Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/517

This page needs to be proofread.

ANTIBES- ANTIGUA

469

English law only permits it to be done to persons com- its gradual substitution for the previously existing anthromitted for trial or under remand at the formal request of pometric system has since been carried out. Its use is not a chief constable. The measurements, therefore, are not confined to the police department, but extends to all taken by the police, but by prison officials, and the system branches of public business. It is probable that different systems may suit different is only applied to a comparatively small number of criminals. It is carried out, however, under the super- conditions. Foreign governments now use for police vision of a central office attached to the metropolitan purposes combinations of Anthropometry and finger-prints police, where the register is kept. Some 200 officers in similar to that adopted in England. There are minoi the different gaols throughout the United Kingdom have differences, but the systems are sufficiently alike to be been instructed in Anthropometry. In Glasgow it is used available for dealing with international crime. The full advantage of scientific identification, however, will not be by the police. Finger Prints.—In 1823 Purkenje, the eminent physio- reaped until judicial procedure recognizes more clearly the logist of Breslau, drew attention to the subject of finger distinction between professional and accidental criminals.. impressions. He distinguished nine types, and suggested On this point the committee of 1894 remarked:—“As a system of classification, but it was not followed up. there are some criminals who ought never to be sent to The first practical application of the method was made by prison, there are others who ought never to be released Sir William Herschel, of the Indian Civil Service, who and when this distinction is established and provided for introduced it into the district of Hooghly, in Bengal, as by legislation, it will, be of even greater importance than a means of identification, to meet the practice of persona- at present to have an exact record of each criminal s tion prevalent in all the courts. He wrote a report offences.” Literature. — Bertillon. — Instructions Signaletiques. recommending its general adoption in India, but his ry. —Classification and Uses of Finger Prints. Spearman.— advice was not followed, and the practice lapsed in the Hen Fortnightly Review, March 1890; New Review, July 1893. Blue Hooghly district after his departure. The subject was Book.—“Report on best Means available for identitying Habitual afterwards taken up as an anthropological study by Mr Criminals,” 1894. (a. Sn) Francis Galton, and very fully worked out. It is thus Antibes, a small seaport of France, department of explained in brief by Mr G. B. Henry, inspector-general Alpes Maritimes, in the arrondissement of Grasse, 11 of police, Lower Provinces :— The palmar surface of the hand and the sole of the foot are miles in direct line S.S.W. of Nice, on the railway from traversed by innumerable ridges, forming many varieties of pattern, Toulon to Nice. The ramparts are being demolished. and by creases. The ridge patterns and the ridge characteristics A state horticultural college was established in 1891. persist throughout the whole period of human life, and are so dis- Industries include perfume'distilling. Population (1881), tinctive as to differentiate each individual from all others. An 3810; (1891), 4926; (1896), 4956 ; (1901), 6600. accurate reproduction of these ridges is obtained by inking the finger bulb and pressing it on paper, the impression thus recorded being Anticosti, a barren island of Quebec, Canada, a reversal of the pattern on the finger. All impressions may be arranged under one of four types, namely, arches, loops, vhorls, situated in the northern portion of the Gulf of St composites. Arches subdivide into arches and tented arches, Lawrence. It has been converted into an immense clear definitions demarcate arches from tented arches, and both preserve for game of all kinds. from loops. Loops may be ulnar or radial, and are further differentiated from each other by ridge counting and by their ridge AntigO, n city of Wisconsin, U.S.A., the capital of characteristics. Whorls are single- or double-cored; impressions of Langlade county, situated in the north-eastern part of the this type differ conspicuously from each other, owing to the innumerable varieties of pattern they present, but further demarca- state, on a branch of the Chicago and North-Western railtion is provided by ridge tracing. Composites include central way, at an altitude of 1483 feet. Its industries consist pockets, lateral pockets, twinned loops, accidentals. mainly in the manufacture of lumber. Population (1885), From this it will be seen that the classification is 1979; (1895), 5002; (1900), 5145. somewhat complicated and technical. For further explanaAntigua., an island of the British West Indies, the tion and for the practical application of the method the largest member of the outer coralline chain, east of Nevis reader is referred to Mr Henry’s book on linger Prints and north of Montserrat, with an area of 108 square miles. 1900 ( )• T> 1 In 1892 Anthropometry was introduced into Bengal, In 1881 the population was 34,000, and in 1891, 36,200, St. John, the capital, containing 7938. It forms, with and then into other provinces; but after some years’ ex- Barbuda and Redonda, one of the five presidencies into which perience certain defects in working became apparent, and the Leeward group is divided, and is the seat of the general attention was turned to the alternative use of finger-prints, governing body. The local legislative council ceased to on which the Home Office, as previously mentioned, had send four unofficial members to the Federal Legislative reported favourably in 1894. Experiments in identifica- Council in 1898, when the legislature, in consideration tion by finger-prints only were made in Bengal, and were of pecuniary assistance from the British Government, so successful that in 1897 the. government of India passed an act abrogating the semi-elective constitution appointed a committee to examine both systems. It which had existed since 1866. The island is now, like recommended the adoption of finger-prints on the Bengal the other presidencies of the Leeward Islands colony, plan “ as being superior to the anthropometric method administered as a Crown Colony, and the legislative (1) in simplicity of working ; (2) in the cost of apparatus ; council consists of eight official and eight non-official (3) in the fact that all skilled work is transferred to a members, all nominated by the governor. Education is central or classification office; (4) in the. rapidity wit by law compulsory, and there are many elementary schools which the process can be worked ; and (5) in the certainty throughout the island. There is a grammar school for of the results.” Various theoretical objections to finger- boys and one for girls, and the Cambridge local examinaprints have been raised, but they have no particular value. tions are held annually, as are the examinations of the Obliteration of the ridges by injury is possible, but it University of London. Agricultural training is given would in itself be suspicious, and would constitute a most under the Government at Skerrett’s school. The Mico distinctive personal mark; obscuration by manual labour training institution was closed in 1899, and students are is not found to be a serious drawback. In June a now trained in the Mico training college in Jamaica. resolution of the governor-general in council directed the The Anglican, Wesleyan, and Moravian churches are the adoption of the finger-print system throughout India, and