To artists, and a few scientists, the hand is as revealing as the face in expressing temperament, heredity, life habits, glandular function. One such scientist, Dr. Charlotte Wolff, physician and psychologist, last week gave her second summary of findings in the science of chirology. In The Human Hand (Alfred A. Knopf, $3) she carried on her rescue of the hand from the hocus-pocus of palmistry and fortunetelling, gave laymen some interesting reading as well.
Dr. Wolff, once of Germany, now of University College, London, had already done impressive hand reading. Reading character from hands thrust through a curtain, she noted of George Bernard Shaw that his "creative powers are nourished by a spirit of combat and opposition," of Julian Green that he is "as lost in the world of reality as a fish upon dry land." She has developed her method with thousands of cases in hospitals, schools, institutions, has emerged with further scientific principles of personality-reading.
The hand has two major functions, says Dr. Wolff. It is the primary organ of the sense of touch and the primary instrument of human action. In both functions "the hand is a visible part of the human brain." Both hand and brain respond to external impressions. The sum of the nervous, emotional and mental responses is personality—by the Wolff thesis, clearly legible in the hand.
There are no "heart lines," "head lines" or "life lines" in her book. The form of the hand is her best clue to heredity, temperament, mentality and talents. The hands of children usually resemble those of one parent, sometimes a child will inherit one hand from each. An underdeveloped thyroid gland causes small, fat, broad hands, white and flabby, and a personality that is kindhearted, open-minded but unstable and lacking in concentration. The overdeveloped thyroid gives a long, bony hand, with thin bony fingers and an active, vivacious personality.
Prehensile or Tactile. Dr. Wolff's classification of hands is complex but is based primarily on the use of the hand as a sense organ or as a tool for action. She lists six major types, a dozen combinations. Examples of basic types:
> A large, muscular hand, with hard skin, short, broad fingers, oval palm and few deep crease-lines indicates a simple, elementary type of person. He has a broad, rather stout body, a quiet, steady, good-natured temperament, rather slow intelligence, is good at sports and physical labor but tends toward high blood pressure and related physical ills.
> A long hand with long, bony fingers, firm muscles and flat palm, long nails with well developed moons, and many deep, clear-cut palm lines belongs to tall, slender people, nervous and excitable, vivacious, popular, successful, in danger of becoming egotistical. They will tend toward disease of the thyroid, tuberculosis or nervous disorders. Among them are many tennis champions, polo players, dancers and engineers.