Water content of latent fingerprints - Dispelling the myth

Changing procedures in the handling of rare and precious documents in museums and elsewhere, based on assumptions about constituents of latent fingerprints, have led the author to an examination of available data. These changes appear to have been triggered by one paper using general biological data regarding eccrine sweat production to infer that deposited fingerprints are mostly water. Searching the fingerprint literature has revealed a number of reference works similarly quoting figures for average water content of deposited fingerprints of 98% or more. Whilst accurate estimation is difficult there is no evidence that the residue on fingers could be anything like 98% water, even if there were no contamination from sebaceous glands. Consideration of published analytical data of real fingerprints, and several theoretical considerations regarding evaporation and replenishment rates, indicates a probable initial average water content of a fingerprint, soon after deposition, of 20% or less.