404 HARRIS H. WILDER. 



or may be more extensive. It may be elongated to 

 cover the entire area, and its axis may be placed at any 

 angle. 



D The Two Loop Type, developed from an elongated S, the 

 two parts of which are separate and distinct from each 

 other, and separated by a "degeneration triradius." 

 In subdivisions of this type the two original loops may 

 develop independently of each other. 



It has been suggested by the method of description of these 

 types that triradii do degenerate, commonly forming converging 

 lines without lateral radiants; it is also assumed that they 

 migrate in position. In this latter case the movement may be 

 either centripetal, the two lateral radiants approaching the center, 

 or centrifugal, the lateral radiants allowing more and more com- 

 plete rings to intervene between the center or core of the pattern 

 and the center of the triradius. In this latter case the two lateral 

 radiants naturally meet at a sharper and sharper angle until 

 eventually they become lost in the set of converging ridges, and 

 are not to be distinguished from the rest. All stages in these two 

 processes are seen in individual cases, although, as no changes 

 are to be found during the life of an individual the process can 

 only be inferred. Thus to start with a case of centripetal move- 

 ment we can see this only by finding a series of stages, each per- 

 manent for a given individual but representing steps in the 

 process carried on by the race. Whether these steps may be 

 found to be taken phylogenetically along a line of descent is not 

 known as yet. 



Thus far, in some 3400 human hands, there has been found an 

 hypothenar pattern that does not belong easily to one of the 

 types described here; I found in a Japanese male a hypothenar 

 that cannot well be thus included, and I wish to present it here 

 without further explanation (Fig. 22). It evidently corresponds 

 closely to the types in which the entire pattern is divided by a 

 "degeneration triradius" into two parts; but where in the most 

 of these, each part may be found in the form of either a loop or a 

 completely degenerated area in which it is covered with a series 

 of parallel ridges without trace of a pattern, the upper half of 

 this one, instead of being a loop as might be expected, is in itself a 



