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H. H. WILDER. 



The thenar pattern is to be expected on the inner side of the 

 foot, proximal to the first interdigital pattern. This would place 

 it on the hollow of the foot, precisely where the surface is seldom 

 touched by foreign objects. We might expect, a priori, not to 

 find the pattern developed, but to find, at most, a triradius or 



FIG. 23. Tracing of No. 178, a Negro boy, with an unusually primitive hypo- 

 thenar pattern. The loop, which is unusual, has become bent backwards, or 

 recurved, leading towards the still more primitive one shown in Fig. 24, which has 

 almost become a whorl. 



two, and a patch of ridges in a different direction. That is 

 precisely what we do find, if we take the precaution to print a 

 separate piece of paper, by first inking the inner curve of the foot 

 directly, and covering it with the piece of paper. In the majority 

 of cases the result is negative, but occasionally there is some 

 remnant of a pattern, and this is exactly what one would expect, 

 quite frequently a loop, either with or without a triradius, and 



