HAND, INDEX OF HABIT OF BODY AND TEMPERAMENT.

The general habit of body, and the kind of temperament, we determine from certain general signs deduced from the hand. We observe the structure of the skin—whether it be fine or coarse in its texture, whether it be hard and unyielding, or soft and elastic. We note the quantity of fat and of cellular tissue; and this enables us to form a judgment respecting the degree ofembonpoint, and we have already abundantly proved that a man of a soft, lax habit, with an abundance of cellular and fatty tissues, differs in mental tendency and disposition from one of firm, tense fibre, in whom the bones, muscles, and articulations, are strong and prominent. Thus, a soft, thick hand, loaded with fat, denotes little energy of character, and a soft, yielding, inactive disposition; while, on thecontrary, a thin, firm, bony, or muscular hand indicates a rough, active, energetic nature. With respect to the texture of the skin—a hand possessing a delicate and highly-sensitive skin is accompanied by a similar structure of the tegumentary envelope of the entire body, and is always associated with an excitable organisation, with a highly sensitive, mobile disposition. A coarse, dry texture of the skin denotes a preponderance of muscular force over sensibility, and a character more remarkable for solidity and resolution than for imagination or vivacity of conception. The hand partakes of the nature of the whole body; when the latter is gracefully and symmetrically formed, with its several parts in nice adaptation and co-ordination, the former shares its perfection and is constructed after the same general plan; and we accordingly find that a powerful, athletic individual is furnished with a large hard hand, with its joints or articulations strong and prominent, and a delicate, sensitive person, with a small, narrow hand, with its joints small and but slightly prominent.

In order correctly to determine the more particular signs of the mental disposition which may be drawn from an examination of the hand, we must first take into consideration the special physiological functions of the organ. On the one hand, it is the most delicate instrument of feeling,—the organ of touch, by means of which we judge of so many properties of bodies; on the other hand, the finest and most skilful instrument of motion and of prehension; and it may likewise be regarded as the organ of art. A hand rather below the average size, and of which the skin is soft and delicate, the fingers long, and provided with numerous cuticular ridges, which are indicative of a large number of the sentient papillæ of touch, the bony portion but slightly developed, and the joints not prominent, is admirably adapted for an organ of sensation, but by no means suited for an instrument of motion; while, on the contrary, a size rather above the average, together with a massive, bony,framework, strong muscles and tendons, and large joints, are the characteristics of a powerful instrument of prehension—of a hand in which sensation is sacrificed to motion.

In the former case, we may with certainty predicate a mind mobile, imaginative, and inclined to abstraction,—a mind employed chiefly on subjective phenomena; in the latter, the mind is rather objective in its action than subjective, operating powerfully upon the external world, whether by arms, agriculture, or the mechanical arts: the former hand we term sensitive, the latter motive.

In the highest and most perfect form of hand, thin, delicate, conical fingers are combined with a moderate-sized palm and a well-developed thumb,—both the sensitive and motive parts are in nice and accurate adaptation; the instrument being thus rendered capable of executing whatever the intellect may desire: such a hand we term “psychical.” In the lowest form of hand, the member retains throughout adult life the character which it presented in infancy, and it strikingly resembles the hand of those of the monkeytribe most nearly allied to man in their organisation and outward form,—a hard, thick, palm being joined to short, rudimentary fingers: such a form of hand we style “elementary.” It is mostly associated with a crude, undeveloped state of the intellectual powers. Thus, by tracing the normal developement and the anatomy and physiology of the hand, we have obtained four definite types of formation founded upon anatomical and physiological characters, and corresponding to a certain extent to the temperaments,—the psychical as the highest form, the elementary as the lowest, and, as intermediate forms, the sensitive and the motive. The sensitive is characterised by softness, delicacy, and a rounded form,—by a member adapted by its structure for an accurate discrimination of the external world, and for a delicate organ of sensation; the motive, by great developement of the muscular, tendinous, and osseous structures, and exercising its objective influence by virtue of its active movements and its physical force; the psychical uniting the perfections of both the sensitive and the motivetypes, the elementary without the excellencies of either.

