According to an article in the Scotsman, the Scotish doctor who first used fingerprints to convict and exonerate suspects will be getting a long-overdue monument in his home country.

Dr. Henry Faulds, a doctor from Scotland who worked much of his life healing the sick in Tokyo, Japan, first theorized about the nature of fingerprints and published his research in 1880.

Then, to expand his work, he appealed to Charles Darwin to publicize his findings. Darwin passed it on to his nephew, Sir Francis Galton, who (with his colleague William Henry) took the discovery as his own and ran with it.

Now, over a hundred years later, the town of Beith will erect a monument to Dr. Faulds.

Lest anyone think that Dr. Faulds doesn't deserve the honor, it is important to note that he chemically burned off his own fingerprints in order to see whether they would grow back. They did, and they grew back identical to the original prints.