The Seven Types or Shapes of Hands are as follows:

(1) The Elementary - or lowest type.

(2) The Square - or the useful hand.

(3) The Spatulate - or nervous active type.

(4) The Philosophic - or jointed hand.

(5) The Conic - or the artistic type.

(6) The Psychic - or the idealistic hand.

(7) The Mixed Hand.

The Elementary

As its name implies, the Elementary is the lowest type of all. It is just a little above the brute creation. This type is extremely short (Plate I., Part II.), thick set and brutal-looking. In passing I must draw the reader's attention to the fact that the shorter and thicker the hand is, the nearer the person is to the animal.

 The Elementary Hand.

Fig. 1. The Elementary Hand.

In examining this type one can therefore only expect to find it the expression of all that is coarse, brutal, and animal.

People having such hands naturally have very little mental development or ability. They are found engaged in occupations requiring only unskilled labour and the very lowest even of that.

They are violent in temper, and have little or no control over their passions or their anger. They are coarse in their ideas, possess little or no sentiment, no imagination or feeling, and it has been found that even the nerve system of such types is more or less in a state of non-development. They do not feel pain as the higher types of humanity feel it, and have little ambition except to eat, drink, and sleep.

Note. - The thumb is extremely short and low-set with the Elementary type.

The Square Type

The Square type (Plate I., Part II.,) is so designated on account of the palm being like a square in shape, or at least nearly so. Such a hand in fact "looks square".

 The Square Or Useful Hand.

Fig. 2. The Square Or Useful Hand.

Plate I. Part II.

It is rather straight pr even at the wrist, at the base of the fingers, and also at the sides. The fingers them-selves also have a "square-cut" appearance. The thumb is, however, nearly always long, well-shaped, and set high on the palm, and stands well out from the palm.

The Square Hand is also called the practical or useful hand. People who possess this type are essentially practical, logical, and rather materialistic. They belong to the earth and the things of the earth. They have little imagination or idealism, they are solid, serious workers, methodical and painstaking in all they do. They believe in things only by proof and by their reason. They are often religious and even superstitious, but more from habit than from anything else.

They are determined and obstinate, especially if their thumbs are long and the first joint stiff.1

They succeed in all lines of work that do not require imagination or the creative faculties, and as business men, lawyers, doctors, scientists, they do extremely well, and are generally to be found in such callings.