Personal Identification and Description 



Percentage of Cases in which the same Class of Pattern occurs 

 in the same Digits of the two Hands (500 Persons). 



185 





This table as it stands is not very illuminating ; take for example the 

 middle fingers, and suppose there was no association of pattern between the 

 same digits of the two hands. Then from the previous table the percentage 

 probability of both being loops would be 100 x t^X t ^ = 59"37 - Similarly 

 the percentage chances of both being arches and whorls are 0"6°/ o and 2*4 °/ o 

 respectively. Accordingly we must conclude that 62°/ of the observed 77° j 

 of coincidences would arise from mere chance, if the patterns were indepen- 

 lent; it is the 15 °/ balance which really marks the tendency to resemblance. 

 Walton's second table (p. 120) is as follows: 



Percentage of Cases in which the same Class of Pattern occurs 

 in various Couplets of different Digits (500 Persons). 



The remarkable part of this table is that no marked change occurs in 

 the percentage of resemblances whether the couplet of digits is from the 

 same or opposite hands. 



Of this result Galton writes: 



" Though the unanimity of the results is wonderful, they are fairly arrived at, and leave no 

 doubt that the relationship of any one particular digit, whether thumb, fore, middle, ring or 

 little finger, to any other particular digit is the same, whether the two digits are on the same 

 or opposite hands. It would be a most interesting subject of statistical inquiry to ascertain 

 whether the distribution of malformations, or of the various forms of skin disease among the 

 digits, corroborates this unexpected and remarkable result. I am sorry to have no means of 

 undertaking it, being assured on good authority that no adequate collection of the necessary 

 data has yet been published." (p. 122.) 



PGiii 24 



