Sent W.J. Herschel to K. Pearson, 1st Feb. 1916.
1 Feb 1916
Description:

‘Dear Sir,

It is a very long time since I received your kind remittance of the paper by Mr Waite on the “association of finger-prints” May 1915.

I read it through, except the latter[?] tables, with very great attention all the time. You will not be surprised that the whole handling of the subject in such a strictly mathematical way, gave me long pause, say nothing of many other obstacles in the way of a proper digestion of such a new subject.

Pray accept my thanks now, and kindly express to Mr Waite my warm appreciation of the enormous pains he has taken to reduce such apparently haphazard data to an evident correlation. I have now read it through a third time, and will only refrain from speculations as to the meaning of the relations partly because they are of a purely anatomical nature, partly because Mr Waite has explored them as far as it is prudent, but mainly because I don’t see my way to apply the results to the civil purposes to which alone I have been concerned. Those purposes were limited to the single problem of proving the overwhelming individuality of each person’s print, and the absolute persistence of the pattern, for some twenty years at least.

The investigations of Mr Waite appear to me to offer a fair hope of extending the evidence of personality so far as to afford some good presumption of breed and nationality where sufficient number of data can be had. I say nothing of personal consanguinity -, because the data are not available yet in sufficient numbers.

Whenever either of these questions call for practical investigation – (I am aware of a good deal that has been done in both directions) – the methods and the results of Mr Wait’s paper must, I fancy, form the safest basis for the purpose.

The enormous familiarity of Scotland Yard and other such departments with finger-prints hands[?] have already supplied indications in the direction of breed but it will need a Galton or such an investigator as Mr Waite to satisfy their conclusions, if they be sound in a way that will convince outsiders.

Believe me, my[?] sir,

Yours very truly,

W.J. Herschel.’