1. Fingerprint – An impression of the friction ridges of all or any part of the finger.

A friction ridge
is a raised portion of the epidermis on the palmar (palm and fingers) or plantar (sole and toes)
skin, consisting of one or more connected ridge units of friction ridge skin. These ridges are
sometimes known as "dermal ridges" or "dermal papillae".
2. Dactyloscopy – is the practical application of fingerprints or the process of identification by
fingerprint comparison and the classification of fingerprints.

Allied Sciences

1. Dactylography – is the scientific study of fingerprints as a means of identification.

2. Poroscopy – the scientific study of pores or science of identification by means of the pores.
3. Podoscopy - the science of identification through friction ridge characteristics existing on
the sole of the human foot.
4. Chiroscopy – the science of identification through friction ridge characteristics existing on
palms.
5. Ridgeology –the study of poroscopy, edgeoscopy, and ridge characteristics for the
purpose of the positive identification of fingerprints.
6. Edgeoscopy – the study of the characteristics formed by the sides or edges of papillary
ridges as a means of identification.
A. PERSONALITIES

1. Constantinople - In treaty ratification, the sultan soaked his hand in a sheep’s blood and
impressed in on the document as his seal.

2. Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) – A British author, naturalist and engraver became England’s
finest engraver who made fingerprint stamps. He made wooden engravings of fingerprints
and published their images in his books where he used an engraving of his fingerprints as a
signature. The engravings demonstrate familiarity with the construction of skin ridge. In two
of the books he added “Thomas Bewick, his mark” under the impressions.

3. Sir William J. Herschel – Credited as being the first European to recognize the value of
friction ridge points and to actually use them for identification purposes.

4. Dr. J.C.A. Mayer (1788) of Germany – He published the following statements in his
anatomical atlas; although the arrangement of skin ridges is never duplicated in two
persons, nevertheless the similarities are closer among some individuals. In others the
differences are marked, yet in spite of their peculiarities of arrangement all have a certain
likeness.” This deduction was published 100 years before the Konai contract.
5. Dr. Henry Faulds (1843-1930) – In 1875 Faulds had opened a missionary hospital and a year
later started a medical school in Japan where he may have been exposed to fingerprints. He
wrote a letter to Charles Darwin telling him of his studies and requesting assistance. He
mentioned that fingerprints can be classified easily and that ridge detail is unique. He
pointed out the value of fingerprints of being in “medico legal studies” and commented
that photographs of people change over the years but rugae (friction ridges) never
change.

6. Thomas Taylor (1877) - A microscopist of the Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC who

also suggested that fingerprints could be used to solve crime.

7. Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914) – He devised the first truly scientific method of criminal
identification in Paris France called anthropometry or Bertillonage. He conceived the idea of
using anatomical measurements to distinguish one criminal from another. He decided to use
various body measurements such as head length, head breadth, length of left middle finger,
length of the left cubit (forearm)/ length of left foot, body height, face breadth, face height and
 other descriptions including features such as scars and hair and eye color to distinguish
criminals.

8. Dr. Henry P. De Forrest - He utilized the first official municipal use of fingerprints for non-
criminal registration on December 19, 1902 in the Municipal Civil Service Commission in the
City of New York. He required civil service applicants to be fingerprinted to prevent them from
having better qualified persons take test for them and put the system into practice.

9. Capt. James I. Parke – He advocated the first state and penal use of fingerprint which was
officially adopted in Sing-sing prison on June 5, 1903 and later at Auburn, Napanoch and
Clinton Penitentiaries.

10. Sgt. Kenneth Perrier – An Englishman and first fingerprint instructor at the St. Luis Police
Department, Missouri. He was one of the pupils of Sir. Edward Richard Henry and through
personal contact during the Worlds Fair Exposition held in St. Luis, a fingerprint bureau was
established on April 12, 1904.

11. Mary K. Holland – She was the first American Instructor in Dactyloscopy.

12. Harry Mayers II – In 1925, he installed the first official foot and fingerprint system for
infants at the Jewish Maternity Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and the first system
in the state.

13. Juan (Ivan) Vucetich (1855-1925) – The fast face of the advancement of fingerprinting in
England was due to the ingenuity of Juan Vucetich, who was employed as a statistician with
the Central Police Department at La Planta, Argentina. In July 1891, the Chief of Police
assigned Vucetich to set up a bureau of Anthropometric Identification.

14. Sir Edward Henry (1850-1931) – At the same time that Vucetich was experimenting with
fingerprinting in Argentina, another classification system was being developed in India. This
system was called “The Henry Classification System.”

15. Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) – A professor in 1685 at the University of Bologna, Italy,
published the results of his examination of the friction skin with the newly invented
microscope. He has been credited with being the first to use a microscope in medical
studies. His paper dealt mainly with the function, form, and structure of the friction skin as
a tactile organ, and its use in the enhancement of traction for walking and grasping.

He was known as the ‘Grandfather of Dactyloscopy” according to Dr. Edmond Locard, the
“Father of Poroscopy.” He originated the terms “loops and spirals.”

16. JCA Mayer (1788) – A German doctor and anatomist whose paper on fingerprint clearly
addressed the individuality of the friction ridges.

17. Johannes (Jean) Evangelista Purkinje (1787-1869) – A professor at the University of

Breslau, Germany, published a thesis that contained his studies on the eye, fingerprints and
other skin features entitled, “Commentatio de Examine Phisiologico Organi Visus et
Systematis.” He classified nine principal configuration groups of fingerprints and assigned each
a name he was known as the “Father of Dactyloscopy.”