Palm Prints for Infant Identification
Louise E. Morgan, Florence Pauls · AJN American Journal of Nursing · 1939
substitute for any other safeguard, but a means of positive and permanent identification in case of disputed identity or loss of identity during hospitalization and throughout life. It may be used in coordination with prevailing technics for establishing identification. Experiments with infants' footprints have proved that they are valuable only psychologically, because they are of no reference value after the first ten days. The many fine wrinkles on the soles of the newborn infant render the patterns indistinct and make it difficult to get all the patterns necessary for a complete classification. There is wide variability in the patterns and the extent to which the sole lines run up the side of the foot and under the toes. Toe and fingerprints have proved to be impracticable because of the difficulty in securing perfect rolled prints of all ten tiny digits for classifying by the standard method. These deductions eliminate all areas except the palms on which the characteristics of the palmar papillary ridges make identifications by palm prints possible. In his manual on palm printing, Dr. Pond says: