Whorls (Table V.) are most common on the thumb and the ring-finger, most rare on the middle and little fingers. TABLE V. +--------------------------------------------+ | _Percentage frequency of Whorls._ | |--------------------------------------------| |Hand.|Thumb.|Fore- |Middle |Ring- |Little | | | |finger.|finger.|finger.|finger.| |-----|------|-------|-------|-------|-------| |Right| 44 | 30 | 15 | 45 | 13 | |Left | 30 | 28 | 16 | 31 | 8 | |-----|------|-------|-------|-------|-------| |Mean | 37 | 29 | 15.5 | 38 | 10.5 | +--------------------------------------------+ The fore-finger is peculiar in the frequency with which the direction of the slopes of its loops differs from that which is by far the most common in all other digits. A loop _must_ have a slope, being caused by the disposition of the ridges into the form of a pocket, opening downwards to one or other side of the finger. If it opens towards the inner or thumb side of the hand, it will be called an inner slope; if towards the outer or little-finger side, it will be called an outer slope. In all digits, except the fore-fingers, 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 53 loops of the one or other kind on the right fore-finger, 21 of them have an inner and 32 an outer slope; out of the percentage of 55 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 Purkenje 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 make the results of comparatively little interest, while their insertion would greatly increase the size of the table. TABLE VI_a_. _Percentage of cases in which the same class of pattern occurs in the_ same digits _of the two hands_. (From observation of 5000 digits of 500 persons.)