Psychopharmacology of Clonidine

to inquire more about their origins. When I first began reading, I eagerly anticipated acquiring new skills that would sharpen my diagnostic acumen or learning new insights about cutaneous morphogenesis. I was disappointed in both expectations. The majority of the studies presented show statistical trends in the quantitative or qualitative examination of ridges in different populations. Thus, there are racial and sex differences in the dermatoglyphics of different tribes in India, in different subpopulations in Hawaii, and in different regions of Great Britain. There is a statistical association between certain patterns and genetically determined disorders such as autosomal aneuploidy. Dozens of associations with clinical diseases have been examined, but in no instance has a unique (and, therefore, diagnostic) association been demonstrated. Taken together, these studies show the effect of genetic influences on dermatoglyphic patterns. The perplexing aspect of the inheritance of dermatoglyphic patterns is that it does not segregate with any known genetic entity. Dermatoglyphics are clearly modified in disorders associated with many different chromosomes. Moreover, several papers show that maternal age and maternal environment also have an effect on the dermatoglyphic pattern. Nearly all the papers in this book rely heavily on statistical methods and a descriptive terminology that is unfamiliar to most biologists and clinicians so that a glossary would have been useful. Without it, the desire that the "study of dermatoglyphic traits can become an integral part of the clinical process" (Wertelecki and Plato) is not served well by this book.