English Victorian statistician, progressive, polymath, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, and psychometrician (1822-1911) who devised a method for classifying fingerprints that proved useful in forensic science. ALS, one page both sides, 5.25 x 8.25, March 28, 1894. Letter to Mrs. Macnaghten, on the subject of fingerprints. In part: "I am sure that your laborious and lucid account well deserves all the praise it receives, & on my part I have learnt a great deal from it. There is one apparent misprint or slip of the pen in it, p. 35, which, if unaltered in any circular that you may issue to the prisons, might puzzle or mislead—viz: paragraph 3…the words 'giving the measurements of' ought probably to have been, 'showing,' so that the sentence would run—(3) That in each case impressions…of the ten fingers, showing the papillary ridges. When I return, viz in ten days or a fortnight, I should like an opportunity of suggesting and explaining an idea I have about a modification or supplement to the Criminal Registry which would I think be useful in more than one way—but it would be tedious to do so by letter so I will not say more about it here." In fine condition. Accompanied by an attractive custom-made quarter leather presentation folder.
In Galton's first book-length treatment of the subject, simply entitled Finger Prints, he asserted that the 'papillary ridges' which fill the spaces between the lines of flexure and bending on the bulb of each finger, were 'variously curved or whirled, having a fictitious resembling to an eddy between two currents.' By 1895, he had published three more books on fingerprinting in addition to scores of journal articles. An excellent letter concerning one of Galton's foremost contributions to modern times.
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