432 Palms and Soles 



too great to be interpreted morphologically by the above rules. As 

 atavism is here often more marked, so also is the reduction of atavistic 

 peculiarities occasionally more pronounced, and thus the range of varia- 

 tion seems greater in the sole than in the palm. 



c. Variation in Lines and Areas. — After the collection and interpre- 

 tation of 100 palms, I spent some time in the attempt to tabulate the 

 principal variations occurring in the morphological elements and, al- 

 though at times the task seemed endless, there was finally evolved a 

 definite system dealing with a comparatively few primary forms to 

 which all the variations could be referred. I am reserving the com- 

 plete exposition of this for a later publication, but the scope of the 

 present paper will allow me to indicate a few of the more fundamental 

 variations. In regard, first, to palmar and plantar areas, the most 

 usual human type is that of the open area, or one which attains the 

 margin of the surface under consideration, its boundary lines terminat- 

 ing in the normal skin of the sides and dorsum of the member. As 

 pointed out above, such areas open in the case of the palm upon the 

 outer and, in that of the sole, upon the inner margins, and this type 

 may be characteristic of all the palmar (or plantar) areas [Figs. 1 and 

 7], of two of them, [Fig. 3], or of but one, [Figs. 4, 5 and 8], the one 

 most frequently open being the first in the palm and the third in the 

 sole, owing to the reverse direction of the ridges. Fig. 9 shows the very 

 unusual case of a plantar area (Pj) opening to the outer margin. 



In contrast to the above, all other palmar (and plantar) areas are 

 closed, but they may be completely circumscribed [as in Fig. 3, Pg or Fig. 

 8, P^ and Po], or may be partially or wholly confluent with another area 

 [Fig. 4, P2 with P3; Fig. 2, P^ with P3; Figs. 10 and 11, P^ with P3]. 

 When an area is traversed by one of the palmar lines, thus making it 

 partially confluent with another or partially open [Fig. 2, P^] it may be 

 termed a divided area, and instances sometimes occur in which all three 

 palmar areas are divided, thus rendering the mutual relations extremely 

 complex [Fig. 2]. Lastly, one of the palmar (or plantar) areas jnay be 

 reduced [Figs. 10 and 11, Po], or in some instances may become com- 

 pletely wanting, in which case its two limiting triradii become almost 

 or entirely fused into one. 



The relation in the hand of thenar, hypothenar and carpal areas 

 becomes conditioned by the relationship of the carpal triradius, or by 

 its absence. In 50 hands examined with reference to this, 32 possessed 

 a carpal triradius, and of the remainder, 10 possessed at the wrist a defi- 

 nite " parting " of the ridges which indicated the starting point of the 

 thenar line, 5 possessed a " seam," i. e. a slight wave in the successive 



