DERMATOGLYPHICS IN PRIMATES 



13 



tionship of this order appears in the results (table 2), but 

 as shown by the hand length/ridge-count index, and as already 

 noted by Schlaginhaufen in the sole, there is no rigid pro- 

 portionate relationship between the two measures. The scale 

 of ridge counts arranged in the order of increasing hand 

 lengths does not show a regular progression. Such irregulari- 

 ties, moreover, may be demonstrated among individuals in a 

 single genus, not only in man (Cummins, Waits and McQuitty 

 counts in five palmar regions and finger tips, 200 indi- 

 viduals) but also in chimpanzee (Cummins and Spragg 

 counts of hypothenar region of twenty animals). 



Table Z 



Counts of Ridges per Centi meter an the- Palmar 

 Hypolhenar Area in Adults o Thar teen Genera - 

 (arranged in the order of increasing hand Jengths) 



The range of ridge counts in the series of thirteen genera 

 is 16 to 36, and the range of hand lengths is 5.2 cm. to 20 cm. 

 It may be noted, notwithstanding a trend toward an inverse 

 relation between hand length and ridge count, that the varying 

 hand lengths are not associated with proportionately different 

 ridge counts. In the animal having the smallest hand length 

 (Saimiri, 5.2 cm.) the count of ridges per centimeter is 31, 

 while Lagothrix, with a hand length twice that of Saimiri, 



