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OCR Rendition - approximate
144 FINGER PRINTS CHAP. seldom happens that more than two references have to be made, as it is usual for the ambiguity to be of the same kind in both of the doubtful fingers. If the ambiguities were quite independent, then two marks would require four references, and three marks would require nine. There are a few nondescript prints that would fall under a separate heading, such as Z. Similarly, as regards lost or injured fingers. I have tried various methods of sub-classification, and find no difficulty in any of them, but general rules seem inadvisable ; it being best to treat each large group on its own merits. One method that I have adopted and described in the Proc. Royal Soc., is to sketch in a cursive and symbolic form the patterns of the several fingers in the order in which they appear in the print, confining myself to a limited number of symbols, such as might be used for printer's types. They sufficed fairly for some thousands of the finger, marks upon which they were tried, but doubtless they could be improved. A little violence has of course to be used now and then, in fitting some unusual patterns to some one or other of these few symbols. But we are familiar with such processes in ordinary spelling, making the same letter do duty for different sounds, as a in the words as, ale, ask, and all. The plan of using symbols has many secondary merits. It facilitates a leisurely revision of first determinations, it affords a pictorial record of the final judgment that is directly comparable with the print itself, and it almost wholly checks blunders between inner and outer slopes. A beginner
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