[Forensic medical criteria of relationship according to the dermatoglyphic traits of the foot].

Inheriting of 55 dermatoglyphic signs of the soles are analyzed using Cummins and Midlo's method (1962) in 100 families (father, mother, one or two children). For the first time in Russian forensic medicine quantitative criteria of familial similarity by the complex of dermatoglyphic signs of the soles have been defined. The inheritance of skin patterns on the toes is governed by the same regularities as on the hands and does not depend on the localization of patterns (right or left side), number of the toe, and sex. The authors detected and investigated the possibility of inheritance of skin patterns from a homologous toe or area of the sole of a parent by a child in whom this pattern occurs on the homologous toe or area of the sole (mirror symmetry) or on one of the adjacent toes or the same sole. The possibility of referring a child to a specific couple of parents on the basis of a single complex pattern formalized according to the devised method has been validated for the first time.