DERMATOGLYPHICS IN PRIMATES 189 



with the topography of configurational fields, and the fields of 

 palm and sole are counterparts in all essentials. The border 

 series of configurational fields includes: distal hypothenar; 

 proximal hypothenar ; thenar (separated into distal and proxi- 

 mal elements in the sole) ; first interdigital ; accessory second 

 interdigital ; second interdigital; third interdigital; fourth 

 interdigital; and accessory fourth interdigital. The calcar 

 area of the sole represents an extended portion of the proximal 

 hypothenar field. The central configurations are: a series of 

 three small fields forming a sequence in proximal relation to 

 the second, third, and fourth interdigitals ; the parathenar 

 configuration, occupying the region between the thenar and 

 hypothenar fields. 



All the configurational fields, as listed above, are not indi- 

 vidually recognizable in a palm or sole. If the field is pat- 

 terned, and when patternless if it is discretely bounded, con- 

 formity to the plan is clear. Merging of some units in the 

 plan, through suppression of boundaries, is of universal occur- 

 rence. The varying departures from the plan are system- 

 atically described. The prosimian genera are heterogeneous 

 with respect to departures. Of the remaining groups the New 

 World monkeys present in general the least departures, while 

 Old World monkeys are diverged farther from it, and the 

 higher primates still more. In the higher primates the order 

 of increasing modification is man, orang, gorilla, chimpanzee, 

 gibbon with a questionable transposed placing of gorilla and 

 chimpanzee. 



5. The general courses of ridges in areas distinct from the 

 localized patterned fields vary from longitudinal to transverse, 

 and the trends exhibit no orderly distribution in reference to 

 taxonomic groups. In gibbon and great apes the direction 

 ranges from strictly longitudinal to oblique ; in man the palm 

 presents a combination of longitudinal and diagonal, while 

 plantar ridges course transversely or on a slant closely ap- 

 proaching the transverse. 



6. By assigning weights to configuration types of different 

 degrees of complexity, a measure of "pattern intensity" is 



