ABSTRACT
Covering the palmar surfaces of the hands and the plantar surfaces of the feet is friction ridged skin. Of all the attributes of humankind, this friction skin is the only one that is currently capable of individualization to the extent that it is possible, within practical limits, to say that no two people are alike. That such is the case is accepted today as fact even by those who have no knowledge of how the friction skin of two individuals differ. A ridge may be quite short and may be so short as to appear as a dot. It is the orientation, location, and interrelationship of these features in the coursing of the friction ridges that makes it possible to determine whether two prints were made by the same individual. Friction ridged skin is a highly specialized organ and differs from the skin on the rest of the body in more than simply its ridged appearance.
