PALM AND SOLE STUDIES. 157 



of these to the case here presented is obvious; they may even be 

 formulated by the method devised for human palms, the formula 

 being, respectively 7 6 2 2 and 3 3 2 I . 



The family to which the subject of this sketch belongs, No. 647 

 of my collection, is of good old English ancestry, and numbers 

 among her near relatives several persons of more than ordinary 

 distinction. The subject herself is an attractive young person 

 of excellent mind, graduating from college with distinction, and 

 having nothing at all abnormal about her, save this singular ar- 

 rangement of the palmar friction-ridges: 



An investigation of the hand prints of both parents, revealed 

 typical European racial characters, such as the formula n -9 -7 -5 

 in the right hand of the father and the left of the mother; the 

 father's left hand bears the formula 11-7 -7 -4, and the mother's 

 right is ii -II -9 -5, a little unusual but quite normal for a white 

 person. 



Unfortunately, owing to the prejudice of the family, I was not 

 permitted to obtain sole-prints of either the subject herself or 

 of her parents, and consequently can make no further report. 



III. THE BORDER REGION OF THE PLANTAR FRICTION- 

 SKIN. 



Unlike the condition in the hand, where the friction-skin of the 

 palm terminates along the borders of the contact surface, the 

 friction-skin of the foot extends up along its sides considerably 

 beyond the physiological sole. Since friction-skin has little or 

 no pigment, this extension upwards gives the feet of dark-skinned 

 races, when barefooted, the well-known appearance of pink slip- 

 pers worn over black stockings. 



It thus happens that, while in the -hand a simple contact print 

 includes practically the entire friction-skin area, a similar print 

 of the foot includes only the inner portion of the ridged skin, 

 leaving an appreciable border entirely around the part printed, 

 concerning which no record is made. The relation of this tread- 

 area, the usual extent of a print, to the entire surface covered with 

 friction-skin is shown in a few examples here, and convinces one 

 immediately of the insufficiency of a tread-area print (Figs. 13 

 and 14). 



