And now I am about touching upon a subject I have never seen treated by any author, ancient or modern, although, indirectly, the Sixteenth Century Palmists and the immortal Desbarrolles have indicated, if not expressed in so many words, opinions very much in accord with my own theory. I want to present herein a plea tending to explain why and wherefore this or that line has received the name it bears and been endowed by the Chirornants with its special qualities. This is certainly a delicate point to ventilate and yet, if it could be elucidated to the general satisfaction of the students, I truly believe they would feel relieved of one of their most persistent causes of embarrassment, whenever defending, against sneers or direct attacks, the science they love so well.

Let me open the debate, without further preliminary, by asking this plain question:

"Why, for example, are the Lines of Life, Head and Heart called by these names and supposed to relate to Longevity, Brain troubles and Heart disease?"

The starting point of my answer will take its source from the well-authenticated theory of an ambient atmosphere surrounding us, the nature of which is a mystery, the nearest to which we ever came being found in the vague appellation of electricity. It certainly exists; for new phenomena come daily to light confirming its extraordinary powers for good and evil. That it is attracted by points - be they lightning rods, or fingers, or hairs - is also undoubted. That our whole nervous system acts, first as a reservoir for this attracted fluid, and later as its conductor, is just as fully admitted by scientist and layman; that finally, from the brain where it has accumulated, it returns by an unceasing process of circulation to the points that attracted it, to be projected either into the common source it came from originally, or into Other animated creatures - our fellow-beings, or the animals about us - is hardly more contestable nowadays.

With but slight differences as to the limitation of beliefs, all thinking men and women of our time, have reached,, or are fast reaching, these conclusions. And those once admitted, the theory of the Chief Lines in the human palm is both logical in the extreme and most easy of comprehension.

The finger of Jupiter is by excellence the attractor, if I may coin the word; it is in constant communication with the outside world - if by that expression may be designated the reserve fluid, the nature of which remains the great X for all living scientists, be they named Kelvin, Edison or Tesla. At the base of that finger stands its Mount, its group of Pacinic Corpuscles, absorbing the fluid just acquired; and, from that Mount of Jupiter - my Map of the Hand will tell you so. if your own hand docs not - start the three great streams of nervous fluid, named respectively: the Lines of Heart, Head and Life. Highest into the Mount rises the Line of Heart - and the circulation of the blood sets the arteries pulsating. Just under it, the Line of Head sends to the brain the effluvium received from the Mount; but what would it amount to if the first awakening had not resulted from the supreme battery, starting agoing the flow of life-bearing blood? And, third, but not least, comes the Line of Life, the combination of the sanguine and nervous elements of vitality, adding to both the digestive power which is to make the whole mechanism temporarily self-sustaining.

Thus have the three great lines - those which are known to precede and survive all others and which I have found, hundreds of times, to be sole-existent it! hands of strong men, doing their task in this world with plenty of energy and sturdy vitality - thus have the three lines triumphantly explained their right to their ancient names, that came to us through Chaldean Astrology, Egyptian Magic, Aristotelian Philosophy and the deep cogitations of the great Palmists of the XVI., XVII., XVIII. and XIX. centuries, Desbar-rolles first, foremost and the Master.

And now to complete my demonstration, shall I call your attention to the strange fact - so logical though - that only from the Mount of Jupiter start Chief Lines, the other Mounts, with the fingers at the base of which they stand, not being attractors but reflectors, and throwing out the fluid received through the first finger; thus the Lines connected with them start somewhere in the middle or at the bottom of the hand and terminate on these Mounts, after having - all of them - crossed one or more of the three original Jupiterian Lines: Heart, Head or Life.

Finally the Line of Liver - which ought to have been called all along the Line of Mercury - after crossing part of the Mount of the Moon (devoted to the lower secretions of the body) and the Upper Mount of Mars (where is to be read everything concerning the upper secretions from throat, bronchies and lungs), finally ends cm the Mount of Mercury; and the bile, whose irregular flow is the cause of most of the ills human nature is heir to, finds thereon its outlet, as no finger in the hand possesses, in as strong a degree as the fourth finger does, the gift of projecting, now a moral or deleterious influence, now all undesirable physical impedimenta. The circle is complete; every finger, every line has done its logical work; the eternal going and coming of the mysterious fluid proceeds in its own tireless work; and it will do so as long as through the Index and the Line of Heart our pulse is set a-beating and the cells of our cerebral matter are kept nervously thrilling in their narrow quarters.