Dear Grove

I never before noticed with any care the curious marks on our finger-ends.—² I presume they vary, as my first finger differs somewhat from yours.—³ I apprehend the cause must be the same which leads to the hair, & more especially the fœtal lanugo, being arranged in wonderfully many & complex, whirl-pool sort of lines or spires on different parts of the body.— They are very complex on the upper lip.— Eschricht who has studied the subject, of the lanugo, & to whose work I allude in my Descent of Man, is inclined to attribute their positions & centres to the last points closed in, or over which the skin is finally developed, in the growing embryo.—⁴ But he speaks rather doubtfully on this head.— If the lines could be traced & coloured all over the body, what a splendidly tattooed animal, man would turn out.—

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin