IN the examination of hands, a careful investigation of the finger nails should be made, and all possible information gained as to their texture, shape, and color. In order to lay the foundation for a good understanding of these matters, we will for a moment consider their structure and uses. Microscopically examined, nails are composed of minute hair-like fibres, so closely knit together that they adhere to each other, and form a compact horn-like substance. The nails grow out of the skin at the ends of the fingers, and do not grow from the muscle or bones. This is proven by the fact that when the skin has been stripped from the fingers, the nails have also been removed, and are found to be imbedded in it. The nail of the human hand corresponds to the claw of the caruivora, and in low types of humanity, like the Digger Indians, grows very long and strong, and is used as a weapon of offense and defense. The lion or tiger depends upon claws and muscular strength to win his battles, consequently his claws are very long, sharp, and strong. The higher intelligence of the human species, and the fact that they have hands to carry out their ideas, enable man to make weapons of defense for his use, even though these weapons be only primitive spears or arrows.

Thus advanced humanity does not consider the nails in the light of a weapon, and we must seek their usefulness from some other standpoint. There are located at the ends of the fingers a great number of nerve cells which make possible the sense of touch possessed by this part of the hand, and it is evident that one use for the nails is to protect and shield from harm this concentration of delicate nerve filaments. In order that the sense of touch may be extremely acute, the nerves must be as near the surface of the skin as possible. If there was no protection afforded by the nails, this could not be, and with the nerves of touch deeply imbedded under the skin, the sense of touch would be a blunted one. During a study of the hands, my conviction has constantly increased that the Creator intended us to read from them for the benefit of the human race, so it has appeared to me that there were yet other uses for the nails which have not been enumerated. I have conceived them to be windows, through which the palmist might look virtually into the interior organization of the human being, since the part which lies under the nail, and which is commonly called the "quick," is intensely delicate and sensitive, and has conveyed to its surface in the most accurate manner all the secrets of the circulation.

This ebb and flow of the blood seen through the nails, which I have likened to glass in the window, makes wonderful revelations as to health and temperament. All the wealth of information revealed by color in the hands is accentuated by looking through this glass, not at the color of the nails as it is most improperly called, but at the color under the nails, which is reflected from a part of the hand so delicately organized that in some cases it shows almost the pulsations of the heart. In this way you will see that we have come still nearer to solving the mysteries of the blood current which are so important. Thus also the great nerve centres under the nails, when they are operating in a healthy manner, allow you to see this fact by the texture of the nails, and, on the contrary, when the nerve centre in the quick is impaired, it leaves its impression on the nail texture, by changing the quality of the nail itself. Here we again encounter very common-sense reasons why the nails are only one more physiological link in the perfect science of Palmistry. Nails show quality, just as does the skin. In fine-grained, fine-textured hands you will generally find fine, smooth texture of the nail. In some hands the skin texture is fine, and the nails tending to coarseness.

In this case you know that something is out of proportion and that the normal balance has been disturbed. The coarse nail found on a fine texture of skin may be a short, heavy nail showing great critical qualities, and this nail belongs more naturally to large hands, coarse skin, with hard or at least elastic consistency. It may be that the coarser texture of the nail will show the advanced state of nerve disorder, indicated by the fluted nail. In any event, if you find a fine-textured hand and coarse nails, it should cause you to search for the meaning; so in the first part of an examination of nails, compare the texture of the nails with the texture of the skin, and see if they both belong to the same grade of fineness. If they do, so far as texture goes, you have a normal condition; if they do not, seek to find what is out of balance. Under the head of texture of the nail, remember that the horn of the nail should be even and smooth in surface, the grain of the nail which runs from top to base must be smooth, and not composed of ridges, or flutings as we call them. Where the nail texture is smooth it is because the filaments that form the nail substance are all of one size, while fluted nails are made up of fibres of different sizes growing together.

The nail must also be pliable, not brittle; it must look alive and elastic. The fluting, or ridging, of the nail from the top to base is an indication of nervous disorder. Accompanying this fluted appearance, if the case be serious, will be found a brittle condition of the nail, causing it to break easily, and instead of growing over the end of the finger in a protecting way, it is growing away from the flesh, seemingly not adhering firmly to the quick. In my practice, I regard the white spots which appear on the nails as the first warning of delicate nerves, though there may be no knowledge, on the part of the subject, that his nerves are not perfectly sound. The white spots indicate a beginnig of the loss of vitality of the nail from deficient nerve force, and are nature's first warning of trouble ahead. As the disorder increases, the white flecks first grow larger, then grow together, then cover the whole nail, taking away the transparency and clearness. The window glass, as I have called the nail, has become clouded. Following this condition, ridges begin to appear, these grow more and more pronounced and frequent, and soon the fluted nail manifests itself (24). By this time the subject is painfully aware of bis nerves.