The Patterns in Thumb and Finger Marks; on their Arrangement into naturally distinct Classees, the Permanence of the Papillary Ridges that make them, and the Resemblance of their Classes to ordinary Genera AND Methods of indexing Finger Marks in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Volumes XLVIII (1890) and XLIX (1891)

London: Harrison & Sons. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITIONS of Francis Galton's important 1890 and 1891 papers providing a scientific basis and model for fingerprint identification and analysis, offered here in separate leather bound volumes. Galton provides a detailed statistical model of fingerprint analysis and identification and encourages its use; the exhaustive statistical models he provides proved enough to encourage law enforcement to begin to use fingerprints and courts to then sanction that use. Note that we offer separately Galton's 1888 paper developing and demonstrating what would become known as the correlation coefficient (the statistical concept of correlation or, at publication, 'Co-relation').

The first paper is an ‘Abstract' of a paper appearing in the Transactions in the same year. The second paper is a first edition, first printing. The papers can be viewed as the basis for his Galton's "Finger-Prints" of 1892 (Printing and the Mind of Man 376). Galton was able to establish that human fingerprints were remarkably stable from early youth to advanced age, even to after death. They changed size with growth, but (with one small exception) they did not change in their minutia. He described and classified described and classified fingerprints into eight broad categories. 1. plain arch, 2. tented arch, 3. simple loop, 4. central pocket loop, 5. double loop, 6. lateral pocket loop, 7. plain whorl, and 8. accidental. CONDITION & DETAILS: London: Harrison & Sons. Two complete volumes. 8vo. 8.5 by 5.5 inches (213 x 138mm). Volume XLVIII: 535 pages, [ xxviii], Galton pp. 455-457; Volume XLIX: 558 pages, [xxxii], Galton pp. 540-548. Illustrations: Two tables and two figures pertaining to the 1891 Galton paper. Exterior: Handsomely bound in worn half calf over marbled paper boards. Five raised bands at the spine. Spine labels are missing. Scuffing and rubbing at the edges, a bit more so at the head and foot of the spine. Professionally rendered Japanese paper repair at the spine on Volume XLIX. Tightly and very solidly bound. Interior: Complete. Ex-libris stamps to title and contents page; Springfield Library plate on rear pastedown. Marbled endpapers and pages. Bright and clean throughout. The Galton papers are pristine.