XIII.

DACTYLOSCOPY/FINGERPRINT
History of Fingerprints:
The history of fingerprint science predates the Christian era by many centuries. Prehistoric
Indian picture writing of hand with crudely marked ridge patterns, fingerprints impressions on
clay tablets recording business transactions in ancient Babylon, and clay seals of ancient
Chinese origin bearing thumb prints, were found as evidence of early use of fingerprint as
identification of persons impressing the prints. Friction ridge skin impressions were used as
proof of a person’s identity in China perhaps as early as 300 B.C., in Japan as early as A.D.
702, and in the United States since 1902 (Holder, Jr. Et.al.).
Consequently in Japan, a “Domestic Law” enacted in A.D. 702 require the following: “In case
a husband cannot write, let him hire another man to write the document and after the
husband’s name, sign with his own index finger” (Ashbaugh, 1999).
•The formal study began as early as 1686 but has finally gained official use in 1858 by Sir
William James Herschel, a British Chief Administrative Officer in Hoogly District of Bengal, India.
Herschel used fingerprints in India to prevent fraudulent collection of army pay accounts and for
identity on other documents.
•In 1880 two major developments were achieved that ushered to a more holistic acceptance of
fingerprint use. Dr. Henry Faulds an English doctor based in Japan, wrote to publication
Nature on the practical use of fingerprints for the identification of criminals. His argument was
supported by his studies and successful experiments on permanency of one’s
fingerprint. After Faulds breakthrough, Sir Francis Galton, a noted British Anthropologist and
scientist Charles Darwin’s cousin, devised the first scientific method of classifying
fingerprint patterns.
It was in 1882 when the first authentic record of official use of fingerprints was noted in the USA.
In 1891, Juan Vucetich, an Argentinian Police, used a system of fingerprint as criminal
identification based on Sir Francis Galton’s studies. Vucetich’s classification system and
individualization of prisoners through the use of fingerprints were the first practical uses of
fingerprint science by law enforcement personnel (Holder, Jr. , Et.al.).
As early as the start of the 20th Century, fingerprint use in criminal investigation has gained
widespread acceptance across the USA and was adopted in use by the different branches of
the United States Armed Forces. The use of fingerprint since then had begun to take its toll. The
United States has fostered the fingerprint development to its most intricate system.
•Today, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s identification files are rapidly approaching 200
millions sets of fingerprints – the largest collection in the world.

Origin of Fingerprints
Chinese – are the ones noted to be the first user of Fingerprint.
They use of fingerprints are symbolism in the early part of their rituals until they utilize it in the
signing of a contract on the part of the illiterate. A Chinese deed of sale, 1839, signed with a
Finger print.
(From Laufer, courtesy of the Field Museum of Natural History)
In China fingerprint is called “Hua Chi”
“Emperor Te’ in Shi (246-210 BC) – first Chinese ruler who devised a seal carved from one
jade; on one side of it was the name of the owner, and on the other side the thumbmark of the
destitute.

Personalities in the Study of Fingerprints

MARCELO MALPHIGI
Grandfather of Dactyloscopy
In 1686, Marcelo Malphigi, a professor of Anatomy at the University of Bologna, noted in
his treatise; ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints. He made no mention of their value as
a tool for individual identification. A layer of skin was named after him; “Malphigi layer, which is
approximately 1.8mm thick. Malphigi is credited with being the first to use the newly invented
microscope for medical studies.
An Italian Anatomist, who published his work “De Externo Tactus Organo” depicting the
construction of the layers of the human skin, He described the ridges found on the palmar
surface of the hand which course in diverse and designs and the pores which served as the
mouth of the sweat glands.
He was noted for the discovery of the inner and outer structure of the skin.
Dermis – inner layer Epidermis – outer layer

1788 – JOHANN CHRISTOPH ANDREAS MAYER

A German Doctor and Anatomist who published a book which was an atlas of anatomical
illustrations of Fingerprint. His remarks contains a statement which clearly pronounced one of
the fundamental principles of Fingerprint Science although the arrangement of the skin, ridges is
never duplicated in two persons; nevertheless the similarities are closer among some
individuals.
His book included detailed drawings of patterns and Friction Skin. He wrote:
•“ Although the arrangement of skin ridges is never duplicated in two persons, nevertheless the
similarities are closer among some individuals. In others the differences are marked yet in spite
of their peculiarities of arrangement, all have a certain likeness.”
• He was the first to state that the prints of two different persons are never alike.

