Abstract
THE central topic of Mr. Wilton's book on fingerprints is the claim of Henry Faulds (1843-1930) to have been the originator of the use of fingerprints in criminal identification and detection. In 1880 a letter appeared in NATUKE, (22,605; Oct. 28) from Faulds, a medical missionary in Japan, stating that his study of fingerprints, initiated by his observation of impressions on Japanese prehistoric pottery, had led him to the conclusion that bloody impressions on clay, glass, etc., might lead to the scientific identification of criminals. In a later issue of NATURE of the same year (23, 76; Nov. 25), Sir W. J. Herschel wrote to point out that he had used fingerprints in India for more than twenty years.
Fingerprints:
History, Law and Romance. By George Wilton Wilton. Pp. xix + 317 + 10 plates. (London, Edinburgh and Glasgow: William Hodge and Co., Ltd., 1938.) 12s. 6d. net.
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Fingerprints. Nature 143, 315 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143315b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143315b0