September 4, 1969

Mr. Charles Kingston

Division of Identification and INtelligence
New York State Department of Correction
Albany, New York “a

Dear Mr. Kingston:

I am writing to you for back-up information on the technology of finger-

print classification. As you know, dermatoglyphs have begun to assume LF
a certain importance in medical characterization of certain diseases,

but wy own quick scan through the field leaves me the impression that we
are not yet using a classification whcih is oriented as well as it should
be to the biological, developmental basis ofrridge patterns. I believe
that you are involved in further investigations of this problem as sun-—
marized in the appendix article by T. C. Bartee in the task force report
"Seience and Technology" to the President's Commission on Law Enforcement
and Administration of Justice. I would be very grateful to you for refer-
ences to the literature or for reporta bearing on more recent attempts to
classify fingerprints that might be of use for an initial orientation to
a biomedical research investigator entering into the field from a somewhat
different point of view than your own. I am particularly interested in
the pattern analysis of fingerprints by computer. In ohter applications
we have acquired fairly substantial experience here at Stanford.

be

/

One point that atruck me inmediately was that the definition of pattern
intensity by ridge counts, which leaves a count of zero even for a highly
tented arch probably overlooks important biological differences between
simple and more complex arches. I realize that the exigencies of prac~
tical classification must lead you in somewhat different directions, but
I would be particularly interested in whatever art has been developed
that looks at fingerprint patterns in somewhat different ways than estab-
lished by the Henry and similar systems.

Sincerely yours,

Joshua Lederberg
Professor of Genetics