Issues of sampling and of methodologies in dermatoglyphics

In summary, we are left with the conclusion that some innovative work has been done in the past two decades but that the bulk of the world literature in dermatoglyphics still reflects an almost total reliance on Cummins and Midlo, who, we must remember, were summing up the work of scholars prior to the time their book first appeared in 1943. We need to clearly understand biocultural implications of breeding populations from which we wish to draw a sample, and we must ask ourselves before we start new studies exactly what we wish to achieve. If the current methodologies have not been able to provide us with satisfactory answers, the time has surely come for scholars to devise new ways of critically looking at the enormous complexity of dermal ridges. The encouraging news is that our knowledge of human embryology is growing, molecular genetics is soaring forward, and our understanding of the complexities of patterns on the human skin may be greatly improved from what we learn about the embryology of dermal and epidermal tissue.