New-York tribune., 1907-08-06
SCIENTIFIC PALNISTRf.

Eisdon, has advanced so much that IN thlS
+o, and Generation the learned world Is pre-
,,are1 10 make q science out OF anything amy
hody would like. There being, according I"
tho wise men Of the laboratory, Conhecu""
I.o,,,s.r everything and everything else, the
amateur investigator may start At any point
in the universe and, 10y a proper Waihpulh-
ton Of microscopes statistics anu HEl'"i
o.o.-not to mention several Latin and Greek
uouderositjes-p conclusiVely the lhhueh't
exerted upon by Y. being. let MS say all
,,orsous who can Coujugate the Greek Irregular
yerbs after heavy dinner and Y being inc
surface tension OF a second d-hand golf haiL
Aside from IN. technical skill! necessary Tor
success the scientist must abstain from WrluhE
too many letters gratis Ia the newspapers anu
,,1Ist ureSarye an attitude Of perpeNity toward
n certain percentage OF the problems taiilhe
within his specially. Thus il Is with IalInlsuE'
which has long since become science Start
ing with the arrangement number. thickness
color and other pecIarlties of the lines OF the
hand the scientist extricates from this mass ot
data a horde of facts about the morals, humor,
digestive powers and political preferences of
the owner Of the hand. To those who scofhnely
CIV that this is a skin game the unrufhed III
vestlgator displays the sacred motto or Sci
ence. Everything determines everything else.
And If he has read Tennyson he will drag into
his defence the lovely lines ABOUT Ihe hover III
the Crannied wall
Scientific pamistry reached its apOgee the
other day when that eminent criminologist
Professor Cesare Iombroso, Of Turin, Italy
published with profuse. minute and most posi-
five deductions and conclusions q scientific
ANALYSIS of tie character of one Solellant, the
child murderer of Paris. The professor, VIII"
has already written row Of books of ready
reference f0i the New York traveller on How
10 Tell a Thug on Sight" Hncs that the crimes
of Soeiiant are fully explained by the lines
shown in two photographs ot hands from the
RertfIion bureau-"whiCh indicate by their
chromatic asymmetry the born malefactOr and
epiIcptic" One of the hands is distinctly char
acterIstic Of the lower apes. Wonderful. is it
not: But you have not yet heard the whole
story Iombroso has risen far above all his
colleagues in making these deductions. for he
has based his entire investigation, not directly
upun the lines of SOeilIants paws. but upon
those of a harmless dresser of sheepskns and
n meek stableman Somebody sent the scien-
tifc palmist photographs Of the right hand of
one and the left of the other. SoleiIlants
brutal palms have never been photogra phed.
Words can hardly measure the magnitude Of
this triumph of science. The great Italian
criminologist has gone Tennyson one better by
showing the astonished world that there is a
profound physical connection between the
pictures OF mans hands and the character
Of another person. Professional scientists will
not show surprise at this. but the ordinary
blOclhead who cannot construe even the fiuctu-
ations of an aneroid barometer must wonder In
a dazed way whether Lombroso will not soon
he able to discover from the lines Of ink here
printed the cerebrations Of sundry remote
Americans concerning scientific palmistry.