Morning journal and courier., 1892-06-23

she awoke from sleep and found him
standing by her bedside. "Not If heard
your voice and knew IL was you, Mr..
Williams" was her reply. Mr.. Scott,
chaplain of the prison in which Deemino
was executed, says the murderer was q
pleasant man to speak to until crossed; and
the mans influence over women certainly
supports this statement.
Some of the medical authorities who ex-
amined Deeming's hands declare his broad
thumb indicated the born murderer. But
the drawing which has been published is
not that of the pouce en- billie. The true
pouce en- billie, or all-hesded thumb, as 1t
might be termed in English, gives to the
first phalange round bulbous appearance.
1t Is short, and the nail is 80 abbreviated
as to suggest that 1t has been gnawed. 1t
is embedded in the flesh which rises on
either eide and extends beyond it. In the
drawing of Deeming's thumb the bulbous
swelling is carried below the phslange, and
the nail is level with the tip; but these
differences may bo due to the inaccurate
observation of the artist.
Desbarolles examined the hands of many
murderers, and in all he found the pouce
en- billie. He also discovered other signs.
The fingers of Armande Philippe, who
committed an atrocious murder, were bent
towards the left side, and the lines of the
palms were of deep red, as though they
had been dipped in blood. The fingers,
especially the second and third, were spat-
ulous at the tips, and the nails, short and
ugly, were buried in the flesh. Lemaire,
who murdered his father and three other
persons, hai crooked spatuious fingers,
and the pouce en- billie, but on one hand
only, Dumollard, q wholesale murderer
of the first rank, had q hand remarkable
for its thickness and length of palm In
proportion to the fingers. This abnormal
length of palm, according to the rules of
the science, indicates intense animalism.
Dumollard had a significant sign, common
to most murderers-namely, the almost
entire absence of lines in the palm, save
the three principal-the lines of life, head
and heart. These lines were very strongly
defined. The line of the hesd-the center
line extending across the palm-was vio-
lently cut by the line of life, running up
wards from the wrist. Chiromancy inter
prets this to foretell a violent death. Des-
barolles noticed it for the first time on the
hand of Lemaire, and eight days after
wards saw it on the hand of Dumollard.
The fingers of the latter were uneven and
knotty at the nail phalangss. The hand
of Dumollard indicated infiexibls will, av-
arice and absence of moral feelings The
Cure of Montluel, noticing his extraordi-
nary GOODNESS when about to be guillotined,
said to him, ''Only martyrs go to the scat
fold with this Indifference" sfEh bien, je
ferai avec eux," retorted Dumollard.
Troppman, another wholesale murderer,
had nothing particular about the shape of
his hands. Indeed, they were almost ele-
CANT; but then, as NJ Desbarolles remarks,
he was not born precisely for crime. Still
the palm was deficient in markings beyond
the three principal lines, and he had the
fatal sign of the scaffold. Troppmann's
hand was also distinguished by an abnor-
NAL development of the Mount of Mars
in other words, a thickening of the out
eide edge of the hand. His fingers were
fat; and he committed murders for gain,
because, as M. Desbarolles philosophically
puts it, of his determination to be COM
Portable at any price.
Lacenaire, another notorious malefactor,
had large spatulous fingers, a long palm
with the line of the head cut in two, short
nails, and the thumb absolutely en- billie.
Serreau and Brouillard, who murdered a
woman in the Rue Clichy, had hands of a
similar pattern. Muller, the murderer of
Mr.. Briggs, possessed the pouce en- billie,
the fingers very crooked and an absence of
lines in the palm. He also had the omin-
GUS scaffold mark in the severance of the
line of the head. The hand of Mullins,
the Stepney murderer, was soft and the
fingers crooked. He had the pouce en-
billie, but rather longer than usual
To sum up. the signs of the murderer's
band are: Firstly, the pouce en- billie
Secondly, and only less important, the
thickness of the Mount of Mars at the
edge of the hand, from which flows the
blood direct to the brain at the slightest
motion, and causes the man to ''see red. -
Thirdly, the scaffold sign. Fourthly, the
presence only in the palm of the three
principal lines, occasionally reduced to
two, and almost always of bright scar
let. Fifthly, crooked fingers with spstu-
lous tips, the nails small and uneven. Ac-
cording to the rules of art, therefore,
a murderer, if a murderer by disposition,
and not las in most cases) by accident,
ought to have hand with all or nearly all
these characteristics.