SCIENTIFIC PALMISTRY. 43 



larly an eye, and was only afterward made to retrovert into such rudimentary 

 conditions.* 



This explanation is, of course, the merest guess-work, resulting 

 from a fancied resemblance between an eye and the shape of a pattern, 

 but by a singular chance, the theory comes nearer the truth than one 

 would at first suspect, since these scrolls and loops, not only of the fin- 

 gers, but those of the palm as well, are in reality rudiments, not of eyes, 

 but of walking pads ; a conclusion which, although it may seem at first a 

 little fanciful, is reached by a simple course of reasoning and rests 

 upon the comparison of easily available data, namely an inspection of 

 the volar, or lower surfaces of the paws of various mammals. 



The most typical, that is, the least modified mammalian paw is one 

 with five toes and in which the entire volar surface, from the tips of the 

 digits back to the wrist or heel, comes in contact with the ground dur- 

 ing the act of walking. In such paws, as, for example, those found 

 in most rodents and in many of the carnivora, it will be seen that the 

 weight is borne by a series of ten projecting pads or permanent callosi- 

 ties, five of which are situated at the ends of the digits, while the 

 remaining five are placed upon the surface of the palm' or sole, and 

 possess the definite arrangement shown in the accompanying diagram, 

 (Fig. 2, a) namely, one each for the thenar and hypothenar areas, the 

 raised portions associated respectively with the inner and outer margins, 

 and three placed in a transverse row at the bases of the four fingers and 

 corresponding to the intervals between them. In accordance with 

 their positions, these pads may be conveniently named the thenar, the 

 hypothenar and the first, second and third palmar (or plantar, in the 

 case of the hind foot). Those at the ends of the digits may be 

 designated as apical and numbered consecutively from one to five. 



In actual cases, owing to the various modifications necessitated by 

 habit and environment, such a diagrammatic arrangement is seldom 

 completely realized, but often in an embryo, before the special modi- 

 fication characteristic of the adult form has been introduced, the con- 

 dition closely approximates the typical one (Fig. 2, b). How these 

 modifications may affect the original plan may be well seen by a com- 

 parison of the fore-paws of the mink and the common cat (Fig, 2, 

 c and d), two carnivores representing different stages in the coalescence 

 of the three palmar pads to form the characteristic cushion adapted 

 for silent progression. In the mink these pads are still semi-distinct 

 and the middle one exceeds the others in size, suggesting that, in the 

 cat, this latter element forms the main bulk of the cushion, a con- 

 clusion proved to be the fact from the study of kitten embryos, as, 



* Verhandlungen der Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, March 20, 

 1886, p. 208. (Translated by Col. Mallory.) 



