MONKEY HAND-PRINTS 147 



grooves, which contain neither sweat-glands nor tactile 

 bodies. 



Looking carefully at fig. A in the plate, and, if necessary, 

 employing a lens, it will be seen that the arrangement of 

 the ridges and grooves, instead of being uniform over 

 the entire palm, takes the shape of a series of definite 

 patterns in certain areas, between which a more or less 

 regular linear arrangement obtains. On the ball of each 

 finger and the thumb, for example, it will be noticed that 

 the ridges assume what may be termed a concentric pattern, 

 in which the central ridges run longitudinally. Again, on 

 the three eminences situated on the palm opposite the 

 clefts between the four fingers, they take the form of 

 concentric whorls (a, b, c). A similar radial eminence (d) 

 with a whorl-like pattern is situated opposite the cleft 

 between the thumb and the forefinger ; while yet another 

 whorl-bearing elevation (e), which may be termed the ulnar 

 eminence, has its position at the basal angle of the palm 

 opposite the little finger. Minor eminences, with much 

 less distinct patterns, also occur on the palmar surfaces 

 of the two basal joints of the fingers. Between these 

 various pattern-bearing eminences, as is especially well 

 shown on the fingers, the ridges and grooves tend to 

 arrange themselves either in transverse lines, or (in the 

 words of Dr. Hepburn) with such slight modification of 

 this direction as would place them parallel to the long 

 axis of any cylindrical object which might be grasped by 

 the foot. It may be added that although in the human 

 hand the patterns found on the balls of the fingers are 

 frequently more complex than those in the monkey's hand, 

 yet the converse of this is true with regard to the eminences 

 on the palm itself, the ulnar whorl being generally quite 

 obsolete in man. 



