5 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



though worked out into the minutest details, is wholly artificial and 

 arbitrary; yet the exact correspondence of the areas with the patterned 

 mounds of the monkey palm show that we are dealing here with defi- 

 nite morphological parts, and the variations that occur are caused by 

 reduction, hypertrophy, fusions, separations and other principles with 

 which the morphologist is familiar. 



Thus, considering the three palmar areas alone, they will be found 

 either all distinct (Fig. 6, a and b) or two of them may be conflue?it 

 (Fig. 6, c, P 2 and P 3 ), or semi-confluent (Fig. 6, d, P x and P 3 ). They 

 may be open, i. e., may extend to the margin (Fig. 6, b, P x and P 2 ) or 

 closed (Fig. 6, c, P 2 and P 3 ). Semi-confluent areas may also be termed 



Fig. 6a. 



Fig. 66. 



Fig. 6c. Fig. 6d. 



Fig. 6. Tracings of four Palm Prints, ro Illustrate Various Modifications. 



divided, since this condition is brought about by the division of one 

 of the areas by a primary line, and in the same way a single 

 closed area (Fig. 6, b, P s ) may be termed circumscribed, since this con- 

 dition is brought about by the fusion of the two primary lines which 

 serve as boundaries. 



In size an area may vary between a very large one (Fig. 6, b, PJ 

 and a greatly reduced one (Fig. 6, d, P 2 ), and in the latter case the 

 reduction may become so extreme as to end in the complete loss of an 

 area, a condition which would be obtained if we should consider the 

 second and third palmar tri-radii of Fig. 6, d, which are here very near 



