Hand and Foot in Man and Apes. 157 



muscles, which causes the digits to converge on the central 

 one. Both these creases are usually found in the hand of 

 man, but are fainter, more irregular, and more obliquely 

 placed. I believe that cheiromancy attributes great brain- 

 power to the individual possessing one of these lines in a 

 well-marked degree, an assumption highly complimentary to 

 the ape. 



6. About a third of the way down the palm is a crease 

 passing transversely across. 



7. Halfway down the palm a crease passes across in a 

 curved manner with the concavity towards the wrist. 



8. A curved crease, parallel to the last mentioned, is 

 situated about two thirds of the way down the palm. These 

 last two creases evidently correspond to the two deeply 

 marked creases which run obliquely across the human pain. 

 All three transverse creases are due to the folding of tiie 

 palmar tissues during flexion of the fingers. The obliquity 

 of the lines in the human hand results from the great amount 

 of opposability which exists between the human tliumb and 

 the inner four digits. The extra line found in the palm of 

 the ape is probably accounted for, partly by the increased 

 length of the palm, and partly by the constantly flexed 

 position of the hand. 



9. Deep creases are present at the roots of the fingers on a 

 level with the webs. These creases run transversely in tiie 

 case of the second and tliird digits and obliquely in the case 

 of the fourth and fifth. This same arrangement, tiiough to a 

 less marked degree, is present in the hand of man; the creases 

 of the two outer fingers are transverse, while those of the two 

 inner have an oblique tendency. 



The long slender fingers of this ape (PI. V. fig. 2) are 

 remarkably flat on their palmar aspect. They all exhibit, to 

 a greater or less degree, a longitudinal crease which runs 

 down the centre of the palmar surface. This crease is best 

 marked on the middle digit. It will be seen later that the finer 

 skin-lines of the fingers converge on these central creases. 



Owing to the proximal interphalangeal joint of the middle 

 digit being marked in front by two widely separated trans- 

 verse lines, this digit appears to possess four instead of three 

 phalanges. The thenar eminence is marked by a series of 

 oblique lines running downwards and inwards. On adductiug 

 the human thumb similar lines may appear. 



The terminal phalanges are bulbous and projecting. The 

 free part of the nail stands well away from the back of the 

 phalanx ; in man the nail lies quite close to the back of the 

 ungual phalanx. As the nail of the thumb is the shortest. 



