43-i Palms and Soles 



most atavistic one thus far noted. I am sorry not to be able to present 

 for comparison a similar table of patterns in the sole of the foot, but I 

 am delaying this in order to be able to include a like number of im- 

 pressions. There is no doubt but that the total number of patterns 

 occurring would be noticeably larger than in the above case. 



e. Baces and Sexes. — It would be of much interest to compare the 

 sculpture of the palms and soles in the various races of men, as it is at 

 least possible that there may le sufficient difference to constitute im- 

 portant racial characteristics. Although some efforts have been made 

 to collect impressions of finger tips from several races, including some 

 very primitive ones, there seems to have been, so far as I am able to 

 learn, no definite attempt to make and collect impressions of entire 

 palms and soles, a line of investigation which suggests many interesting 

 results and which is of the highest importance in the farther develop- 

 ment of this subject. Whether the question of sex need be considered 

 in these investigations I do not know, but may state that practically all 

 of the prints in my collection have been those of female subjects as are 

 all of the prints published in this article with the exception of Figs. 

 3 and 4. The only race thus far investigated has been the so-called 

 " Anglo-Saxon,"' that is, natives of the United States in great measure 

 of English origin. 



II. Palms and Soles in Identical Twins. 



One of the most interesting portions of the present investigation 

 has been the collection and study of the palm and sole prints of four 

 sets of twins, three of which were of the type known as " identical," 

 that is, of the same sex and otherwise so strikingly similar in facial 

 expression and general appearance as to constantly mislead those with 

 whom they are associated. On the ground of the well-known theory 

 that such cases result from the development of a single egg, the blas- 

 tomeres of which effect a total separation during the two-celled stage, 

 while in the case of other twins there are two separate eggs, it is to be 

 expected that the hand and foot prints of the first sort would be ex- 

 tremely similar, while those of the second would be no more alike than 

 would be the case in any other brothers and sisters. An inspection of 

 the figures here given (Figs. 10-21), which represent the complete prints 

 of one set of identical twins and the hands of a second set, will show 

 how remarkably the above supposition is verified. In fact, to one who 

 has been in the habit of comparing such prints and who knows how 

 great the individual difference is in the comparison of single hands or 



