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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the arrangement of the formulse, but simply completing the description. 

 Should a third classification be necessary, the presence, position or 

 absence of the carpal triradius would furnish one, and for a fourth 

 subdivision a counting of certain of the ridges, like those between the 

 digital triradii as Galton does in his finger-tip system, might be sug- 

 gested. In the last instance, where the decision of a definite case rests 

 upon the identity of a certain individual, actual prints taken from his 

 palms should be compared with the set in the collection which most 

 closely corresponds in the formulae to them, and the decision should 

 be reached by the study of the minutis, although there could hardly 

 he a mathematical chance of a comparison going as far as that unless 

 it was a case of actual identity * 



Fig. 6. Tracings of Three Left Soles, showing various relations of digital and main 

 lines, (o) Lines ^, £ and Z) are open ; line Cls recurved and opens at 9 ; the third digital line 

 is recurved around a pattern : the first and second digital areas are confluent ; there is a single 

 lower triradius [Collection No. 156]. (b) Lines A and B are open ; line C is recurved ; line D 

 terminates in a lower triradius (the third ?) ; the digital lines are all normal and the digital tri- 

 radii are distinct ; there are two lower triradii [Collection No. 86]. (c) Lines ^, CandZ)are 

 open ; line B is recurved around a pattern and fuses with one of its own digital lines ; the digi- 

 tal lines are in general much modified and the digital areas are all confluent ; there is but one 

 lower triradius, the first [Collection No. 59]. 



The previous pages have treated of the hands alone as though they 

 were the only possibility of the system, but the soles of the feet exhibit 

 fully as great a diversity in the course of their ridges, and their use in 

 addition to that of the hands would furnish so complete a means of 

 subdividing a collection of prints that the secondary classification, i. e., 

 that which concerns the patterns and the carpal area, would hardly be 

 necessary except to complete a description. The feet as well as the 

 hands possess four main lines originating from the digital triradii, and 

 as their formulae are nearly as variant as are the others, the subdivisions 

 rendered possible by the use of all four members are well-nigh infinite 

 in number (see Figs. 5 and 6). 



* Consult in this connection my comparison of identical twins, which are 

 in all probability nearer alike in the palm and .sole markings than are any 

 other two Imnuni beings, and wliicli nevertheless dill'er to a noticeable degree 

 in llic iiiinutii. Aiiicr. Jour. <if A mil., Vol. I., No. 4. 1902. 



