FINGER-PRINTS—THEIR EVOLUTION AND SIGNIFICANCE. 211 
fication of the individual lies in the possibility of infinite 
variation capable of classification, coupled with the fact that, 
short of total destruction of the skin, these ridge and furrow 
patterns cannot be obliterated, because the papillary ridges 
having once appeared are not subject either to an increase 
or a diminution of their number. 
INFLUENCE OF CIVILIZATION ON THE GEOGRA- 
PHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE MAMMALIA 
IN EUROPE DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY. 
By Rev. G. 8. Dopsiz, M.A. 
(Read 5th October 1899.) 
THE geographical distribution of the Mammalia, though 
doubtless based upon perfectly consistent principles, exhibits 
at the present day aspects which are generally considered 
anomalous. Why the habitat of one form should occupy a 
very small area restricted by no serious natural barriers, 
whilst that of a closely allied form extends through all the 
degrees of longitude which traverse the land surface of the 
Eastern Hemisphere; why the family Centetide should in- 
habit exclusively Madagascar and the larger West India 
Islands; why the tapirs should have survived only in 
tropical America and the remote Malayan Region; why 
the genus Myogale should not occur in favourable localities 
between the Carpathians and the Pyrenees; why the species 
Cynopithecus niger should live so far apart from its nearest — 
kindred, are questions which have long perplexed the student 
of zoology. 
But although the principles upon which the geographical 
distribution of animals originally proceeded may never be 
discovered, it is obvious that the introduction, preservation, 
or extinction of species within prescribed areas, depends 
primarily upon certain extrinsic physical conditions, as well 
as upon inherent qualities which enable the species in ques- 