We pass on to a somewhat more detailed examination of the several parts of the hand. It may be considered as made up of the palm, the thumb, and the fingers.

Palm.—As regards the palm, we have to notice its size, thickness, and degree of hardness; its temperature, degree of dryness, and the furrows by which it is marked. In all the lower animals the palm is large, thick, and hard. Hence D’Arpentigny views the palm as indicative of the physical appetites or animal propensities, and of the degree and intensity of the mental affections to which they give rise. Thus, when the palm is narrow and thin, the temperament is feeble, the imagination without force, and the mind rather subtle than comprehensive; when its size and thickness are in harmony with the proportions of the thumb and fingers, sensual impressions easily excite the mind, but a salutary control is exercised by reason and imagination; when it is large in comparison with the fingers, sensuality and egotism predominate; and lastly, when it islarge, thick and hard, the animal faculties preponderate over reason, and the passions, unrefined by imagination, have full and uncontrolled sway. A moist, warm, rosy palm denotes health, youth, delicate sensibility, and energy of the vegetative functions. Thus Shakspeare in “Othello,” speaking of the hand of Desdemona,—

“This hand is moist, my lady.****This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart;Hot, hot, and moist. This hand of yours requiresA sequester from liberty, fasting, and prayer,Much castigation, exercise devout;For there’s a young and sweating devil hereThat commonly rebels.”

“This hand is moist, my lady.

****

This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart;

Hot, hot, and moist. This hand of yours requires

A sequester from liberty, fasting, and prayer,

Much castigation, exercise devout;

For there’s a young and sweating devil here

That commonly rebels.”

In febrile diseases, the palm is hot and dry; and the same obtains when the vegetative functions are languid, or in exhaustion from debauchery or other causes. As Shakspeare has it in the “Twelfth Night,”—

“Maria.Now, sir, thought is free: I pray you bring Your hand to the buttery bar, and let it drink.Sir Andrew Aguecheek.Wherefore, sweetheart? What’s your metaphor?Maria.It’s dry, sir.”

“Maria.Now, sir, thought is free: I pray you bring Your hand to the buttery bar, and let it drink.

Sir Andrew Aguecheek.Wherefore, sweetheart? What’s your metaphor?

Maria.It’s dry, sir.”

According to the old chiroscopists, the life-line—that is, the furrow at the line of demarcation between the ball of the thumb and the palm—measures by its length the term of existence; it is certainly more strongly marked in strong and healthy than in weak and sickly persons. A pallid or yellowish colour of the furrows marking the palm is indicative of disease.

Thumb.—The thumb deserves particular notice in treating of the hand. It is the presence of a thumb that imparts to the hand of the higher animals its character of superiority. It is the higher developement and greater mobility of the human hand that render it so much more perfect than that of the ape: “L’animal supérieur est dans la main, l’homme est dans la pouce,” says D’Arpentigny. The thumb being, then, the characteristic element of the human hand—the part last developed and most strongly typical of its superiority over that of the lower animals, the perfect formation of this part of the hand must be regarded as a sign of the character of the species being well marked,—of a strong, active individuality; while the reverse obtains when it is small and rudimentary. The ball of the thumb ismade up of strong muscles, and in it the motor function of the hand is, as it were, concentrated. It is themons Venerisof the old chiroscopists; the expression of “la volonté raisonnée,” of decision, perception, and the logical faculty, according to D’Arpentigny, who confirms the old opinion above alluded to, remarking, “Aimer c’est vouloir, et vouloir c’est aimer.” Persons with a small thumb are ruled by the heart, those with a large by the head. The motive hand is always furnished with a large thumb, and hence, probably, the origin of the term, fromdomare, to rule (Italian),Daumen(German); power and objective force being imparted by it to the hand.

