FINGERPRINT:  

  ITS DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT

Malpighi (1686)
In 1686, Marcello Malpighi, 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; "Malpighi" layer, which is approximately 1.8mm thick.

He is an Italian Anatomist, who published his work “De Externo Tactus Organo” depicting
the construction of the layers of the human skin. Known as the GRANDFATHER OF FINGERPRINT.

He described the ridges found on the palmar surface of the hand which course in diverse 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

Note:
Damage to the epidermis alone does not result to permanent ridge destruction while to the dermis will
result to
permanent ridge destruction.

Johann Christoph Andreas or JCA MAYER (1788)

He published a book which was an atlas of anatomical Illustrations of Fingerprint. His remarks contain
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.

He was the first to state that the prints of two different persons are never alike.
  
Purkinje1823 (Father of Dactyloscopy)

In 1823, Johannes Evangelist Purkinje, a professor of anatomy at the University of Breslau, published his
thesis discussing 9 fingerprint patterns, but he too made no mention of the value of fingerprints for
personal identification.

He published his book “Commentary of the 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).

He discovered in his study of physiology that the skin on the inner surface of the hands bore patterns.

Herman Welcker 1856

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.

Herschel 1858 (Father of Chiroscopy)

The English first began using fingerprintsin July of 1858, when Sir William James Herschel, Chief
Magistrate of the Hooghly district in Jungipoor, India, first used fingerprints on natives of India to affix their
signatures in their contracts. In 1877 at Hooghly (near Calcutta), he institutionalized the use of fingerprints
on contracts and deeds to prevent the then-rampant repudiation of signatures and he registered
government pensioners
fingerprint to prevent collection by relatives after a pensioners death.

He also fingerprinted prisoners on sentencing to prevent various frauds of avoiding serving a prison
sentence.

Dr. Henry Faulds 1880

Is 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 offenders when apprehended.

He advocated the use of fingerprint in the detection of crimes. Faulds forwarded an explanation of his
classification system and a sample of the forms he had designed for recording inked impressions, to Sir
Charles Darwin. Darwin, in advanced age and ill health, informed Dr. Faulds that he could be of no
assistance to him, but
promised to pass the materials on to his cousin, Francis Galton.

Thompson 1882

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 United States. 

Galton 1888 

Sir Francis Galton, a British anthropologist and 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.

He was able to discover the three families of fingerprint patterns – Arch, Loop & Whorl.

He is credited for being the first scientist of friction skin identification who established the first Civil Bureau
of
Personal Identification in London, England.

Vucetich 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 Argentina and was
used in
most Spanish Speaking Country.

In 1892, at La Plata Argentina, Francisca Rojas of Necochea was found in a house with neck injuries,
whilst her two sons were found dead with their throats cut. Rojas accused a neighbor, but despite of
brutal interrogation the said suspect did not confess to the crime. Inspector Alvarez, a colleague of
Vucetich went to the crime scene and found a bloody thumb mark on a door. When it was compared with
Rojas prints it was found to be identical with her right thumb. She then confessed to the murders.

Haque & Bose 1897

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 Bureau became the world's first Fingerprint Bureau.  Working in the Calcutta
Anthropometric Bureau (before it became the Fingerprint Bureau) were Khan Bahadur Azizul Haque and
Rai Hem Chandra Bose  are the two Indian fingerprint experts credited with primary development of the
Henry System of fingerprint classification (named
for their 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). 

Sir Edward Richard Henry 1900 (Father of Fingerprints)

Inspired by various predecessors in the study of fingerprints, he developed his own system of
classification while
working in Scotland Yard.

His system of classification was established with the help of two Hindu police officer namely Khan
Bahadur Azizul
Haque and Rai Hem Chandra Bose and it was widely accepted making him known as the Father of
Fingerprint.

His system of identification finally replaces the Bertillion age system of identification in France
(Anthropometry
of Alphonse Bertillon).

Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712)

Published a report before the Royal society of London England describing the ridges and the pores of the
hands and feet.

Govard Bidloo (1649-1713)

Published a thesis “Anatomia Humanis Corporis” which emphasize the appearance and arrangement of
the ridges of the thumb due to their importance.

Mary K. Holland

The first American Instructress in Dactyloscopy.

Dr. Edmond Loccard

French Criminalist who was known to be the FATHER OF POROSCOPY.  It was in 1918 when he wrote
that if 12 points (Galton’s Details) were the same between two fingerprints, it would suffice as a positive
identification. This is where the often quoted 12 points originated.

Capt. James I. Parke

He instituted fingerprint at the New York State Prison by fingerprinting all prisoners and classified them
which led to the official adoption of fingerprint on June 5, 1903.

Harry Mayers

In 1925, he installed the 1st official foot and fingerprint system for infants at the Jewish Maternity Hospital,
Philadelphia Pennsylvania USA, and the first system in the state.

Thomas Bewick

A British author, naturalist and engraver who became an England’s finest engraver and made the
fingerprint
stamps. He made wooden engravings of fingerprints and published their images in his books where he
used an engraving of his fingerprint as a signature.

