Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-04-10
SOMETHING ABOUT N
No Less Than Seven Distinct and
Marked Varieties --HOw to Tell a
WOman's Dispositions --FlnDer.
Nails and What They
Indicate.

The ordinary use of the hand is to
handle with, but this is so ordinory
that words need not be wasted upon
it nor is it necessary at all to enter
into the anatomy of the hand. This
is the proper theme for school books
and medical lectures. But there are
certain points of interest about the
human hand which are worthy of
more extendednotice than they gener-
ally receive. For instance:
: THE LANGUAGE or THE HAND
deserves study. Hands have a Ian
guage of their own, a language which
has its laws like any other dialect.
There is a wonderful deal of express
sion in the human hand, and, carefully
noted, this expression may be used
very s~erviceably in determining the
character of the individual. The
nations Of antiquity believed in this
more than We moderns do, and,
although they may have overrated it,
we as certainly underrate it. There is
a certain
MORAL QUALITY IN THE HAND.
1t has been found by experience
that thieves, for example, generally
have thick, short hands ; while alargc,
long hand is the sign of a liberal tenn
permanent, or of a shrewd mind asso-
eiated with a generous heart, Abra-
ham Lincoln, for example, had a large,
long hand. A long hand which has
thick fingers is generally associated
with a phlegmatie temperament. The
owners Of such hands are generally
smart, but lazy men, who love their
ease. A hand with separated fingers,
a hand in which the fingers sprawl, is
generally associated with shiftlessness
and laziness. This is the beggar's
hand. A hand whose fingers, on the
contrary, stick together, are compact
and close, is Indicative of a tickle and
suspicious disposition. A hand the
fingers Of which turn backward, indi-
Gates an unjust disposition. A hand
with very short and very thick fingers
is generally associated with cruelty.
A hand with long aud struggling fin
gers generally marks an impostor or
adyenturer. A hand with fingers
which are smooth and transparent is
often accompanied by indiscreet curl
Osity on the part of its owner, while
the hands of jugglers, like the hands
of the higher order of apes, possess
spatulated fngers-that is, fingers
which, like the spatula used By chem
lists, are fiat, but bulge round at the
ends. These are not manufactured or
imaginative signs. They are the re-
suits of long experience and inspection
Of hands, and their general truth can
be illustrated in hundreds of in
stances.
Hands, as far as their shape and
expression is concerned, are divided
by those who have studied the subject
into seven or more distinct classes.
There is the hand with a large palm,
the hand with conical fingers, the
square hand, the knotted hand. the
hand with spatulatcd fingers, and the
hand which partakes of a mixture of
two or more of these characteristics.
Each of these
SEVEN STYLES OF HAND
characteriZes to a greater or less de-
gree a class of human beings. and
their notifications and variations
likewise characterize various types Of
humanity. Thus it has been found
that practical men of science like
Faraday, Arage and Stilliman possess
knotted hands with spatulated fingers,
while the hand of the great musician
and pianist, List, for instance, has a
large palm, with knotty and spatula
shaped fingers.
Artists generally have conical
hands. Byron had a pointed hand.
Longfellow has hands with %conical
fingers. Victor Hugo's hands and
fingers are of the same variety. The
late George Sand had a very small
hand with conical fingers. The square
shaped hand is generally the hard
working, the useful hand. The knot
ted hand is supposed to be peculiarly
the hand Of philosophers, while the
pointed hand is presumed to be
more particularly the property Of
luxury, a delicate temperament, poets.
dreamers and that ilk. Swedenborg
had a pointed hand. The thumb
plays an important part in the Ian
guage of the hand.
THE VOICE or THE THUMB
has a significance not to be neglected.
Decided, reckless writer's like Vol
taire, and decided, warlika monarohs
like Frederick the Great, had biz
thumbs, whereas tickle, i~rresolutc
men like the unfortunate Louis XVI.
of France, and doubters of everything
and everybody, even themselves like
Montague Vane, had very smal.
thumbs. Shakespeare is said to have
had a very small thumb. If in thi,
case the thumb had any significance i
must have been a type Of that many.
mindedness Of this universal gepiu,
which made a. Hamlet pf him anc
which caused In him I" the hue Of res
o%lution to be sicklied Ger with thu
pale cast of thought" In fact,
THE THUMB OF SHAKESPEARE
in this light may have a moaning, a.
irres9lutiop and yielding 10 cIrcum
stances formed all Of the notcworth,
elements Of the. immortal dramatisti
character and career. The texture o
the hands is also said to be somewha
emblematic of the character, TIL
hard handed man is GENERALLY aFp
unyieldiHg, obstinate, not prone Il
love; whereas the owner Of a sof
hand is held TO be peculiarly s~uscepti
bic to the softer passions.
THE NATIoNAIJTY OF THE HAM
is another pgrilpS and lptegpstiug sub
ject az study. Different people Seen
TO be endowed with Aigerent stvles %