The Romans applied the termpollex truncatusto a person who, for the purpose of avoiding military service, cut off or mutilated his thumb—hence our wordpoltroon. It was by the position of the thumb that spectators determined the fate of conquered gladiators; if it were raised, life was spared, if it were depressed, it was a sentence of death. In the Anglo-Saxon laws, it is ordained that mutilation of the thumb shall be punished bya fine of twenty shillings, and that of the middle finger by a fine of four only. In La Vendée, a large thumb is still thought to be indicative of a dabbler in the forbidden mysteries of the black art. Biting the thumb was formerly held to be expressive of insult and defiance; thus Shakspeare in “Romeo and Juliet,”—

“Samson.I will bite my thumb at them; which is adisgrace to them if they bear it.”

Fingers.—Having fully examined the palm and thumb, we have next to direct our attention to the four fingers—to their length, their general outline, the size of the joints, and the shape of the pieces of which the fingers are made up,—the phalanges, more especially of the terminal one.

Prominent joints evince great development of the bony and muscular structures of the hand; they indicate a motive and prehensive organ. Persons with such fingers, according to D’Arpentigny, are remarkable for their love of order and arrangement, for a mind prone to analysis and reasoning, and for actions regulated by the calm dictates of judgment, and not impelled by the sudden inspiration of enthusiasm. Smooth, even fingers, on the contrary, with a regular outline and articulations but slightly prominent, denote that the nervous system is more developed than the bony and muscular, and that the member is endowed with fine sensibility. Such an individual will be more or less swayed by imagination, will act rather from the impulse of the moment than from reason and experience, will be rather disposed to view things as a whole than to consider in detail their several parts,—in fact, will be furnished with a mind with more of imagination and synthetical talent than of reason or logical ability. The joints become more distinctly marked as age advances. In fine, says D’Arpentigny, “Man becomes the more orderly, the less credulous, and the more logical, in proportion as the articular prominences become more strongly defined.”

The last phalanx, or terminal piece of the fingers, may terminate in either of three ways. It may be rounded, cushiony, somewhat enlarged as it were; it may be square and flattened; or it may be delicate, tapering, and conical. The enlarged, rounded, cushiony-terminated phalanx, characterises “the doigts en spatule” of D’Arpentigny, or, as we shall term them, “sensitive fingers.” It indicates a great number of the delicate papillæ of touch, and serves to denote a sensitive hand. The square terminal phalanx mostly accompanies the motive and elementary form of hand; and the tapering, conical extremity, the psychical. It is a remarkable fact, that among all nations the figures of saints, angels, and divinities, should have been invariably figured with delicate, tapering fingers. The hands of witches, demons, and sorcerers, have likewise been delineated with elongated fingers; but they are rough, thin, and bony, and armed with long nails or claws, like the toes of the lower animals.

Nails.—We must say a few words upon the nails,—parts corresponding to the horny skeleton of invertebrate animals. They are sometimes long and narrow, as in the psychical hand: sometimes short and broad, as in the elementary type; and sometimes square and strong, as in the motive, or they may be brittle or thickened, or otherwise diseased. In consumptive people they become curved,somewhat claw-like. If the characters which they furnish be in accordance with those which are indicated by the other parts of the hand, they are thereby doubly confirmed; if the two differ, they mutually render each other less positive. Thus an elementary hand with long, slender nails, must be looked upon as having a decided tendency to assume a higher type of organisation, while if the nails be broad and short like the fingers, the signification is thereby the more confirmed.

1.—The Elementary Hand.SeePlate I.—Fingers thick, and without flexibility, palm large, thick, and hard, thumb rudimentary, and frequently bent somewhat backwards, skin coarse in its texture, nails short and thick. In countries where such hands abound, the people obey habit and instinct rather than reason. The sensations are dull and inactive, the imagination is without force, and the character apathetic; for the extremities of the nerves being deficient in sensibility, the impressions conveyed to the brain are wanting in intensity, andthe ideas to which they give rise are consequently neither clear nor vivid. “Aux mains élémentaires, en Europe le labourage, le soin des étables et la longue suite des travaux grossiers auxquels suffisent les confuses lumières de l’instinct. A elles la guerre, en tant qu’il ne s’agit, que d’arroser machinalement de la sueur un sol étranger. Enfermées dans le monde matériel elles ne se rattachent guêre à l’ensemble politique, que par l’élément physique. Les convictions se ferment en elles dans une sphère inaccessible au raisonnement, et leurs vertus tiennent le plus souvent à des facultés négatives.”

