18S2 TEEinNAL PHALANGES OF THE PEIMATES 279 

 A new investigation is here described. 



94 St. Aldate's, Oxford: March 27 1892. 



My dear Schafer, — I think I have found a new 

 ordinal character peculiar to the Primates — viz. a nude 

 condition of the terminal phalanges. This does not 

 occur in any other order of mammals that I have 

 looked at, but in all species of primates from Lemurs 

 to Man, as far, at all avents, as I have been able to 

 examine. Xow I want to see whether hair-foUicles, 

 or vestiges thereof, can be found in the terminal pha- 

 langes of any species of the order. So I am making a 

 number of sections of the skin of the backs of the 

 terminal phalanges of fingers and toes, of man (adult 

 and foetal) apes, monkeys, baboons, and lemurs. Hith- 

 erto I cannot detect (nor can Kent) any signs or ves- 

 tiges of follicles. But I should much like you to look 

 over some of the specimens (a few would be enough), 

 in order to see whether your trained eyes would be 

 also unable to trace any rudiments of follicles. If you 

 would care to do this, of course I should acknowledge 

 my obHgations in a paper which I am preparing on 

 the subject. 



Yours very truly, 



G. J. EoilAXES. 



' Darwin, and after Darwin ' appeared in the spring 

 of 1892. 



It was a book which was written, so to speak, with 

 the writer's life-blood, it was a great burden on him 

 from the moment he commenced it, and one of his 

 greatest sorrows was his inability to finish it. 



It is cmious to those who know Mr. Romanes' mind 



