RECORDING BABY FOOTPRINTS.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 19, 8 March 1918, Page 2

RECORDING BABY FOOTPRINTS.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY NO LONGER POSSIBLE. An immense amount of unhappiness and injustice has been caused in the worj4 by the failure to establish a person’s identity—to prove beyond question that he was a certain mother’s child and could not possible be any other. All this trouble in future can be avoided by the new system of “taking baby’s footprints.’’ As long ago as King Solomon’s time the difficulty that might arise about a child’s disputed parentage was recognised. Most people remember the story about Solomon’s judgment as related in the first book of Kings, chapter 111., and if they don’t, it should be recalled to them.

There were two mothers in Jerusalem in King Solomon’s time, persons very low in the social scale, as we might say. They came running to King, Solomon and told him an extraordinary story. The first said that they both lived in the same house and that she became a mother there, and that the other woman had a baby three days later. There was no other person in the house at the time.

The first complainant alleged that the other woman suffocated her own baby in the night, and, while the complainant was asleep, stole her living child and put the dead baby .in its place. When the poor mother woke up she v/as holding a dead baby. The second woman denied the story and declared that the other woman had really lost her own child and that she was trying to steal a live one.

All the wise men around King Soloman thought that this was an insoluble problem, and the King appeared to think so, too. Then King Solomon, acting very abruptly, said to a fierce soldier, “Bring a sword, divide the living child in two and give half to the one and hall to the other." The unfortunate baby, as many ancient pictures show, was held up by one leg, while the ruthless soldiers prepared to chop it exactly in two, as if it were an animal’s carcase. We must assume that King Solomon gave them a secret signal not to act hastily.

Immediately there was a shriek. The woman who had made the complaint said ;

“Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it." But the other said, “Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." King Solomon immediately decided that the woman who was ready to give up the child rather than see it killed was really the mother and ordered that it should be given to her

This story shows that King Solomon personally administered justice to the lowest of his people, and - it is one of the best examples of his proverbial wisdom, for he had prayed the Lord to give him “an dnderstanding heart to judge the people" before riches,' long life, or any of the other desirable things.

For over 2,500 years that has been regarded as one of the best instances of clear‘judgment. Now science tells us that the same problem can be decided with more certainty by a simple device, and that we need not depend on the slim chance of finding a judge with King Solomon’s extraordinary wisdom. The nurse in charge at one foreign maternity hospital now takes the new-born baby’s foot in her hand and covers, it gently with printer’s ink by means of a roller. Then she transfers an impression of the sole of the foot to a sheet of paper. Then she repeats the process with the other foot. Finally she cleans off the ink with some alcohol.

The baby may squeal a little, but the proceeding does not do him the slightest harm, and if he knew how it was safeguarding his rights, he would be delighted.

Other precautions are taken to preserve baby’s identity. A piece of tape is tied round its wrist bearing a number, and a similar number is tied to the mother. The baby’s name is also written out on a - piece of adhesive plaster and pasted on its back. Some very sad cases of confused Identity have arisen in large maternity hospitals. Nurses have taken the babies away for some purpose and have failed to return them to the right mothers. No such cruel mistakes can occur in this great institution.

Every child is born with a complicated system of lines an the soles of its feet and the surface of its hands. These never change. Though fingers and feet grow in size, the lines grow with them and the pattern remains true to its first form. Evidently this method of identification was suggested by the system of keeping finger print records, first introduced by the late M. Bertillon, of Paris, and now used by the police are usually taken from persons over twenty years old. Upon the foot as well as upon the hand there is a complicated system of small lines, which sweep all over the inner surface, and at certain points, generally on the tips of the fingers, form a kind of centre. These central formations are known as whirlpools, loops, and composites. Many persons have the same general type of line formation, but no two persons have exactly the same pattern, and any one with a little experience can infallibly identify a man from his finger prints.

One police authority states that there are 1,700,000,000 people in the world, and no two have finger prints that cannot be distinguished from one another. The line patterns on the feet and hands have been handed down from ancestors of countless thousands of years ago and do not

change during the life of an individual. The monkeys have similar lines. The lines are due to ridges of little papillae in the true underlying skin, which contain the sensory nerves and blood vessels. These ridges are reproduced by the outer skin or epidermis. The epidermis is constantly being worn away, but as it is renewed the lines are renewed with it.

The finger tips have furnished a wonderfully successful method of tracking professional criminals. There is an oily secretion in the skin, and when the finger tips touch, a brass door-knob, a pane of glass, or any smooth, hard/ substance, they leave an impression. If this impression coincides with one already recorded the police know just who the man is.

The cleverest criminals have resorted' to all sorts of tricks to remove the evidence of their finger prints. Some have gone so far as to slice off their finger tips with a knife, but apart from the shocking pain this must cause it has the disadvantage of destroying the best part of their sense of touch.

It is satisfactory to know that this human peculiarity can be made to serve some nobler object than catching criminals. If the system of keeping baby footprints had been adopted long ago, some of the most remarkable romances and tragedies of history would never have happened, or, at least, would have lost their dramatic features. The famous Tichborne case, for instance, could hardly have happened. In that case a rough man from Australia turned up and declared that he was the missing heir to the great, ancient Tichborne estates and title, who had been lost at sea. Strange to say, the missing heir’s own mother identified the claimant as her son. Families were split up by the controversy, many persons ruined, and finally the claimant was sent to gaol for perjury. If the footprints of the missing man had been preserved the claimant would have been laughed out of court.—“ Popular Science Siftings,’’