Dermatoglyphics: Significant Patternings of the Body Surface *

The discussion whilch I am to bring before you is concerned with certain bodily features which have aroused but little active interest on the part of anatomnists. I shall speak of dermatoglyphics-the traceries of delicate skin ridges borne by the fingers, palms, toes, and soles. They are obscure features, not only in the sense of being inconspicuous but obscure also from the standpoint of the relative sparsity of knowledge about them. It is interesting to speculate about the reason for the relative neglect of dermatoglyphics. A suggestion may be ventured that an analtomist likes to do -what other anatomists are doing and is reluctant tio undertake investigation in a subj ect far removed from the favored interests of the majority. Perhaps, too, there is more appeal in research which demands elaboraite equipment and methods. If that is true, it is easy to understand the lag in investigation of dermatoglyphics, which for the most part requires 'only a simple h.and-lens, with paper and ink for the making of records. Closely relat.ed to this is the possible notion that the skin is too simple or too insignificant to justify much attention, it being merely a cloak under which are hidden the really important structures. Perhaps we have been inclined, in our te-aching and research as well, to ignore the hide in our eagerness to work with that which is underneath. There is a vast amount 'of meaningful and diversified biology associ.ated with the dermatoglyphics. One who undertakes an intensive study of dermatoglyphics finds himself led into fascinating excursion,s throughout the realm of what Harry Burr Ferris termed "the natural history of man." It is my intention to review very briefly a few of the main brackets of the present knowledge of dermatoglyphics, in illustration iof their diverse relations to the natural history of our species. For the sake of simplicity the citation of authorities will be omitted; an extensive bibliography -of the field