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X. 



THE PAPILLARY RIDGES ON THE HANDS AND FEET OF MONKEYS AND 

 MEN. By DAVID HEPBURN, M.D., M.C., F.R.S.Ed., Lecturer on Eegional 

 Anatomy, and Principal Demonstrator of Anatomy, in the University of Edinburgh. 

 [From the Anthropological Laboratory, Trinity College, Dublin.] 



(Plates XLV.-XLIX.) 



[Eead April 24, 1896.] 



[communicated by prof. D. J. CUNNINGHAM, M.D., F.R.S., HON. SEC, ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY.] 



Introduction. 



At a time when I was endeavouring to obtain information regarding the 

 relative cutaneous sensibility of the hands and feet of apes and men by a micro- 

 scopic examination of the skin, Professor Cunningham of Trinity College, 

 Dublin, suggested to me that I should investigate the arrangement of the 

 papillary ridges on the hands and feet of monkeys generally, in the hope that 

 thereby I might be able to throw light upon any fundamental or ground plan 

 which may determine the particular patterns which Galton,* in his treatise on 

 " Finger-Prints," has shown that these papillary ridges assume in the human 

 fingers. 



Notwithstanding the great variety in the designs of the patterns among 

 human finger-prints, Galton demonstrates that they may be classified under a 

 small number of primary forms. It seemed probable, therefore, that among 

 monkeys the primary forms of the patterns of human finger-prints might be 

 found in conditions sufficiently simple to afford a key to the production of the 

 more elaborate human patterns. With this end in view, I jjrepared a considerable 

 number of impressions from the hands and feet of living Primates. 



Methods. 



The method adopted in securing these impressions was that employed in 

 the Anthropological Laboratory in Trinity College, Dublin. It consists in 

 applying the hand or foot to a plate of glass covered by a thin film of printers' 

 ink, evenly distributed, as well as rendered of uniform consistence by means of 



- Galton, " Finger Prints," 1892. 



TRANS. ROY. DDB. SOC, N.S. VOL. V., PARI X. 4 E 



