152 MOSTLY MAMMALS 
lemur, or a modification thereof, obtains in all the true 
lemurs, must wait the acquisition of additional fresh 
specimens of the hand; but in that species at all events 
it seems certain that these pads have a kind of sucker- 
like action, which must greatly increase the firmness of their 
owner’s hold on the boughs it grasps. 
Apparently this type of palm-structure culminates in the 
curious little tarsier of the Malay Islands, in which the long 
and slender toes terminate in round sucker-like discs; 
similar discs occurring on the toes of the hind-foot. 
Unfortunately I have had no opportunity of taking the 
palm-impression of a recently deceased tarsier, and it will 
probably be long before such a chance occurs, so that I 
can say nothing as to the mode of arrangement of the 
papillary ridges. 
It may be added that the finger- and toe-pads of those 
curious lizards commonly known as geckos are likewise 
modified into adhesive discs. But in this case the sucking 
action is caused by the skin being raised into a series of 
parallel plates, and as palmar eminences, as well as papillary 
ridges, are wanting, the structure is not apparently strictly 
comparable with what obtains in the tarsier and the lemurs. 
But even the foregoing by no means exhausts the 
subject of palmar and plantar eminences. Any one of my 
readers who takes the trouble to examine the feet of a 
cat, a dog, or a rabbit will find a number of bare elevated 
pads, covered with rough granular skin, interspersed 
among the generally hairy surface. In all cases, both in 
the fore and hind limb, one of these bare pads will be 
found occupying the lower surface of the terminal joint 
of each toe, lying immediately below the claw. And it 
will be quite obvious that these correspond to the pattern- 
bearing eminences occupying the balls of the thumb and 
