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The 14th century Persian book "Jaamehol-Tawarikh" (Universal History), includes comments about the practice of identifying persons from their fingerprints.
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In 1684, Dr. Nehemiah Grew was the first European to publish friction ridge skin observations. Dutch anatomist Govard Bidloo's 1685 book, "Anatomy of the Human Body" also described friction ridge skin (papillary ridge) details. In 1686, Marcello Malpighi, an anatomy professor, noted fingerprint ridges, spirals and loops in his treatise. A layer of skin was named after him; "Malpighi" layer
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John Evangelist Purkinje, anatomy professor, published his thesis discussing nine fingerprint patterns, but made no mention of the value of fingerprints for personal identification.
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The English first began using fingerprints in July of 1858, when Sir William James Herschel, in Jungipoor, India, first used fingerprints on native contracts. On a whim, and without thought toward personal identification, Herschel had Rajyadhar Konai, a local businessman, impress his hand print on a contract.Thus, the first wide-scale, modern-day use of fingerprints was predicated, not upon scientific evidence, but upon superstitious beliefs.
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Professor Paul-Jean Coulier in Paris, published his observations that (latent) fingerprints can be developed on paper by iodine fuming, it explains how to preserve (fix) such developed impressions and mentions the potential for identifying suspects' fingerprints by use of a magnifying glass.
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Dr. Henry Faulds took up the study of "skin-furrows" after noticing finger marks on specimens of "prehistoric" pottery. He discussed fingerprints as a means of personal identification, and the use of printers ink as a method for obtaining such fingerprints. He is also credited with the first fingerprint identification of a greasy fingerprint left on an alcohol bottle.
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Gilbert Thompson of the U.S. Geological Survey in New Mexico, used his own thumb print on a document to help prevent forgery. This is the first known use of fingerprints in the United States.
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Sir Francis Galton, a British anthropologist and a cousin of Charles Darwin, began his observations of fingerprints as a means of identification in the 1880's.
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Juan Vucetich, an Argentine Police Official, began the first fingerprint files based on Galton pattern types. At first, Vucetich included the Bertillon System with the files.
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Juan Vucetich made the first criminal fingerprint identification in 1892. He was able to identify Francis Rojas, a woman who murdered her two sons and cut her own throat in an attempt to place blame on another. Her bloody print was left on a door post, proving her identity as the murderer.
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On 12 June 1897, the Council of the Governor General of India approved a committee report that fingerprints should be used for classification of criminal records. Later that year, the Calcutta (now Kolkata) Anthropometric Bureau became the world's first Fingerprint Bureau.
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The Fingerprint Branch at New Scotland Yard (Metropolitan Police) was created in July 1901 using the Henry System of Fingerprint Classification.
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