PHENOMENA OF "SKIN MARKING" 211 



the consequent greater determination of nervine material 

 to their terminal tactile organs. 



A like fate befalls the appendages of the skin, during 

 the passing of the stages of life, the hair of the head, and 

 face, especially, from its conspicuous position, showing the 

 markings of the passage of time so clearly and definitely 

 as to become, in reality, a personal historical narrative, 

 Ct known and read of all men " ; this fate being due to 

 the operation of the same physiological laws and factors 

 which determine the general cuticular growth and decay. 

 Depending on the operation of the same somatic, or 

 developmental, factors, is the disappearance of much of 

 the subcutaneous tissue from the digital extremities, so 



FIG. 71. COMPOUND PAPILLAE FROM THE PALM OF THE HAND. 

 Magnified 60 diameters. 



a, basis of a papilla ; b, b, divisions or branches of the same ; c, r, branches belonging 

 to papillae of which the bases are hidden from view. (After Kolliker. ) 



that the plump well-filled appearance usually characterising 

 the ends of the fingers gives place to one more or less 

 shrunken, with, consequent, wrinkles, running parallel 

 with the bones and tendons. These markings, it need 

 scarcely be said, begin to supersede the original ridge and 

 furrow markings, and ultimately usurp their position, 

 producing a more or less completely new system of 

 markings, necessitating the alteration, if required, of any 

 early medico-legal negative, which may have been taken, 

 in the case of the aged criminal, or others, who take an 

 innocent interest in these matters of personal appearance. 



Pursuing the subject more generally, it becomes 

 apparent that we have, in the study of the evolution of 

 skin changes and phenomena, physiological and patho- 

 logical, a subject, having an independent bearing of very 

 large proportions which calls for a broad general, as well 



