vi PERSISTENCE 9 7
The prints in the two plates cover the intervals from childhood to boyhood, from boyhood to early manhood, from manhood to about the age of 60, and another set
that of Sir W. G. covers the interval from 6 7 to 80. This is clearly expressed by the diagram (Plate 15, Fig. 23). As there is no sign, except in one case, of change during any one of these four intervals, which together almost wholly cover the ordinary life of man, we are justified in inferring that between birth and death there is absolutely no change in, say, 699 out of 700 of the numerous characteristics in the markings of the fingers of the same person, such as can be impressed by them whenever it is desirable to do so. Neither can there be any change after death, up to the time when the skin perishes through decomposition ; for example, the marks on the fingers of 'many Egyptian mummies, and on the paws of stuffed monkeys, still remain legible. Very good evidence and careful inquiry is thus seen to justify the popular idea of the persistence of finger markings, that has hitherto been too rashly jumped at, and which wrongly ascribed the persistence to the general appearance of the pattern, rather than to the minutiae it contains. There appear to be no external bodily characteristics, other than deep scars and tattoo marks, comparable in their persistence to these markings, whether they be on the finger, on other parts of the palmar surface of the hand, or on the sole of the foot. At the same time they are out of all proportion more numerous than any other measurable features ; about thirty-five of them are situated on the bulb of each of the
