PALM AND SOLE STUDIES. 



2O9 



with a pattern in the form of a loop, which is quite constant in the 

 lower anthropoids, but the feet of these forms, although carefully 

 studied, has not been treated with the basis of the walking-pads 

 as a background and is not wholly satisfactory. Another theory 

 links it with the hypothenar, and treats it as a component part of 

 an enormously extended pattern, like the one reported in a few 



FIG. 26. A typical calcar pattern in its usual form, that of a loop, with the 

 head of the curve fibular, and opening (i.e., converging) towards the tibial side. 

 From life, No. 1128, pattern drawn in with help of prints. 



cases, mainly of negroes, which covers almost the entire sole, back 

 of the ball. It is also conceivable to connect it with the vestiges 

 of the thenar. The finding of a complete calcar pattern, as in 

 Fig. 27 goes a long way towards the determination of the calcar as 

 an independent pattern, distinct from all others, and developed 

 secondarily upon the extensive human addition. 



The study of comparative morphology is replete with instances 

 of survivals ; the persistence of organs of former usefulness later 

 allowed to lapse from a growing lack of importance until, no 

 longer of value, they become vestigial. The original eleven 

 walking pads of the primitive mammalian paw, still useful and 

 constant in pentadactylous forms like squirrels and mice, and 

 retained in the form of whorls in the pictures sketched by the 

 Primates in friction-ridge patterns, and faithfully representing a 



