Dermatoglyphics is the scientific study of fingerprints. It comes from two ancient greek words- “derma” means skin and “glyph” means carve. The term was coined by Dr. Harold Cummins, the father of American finger print analysis, even though the process of finger print identification had already been used for several hundred years. In humans and animals, dermatoglyphs are present on fingers, palms, toes, and soles,and give insight into acritical period of embryogenesis, between 4 weeks and 5 months, when the architecture of the major organ systems is developing.
History of Dermatoglyphics
- An Italian person named Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) was the First one to Study fingerprints Scientifically.
- Gouard Bidloo wrote the First book with detailed drawings of fingerprints in Year 1685.
- As early in 1832, a Famous Surgeon of England named Charles Bell had started his study on this subject and discovered neurological link between hands and brain.
- In 1893, Sir Francis Galton was one of the earliest to look into the relationship between skin grains and genes among different families and different people so as to classify the skin grains scientifically. He established the theory of the everlasting and personality of finger prints which had been used since then.
- The Father of Dermatoglyphics Harold Cummins, M D established the Theory of Dermatoglyphics in 1926 after he researched on the existing research by other scientists and him. Excellent grain identification tools were developed and used in research of different races, identification, genes and so on.
- In 1936, Harold Cummins, MD , presented his research of the special grain character of Down patients in medical journal .
- Dr. Walker is the first one to confirm the significance of DOWN. According to this significance, one can easily distinguish 70% of the DOWN patients. This significance is still under used by the paediatrics.