Finger-print impressions are the most trustworthy of all means of
identification. Such a print is obtained by rubbing the pulp of the
finger in lampblack, and then impressing it on a glazed card. The
impression reveals the fine lines which exist at the tips of the
fingers. The arrangement of these lines is special to each person, and
cannot be changed. Hence this method is employed by the police in the
identification of prisoners.
In the determination of cases of doubtful sex in the living, the
following points should be noticed: the size of the penis or clitoris,
and whether perforate or not, the form of the prepuce, the presence or
absence of nymphae and of testicles or ovaries. Openings must be
carefully sounded as to their communication with bladder or uterus.
After puberty, inquiry should be made as to menstrual or vicarious
discharges, the general development of the body, the growth of hair,
the tone of voice, and the behaviour of the individual towards either
sex.
With regard to the identification of the dead in cases of death by
accident or violence, the medical man's assistance may be called. The
sex of the skeleton, if that only be found, may be judged from the bones
of the female generally being smaller and more slender than those of the
male, by the female thorax being deeper, the costal cartilages longer,
the ilia more expanded, the sacrum flatter and broader, the coccyx
movable and turned back, the tuberosities of the ischia wider apart, the
pubes shallow, and the whole pelvis shallower and with larger outlets.
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