HEALTH MARKINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 224, 21 September 1934, Page 9

HEALTH MARKINGS.

FINGERPRINT SIGN. DISEASE SIMILARITIES. LONDON, August 10. Tlie suggestion that fingerprints, which now aid in the prevention of crime, may help in the prevention of the spread of disease was made by Dr. Heinrieh Poll of Berlin in addressing the final plenary session of the Congress ■of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences to-day. Dr. Poll, who said that during his 2-"> years of investigations he had examined more than 200,000 recorded fingerprints, described hie methods not only of determining by fingerprint characteristics the racial or ancestral group to which an individual belonged, but of tracing inherited tendencies. He emphasised the importance from a medical standpoint of the discovery that inmate* of a mental asylum might be distinguished from sane nersone fay their fingerprints. He declared that during the outbreak of infantile paralysis he found victims that belonged to one group all possessing the same characteristic ■ features in their fingerprints. Similar reeults. were obtained with persons'affected with certain other diseases. A resolution directed against the socalled "Aryan" theory in Germany was quietly killed by the governing committee of the congress after it had been passed by two sections. The resolution apparently was suppressed as being tactless, although some felt it did not go far enough. The resolution simply called for an impartial committee under the auspices of the League of Nations to examine various facts bearing on races, and the relations of races, and to condemn any distortion by science. It is understood it was sponsored by Sir Graf ton Eliot Smith, .British anthropologist, who denounced Xa/.i racial theories earlier in the week. The congress closed, passing a number of resolutions including one appealing to all missionaries and Colonial officials to study social anthropology to use in their work. The next congress at Copenhagen in 1938 will be under the presidency of the Danish scientist, Professor Oluf'Thomson.