Arthur Kollman

The 1st researcher to address the formation of friction ridges in the embryos and the topographical
physical stressors that may have been part of their growth.

OFFICIAL USE OF FINGERPRINTS IN USA

1901.      The 1st United Kingdom Fingerprint Bureau was founded in Scotland Yard, the London Police
office. The
Henry Classification System devised by Sir Edward Richard Henry with the help of Haque and Bose was
accepted in England and Wales.

1902.     The New York Civil Service Commission required all applicants to be fingerprinted.

Henry P. 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 test for them.

The Scheffer Case is the 1st identification, arrest and conviction of a murderer based on his fingerprints.
Alphonse
Bertillion identifies the thief and murderer Scheffer, previously arrested (and his fingerprints filed) some
months before, from the fingerprints found on a fractured glass showcase after a theft in a dentist’s
apartment where is found his servant dead and proves in Court that the fingerprints were made after the
showcase was broken.

1903.     The New York Civil Service Commission required all applicants to be fingerprinted.

Alphonse Bertillion creates a method to get fingerprints off smooth surfaces and thus enhances
dacyloscopy.

1904.      St. Louis Missouri became the 1st City to use fingerprints, the police departments officially
adopted the system and on October 27, 1904 also adopted by Leavenworth Kansas.

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 cards.

1906.     New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner Joseph A. Faurot, Bertillion and
fingerprint expert of Police Headquarters introduced fingerprinting of criminals to the United States.

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.     U.S. Marine Corps begins using fingerprints.

1911.     First Criminal Conviction was based solely upon fingerprint evidence alone, Illinois USA (People
vs. Jennings)

1916.     Illinois Institute of Applied Science, the 1st school organization and teach fingerprint
identification.

1924.     The Nuclear files of the FBI were formed through the consolidation of fingerprint records of both
the
NBCI (National Bureau of Criminal Identification) and that of LP (Leavenworth Penitentiary) which totaled
to 810,188 proved its worth to Law Enforcement.

February 15, 1930.           International Exchange of fingerprint was initiated with other Nations.

March 1, 1932.    The need became apparent as to the problem of Criminality’s rapidly grew from City and
State to
State.

1933.     A latent fingerprint section for making technical examinations of latent print, inked prints was
instituted. November 10, of the same year the CIS (Civil Identification Section) was established, until such
time that the Bureau of Identification of the US Department of Justice later established the 1st National
Civil Voluntary Fingerprint File.

1939.     Due to the exigencies of the World War II, it brought about the phenomena period of the
Identifications Growth and Division Growth.

1946.     FBI, the world’s largest repository of fingerprint records had received 100 million of fingerprint
card was received in the identification of a person. Though new methods are being suggested, it is hard
to conceive a system to improve the combination of facility, practically and infallibility of fingerprint.

FINGERPRINTS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Mr. Jones – one who first taught fingerprint in the Philippine Constabulary in the year 1900.

Pursuant to Republic Act No. 409, the City Charter of Manila, the Criminal Records and Identification
Division (CRID) were established in the Manila Police Department (now Western Police District) in the
year 1900. The Bertillion system of identification was then utilized.

During World War II, the Manila Police Department records were destroyed. The division was
reestablished in 1945 by the US Army and the Henry System of fingerprint classification was adopted.

The National Bureau of Investigation presently uses the Henry System of fingerprint classification. It was
through Commonwealth Act No. 181, dated 13 November 1936, which provided for the establishment of
the Division of Investigation (DOI) that authorized the use of the Fingerprint Identification System.

1910 – Bureau of Prisons (now BUCOR) started the use of the fingerprint system as a means of
identification for inmates.

Bureau of Prison – Records show that in 1918, CARPETAS (Commitment and Conviction Records)
already used  fingerprint.

Lt. Asa N. Darby – established a modern and complete fingerprint files for Philippine Commonwealth
during the reoccupation of the Philippines by the American Forces.

The fingerprint records from the defunct Division of Investigation and Bureau of Investigation formed part
of the present fingerprint files of the National Bureau of Investigation. The files were further boosted with
the turnover of
the NBI records of Filipino nationals with the Allied Forces in Western Pacific Command (AFWESPAC)
after the end of World War II.

It was Capt. Thomas Dugan of the New York City Police Department with the assistance of Mr. Flaviano
C. Guerrero, a Filipino member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who provided for the
establishment of fingerprint usage in the National Bureau of Investigation. 

The Bureau of Prisons was created pursuant to the Reorganization Act No. 1407, dated 01 November
1905. At that time, the Bertillion Antropometric System of Identification was in use. In 1910, the Bureau of
Prisons (now Bureau of Corrections) started the use of the fingerprints as a means of identification for
inmates.

It was Mr. Generoso La Torre, as the Chief of the Identification Section, from 1905 to 1920, who started
the use of fingerprint system in the Bureau of prisons. Mr. La Torre learned fingerprints from the American
under it. George M. Wolfe, the 1st Director of the Bureau of Prisons from 1909-1910.

