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OCR Rendition - approximate
VIII PECULIARITIES OF THE DIGITS 119 if towards the outer or little-finger side, it will be called an outer slope. In all digits, except the forefingers, the inner slope is much the more rare of the two ; but in the fore-fingers the inner slope appears two-thirds as frequently as the outer slope. Out of the percentage of 5 3 loops of the one or other kind on the right fore-finger, 21 of them have an inner and 3 2 an outer slope ; out of the percentage of 5 5 loops on the left fore-finger, 21 have inner and 34 have outer slopes. These subdivisions 21-21 and 32-34 corroborate the strong statistical similarity that was observed to exist between the frequency of the several patterns on the right and left fore-fingers ; a condition which was also found to characterise the middle and little fingers. It is strange that Purkenj e considers the " inner" slope on the fore-finger to be more frequent than the " outer" (p. 86, 4). My nomenclature differs from his, but there is no doubt as to the disagreement in meaning. The facts to be adduced hereafter make it most improbable that the persons observed were racially unlike in this particular. The tendencies of digits to resemble one another will now be considered in their various combinations. They will be taken two at a time, in order to learn the frequency with which both members of the various couplets are affected by the same A. L. W. class of pattern. Every combination will be discussed, except those into which the little finger enters. These are omitted, because the overwhelming frequency of loops in the little fingers would
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