Elementary hands abound in the north of Europe. The individuals characterised by them are always superstitious; witness the Lappes, the Finns, and the Icelanders. By misfortune they are overwhelmed. In India, where they do not naturally exist, they have been artificially produced in a particular caste—the Parias—by political and social institutions. They have been abundant among every people at the dawning of their civilisation; they raised the pyramids in Egypt and the Cyclopean structures in Italy, and aredescribed as existing in a rude state of society in the literature of various nations: witness the Polyphemus of the Greeks, the Melibœus of the Latins, the Caliban of Shakspeare, and the Sancho Panza of Cervantes. This form of hand can unquestionably be produced by premature hard labour, but it is found among the upper classes likewise, where manual labour cannot be supposed to have given rise to it. Physiologically it must be looked upon as an arrest of developement, its main bulk, like the member of the lower animals and of the human fœtus, being made up of the solid palm. It must hence be regarded as a primitive form of the member, as a rudimentary, and consequently an imperfect organ.

Transitions from the elementary to other forms of hand are frequently met with. Thus, when the fingers become elongated and somewhat thinner, and the texture of the skin finer, the hand may be said to be intermediate between the elementary and sensitive type, while long, hard, bony fingers indicate an approach towards the motive type. And thus it is that intelligence ismore readily to be attained by persons with elementary, than a fine sensibility by those furnished with a motive hand, or great energy in objective action by those provided with a sensitive.

2. The Sensitive Hand(seePlate II.) is rather below than above the average size, palm soft and narrow, fingers thin and delicate, with the extremity plump, rounded, and cushiony, thumb thin and small, skin fine and very vascular, nails narrow and semi-transparent. This type of hand may be looked upon as essentially feminine. It denotes a highly-sensitive frame, and a delicately-organised nervous system. The nervous ramifications distributed to the surface of the body being covered only by a thin layer of cuticle or scarf-skin, are easily excited by impressions from without, and as readily transmit their excitement to the central organs, thus occasioning a prompt and vivid flow of ideas.

Plate 2.

The Sensitive Hand.The Sensitive Hand.

The Sensitive Hand.

(a.)The Artistic Handof D’Arpentigny is a variety of this type. It is characterised by a moderately-developed palm, long tapering fingers, very flexible, and a small thumb.It has for its object the worship of material beauty, is disposed to view things through a romantic medium, is fond of leisure, of liberty, and of change; is at once bold and timid, humble and vain, exalted and depressed, enthusiastic and desponding. The charms of a quiet, regulated, domestic life possess but little attraction for such persons, who, with much originality, have equal fickleness of character. “En France nos armées sont pleines de mains artistiques de tout genre; elles leur doivent le caractère de mobilité aventureuse, insouciante, pittoresque; cet élan fulgurant et prime sautier, qui les distinguent. Elles s’accommodent de tout et sont propre à tout. On les enlève par la parole.”

(b.) A gradual transition is afforded from this to the motive type by means ofthe spathulate hand, which partakes both of the motive and sensitive character.

The spathulate hand, when fully developed, is furnished with smooth fingers, with a rounded, cushiony termination, and a large thumb. It denotes a love of corporeal movement, and of active occupation—of horses,dogs, and field-sports; it prefers the useful to the agreeable, and is not content, like the elementary hand, with the merely necessary, but demands abundance. It is distinguished by an appearance of simplicity and frankness of character, and likewise by its chastity; so that Diana or Cyrus the Younger may be said to be its representatives. It is a native of the North, is more common in Scotland than in England, in England than in France, and in France than in Italy or Spain. Wherever it is the prevailing type, as in England and America, the political institutions are free. It is essentially Protestant. “Amoureuses de l’art, de la poésie, du roman, des mystères, les mains pointues veulent un dieu selon leur imagination; amoureuses des sciences et de la réalité, les mains en spatule veulent un dieu selon leur raison.” So that it may be truly said that the people of the north are physically Protestant, and those of the south Catholic. It must also be remarked, that before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes the Protestants of France were likewise its chief manufacturers; for the same spirit that led them to embraceProtestantism impelled them to the cultivation of mechanical and scientific pursuits. It prefers size and regularity to beauty, opulence to luxury, and that which excites astonishment to that which pleases. In private life its motto is, “Chacun pour soi.”

