Advances in Fingerprint Technology.pdf

Figure 1.10 Sir Edward Henry. (Drawn by John Berry.)
Dr. Ivan Vucetich (1858–1925)
Dr. Ivan Vucetich (Figure 1.11) was employed in the Central Police Department,
La Plata, Argentina, and was ordered to install the French Bertillon
Anthropometric Identification System, which used a number of body measurements
and was in extensive use in European countries. Vucetich obtained
a copy of the journal Revue Scientific which contained an article on English
fingerprint pioneer Francis Galton, who had formulated his own classification
system. Dr. Vucetich became extremely interested in fingerprints and
within a year had worked out his own unique system for classifying them.
This became known as “vucetichissimo,” and it utilized four fingerprint patterns
as described in his book Dactilospia Comparada. In 1893, the Rojas
murder was solved by fingerprints, proving their effectiveness, and Vucetich
was enthusiastically operating a fingerprint office built at his own expense.
In 1893, he was suddenly ordered to abandon his fingerprint system and
revert to bertillonage. Of course, he realized that this was a retrograde action,