Generoso Reyes – First Filipino Fingerprint Technician employed by the Philippine Constabulary (now
Philippine National Police).

Isabela Bernales – first Filipina Fingerprint Technician

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.

People of the Philippines vs. Medina – first conviction

based on fingerprint leading judicial decision in the Philippine Jurisprudence.

Plaridel Education Institution – now known as the Philippine College of Criminology, the first government
recHISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF FINGERPRINT SCIENCE
In tracing the origin of the fingerprint science and the recognition of finger
impression, one must draw a distinction between the realization that the tips
of the finger bear diversified ridges, and the application of this knowledge to
the problem of personal identification.

Unquestionably, man’s awareness of the patterned ridges and palms predates the Christian era by many
centuries and has been evidenced in varying degree by successive
civilization. On the face of a cliff in Nova Scotia, for instance, there has
been found prehistoric Indian picture writing of a hand with crudely marked
ridge patterns.

Pre-historic picture writing of a hand with ridge patterns was

discovered in Nova Scotia. 
Fingerprints have been found on ancient Babylonian clay tablets, seals, and pottery. They
have also been found on the walls of Egyptian tombs and on Minoan, Greek, and
Chinese pottery as well as on bricks and tiles in Babylon and Rome. Some of
these fingerprints were deposited unintentionally by workers during
fabrication; sometimes the fingerprint served as decoration. However, on some
pottery, fingerprints were impressed so deeply that they were likely intended
to serve as the equivalent of a brand label.

Fingerprints and palm prints were also introduced in Judea and Babylon even before the time
of Jesus Christ as they stated that the most important part of the
human body is the skin.

Fingerprints were also used as substitutes for signatures. In Babylon from 1885-1913 B.C. in
order to protect against forgery (parties to a legal contract impressed their
fingerprints into the clay tablet on which the contract had been written).

Although the ancient people probably did not realize that fingerprints could identify
individuals; reference from the age of Babylonian King Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.) indicate that the law
officials fingerprinted people who had been arrested.

Based on the reliable records, China was the first to introduce fingerprint as medium of
identification as early as the 3rd B.C. by using soft mud or
clay by pressing the fingers on it. Fingerprint for them is known
as HUA CHI.

To go back on the history of fingerprint in China, some to the earlier practices

of fingerprints are credited to the Chinese who were successful in applying this
method in their daily business and legal activities.

By 246 B.C. Chinese officials impressed their fingerprints in clay seals, which were used
to seal documents. With the advent of silk and paper in China, parties to a
legal contract impressed their handprints on the document

Sometime before 851 C.E. an Arab Merchant in China named ABU

ZAYD HASAN, witnessed Chinese merchants using fingerprint to authenticate loans.

Emperor Te’in Shi  (246-210 B.C.). The first Chinese Ruler who had devised a seal carves from white
Jade. On one side of it was the name of the owner, and on the other side the thumb mark of the destitute.

During China’s Qin Dynasty, records shows official took hand prints, foot prints as
well as fingerprints in a crime scene.

Kia Kung-Yen. Remarked that fingerprint could be used as means of Authentication.

Constantinople. In treaty ratification, he soaked his hand in a sheep’s

blood and impressed it on the document as his seal.

In China, around 300 C.E. handprints were used as evidence in a trial for theft.

By 702 C.E. Japan had adopted the Chinese practice of sealing contracts with fingerprints.

In France, numerous rock carvings and paintings featuring land designs and fingerprints
have been found on the granite wall slabs in the Neolithical burial passages.

In Jerusalem, fingerprint relics were found in clay lumps during the 4th and 5th centuries
of the Christian era.

In old Mexico, the Aztecs prints their palm in mud in their tombs.

Methods of Identification before the Science of Fingerprints

Tattoo Marks, Branding and Mutilation – are used in Holland to identify a person.
Anthropometry. The first scientific method of identification done by measuring various bony structure of
the human body devised by Alphonse Bertillon (Father of Scientific Identification) and in 1879, he created
a system to identify individuals by their measurements and also introduced antropometric photographs,
before adding fingerprints to the whole.

Clay seals of Ancient Chinese origin bearing thumb prints can be seen in the Smithsonian Institution;
Washington D.C. Chinese documents identified with the Tang Dynasty (618-907) refer to fingerprints
being impressed upon business contracts. It is conjectural as to what extent these earlier instances of
fingerprint were intended for actual identification of the person impressing the prints. Certainly in some
cases the object was simply to add more or less superstitions solemnity to business contracts. There is
evidence, however, that the fact of the individuality of fingerprints, though not put a practical use, dawned
recurrently through ages.

Fingerprint science should be traced on its origin to draw a distinction between the
realization of the diversified ridges on the tips of our fingers and the
application of knowledge to the problem of personal identification.ognized school to teach the Science of
Fingerprint and other Police Sciences