Plate 3.

The Motive Hand.The Motive Hand.

The Motive Hand.

The Motive Hand(seePlate III.)—Above the mean size, fingers with prominent joints, of an average length, and strong, thick, and bony, with a square tip; palm of a mean size, hollow, and tolerably firm; thumb large, with the muscular root strongly developed. This form of hand cannot exist without a strong, massive developement of the bony and muscular system. It is essentially the hand of man, as the sensitive is that of woman. Hence, in the female sex, it indicates a masculine energy of character: witness the hardy peasants of Switzerland and the Tyrol. In both sexes it denotes a preponderance of the masculine or reasoning mind over the imaginative faculties. Hence it loves form and arrangement, possesses a strong instinctive feeling for right and authority, and a profound respect for established forms; prefers an aristocracy to a democracy, and the known to the unknown; takes a delight in organising, in classifying, in systematising, in subjecting thought to opinion, and man to his fellow-man. Devoid of originality, and with but little imagination, it moves only in the old beaten path, and its belief is limited to that which it is capable of comprehending.

Partaking of the character of the motive and psychical type, we have a mixed intermediate form, termed by D’Arpentigny “the philosophical hand.”

(a.)The Philosophical Handis somewhat smaller than the motive; the fingers have large joints, and are somewhat tapering at their tip; the palm is large and elastic, the thumb also large, with its two phalanges nearly equal in length. Such was the hand of Locke, of Condillac, of Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibnitz. It denotes a love of absolute truth for its own sake, and of speculations respecting the nature of life and the origin of things. It adopts opinions only upon a careful investigation, and reason is its only recognised guide.

Plate 4.

The Psychical Hand.The Psychical Hand.

The Psychical Hand.

The Psychical Hand(see PlatePlate IV.) is atonce the most beautiful and the most rare. Compared with the stature it is small and delicate; the fingers are thin, without articular prominences, and long and tapering; the palm is of average dimensions, the thumb well formed and but of moderate size. Persons with such a hand are led by ideality; soul is for them every thing; great interests alone move them; in religion and politics they are tolerant. In literature, Milton, Klopstock, and Göthe, are their representatives. Loving the ideal and the sublime, they oppose to the school of Voltaire and Hume that of Lamartine and Chateaubriand. Among the Greeks, Plato is their type.

D’Arpentigny says of these hands: “Elles attachent, elles ajoutent, aux œuvres du penseur, comme l’artiste à l’œuvre de l’artisan la beauté, l’idéalité; elles les dorent d’un rayon de soleil, elles les élèvent sur un piédestal, elles leur ouvrent le porte des cœurs; l’âme, oubliée et laissée en arrière par les mains philosophiques, est leur guide,—la vérité dans l’amour, et la sublimité leur but, et l’expansion leur moyen.”

This form of hand is met with among all classes of society, but is rarely the prevailing one among any people. In Asia, it is most common in India; and in Europe, in Germany.

Thus to the spathulate and motive hands appertain matter and reality, the useful and necessary arts, the action and theory of things, and the knowledge of facts; to the sensitive and psychical hands the boundless ideal world—the fine arts, sublime poetry, and abstract intellectual philosophy.

1La Chirognomonie; ou, l’Art de Reconnaître les Tendances de l’Intelligence, d’après les Formes de la Main. Par le CaineS. Arpentigny. Paris, 1843.

2Ueber Grund und Bedentung der verschiedenen Formen der Hand in verschiedenen Personen. By Dr.C. G. Carus, Physician to the King of Saxony, &c. &c. Stuttgart, 1846.

3P. 237.

4Brougham on Paley’s “Natural Theology.”

5Natural Theology: ch. on “Relations.”

London: George Barclay, Castle Street, Leicester Square.

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