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OCR Rendition - approximate
60 FINGER PRINTS CHAP. The latest and best investigations on the evolution of the ridges have been made by Dr. H. Klaatsch.1 He shows that the earliest appearance in the Mammalia of structures analogous to ridges is one in which small eminences occur on the ball of the foot, through which the sweat glands issue in no particular order. The arrangement of the papillae into rows, and the accompanying orderly arrangement of the sweat glands, is a subsequent stage in evolution. The prehensile tail of the Howling Monkey serves as a fifth hand, and the naked concave part of the tail, with which it grasps and holds on to boughs, is furnished with ridges arranged transversely in beautiful order. The numerous drawings of the hands of monkeys by Allix 2 may be referred to with advantage. The uses of the ridges are primarily, as I suppose, to raise the mouths of the ducts, so that the excretions which they pour out may the more easily be got rid of; and secondarily, in some obscure way, to assist the sense of touch. They are said to be moulded upon the subcutaneous papillae in such a manner that the ultimate organs of touch, namely, the Pacinian bodies, etco into the variety of which it is unnecessary here to enter are more closely congregated under the bases of the ridges than under the furrows, and it is easy, on those grounds, to make reasonable guesses how the ridges may assist the sense of touch. They must concentrate press 1 "Morphologic der Tastballen der Saugethiere," Jahrbuch, xiv. p. 407. Leipzig, 1888. 2 Ann. Sc. Nat., 5th series, vol. ix. 1868.
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