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, 4, c). A similar radial eminence (@) 
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. 