1823- JOHN EVANGELIST PURKINJE

Father of Dactyloscopy
In 1823, John Evangelist Purkinje, Professor of Physiology at the University of Breslau,
Germany, published a thesis in which he described nine types of fingerprint patterns. He
did not mention the value of fingerprints for personal identification.
He published his book “Commentary of Physiological Examination of the Organs of
Vision and the Cutaneous System” describing the ridges, giving their names and establishing
certain rules of classification (nine groups) and discovered in his study of physiology that
the skin on the inner surface of the hands bore patterns.

1856- HERMAN WELCKER

He took the prints of his own palms and after forty-one years (1879) he printed the same
palms to prove that prints do not change except for some scratches due to old age.
1858 – SIR WILLIAM JAMES HERSCHEL (FATHER OF CHIROSCOPY)
The English first began using fingerprints in July of 1858, when Sir William James Herschel,
Chief Magistrate of the Hoogly district in Jungipoor, India, first used fingerprints on native
contracts. On a whim, and with no thought towards personal identification. Herschel had
Rajyadhar Konai, a local businessman, impress his hand print on a contract.
The idea was merely, to “frighten him out of all thought of repudiating his signature.” The
native was suitably impressed, and Herschel made a habit of requiring palm prints, and
later, simply the print of the right index and middle fingers on every contract made with
the locals. Personal contract with the document, they believed, made the contract more
binding than if they simply signed it. Thus, the first wide-scale, modern day use of
fingerprints was started, not upon scientific evidence, but on superstitious beliefs.
•By conducting his own experiments with colleagues and friends, taking their fingerprints over
periods of time, and with careful notation. Herschel established the principle of
“Persistence” and “Immutability” . While his experience with fingerprinting was admittedly
limited, Sir Herschel’s private conviction that all fingerprints were unique to the
individual, as well as permanent throughout that individual’s life, inspired him to expand
their use.
Using his various posts as a Magistrate, including the control of prisons, he introduces the
use of fingerprints to prevent impersonation, and suggested that this practice should be more
Universally used.

1880 – Dr. Henry Faulds

Dr. Henry Faulds, from Beith, North Ayrshire, was the Surgeon-Superintendent of Tukiji
Hospital in Tokyo , Japan, and took up the study of “skin-furrows” after noticing finger marks
on specimens of prehistoric pottery.
A learned and industrious man, Dr. Faulds not only recognized the importance of fingerprints
as a means of identification, but devised a method of classification was well.

In 1880 he advocated the use of fingerprint in the detection of crimes. His article “On The
Skin – Furrows of the Hand” points out his observation that chance prints left at the scene of
the crime would provide for positive identification of the offenders when apprehended. He
discussed fingerprints as a means of personal identification, and the use of printers ink
as method of obtaining such fingerprints.
He is also credited with the first fingerprint identification of a greasy fingerprint on an
alcohol bottle.

•1882 – Gilbert Thompson

In 1882, Gilbert Thompson of the U.S. Geological Survey in New Mexico, used his own
thumb print on a document to prevent forgery. This is the first known use of fingerprints in
the Uniter States.

•1883 – Arthur Kollmann

 In the late 1800s, Kollmann of Hamburg Germany, was the first researcher to address the
formation of friction ridges on the fetus and the random physical stresses and tension s which
may have played part in their growth.

