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OCR Rendition - approximate
124 FINGER PRINTS CHAP. than that between the thumb and either fore-finger ; at the same time it is clear that neither of the two former relationships is so close as to reach identity. Similarly as regards the other couplets of digits. The tabular entries fully confirm this deduction, for, without going now into further details, it will be seen from the "Mean of the Totals" at the bottom line of Table VIb that the average percentage of cases in which two different digits have the same class of patterns, whether they be on the same or on opposite hands, is 5 9 or 5 7 (say 5 8), while the average percentage of cases in which right and left digits bearing the same name have the same class of pattern (Table VIa) is 72. This is barely two-thirds of the 100 which would imply identity. At the same time, the 7 2 considerably exceeds the 58. Let us now endeavour to measure the relationships between the various couplets of digits on a welldefined centesimal scale, first recalling the fundamental principles of the connection that subsists between relationships of all kinds, whether between digits, or between kinsmen, or between any of those numerous varieties of related events with which statisticians deal. Relationships are all due to the joint action of two groups of variable causes, the one common to both of the related objects, the other special to each, as in the case just discussed. Using an analogous nomenclature to that already employed, the peculiarity of one of the two objects is due to an aggregate of variable causes that we may call C + X, and that of the other
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