Henry Faulds

  • Birth Date and Place

    Birth Date and Place
    Henry Faulds was borth on June 1st 1843 in Beith, Scotland.
  • Education

    Education
    At age 25, he enrolled at Anderson's College to practice medicine and became a licentiate with commendation in 1871
  • Received Letter of Appointment

    Received Letter of Appointment
    On July 28, 1873, he received a letter of appointment from the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland to establish a medical mission in Japan.
  • Marriage

    Marriage
    In September of 1873, Henry Faulds married Isabella Wilson.
  • Trip to Tokyo & Development of Hospital

    Trip to Tokyo & Development of Hospital
    He went to Tokyo, Japan, where, in 1875, he established the Tsukji hospital. His reputation grew rapidly and he was offered a post as a personal physician to the Imperial House. He ran his hospital, lectured Japanese medical students, taught physiology, Darwinism, and Professor Joseph Lister's principles of antisepis to Japanese surgeons, and trekked into the mountaisn to heal the bedridden.
  • First published paper.

    First published paper.
    His first paper "On the Skin-Furrows of the Hand" was published in the scientific journal called nature in Japan. This paper included a remarkable forecast that fingerprints from mutilated or dismembered corpses might be of forensic importance in investigation.
  • Success of his hospital

    Success of his hospital
    In 1882, his hospital treated 15,000 patients.
  • The Founding of Fingerprints

    The Founding of Fingerprints
    Finding fingerprints on the ancient city fragments of Japanese pottery led Faulds to study fingerprints with a scientific approach. Faulds and his medical students shaved off their finger ridges with razors until no pattern could be traced. They repeated the experiment, removing the ridges by any number of methods and each time the ridges grew back in exacftly the same patterns.
  • Time and Place of Death

    Time and Place of Death
    Henry Faulds died on March 19th 1930 in Woltsaton, England.