•1888 – Francis Galton

Sir Francis Galton, a British Anthropologist and a a cousin of Charles Darwin, began his
observations of fingerprints as a means of identification in the 1880’s. He devised a practical
system of filing based on the ridge patterns.
In 1892, he published the book “Fingerprints” establishing the individuality and
permanence of fingerprints. It concluded the first classification system for fingerprints. Galton’s
primary interest in fingerprints was an aid in determining heredity and racial background.
While he soon discovered that fingerprints has no firm clues to an individual’s intelligence or
genetic history, he was able to scientifically prove what Herschel and Faulds already suspected:
“That fingerprints do not change over the course of an individual’s lifetime, and that no
two fingerprints are exactly the same”.
According to his calculations, the odds of two individual fingerprints being the same
were 1 in 64 million. Galton identified the characteristics by which fingerprints can be identified.
These same characteristics (minutiae) are basically still in use today, and are often referred to
as Galton’s details.
He was able to discover the three families fingerprints patterns – Arch, Loop and
Whorl. He is also credited for being the first scientist of friction skin identification who
established the first Civil Bureau of Personal Identification in London, England.

1891- Juan Vucetich

An Argentine Police Official began the first fingerprint files based on Galton pattern types. He
developed his own system of classifying prints that was officially adopted in Agentina and was
used in most Spanish speaking country.
In 1982, Inspector Eduardo Alvarez, taking direction from Vucetich took digital impressions
from a crime scene. This led Vucetich in making the first criminal fingerprint identification. He
was able to identify a woman by the name of Rojas, who had murdered her two sons and cut
her own throat in an attempt to place blame on another. Her bloody print was left on the door
post proving her identity. She confessed to the murders.

1897 – Azizul Haque and Hem Chandra Bose

On 12 June 1897, the Council of the Governor General of India approved a committee report
that fingerprints should be used for classification of criminal records. Later that year, the
Calcutta (now Kolkata) Anthropometric Burau became the world’s first Fingerprint Bureau.
Working in the Calcutta Anthropometric Bureau (before it became the Fingerprint Bureau) were
Azizul Haque and Hem Chandra Bose. Haque and Bose are the two Indian fingerprint experts
credited with primary development of the Henry System of Fingerprint Classification (named for
theor supervisor, Edward Richard Henry). The Henry Classification System is still used in all
English speaking countries (primarily as the manual filing system for accessing paper archive
files that have not been scanned and computerized.
1900 - Sir Edward Richard Henry
Father of Fingerprints
On April 2, 1891, Henry was appointed to the Office of Inspector General of the Bengal
Police. In 1892 the police force adopted the anthropometric measuring system devised by
Bertillon for the identification of criminals.
Henry became interested in the work of Galton and others concerning the use of fingerprints
to identify criminals. Henry and Galton exchanged regular letters during 1894 discussing the
merits of fingerprints.
In January 1896, Henry issued an order to the Bengali Police that criminal record forms
should not only display prisoners anthropometric measurements but also the prisoner/s rolled
fingerprint impression.
•`With the assistance of of Azizull Haque and Hem Chandra Bose, Edward Henry devised his
classification system between July 1896 and February 1897. The Henry Fingerprint System
enabled fingerprints to be easily filed, searched and tranced against thousand of others. The
simple system found worldwide acceptance within a few years.
• In July 1, 1901, the first fingerprint Bureau in the UK was established a t Scotland Yard. His
system of identification finally replaces the Bertillionage system of Identification in France
(Anthropometry of Alphonse Bertillon).

NEHEMIAH GREW
Published a report before the Royal Society of London England describing the ridges and the
pores of the hands and feet.
GOVARD BIDLOO
Published a thesis “Anatomia Humanis Corporis” which emphasize the appearance and
arrangement of the ridges of the thumb due to their importance.
MARY E. HOLLAND
The first American Instructress in Dactyloscopy
1912- DR. EDMOND LOCARD
Father of Poroscopy
Professor at the University of Lyons in France, Locard established the Institution of
Criminalistics in 1910.
He made a remarkable statement on contact trace evidence; “When two objects come into
contact there is an exchange of material from each to the other”.
•Locard studies and investigated identification using the position and variation of pores as
unique ridge characteristics. He presented evidence of identification in one case at Court using
poroscopy, even though the impression already contained many characteristics in agreement.
Thomas Bewick wood engraver who included fingerprints in three wood cuts.
Sherlock Holmes first solve a crime using fingerprints in “The Adventure of the Norwood
Builder” (1903), which at the time was very unusual.

