166 



INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



response of its mode of life and use of its forefoot is shown in five 

 great pads of muscle and efficient whorls of ridges for touch, those 

 on the digits being very nearly all transverse in accordance with 

 simple flexion of these joints. This again is what one would expect 

 if my hypothesis be sound. The purely non -slipping mechanism 

 supposed by the rival view is not here well supported by the facts. 



Fig. 68. — Left foot of ring-tailed 

 lemur. 



Fig. 69. — Brown sapajou, 

 right hand. 



Neither the arrangements of ridges (Fig. 61,) in loris, nor the 

 hedgehog (Fig. 62), nor the squirrel (Fig. 63), need further reference, 

 but they are all, I think, very consistent with the prolonged effects 

 of use and habit. 



Some Undesigned Experiments in Ridges. 



This section of the subject has afforded a good supply of 

 indirect evidence, but so far no direct proof that papillary ridges 



