History of DMIA
1684 - Dr. Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712)
Presented Finger Prints, Palms and Soles An Introduction To Dermatoglyphics to the Royal Society
1685- Dr.Bidloo
Published an anatomical atlas, Anatomia Humani Corporis, with illustrations showing the human figure both in living attitudes and as dissected cadavers
1686 - Dr. Marcello Malphigi (1628-1694)
Noted in his treatise; ridges, spirals and loops in fingerprints
1823 - Joannes Evangelista Purkinji
Found that the patterns on one’s finger tips and the ridges and lines on one’s prints begin to form at around the thirteenth week in the womb. He classified the papillary lines on the fingertips into nine types: arch, tented arch, ulna loop, radial loop, peacock’s eye/compound, spiral whorl, elliptical whorl, circular whorl, and double loop/composite
1832 - Dr. Charles Bell (1774-1842)
Was one of the first physicians to combine the scientific study of neuroanatomy with clinical practice. He published The Hand: Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design
1893 - Dr. Francis Galton
Published his book, “Fingerprints”, establishing the individuality and permanence of fingerprints. The book included the first classification system for fingerprints: Arch, Loop, Whorl
1926 - 1936 - Dr. Harold Cummins
Dr. Charles Midlo also researched the embryo-genesis of skin ridge patterns and established that the fingerprint patterns actually develop in the womb and are fully formed by the fourth fetal month
1969 - John J. Mulvihill
David W. Smith, MD published The Genesis of Dermatoglyphics that provides the most up to date version of how fingerprints form.
Dermatoglyphics in Recent Time
Although many important discoveries regarding the psychological significance of fingerprint patterns have been made, the main thrust of scientific dermatoglyphic research in the latter half of the twentieth century has been directed into genetic research and the diagnosis of chromosomal defects. Over the last thirty years or so, more than four thousandpapers have been written on the significance of skin-ridge patterns!
The current state of medical dermatoglyphics is such that the diagnosis of some illnesses can now be done on the basis of dermatoglyphic analysis alone and currently, several dermatoglyphic researchers claim a very high degree of accuracy in their prognostic ability from the hand’s features.