The Hand Phrenologically Considered 7

The Hand Phrenologically Considered 7

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.

 

 

FORM OF HANDS.

 

1.—_The Elementary Hand._ See Plate 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, and the 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 are described 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 is more 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_ (see Plate 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.

 

[Illustration: Plate 2.

 

The Sensitive Hand]

 

(_a._) _The Artistic Hand_ of 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 of _the 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 embrace Protestantism 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.”

 

[Illustration: Plate 3.

 

The Motive Hand.]

 

_The Motive Hand_ (see Plate 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 Hand_ is 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.

 

[Illustration: Plate 4.

 

The Psychical Hand.]

 

_The Psychical Hand_ (see Plate IV.) is at once 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.