OFFICIAL USE OF FINGERPRINT IN USA

1883 - Mark Twain in his book, Life on the Mississippi, a murderer was identified by the use of
fingerprint identification.
1896 – International Association of Chief of Police (IACP), Establish National Bureau of Criminal
Identification, for the exchange of arrest information.
1902 - The New York Civil Service Commission required all applicants to be fingerprinted.
Henry F. Forest – Chief Medical Examiner of New York Civil Service Commission and an
American Preacher in fingerprint science in the US for the New York Civil Service Commission
to prevent applicants from having better-qualified persons to take the rest for them.
1903 – The New York State system began the first systematic use of fingerprints in U.S. for
criminals.
1903 – The William West - Will West Case at a Federal Prison in Leavenworth, Kansas,
changed the way that people were classified and identified.
1905 – U.S. Army begins using fingerprints. U.S. Department of Justice forms the Bureau of
Criminal Identification in Washington, DC to provide a centralized reference collection of
fingerprint card.
1907 – U.S. Navy begins using fingerprints. U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Criminal
Identification moves to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary where it is staffed at least partially by
inmates.
1908 – The first official fingerprint card was developed.
1908 - U.S. Marine Corps begins using fingerprints.
1911 – First Criminal Conviction was based solely upon fingerprint evidence , Illinois, USA
(People vs Jennings)
1915 – Inspector Harry H. Caldwell of the Oakland, California Police Department’s Bureau of
Identification wrote numerous letters to “Criminal Identification Operators” in August 1915,
asking them to meet in Oakland for the purpose of forming an organization to further the aims of
the identification profession. In October 1915, a group of twenty-two identification personnel met
and initiated the International Association for Criminal Identification”. In 1918, the organization
was renamed the International Association for Identification (IAI) due to the volume of non-
criminal identification work performed by members. Sir Francis Galton’s right index finger
appears in the IAI logo. The IAI’ s official publication is the Journal of Forensic Identification.
1916 – First organized school for teaching fingerprint (Institute of Applied Science-Chicago).
1918 – Edmond Locard wrote that if 12 points *Galton’s Details) were the same between two
fingerprints, it would suffice as a positive identification. Locard’s 12 points seems to have been
based on an unscientific “improvement” over the eleven anthropometric measurements (arm
length, height, etc.) used to “identify” criminals before the adoption of fingerprints.
1924 – The Identification Division of the FBI was established after J. Edgar Hoover was
appointed as Director.
In 1924, an act of congress established the Identification Division of the FBI. The IACP’s
National Bureau of Criminal Identification and the US Justice Department’s Bureau of Criminal
Identification consolidated to form the nucleus of the FBI Fingerprint files.
1946 – By 1946, the FBI had processed 100 million fingerprint cards in manually maintained
files; and by 1971, 200 million cards. With the introduction of Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (AFIS) technology, the files were split into computerized criminal files
and manually maintained civil files. Many of the manual files were duplicates tough, the records
actually represented somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 million criminals, and an
unknown number of the individual in the civil files.
1974 – In 1974, four employees of the Hertfordshire (United Kingdom) Fingerprint Bureau
contacted fingerprint experts trough the UK and began organization of that country’s first
professional fingerprint organization, the National Society of Fingerprint Officers. The
organization initially consisted of only UK experts, but quickly expanded to International Scope
and was renamed The Fingerprint Society in 1977.
F.F.S. used behind a fingerprint experts’ name indicated they are recognized as Fellow of the
Fingerprint Society. The Society hosts annual educational conferences with speakers and
delegates attending from many countries.
1977 - At New Orleans, Louisiana on 1August 1977, delegates to the 62nd Annual
Conference of the International Association for Identification (IAI) voted to establish the world’s
first certification program for fingerprint experts. Since 1977, the IAI’s Latent Print Certification
Board has proficiency tested thousands of applicants, and periodically proficiency tests all IAI
Certified Latent Print Examiners (CLPEs). IAI CLPE status is considered by many
identification professionals to be a measurement excellence. During the past three decades,
CLPE status has become a prerequisite for journeyman fingerprint expert positions in many US
states and federal government forensic laboratories.
1980 – First computer data base of fingerprints was developed, which came to be known as
the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, (AFIS). In the present day, there are nearly
70 million cards, or nearly 700 million individual fingerprints entered in AFIS.
2007 - The largest AFIS repository in America is operated by the Department of Homeland
Security’s US Visit Program, containing over 74 million persons’ fingerprints, primarily in the
form of two-finger records. The index finger records are non-compliant with FBI and Interpol
Standards, but sufficient for positive identification and valuable for forensics because index
fingers are the most commonly identified crime scene fingerprints.
All US states and many large cities have their own AFIS databases, each with a subset of
fingerprint records that is not stored in any other database. Thus, law enforcement fingerprint
interface standards are very important to enable sharing records and reciprocal searches for
identifying criminals.

