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him further information on what had been more recently done, to which he answered, on June 15, 1891, that he was much disposed to add my method to his own, especially for persons under age, but he feared practical difficulties, such as in cleaning the fingers after printing from them. Also it was a question whether his assistants, who were but little educated, would be zealous enough to learn a new method. He ended by asking me, on the next occasion when I happened to pass through Paris, to give a morning to his Depot to experimentalise on- the criminals there. I t has been stated more than once that the finger-print system was initiated by M. Bertillon, so I have mentioned these historical details, and give his untranslated letter in a footnote. The omitted portion refers to quite another matter, in which he was then assisting me.
I have said that my method was not so fully elaborated as I should have wished when the Committee examined it, so I worked hard at it afterwards, and published the results in 1895 in the book already mentioned, bearing the title of Finger Print Directory, using the term "Directory" in the same sense as in the familiar phrase of " Post Office Directory." I t was an unlucky choice of a word, for its equivalent in French means a Board of Directors, so its title
1 Extract from letter of M. Alphonse Bertillon, 15 Juin 1891 " Je vous remercie de votre nouvel envoi relativement aux imj5ressions digitales. Je suis fort dispose bL ajouter votre procedt au signalement anthropometrique surtout pour les enfants. Mais je redoute quelques difficultes pratiques pour le nettoyage des doigts apres l'impression faite, etc. Puis mes agents si peu instruits mettront-ils le zele necessaire pour apprendre votre methode ? Je crois que vous traversez souvent Paris, pourriez vous a votre prochain voyage, me consacrer une matinee au Depot, pour un essayage sur la vile multitude?"
