. The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland sent him a letter of appointment on July 23, 1873, telling him to start a medical mission in Japan. In September of that year, he married Isabella Wilson, and in December, the couple left for Japan. In 1874, Faulds opened the first mission in Japan that spoke English. It had a hospital and a place for Japanese medical students to learn. He helped Japanese doctors learn about Joseph Lister's ways of keeping wounds clean.
Summary
Scottish doctor Henry Faulds (1843–1930) and English judge Sir William James Herschel (1833–1917) both recognised the potential of fingerprints as a means of identification. Reissued together, these two works, published in 1912 and 1916, are Faulds' overview of the subject and Herschel's account of his work in India.
