PALM AND SOLE STUDIES. 187 



Hands. 



Thus, to begin with, the apical patterns, the ones which are 

 found on the balls of the fingers, that is, the "finger-prints" of the 

 identification experts, are frequently found in the form of whorls. 

 The formulation according to the Henry system, of a given hand 

 as 32/32, means that there is a whorl on every finger. This type 

 is not rare in a large collection, like the one in New York, although 

 to the professional finger-print expert a number of patterns might 

 easily be determined as whorls, which are not typical enough 

 for the morphologist, and would not consist of concentric circles, 

 although they probably would have two triradii. There is some 

 feeling that the presence of whorls upon all the fingers is a 

 racial characteristic of the Jewish race, although definite sta- 

 tistics are not as yet available. Certain fingers are more apt to 

 show whorls than others; for example the thumb and index are 

 very apt to have whorls, while they are seldom found in the ring 

 and little fingers. If one stop to consider the relative amount of 

 independent use, and the variation to which they are subjected, 

 he will see that here, also, as elsewhere, there is a direct correlation 

 between the occurrence of whorls and the amount of use. Still, 

 if one consult a large collection he will have little difficulty in 

 finding even a perfect whorl on a little finger. 



Morphologically we have the right to expect four interdigital 

 patterns, placed along the distal border of the palm, beneath 

 (proximal to) the four intervals between the five fingers. Oc- 

 casionally we find the last two, III. and IV., beneath the sepa- 

 rations between the middle and ring fingers, and between the ring 

 and little fingers respectively. Thus in Fig. 3, which shows the 

 print of the left hand of a man in New York, one of the finger- 

 print experts at the Headquarters office, 300 Mulberry St., 

 interdigital IV. is particularly well shown, a whorl with a center 

 of concentric circles, and with three triradii, upper, outer, and 

 inner. In formulating this palm either the upper or the outer of 

 these could be used equally well as the starting point of line D, 

 with an exponent letter (/) to signify an extra triradius. Inter- 

 digital III. is also indicated, but not so completely, and with only 

 one triradius, the pattern being simply a loop. Fig. 4, enlarged 

 photographically from the same, gives these same patterns in 



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