﻿Vol. 66.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



lxxiii 



Cercopithecini, are absent in the Xew World apes. In other respects, 

 however, the structure of the brain indicates a close connexion 

 between the Cebidae and the lemurs. 



The general result of a comparative study of the brain of the 

 Primates is to confirm the usually accepted view which recognizes 

 the existence of a serial relationship between the ancestral lemurs, 

 the lower Catarrhine monkeys, the man-like apes, and, finally, Man 

 himself. 



We may now pass from this most important of organs to 

 characters of apparently the most trivial significance, and 

 possibly for that very reason of all the greater value for taxonomic 

 purposes. These are the patterns formed by the ridges which 

 cover the palmar surface of the hand and the sole of the foot. 

 Attention was long ago directed to them by Purkinje, and they 



have been made familiar 



-Fig. 7.— Left hand of a baboon (Cynoce- to English readers by 



phalus babouin) after Hepburn, Sci. Sir Francis Galton's 



Trans. Hoy. Dublin Soc. vol. v (1905) book on finger-prints. 



pi. xlix. In the details of their 



form they are so special 

 to the individual as to 

 serve for his identifica- 

 tion, yet they present 

 signs of a common plan 

 which can be traced as 

 far back as the root 

 of the Primates and 

 even beyond it. Thus, 

 stamped upon the palm 

 of the hand and the sole 

 of the foot, we all carry 

 4 the mark of the beast.' 

 A remarkable memoir 

 on these markings, 

 which we owe to the 

 skill of Miss Whipple, 

 has been followed by 

 •another from the pen of Dr. 0. Schlagenhaufen, 1 who makes especial 



1 ' Das Hautleistensystem der Primatenplanta, unter Mitberiicksichtigung der 

 Balma' Morph. Jahrb. vol. xxxiv (1905) pp. 1-125. This paper is accompanied 

 by a full bibliography. 



VOL. LXVI. 



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