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Personal Identification and Description   215


The reader who has had the courage to follow Galton's biographer through the intricacies of this chapter will, I am sure, be convinced not only of the labour Galton devoted to his finger-print studies but also of the amazing energy he exhibited in acquainting not only administrative bodies but the public at large with the possibilities which then lay hidden in finger-printing, and this not solely for scientific but also for practical purposes. If the reader can find anyone who before 1895 had published a tithe of what Galton had

Picture

Fig. 41. Galton's Finger-Print Enlarging Camera.

issued on this topic, then I will admit him also to be a pioneer; if he can find anyone who has since 1.895 done more than amplify in minor, often in very minor points Galton's work, then I will admit him a worthy successor to Galton.

Finger-printing as a science and finger-printing as an art are both alike the product of Galton's insight, ingenuity and tireless activity; the attempts to belittle the credit due to him can only spring from those who for their own purposes choose to ignore the literature of the subject.


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