PALM AND SOLE STUDIES. 



233 



It thus seems certain, as already said, that there is here an 

 unmistakable case of the inheritance of a thenar pattern from 

 the male parent, and, except for the failure of this in two of the 

 twelve cases, the character acts like a Mendelian dominant. On 

 this basis the failure in these two cases may be explained by (i) 



FIG. 36. Tracings of the thenar region in each of the six children of W and N. 

 the individuals illustrated in the preceding figure. The fifth child, F , is a son, the 

 rest daughters. 



that the father himself is heterozygous, or (2) that the character 

 is not a unit character. As for the first the collateral evidence of 

 the father's three sisters is to the point, for in these Fa and Mi 

 have good thenar patterns, on both hands. In the third sister, 

 Lo, the extreme smoothness of the skin produced an almost il- 

 legible print, although upon the left hand a part of a double 

 pattern, the first interdigital loop, is easily made out, rendering 

 the presence of a thenar figure upon this area absolutely 



