PALM AND SOLE IMPRESSIONS. 407 



Thus if, as shown above, a set of formulae would be divided into 

 upwards of 50 divisions by using the left hand alone, and if each of 

 these would be farther subdivided by adding the formulae of the righi; 

 hand, producing 2,500 divisions in all, the addition of the left foot to 

 these might increase the number to 2,500 X 50, or 125,000, and these 

 would become 7,250,000 by the use of the right foot, or enough to 

 characterize every citizen in a large state or small country, employing 

 merely the primary classification. It must be remembered, however, 

 that these are theoretical figures and that the actual combinations of 

 lines may not be as great, nor would the various kinds be as regularly 

 distributed; yet enough has been shown to prove that the number of 

 separate actual combinations of the line formulae alone, if both the 

 hands and feet are employed, would be very great. 



In a sole print the characteristic features are mainly distributed 

 along the ball of the foot, anterior to the hollow of the arch, and while 

 in a general way they are similar to those of the hand, there are also 

 numerous important differences, some of which will be seen in Fig. 5, 

 a print which represents a more complex condition than is usually seen, 

 and in the tracings given in Fig. 6. The four main lines of the sole, 

 although arising from digital triradii, usually curve towards the inner 

 instead of the outer side, and when open, are apt to converge at the 

 inner margin almost or quite to the point of fusion. There is also 

 almost always upon the thenar region or ball of the great toe a con- 

 spicuous pattern, which may be termed the hallucal pattern. This 

 possesses one or two, and possibly three triradii, of which the upper one 

 is the proper digital triradius of the great toe, usually unrepresented 

 in the hand ; while there is often a second one upon the extreme inner 

 margin, sometimes shown only by rolling the foot a little during print- 

 ing. The hallucal pattern shows much variation and is easily divisible 

 into a series of types, which well serve the purpose of a secondary classi- 

 fication. Lower triradii are of far more frequent occurrence than in 

 the hand, and are often located so near one another through the con- 

 vergence of the interdigital areas that it is difficult or impossible to 

 attribute them to any one of them. 



Probably the greatest barrier to the formulation of sole conditions 

 in the same way as in the case of the palms lies in the position of the 

 digital triradii, which are apt to be situated in the hollow beneath the 

 toes and thus beyond the margin of a print — a condition especially apt 

 to occur in the case of the third one, i. e., that at the base of the fourth 

 toe ; again, the relationships of the triradii are often complicated by the 

 fusion of two or more digital areas with one another and the consequent 

 displacement of the digital lines, which may simply pass one another 

 upon the digital areas or curve downwards over the ball of the foot as 