Rojas murder case is considered to be that first Homicide solved by Fingerprint Evidence.

David Hepburn. He is the first to recognize that friction ridges assist with grasping by
increasing the level of friction between the ridges and the grasped object. In his paper entitled
“The Papillary Ridges on the Hands and Feet of Monkeys and Men” on the evolution of the volar
pads and named two of the volar pads found in the palm: the hypothenar and thenar.
The first United States disaster in which fingerprint individualization played a major role was
when the USS Squalus sank on May 23, 1939.

FINGERPRINT EVENT IN THE PHILIPPINES

1. Mr. Jones – he first taught fingerprint in the Philippine Costabulary in the
year 1900.
2. Bureau of Prison – Records shows that in 1918, CARPETAS (Commitment and Conviction
Records)already used fingerprint.
3. Lt. Asa and N. Darby – established a modern and complete fingerprint files for Philippine
Commonwealth during the reoccupation of the Philippines by the American Forces.
4. Generoso Reyes – First Filipino Fingerprint Technician employed by the Philippine
Constabulary.
5. Isabela Bernales – first Filipina Fingerprint technician.
6.Capt.Thomas Dugan, New York Police Department and Flaviano Guerrero, FBI
Washington gave the first examination in Fingerprinting in 1927 and Agustin Patricio of the
Philippines, top the examination.
7. People of the Philippines vs. Medina – first conviction based on fingerprint leading judicial
decision in the Philippine Jurisprudence.
8. Plaridel Education Institution – now known as the Philippine College of Criminology, the
first government recognized school to teach the Science of Fingerprint and other Police
Sciences.
9. The First National Bureau of Identification (1924) - was created by the Act of Congress.
The Bureau was established with the U.S. DOJ (Washington D.C.)

Definitions:
DACTYLOSCOPY - the Science which deals with the study of fingerprints as a means of
Personal Identification.
2 Geek words: Dactyl –a finger and Skopien - to examine
DACTYLOGRAPHY – the study of fingerprints for the purpose of identification.
DACTYLOMANCY – An attempt at character reading through the pattern of fingerprints.
DERMATOGLYPHICS – are the lines, tracings and designs on the skin of the fingers, palms
and soles.
POLYDACTYL – a hand having more than the required number of fingers.

Allied Sciences of Dactyloscopy

1. CHIROSCOPY – scientific examination of the palm of the hand.

Greek words: Cheir –palm/hand skopien – to examine

2. PODOSCOPY - scientific examination of the sole of the foot.

Greek words: Podo-sole/foot skopien – to examine

3. POROSCOPY - scientific examination of sweat pores/glands.

Greek words: Poros – a pare skopien – to examine