Part 18

LINES ON THE HAND

If not well defined, indicate poor health.

Deep red lines indicate good, robust health.

Yellow lines indicate excessive biliousness.

Dark-colored lines indicate a melancholy and reserved disposition. The Life Line extends from the outer base of Mount Jupiter, entirely around the base of Mount Venus. If chained under Jupiter, it indicates bad health in early life. Hair-lines extending from it imply a weakness, and if cut by small lines from Mount Venus, misplaced affections and domestic broils. If arising from Mount Jupiter, an ambition to be wealthy and learned. If it is joined by the Line of the Head at its beginning, prudence and wisdom are indicated. If it joins Heart and Head lines at its commencement, a great catastrophe will be experienced by the person so marked. A square on it denotes success. All lines that follow it give it strength. Lines that cut the Life Line extending through the Heart Line denote interference in a love affair. If it is crossed by small lines, illness is indicated. Short and badly drawn lines, unequal in size, imply bad blood and a tendency to fevers.

THE HEART LINE

if it extends across the hand at the base of the finger mounts, and is deep and well defined, indicates purity and devotion; if well defined from Mount Jupiter only, a jealous and tyrannical disposition is indicated; if it begins at Mount Saturn and is without branches, it is a fatal sign; if short and well defined in the Harmonic type of hand it indicates intense affection when it is reciprocated; if short on the Mercury type of hand, it implies deep interest in intellectual pursuits; if short and deep in the Elementary type of hand, it implies the disposition to satisfy desire by brutal force, instead of by love.

THE HEAD LINE

is parallel to the Heart Line and forms the second branch of letter M, generally very plain in most hands; if long and deep it indicates ability to care for one’s self; if hair-lines are attached to it, mental worry; if it divides toward Mount Mercury, love affairs will be first, and business secondary; if well defined its whole length, it implies a well-balanced brain; a line from it extending into a star on Mount Jupiter, great versatility, pride and love for knowledge are indicated; if it extend to Mount Luna, interest in occult studies is implied; separated from the Life Line, indicates agressiveness; if it is broken, death is indicated from an injury to the head.

THE RASCETTES

are lines across the wrist where the palm joins it.

It is claimed they indicate length of life; if straight it is a good sign. One Rascette indicates thirty years of life; two lines, sixty; three lines, ninety.

THE SCIENCE OF PHRENOLOGY

In 1796 a German physician by the name of Franz Gall first announced what he considered a wonderful discovery and named Phrenology. It was first introduced into the United States by Dr. Charles Caldwell of Kentucky, who studied under Gall and who lectured and wrote on the subject. It made very little headway, however, until Dr. Spurzheim began to lecture on the new science in Boston, since which time the number of its adherents has been growing steadily, although there are many scientific minds who still doubt its teachings.

It is a system of the philosophy of the human mind founded on the structure of the brain, and embraces a theory of psychology and organology. It pretends to be able to tell the characteristics of a person thru signs and bumps. It assumes a corresponding value between the convolutions of the brain and the character or temperament of the individual.

The idea was not original with Dr. Gall. In the thirteenth century Albertus Magnus divided the cranium into three regions controlling Faculties, Judgment and Imagination. In 1562 Luigi Dolce divided the brain into nine regions controlling as many mental powers. Gall first noticed that all his fellow schoolboys who were noted for their knowledge of languages and memory of words had prominent eyes. Following this as a clew, he arrived at the functions and locations of twenty-seven organs of mental faculties which he named according to their action. Spurzheim found still others, and Drs. Fowler and Wells, the best known American phrenologists, increased the number of such divisions to thirty-five. They divided them into four principal groups:

1. Domestic group; including love, patriotism, fondness for home, attachment to friends, etc.

2. Selfish group; including combativeness, destructiveness, appetite, fondness of inflicting pain, etc.

3. Moral group; including sense of right, integrity, justice, veneration, benevolence, etc.

4. Self-perfecting group; including constructiveness, sense of the beautiful, imitation, wit, etc.

Besides these there are two minor groups of Intellectual Faculties:—

A. Perceptive Group; including individuality, perception of color, weight, arrangement, etc.

B. Reflective Group; including dependence, efficiency, power of analysis, sympathy, etc.

Many physicians have tried to prove the accuracy of this theory. Thousands of skulls of human beings as well as of animals have been examined and their cranial bumps studied. It is believed that each convolution of the brain is a separate organ and that the great centers of motion are in the front part of the brain. Many books have been written on the subject.

To tell the character of a person by Phrenology requires the services of a trained expert, and the few indications we can give here can only serve to call the reader’s attention to the subject in a general way. The foregoing chart is generally used by phrenologists. The numbers specify the location of each organ, and the following is a description of the same.

These organs are on the head in the shape of protuberances or bumps, and can be felt with the fingers. In many cases there is nothing to indicate their existence, in other cases they are well developed.

PROPENSITIES.

1. Amativeness. 2. Philoprogenitiveness. 3. Concentrativeness. 4. Adhesiveness. 5. Combativeness. 6. Destructiveness. 6a. Alimentiveness. 7. Secretiveness. 8. Acquisitiveness. 9. Constructiveness.