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OCR Rendition - approximate
vii EVIDENTIAL VALUE 111 person would be exactly like that of the same finger of any other member of the human race. When two fingers of each of the two persons are compared, and found to have the same minutiae, the improbability of 1 to 236 becomes squared, and reaches a figure altogether beyond the range of ' the imagination ; when three fingers, it is cubed, and so on. A single instance has shown that the minutiae are not invariably permanent throughout life, but that one or more of them may possibly change. They may also be destroyed by wounds, and more or less disintegrated by .hard work, disease, or age. Ambiguities will thus arise in their interpretation, one person asserting a resemblance in respect to a particular feature, while another asserts dissimilarity. It is therefore of interest to know how far a conceded resemblance in the great majority of the minutiae combined with some doubt as to the remainder, will tell in. favour of identity. It will now be convenient to change our datum from a six-ridge to a five-ridge square of which about thirty-five are contained in a single print, 3 5 x 52 or 3 5 x 2 5 being much the same as 24 x 62 or 24 x 36. The reason for the change is that this number of thirty-five happens to be the same as that of the minutiae. We shall therefore not be acting unfairly if, with reservation, and for the sake of obtaining some result, however rough, we consider the thirty-five minutiae themselves as so many independent variables, and accept the chance now as 1 to 235. This has to be multiplied, as before, into the factor of 2'x 28 (which may still be considered
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