PPING CRIMINALS THROUGH THEIR PORES.

Thames Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14435, 29 October 1914, Page 3

PPING CRIMINALS THROUGH THEIR PORES.

Medical attention has been recently ! directed to "poroscopy," a method of criminal and statistical registration of mankind which will no doubt at once be the source of a new crop of detective stories. Dr. Locard, of Lyons, France, stands sponsor for the new dispensation, and his brief is held for the new scheme of measurements because,he is personally convinced that it is the equal—and much easier method of application—of tiie finger print method oi Karl Pearson and M. Bertillon. Dr. James B. Scott describes poroscopy as the science of the study and tabulation of the openings, orifices, and canals of the sweat ducts of the finger pulp, instead of the lines and ridges in the finger print. Finding a metaphor, he says, the holes in trousers cannot altogether be considered without reference to the slender remains of the cloth, but the sweat openings in the fingers can be recorded with no regard to the finger prints. The sweat pores are caught as identification marks upon smoked glass, grease stains, mud, chalk, putty, or even a moist shiny surface. The dirt/ and perspiration alone are enough to obtain the pressed dots and rings. Dr. Locard reports a wonderful series of criminal detections due to the ingenious scheme of obtaining iJie stamp of the sweat canal. He even g jos so far as to say that he can identify anyone by simply examining the sweat band of the person's hat. In other words, if a crime is committed and the perpetrator neglects to carry off his hat or anything that his fingers have touched, the Bertillon bureaux, hereafter will by the procedure of finding only ten sweat pores succeed in capturing the villian.