A Short
History of Early Dermatoglyphic Pioneers
Marcello Malpighi (1628 -
1694)
An Italian anatomist and
microscopist who described the patterns on the tips of fingers as part of an
overall study of human skin. He is regarded by some to be the first histologist.
(Histology is the study of tissues.) The lower epidermis "Malpighian
layer" is named after him. For almost 40 years he used the microscope to
describe the major types of plant and animal structures and in doing so marked
out for future generations of biologists major areas of research in embryology,
human anatomy and pathology.
Dr. Nehemiah Grew (1641 -
1712)
Dr. Grew was a Fellow of
the Royal Society and of the College of Physicians, he described the
"innumerable little ridges" in Philosophical Transactions for 1684:
For if anyone will but take the pains, with an indifferent glass
to survey the palm o f his hand, he may perceive ... innumerable little ridges,
of equal bigness and distance, and everywhere running parallel one with
another. And especially, upon the hands and first joints of the fingers and
thumb. They are very regularly disposed into spherical triangles and elliptics.
Dr. Grew published
extremely accurate drawings of finger patterns and areas of palm.
Francis Galton
(1822-1911)
He was the cousin of Sir
Charles Darwin as well as a scientist with a wide range of interests covering
anthropology, geology, biology, genetics and eugenics published 240 papers and
15 books. He conducted extensive research into the significance and permanence
of fingerprints not only to demonstrate their use as a means of personal
identification but also to demonstrate hereditary significance of fingerprints
and to indicate biological variations of fingerprint patterns amongst different
races.
His classification of
fingerprint patterns was much simpler than that proposed by Prof.
Purkinje delineating only 3 main types of patterns based on the number of
tri-radii found in each pattern. He identified the tri-radius as being the
important indicator of a fingerprint pattern type.
His two works
'Fingerprints' (1892) and 'Fingerprint Directories' (1895) are rightly
considered as classics in the field of early dermatoglyphic research and
stimulated the interest of all sorts of scientific investigators, such as
anthropologists, zoologists, geneticists and criminologists.
Sir Edward Henry
(1850-1931)
As the Inspector General
of Police for Bengal Province in India, he set out to solve the problem of
fingerprint classification. He read Galton's book "Fingerprints" in
1893. Influenced by Sir Galtons Finger Prints, Sir Henry developed the Henry
Classification System between the years 1896 to 1897. The Henry Classification
System was to find worldwide acceptance within a few years. In 1887 a
commission was established to compare Anthropometry to the Henry Classification
System. As the results were overwhelmingly in favor of fingerprints,
fingerprinting was introduced to British India by the Governor General, and in
1900, replaced Anthropometry. Also in 1900, Sir Henry was sent to Natal, South
Africa to assist in the reorganization of the local police force and establish
a fingerprint bureau. His efforts in South Africa were highly successful; and
in 1901 Sir Henry returned to Britain and was appointed Assistant Commissioner
of Scotland Yard, head of the Criminal Investigation Department. In the same
year, the first UK fingerprint bureau was established at Scotland Yard.
Dr. Harold Cummins
(1894-1976)
Dr. Cummins achieved
world recognition as the "Father of Dermatoglyphics" or the scientific
study of skin ridge patterns found on the palms of human hands. The findings of
his lifetime studies and the techniques he developed, known as the Cummins
Methodology, are accepted as important tools in tracing genetic and
evolutionary relationships. The methodology has gained common usage in
diagnosis of some types of mental retardation, schizophrenia, cleft palate and
even heart disease.
In other fields,
dermatoglyphics is used to aid ethnologic and population studies and to make
positive identifications by police.
Beryl Hutchinson
(1891-1981)
The leading figure of
Society for Study of Physiological Patterns SSPP, after Jaquin himself, was
undoubtedly Beryl Hutchinson MBE (1891-1981). Coming from a well to do
background meant that she could direct her considerable energy and enthusiasm
for chirology without having to concern herself with making a living from it.
As a consequence she was therefore the main driving force behind the society
for thirty years, a considerable amount of that time being the society's
president.
She wrote two books on
hand analysisthe second book Your Life in Your Hands from 1967, is widely
acknowledged as being a first class chirological work. She conducted much of
her own research and, like Jaquin, was particularly concerned with the
significance of dermatoglyphic patterns and the manifestation of physical
ill-health in the hand. She also studied the palmar signs of vitamin and
mineral deficienciesand made extensive studies of anatomy and physiology in
order to demonstrate how this supports the interpretation of the hand.
Noel Jaquin (1893-1974)
He was one of the most
important pioneers for the study and chirological diagnosis of hand in this
century. Although he is most important as a pioneer within the fields of health
analysis and sexual and emotional evaluation from the hand, he has made
considerable contribution to all aspects of the chirological art.
His work is as a broad
canvas with a lightly sketched image, outlining the breadth of scope of the
diagnostic potential of the hand. His last two books The Human Hand(1956) and
The Theory of Metaphysical Influence(1958)concentrate far more on his general
theories about life, the universe and everything and expound more of his
philosophy of handreading.
In April 1945 Noel Jaquin
helped to establish/found the Society for the Study of Physiological Patterns
(SSPP) in conjunction with Hilda Jaffe, Beryl Hutchinson and Margaret Hone.
This society was dedicated to promote the scientific importance of chirology as
a diagnostic tool in the analysis of psychology and pathology. It continues to
flourish to this day.
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