What is Dactylography?

From the Greek words:
Dactylography : The science of fingerprints
Dactylogram: A fingerprint

As far back as the first century AD, there is evidence of fingerprints appearing on such items as clay pottery and documents. However, it was not until the latter part of the 19th century when the first scientific method of human individualisation was devised by the Frenchman Alphonse Bertillion. The data for his Anthropometric or Bertillonage method used twelve measurements of the body which he was able to classify and his criminal identification system was used by many countries throughout Euope and the Americas .

Shortly after Bertillion’s Anthropometric system had been adopted some of earlier pioneers of today’s fingerprint system such as Dr. Henry Faulds, Sir William Herschell, Sir Francis Galton, recognised the advantages of the use of the frictionridges of the hand as a more superior method. Subsequently Bertillion’s Anthropometric system was discarded and replaced with today’s fingerprint system.

The earliest fingerprint classification system is attributed to Juan Vucetich, a Croatian immigrant who in 1891 became head of the Argentina ’s Office of Identification and Statistics. The following year a blooded thumb print at a murderer scene was used by Vucetich to identify the murderer who subsequently confessed to her crime.

It was not until some ten years later that the fingerprint classification system devised by Sir Edward Henry, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at New Scotland Yard was adopted in the UK by countries throughout Europe and North America . He devised his classification system using the various patterns formed by the friction ridges on the top joints of the fingers and thumbs such as:

• Loops
• Arches
• Whorls
• composites

What is Ridgeology?

This is a more modern word coined in 1983 by David Ashbaugh then a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In his publication ‘Quantitative-Qualitative Friction Ridge Analysis’, defines Ridgeology as “The study of the uniqueness of friction ridges structures and their use for personal identification”. This is usually applied as ‘third level detail of the identification process.

For more information about fingerprints, please visit our fingerprinting experts page