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Dermatoglyphics and Health
Thumbprints found on contracts over two thousand years ago show that the Chinese have long used fingerprints for signature and identification. But for the Western World, fingerprints were 'discovered' by Sir Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, in 1893. Since then, massive research has proven that there is a direct correlation between fingerprints and a person's medical and behavioral profile.

Dermatoglyphics (dermato = skin, glyphics = carvings) is the scientific term for the study of fingerprints and related line and hand shape designations. Harold Cummins, MD., widely acknowledged as the Father of Dermatoglyphics, invented the word in 1926⁽¹⁾ and it stuck. By this time, fingerprints were known to be unique and unalterable, and hence an excellent tool for population studies, personal identification, morphological and genetic research. Cummins, with his extended research into the embryonic development of fingerprints, is largely responsible for expanding dermatoglyphics into the field of medicine and for bringing dermatoglyphics into the public domain.

Dermatoglyphics (dermato = skin, glyphics = carvings: 'skin carvings') received its name from Dr. Harold Cummins at the University of Oklahoma in 1926. Considered the 'Father of Dermatoglyphics,' his research in the 1920s and '30s was contrary to the prevailing medical wisdom of his day. Twenty years later, when his findings were verified by the scientific establishment, Dermatoglyphics moved from obscurity to acceptability as a diagnostic tool.