GENESIS OF DERMATOGLYPHICS

The following hypothesis concerning the development of fingerprints, previously recorded in part only in anatomic literature, is elucidated and supported by embryologic and primate studies, as well as by mathematical reasoning: The dermal ridge configurations are a direct consequence of the surface topography of the fetal hand during the period of dermal ridge development-between the thirteenth and nineteenth weeks of prenatal life-during which time the ridges form transversely to the lines of growth stress. The dermatoglyphic findings from 25 individuals with congenitally malformed hands support the hypothesis. Dermatoglyphics, then, are not primarily genetically determined, but provide an indirect, indelible historical perspective of the form of the early fetal hand. © 1969 The C. V. Mosby Company.