state a case. It is said that a mandamus to compel him to state a case is about to be ap plied for.— The Law Times. A CURSORY glance at the finger-tips would scarcely lead one to suppose that they could serve the purposes of identification. But they can, and do. The tip of the finger tells a very remarkable tale. Take a sheet of ordinary white paper, not too highly glazed, and spread over it a little printer's ink. •On this lay the bulb of the finger lightly, and observe the pattern that is left. You have there an absolute impression taken direct from the body, which might be the means in certain circumstances of sending you to or saving you from the gallows. It might pro cure you a fortune, or prevent you from be ing robbed of one; it might secure your be ing identified as John Jones in a situation in which some malicious person was endeavor ing to prove that you were William Smith. For this impression from your finger is practically unique. The pattern may be what is called a "whorl," a "loop/' an "arch,'1 or something else. The all-important point is that it is absolutely your own, and can be claimed by nobody else; it has been es timated that the chance of two finger prints being identical is rather less than one in sixty-four thousand millions. This pattern persists, moreover, throughout the period of human life—and after. Such as it is found on the finger-tip of a child, it is trace able on the finger of the same individual in extreme old age. Death itself does not efface it, except when decomposition has set in. It has been observed on the fingers of Egyptian mummies and on the paws of stuffed mon keys. With the exceptions perhaps of very deep scars and clearly-made tattoo marks, there are probably no bodily characteristics so persistent and so distinctive as these. I have spoken of the impression taken from a single finger of one hand; but take them from
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the five fingers of one hand or the ten fingers of the two hands, and you are identified be yond the possibility of denial or disproof. Such is the tell-tale finger-print. A few years ago a very curious criminal case was before the Bengal Courts. The man ager of a tea garden in a little place on the Bhutan frontier was found dead in his bed, his throat cut and his safe rifled. Several persons were suspected—a coolie, the mana ger's cook, an ex-servant whom he had caused to be imprisoned for theft, and others : but the evidence given at a preliminary in quiry incriminated nobody. Among the pa pers discovered and examined in a dispatchbox of the manager was a calendar in book form, printed in the Bengali character. The calendar had a cover or wrapper of light blue paper, on which were observed two dirtylooking, faint, brownish smudges. Upon these a magnifying glass was brought to bear, and one of the smudges was deciphered as a half-impression of the fingers of some body's right hand. The Central Office of the Bengal Police keeps in a classified register the finger-prints of all persons convicted of certain offences; and the impression recorded on the calendar happened to correspond pre cisely with the impression of the thumb of the right hand of one Kangali Charan, the manager's ex-servant. This man was ar rested in a district some hundreds of miles away, and brought to Calcutta, where the impression of his right thumb was again taken. The chemical examiner to the Gov ernment meanwhile certified that the stain on the cover of the calendar was human blood, and Kangali Charan was committed for trial. In the end, he was convicted of having stolen the missing property of the de ceased, the assessors holding that it would be improper to find him guilty of murder, as no one had witnessed the deed. On appeal, the conviction was upheld by the judges of the Supreme Court.— The Lazv Time.*
