In our body, nature has honed its skills - all organs and systems have their destiny, and there is nothing superfluous in it. And even papillary lines on the fingertips reflect the characteristics of a person, according to which an attentive specialist can well draw conclusions about some of the features of a person. Is it really? How are papillary lines formed and what are the fingers? What patterns do they form and what does it mean? We will answer these and other questions in this article.
Start
Many believe that the baby is born without the pattern of papillary lines. This is not true. The laying of these structures begins in the fetus in the first trimester of pregnancy and coincides with the beginning of the formation of the nervous system. That is why their pattern, at least, can talk about the type of human nervous system, and therefore about his temperament.
As you grow older, the pattern of papillary lines does not change, but they deepen and grow with our body. This figure is a kind of human code that is given to him genetically.
Surprisingly, there are people who do not have these lines. Adermatoglyphia - the so-called hereditary pathology, which leads to the absolute absence of fingerprints. Only four families are known in the world with this hereditary disease, which is caused by a mutation in just one gene.
Not only to stay tighter in the minibus
A clear answer to the question, why do we need these lines, and today there is no. One version - grooves on the fingers increase traction. Indeed, the laws of physics tell us that rough surfaces have a large area of contact.
Another version - they increase sensitivity to surface properties. Namely, to vibration and movement, for which the Messner and Pacini receptors are responsible, respectively. Recent scientific experiments have proved that grooves upon contact begin to vibrate and convert bumps into acoustic disturbances, which are perceived by receptors.
However, knowledge about fingers “on fingers” has not yet reached science. The mysteries of Messner's receptors and Pacini's bodies are still waiting for someone to reveal their secrets.
Genetic code at your fingertips
To understand the importance of papillary lines, we will familiarize ourselves with their common properties:
- This pattern is individual. Even with identical twins, the details of the papillary lines differ and form different patterns.
- And these patterns are stable and do not change throughout a person's life, although their individual details may be amplified.
- Any touch of any solid object leaves a clear imprint - a trace of human papillary lines.
- The lines on the fingertips are restored even after serious injuries and burns, the possibilities for their regeneration are huge.
It is these properties and signs of papillary lines that provide information to fingerprinters and palmists. And even official medicine already recognizes these features and uses them in the diagnosis of pathologies.
What is it?
Papillary lines are scallops of the skin or thickening of the epidermis, its upper layer. At the heart of these lines are the papillae (lat. Papilla) of the deep layer of the skin - the dermis. The papillae protruding into the epidermis consist of fibroblasts - cells of the connective tissue. They form ridges rising up to 0.15 micrometers, separated by grooves up to 0.5 micrometers wide.
At the top of each papillary line there are two rows of papillae, which are separated by the openings of the sweat and sebaceous glands. In addition, nerve endings and receptors, blood and lymph vessels are located in the papillary layer of the dermis.
Intricate pattern
The crests of the papillary dermis form very distinct patterns of various shapes and degrees of difficulty on the fingertips, palms and feet. But all lines are divided into two groups:
- The lines of the central figure are the pattern in the center of the finger.
- The lines of the frame are the lines surrounding the central pattern. They begin at the edge of the pulp of the finger and are a bundle that fits the lines of the central pattern and bends around it from above (external flow) and below (basic flow).
The merger of these three streams of papillary lines is called delta.
Types of skin finger patterns
All varieties of skin patterns for the convenience of classification are divided into two groups.
- "P" - loop patterns. This group includes arcs, loops, and simple composite loop patterns (connecting arcs and loops).
The arcs are formed by lines that start at one edge of the pads and go to the other, while they do not form deltas. The arc pattern of papillary lines is only 5% of all patterns, although this is the simplest pattern.
A loop is a pattern that forms lines that begin on one side of the fingertip, rise to the middle of the pattern and, dropping, end on the same side of the finger. If the upper part of the loop (head) is turned towards the little finger, then the loop is called ulnar (up to 60% of all patterns), and if to the thumb - radial (5% of patterns).
- “K” - circles or balls. These patterns are formed by papillary lines, which in the center have a circle, oval or spiral pattern. They have two or three deltas; they are simple and compound. Up to 30% of all patterns on the fingertips.
The pattern tells about the character
All options for patterns on the fingers are impossible to list. But attempts to systematize have been made since ancient times. It was from there that palmistry came to us - a system of fortune telling about the fate of a person along the lines on the palms and fingertips. And the first palmist was Aristotle, who presented in 350 BC his work on this subject to the greatest commander Alexander of Macedon.
And even today palmistry is considered pseudoscience and rejected by scientific psychology, but it has brought into our life the possibilities of more effective disclosure of crimes.
Dermatoglyphics - mother of fingerprinting
The father of dermatoglyphics, the science of the patterns of “fate” on the fingers, is considered the brother of Charles Darwin Francis Galton, who was the first to write about these lines and patterns of patterns in 1892. Modern dermatoglyphics - the science of papillary patterns on the hands and feet of a person - has a great toolkit that includes papillary markers of some multifactorial gene diseases, ethnodiagnostic markers, and markers of decreased intelligence.
To prove the seriousness of this scientific trend, let us cite the fact that in 2013 a brochure of the Federal Scientific Center for Physical Culture and Sports of the Russian Federation was published under the name that speaks for itself - “Using finger dermatoglyphics for prognostic assessment of physical abilities in the practice of selecting and training athletes” .
The father of fingerprinting, as a way to identify a person by his fingerprints, was William Herschel. In 1877, he was the first to hypothesize the individuality of the papillary pattern. Modern fingerprinting has already reached the point where a person’s sex and height are determined by fingerprints. Analysis of handwriting, photographs and video materials, a verbal portrait and even DNA analysis can fail, but a fingerprint card still remains the most reliable portrait of a criminal.
But not only in forensics, the principles of fingerprinting are used. We are no longer surprised by the iPhone, which recognizes its owner by fingerprint and the safe that the owner will open exclusively. And ahead of us are waiting for purchases in the supermarket and the employer, who will ask to show fingerprints instead of a work book.
Papillary lines and character
And yet, given the contingency of the formation of the pattern on the fingers and the development of the nervous system in the fetus, we can draw some conclusions about the nature of the person.
The beginning of the lines forming the patterns, which is directed to the inner part of the palm, says that the person is more likely an introvert and strives for loneliness. And the beginning of the lines, pointing to the little finger, indicates the extremity of a person.
The radial loop on the thumb indicates a stormy and strong temperament, and the same loop on the ring finger indicates that a person has some special talent. But the owners of curls and spirals on the thumbs are sensual and passionate personalities.
And although each finger, according to palmistry, speaks of one of the sides of the personality, and there are many options for patterns, nevertheless, in every bookstore you can buy a book that promises to make you a professional determinant of people's destinies.
Believe it or not - everyone makes this choice for himself.
Some interesting facts
And, summing up, we give information to the reader for reflection.
- The fingerprints of the right and left hands are completely different from each other.
- It is impossible to remove the papillary pattern on the fingers. Among the criminal elements, such attempts were made, but the pattern was invariably restored. The exception is only a very deep lesion of the inner layer of the skin of the dermis. But in this case, a purely individual pattern is formed. True, not from the grooves, but from the scars.
- In addition to fingerprints, human language fingerprints are also unique.
- In modern forensics, the fingerprint classification used in 1893 by the police chief in Bengal (Great Britain), ser Edward R. Henry, is used.
- In none of the stories about the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle does not mention the principles of fingerprint diagnostics. Which looks very strange - after all, Holmes and Watson met in 1881, and Conan Doyle himself was engaged in forensic medicine in Edinburgh.