Personal Identification
“Law of Multiplicity of Evidence”
The greater the number of similarities and
dissimilarities, the greater is the probability for the
conclusion to be correct.
Early Method of identification
Tatooing
Maiming
Alphonse Bertillion
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Father of Personal Identification
1882, became head of the identification service
in the office of the Prefect of Police
Spread a new system of identification called
anthropometry
Combined portrait parle with anthropometry
Anthropometry
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Anthropometry is a very old science which
relates to the measurement of body
dimensions. These may be:
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lengths (e.g. the length of the thigh bone or femur),
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breadths (e.g. the width across the shoulders, the
biacromial breadth),
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girths (e.g. waist circumference)
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common measurements ( e.g. stature or height
and mass or weight)
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measurement of skinfold thickness at various
sites on the body (e.g. at the back of the upper arm,
tricep skinfold).
Portrait Parle
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Literally means 'word picture'
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Method of describing people verbally
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Included in Bertillion's identification system
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Foundation of present-day description of
criminals and non-criminals
Will West and William West
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1903
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US Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas
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Almost exact Bertillion measurements
History of Fingerprint
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Picture writing of a hand with ridge patterns was
discovered in Nova Scotia.
In ancient Babylon, fingerprints were used on
clay tablets for business transactions.
In ancient China, thumb prints were found on
clay seals. They referred to it as Hua Chi (Ki
and Io)
In 14th century Persia, various official
government papers had fingerprints
(impressions), and one government official, a
doctor, observed that no two fingerprints were
exactly alike.
Nehemiah Grew
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1684
Philosophical Transaction presented in Royal
Society of London, England
Described the ridges and pores of the hands
and feet
Govard Bidloo
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Studied sweat pores and ridges
Marcelo Malpighi
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Father of Dactyloscopy
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1686
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Professor at University of Bolognia, Italy
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Written “De Externo Tactus Organo”
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Discovery of Epidermis and Dermis layer
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Malphigi layer
JCA Mayer
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1788
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Anatomiche Kuphertafeln
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First to state that fingerprints are never
duplicated in two persons
Johannes Purkinje
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1823
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Professor at University of Breslau, Germany
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Established a classification system of
fingerprints
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Identified 9 type of patterns
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Did not associate fingerprints with identification
Herman Welcker
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Took his own fingerprint twice with a lapse of 41
years and showed the ridge formation remains
the same
William Herschel
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1858
Chief Magistrate of the Hooghly district in
Jungipoor, India
First to advocate the use of fingerprints as
substitute for signature among Indian natives to
avoid impersonation
Based on superstition rather than personal
identification
Rajyadhar Konai – local businessman, first
person that Herschel took the palm print of
Henry Faulds
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1870's
British Surgeon-Superintendent of Tsukiji Hospital in
Tokyo, Japan
Credited with first fingerprint identification of a
greasy fingerprint left on an alcohol bottle
Took up the study of "skin-furrows" after noticing
finger marks on specimens of "prehistoric" pottery
Published an article in the Scientific Journal,
"Nature"
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Fingerprint as means of personal identification
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Use of printer's ink
Gilbert Thomson
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1882
U.S. Geological Survey in New Mexico
Used his own thumb print on a document to
prevent forgery
First known use of fingerprints in the United
States
Mark Twain
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1883
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Samuel L. Clemens
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Life of the Mississippi
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a murderer was identified by the use of fingerprint
identification
Pudd'n Head Wilson
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there was a dramatic court trial on fingerprint
identification
Francis Galton
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1888
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First classification system
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Developed the Arch, Loop and Whorl patterns
as general classification
Identified 9 types of patterns
First to establish a Civil Bureau of Personal
Identification
Minutia or Galton details
Stated that the possibility of having two
fingerprints alike is 1:64,000,000,000
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1891
Juan Vucetich
Argentine Police Official, began the first
fingerprint files based on Galton pattern types
System was accepted in most Spanish
Speaking countries
At first, included fingerprint with the Bertillon
System files
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1892
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First criminal fingerprint identification
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Francis Rojas-murdered her two sons and cut
her own throat (left a bloody mark at the post)
Haque and Bose
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June 12, 1897
Council of the Governor General of India approved
a committee report that fingerprints should be used
for classification of criminal records
Calcutta Anthropometric Bureau became the
world's first Fingerprint Bureau
Khan Bahadur Azizul Haque and Rai Hem
Chandra Bose
Indian fingerprint experts credited with primary
development of the Henry System of fingerprint
classification
Edward Richard Henry
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Father of fingerprint
Developed the Henry System of Classification
at Scotland Yard
Accepted by almost all English-speaking
countries
Published book "The Classification and Use of
Fingerprints"
Edmond Locard
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12 point system
Wrote that if 12 points (Galton's Details) were
the same between two fingerprints, it would
suffice as a positive identification