On the Skin-Furrows of the Hand

IN looking over some specimens of “prehistoric” pottery found in Japan I was led, about a year ago, to give some attention to the character of certain finger-marks which had been made on them while the clay was still soft. Unfortunately all of those which happened to come into my possession were too vague and ill-defined to be of much use, but a comparison of such finger-tip impressions made in recent pottery led me to observe the characters of the skin-furrows in human fingers generally. From these I passed to the study of the finger-tips of monkeys, and found at once that they presented very close analogies to those of human beings. I have here few opportunities of prosecuting the latter study to much advantage, but hope to present such results as I may attain in another letter. Meanwhile I would venture to suggest to others more favourably situated the careful study of the lemurs, &c., in this connection, as an additional means of throwing light on their interesting genetic relations.