PALM AND SOLE STUDIES. 169 



say whether all of these patterns, or pattern fragments, are parts 

 of a single hypothenar pattern, which has become spread out, 

 and its parts disassociated, by the great extension of the part 

 covered by it, or whether there are added to the genuine hypo- 

 thenar elements certain "secondary patterns" (Whipple), like 

 those covering the proximal and medial phalangeal surfaces in 

 certain apes. The calcar pattern is treated as a secondary one 

 by Miss Whipple, 1 and is figured in two specimens of Cebus, 

 where it appears definitely distinct from thenar and hypothenar, 

 although in contact with both. 2 On the other hand it involves 

 no improbability to treat all of these elements, with the possible 

 exceptions of the calcar, as the more or less disassociated parts 

 of a long-drawn-out hypothenar, the result of a great extension 

 of its field in one direction and finds a close analogy in the apical 

 patterns of the four lesser toes in the human foot, where the 

 pattern is drawn out laterally to such an extent that there occur 

 not only long extended S-shaped figures, with the two loops far 

 apart, but even those with three loops and three associated 

 triradii. One of the latter is figured by Schlaginhaufen, 3 and 

 the same type is described briefly by Miss Whipple, 4 where 

 "the pattern has become separated into distinct loops and an 

 accessory degeneration triradius is introduced, that is, a triradius 

 not originally present in the typical scheme but formed incident- 

 ally in the process of degeneration of the pattern." 



It is thus a priori probable that the three elements represented 

 by (i) the simple hypothenar loop of the fibular side (Fig. 13), 

 (2) the second loop occasionally present proximal to the latter 

 (Fig. 16), and (3) the large loop in the middle of the foot, of which 

 but three instances have thus far been described (Figs. 18, 19 

 and 20), are all parts of a degenerated hypothenar, yet the ho- 

 mologies of these several elements with one another, and the 

 course of degeneration in the original hypothenar pattern, with 

 the interpretation of these various existing vestiges, is still a 

 large problem. For this there is great need of more data, com- 

 plete prints of the soles of a large number of individuals, each 



one including the border areas of the friction-skin, with the 



1 1904, p. 361; Taf. VI. 



2 P. 334, Fig. 37, b and c. 



3 1905, p. 114, Fig. 185. 

 4 1904, pp. 352-353- 



