Palmar Dermatoglyphics: A Study among Gahoi Vaishya

Dermatoglyphics is the scientific study of epidermal ridges and their configurations on the palmar region of hand and fingers and plantar region of foot and toes. The term dermatoglyphics was coined by Cummins and Midloo 1926 and was derived from Greek words ‘derma’ means skin and ‘glyphics’ means carvings. Ridges are genetically determined therefore dermatoglyphics is useful in anthropological, medico legal & genetic studies and is accepted as a simple & inexpensive method for deciding whether a patient has a particular genetic disorder or not. This science is both old and young. After extensive studies researchers have recently found that the palm print is somewhat related with nationality, geological distribution, character, temperament, health, intelligence and heredity etc. The aim of this work was the determination of frequencies of each dermatoglyphics category on the human palm and an analysis of eventual differences between the both sex populations. This book gives an insight and systematic overview on the use of systematic, descriptive, qualitative and quantitative methods has proven effective in identifying context-specific characteristics of dermatoglyphics.