PALM AND SOLE STUDIES. 147 



lutely sure test, and the only one, for the identification of a 

 human body, alive or dead, it is certain that this use of the apical 

 patterns will be followed by a similar employment of the entire 

 palmar and plantar surfaces, as advocated by the present author 

 since 1902, and at this writing it is a pleasure to note that sole- 

 prints have recently been put in use in a Chicago maternity hos- 

 pital for the identification of the babies. 



Something on the frequency of occurrence of the six patterns 

 upon the palm has been done in connection with racial differences 

 in friction-skin configuration 1 and their progressive degeneracy 

 from the simian type has been followed, in some cases along 

 several lines, by Miss Whipple (1904, pp. 341-350). 



The friction-skin configuration of the sole shows a much greater 

 range of variability than is seen in the palm, and correspondingly 

 its formulation presents a more serious problem. When the 

 print indicates the four main triradii it is possible, of course, to 

 draw the same four main lines, A, B, C, and D; using the same 

 arbitrary numbers to designate marginal features (Fig. 6), yet 

 this method is unpractical from a number of causes. In the 

 first place the four essential triradii lie up in the hollow between 

 the ball and the toes, and quite often come beyond the usual con- 

 tact area, and thus are not seen in a print. Again, they are by 

 no means as constant as in the hand, being occasionally replaced 

 by other triradii which have survived instead of these; and still 

 again, when the main lines are traceable, they quite often assume 

 near their free ends a parallel course and terminate close together 

 along the margin designated by the digit I, thus giving little or 

 no variety to the formula (i I I i). 



It has thus seemed more expedient to employ a distinctly dif- 

 ferent scheme for sole formulation, as illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8. 

 The print is interpreted, that is, is marked off into areas, by the 

 use of the main lines as in the palm, but as the lines themselves 

 are not used otherwise than as boundaries, the tracing of their 

 course is not so critical. Where all four main triradii are present 

 as in Fig. 7, this interpreting is a simple matter; yet there are 

 numerous cases in which one or more of the triradii lie above 

 (distal to) the contact area, as in the case of triradius C of Fig. 8. 

 Here there is, however, some divergence of the ridges at the upper 



1 Wilder, Amer. Anthrop., 1904, 1913. 



