One whorl indicates poverty;

Two whorls indicate riches;

Three and four whorls good aspect to open a pawnshop;

Five whorls for a mediator;

Six whorls for a thief;

Seven whorls very bad, indicate catastrophes;

Eight whorls and you will eat chaff;

Nine whorls with a loop and there will be no work for you to do, and plenty of food till old age.

In one version or another, most Chinese know a fate-predicting poem as such. If the oracles were once taken seriously, nowadays they are often discussed for amusement. Like other forms of fortune-telling, the attempt to find fingerprints' significance has been categorized as superstition.

It's not surprising, then, that dermatoglyphics counselors would arouse suspicion. At the price between HK$600 to HK$1,000, the counselors make an evaluation of a client's personality and intelligence by analyzing fingerprints. Modern gadgets such as scanners or computers are employed. Still, the service looks similar to palm-reading.

"But we're different from fortune-tellers. They predict on future happenings or your chance to become rich. We study the attributes people are born with," said William Leung, a practitioner of Asia Dermatoglyphics Development Centre in Hong Kong.

Dermatoglyphics, a term coined by a physician named Harold Cummins in 1926, refers to the study of the skin furrows on fingers, palms, toes and soles. In mainstream medicine, it has been applied as a complementary diagnostic tool for hereditary diseases such as Down's Syndrome. Since all primates have ridged skin, dermatoglyphical patterns are also studied in anthropology researches.

As for the fingerprint studies related to people's personality and intelligence, substantial progress has been achieved in Taiwan, said Leung. "The service has just started in Hong Kong. But in Taiwan, it's widely popular. The decision is not whether to do a dermatoglyphics test, but which counselor to visit."

Fingerprint analysis had been popular for years in Taiwan, before its introduction to the mainland and Hong Kong. While parents want to find out children's strength and weakness, adults hope to improve their interpersonal relation or explore their untapped potential. Before deciding on university majors, many students found it necessary to visit a counselor.

Leung stressed that there is firm scientific foundation for the service. Fingerprints provide rich hereditary information. Formed in key period of embryo genesis in tandem with brain, fingerprints reflect the brain, he added.

Compared to technology like brain scan, "fingerprint analysis is a much easier and cost-effective way to study the brain," he said. "It reveals a lot about your genetic makeup. Our accuracy level is 80 percent."

Skeptics, however, dismiss the claim.

Genetists agree that fingerprints provide genetic information. But little is known about genetic mechanism forming the skin furrows on hands or feet.

Neurologists nullifies the links between fingerprints and brain. "I don't think there is any scientific evidence to support this," said Professor Virginia Wong, Division of Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong.

"A person's fingerprints are unique. A person's brain is unique. But the similarity stops here," said Daisy Hung, a professor of the Institute of Neuroscience at Taiwan's National Yang-Ming University in an earlier media interview.

A considerable amount of research related to hand features has been done in psychology, but mostly on medical disorders, said Lin Siu-fung, Assistant Professor of Department of Applied Social Studies in the City University of Hong Kong. Interesting correlations have been detected between fingerprints and conditions such as ADHD (Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and Schizophrenia but it's not considered too significant.

Critics point out that no dermatoglyphics counselors have been able to offer a detailed explanation of the science of their service, though all claim it is based on genetics, neurology and psychology. None of the best-known dermatoglyphics counseling service is set up by scientists in these fields. Often, the founders are trained for unrelated fields such as business.

Even if it's accurate...

Nevertheless, fingerprint analysis has avid followers.

Mrs Au, a client of Asia Dermatoglyphics Development Centre, is one of them. The mother took her two daughters to the centre after seeing a pamphlet at the Go school where her daughter was taking class. She was impressed by the uncanny accuracy.

"My two daughters have opposite character. My elder daughter is a gifted child with IQ above 150. She's headstrong and stubborn. My younger daughter is very clever. But she's a docile child and doesn't mind following other's wishes. The reports describe the personalities of both correctly," Mrs Au explained.

The fingerprint analysis has helped her understand her children. "And I learned what kinds of interest classes suit them," she said.

Leung said such feat is not unusual. Used to be a skeptic himself, he changed his views after his wife urged him to try fingerprint analysis himself. "My wife went with friends to a dermatoglyphics counselor in Taiwan. She found the report so accurate that she made me go," Leung said.

The incident later proved to be the start of a new career for Leung. "I studied medicine in university. But I quit at the junior year because I'm bad with the experiments... As it turned out, motor skills are my weakness," he said. "I couldn't help asking myself, how different my life would be if I had known this when I was young."

Anecdotal evidence may abound. Still, psychologist Lin is not convinced of the value of fingerprint analysis.

"I don't think it's a good thing for a parent to take a child to a 'judge' who delivers a verdict of the child's personality," she said.

People respond differently to different environment. A person's personality is, to a great degree, the result of his or her interaction with the environment. It's dangerous to label a child as a certain type of person, Lin said.

If a parent needs to test a child's personality or intelligence, there are many reliable and scientific methods to do it. "And why would a parent need a test to know a child's character anyway?" she asked. "If you want to know what interest class you should sign up for your child, why don't you just ask the child," Lin said.

(HK Edition 06/10/2008 page4)