Evening star., 1935-11-17

There Is also the belief that the
shape Of the hand may be a rough in.
dication of occupation. For example.
the violinist, the pianist or the sur.
geon is often described as characters
lied by long hand with long. sensi-
tive fingers. The possession Of such
fingers might incline a man to soma
such occupation, DR.. Erdlicka holds,
everything else being equal. But some
of the most celebrated violinists and
surgeons have short fingers, and it is
by no means certain that long ones
constitute distinct advantage. The
shape Of the fingers, or Of the whole
hand, may modify the technique, but
there is no reason to believe that the
mental and emotional qualities essen-
tial to great musician are especially
likely TO be associated with long fin
gers in any particular individual.
IN OTHER words. a violinist or a
surgeon may have long fingers, and
perhaps they are TO his advantage,
but not all persons with long fingers
take up these occupations or have any
particular qualifications for them. A
person with extremely short fingers,
of course. would probably be barred
from either activity.
Then there is the claim that the
hands indicate such vague qualities as
the spirituality" Of an individual.
Thus Robert Browning, in describing
his poet wife, wrote of
- that great brow
And spirit-snall hand propplng IL"
But this, physical anthropologists
point out, is purely impressionlstlc.
If it has any factual basis, this is too
vague and tenuous to be subject to
scientific analysis. In any particular
case the judgment Of any individual
observer may be correct, but the same
observer couldn't tell anybody else how
he did it. Here one is across the
border Of mysticism where science
mad made only feeble forays. There
may be some factual basis for claims
of an aura ernanating from any organ
of the body, but as yet it cannot be
proved.
A few years ago better tactuaI
basis might have been presented for
a tie-up between hands and person.
ality-through the functions OF the
endocrine glands. For example, large.
bonv hands would indicate a domi.
nance of one of the pituitary gland
hormones in the regulation of body
growth, and this in turn would hint
at a pituitary type of personality; or
slight, thin hands would indicate a
thyroid hormone dominance. and
hence a thyroid type Of personality.
The pituitary type would tend to be
objective, aggressive, active. The thy
roid type-such, for example, as was
typifed by Mrs. Browning-would tend
to be subjective, retiring and passive.
Unfortunately, this type of person.
atty analysis from single physical
feature-which was enjoying great
popularity five or six years ago-has
fallen into considerable disrepute dur
ing the last couple of years. 1t now IS
most commonly held that the glands
do not determine the type of person.
ality. They simply provide the driv.
ing force by which the type of person.
atty they act upon is able to assert
itself
Thus the individual with big-boned
hands indicating pituitary dominance
Lincoln would be good
example-might be extremely intro
spectiye and moody. but would have
the driving power to go long way
along the inward road. The glands
come before the hands. but the per-
sonality apparently comes before the
glands. In any event only in patho-
logical cases would the relationship
have much significance.
60. FROM the viewpoint both Of
- anthropologists and psychologists,
if there is any relationship between
the hands and personality it remains
(ContinlIed nr1 Fourth Pape1