CHAPTER V
PATTERNS : THEIR OUTLINES AND CORES
THE patterns on the thumb and fingers were first discussed at length by Purkenj e in 1823, in a University Thesis or Commentatio. I have translated the part that chiefly concerns us, and appended it to this chapter together with his corresponding illustrations. Subsequent writers have adopted his standard types, diminishing or adding to their number as the case may be, and guided as he had been, by the superficial appearance of the lineations.
In my earlier trials some three years ago, an attempt at classification was made upon that same principle, when the experience gained was instructive. It had seemed best to limit them to the prints of a single digit, and the thumb was selected. I collected enough specimens to fill fourteen sheets, containing in the aggregate 504 prints of right thumbs, arranged in six lines and six columns (6 x 6 x 14 = 504), and another set of fourteen sheets containing the corresponding left thumbs. Then, for the greater convenience of study these sheets were photographed, and enlargements upon paper to about
