This section is from the book "The Laws Of Scientific Hand Reading", by William G. Benham. Also available from Amazon: The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading.
Islands on the Life line (203) show that the Current is split in two during their continuance, and consequently operates with a diminished force. They are always indications of periods of delicacy. The point where the island begins will mark the commencement of this period of delicacy, and the end of the island will tell when it is over, provided the line is good afterward. If the island be a very small one (204), it will indicate a single illness, and you must proceed by examining Mounts, Head, Heart, Mercury, chance lines, and all other health indications to find out the nature of the illness. If the line contain a series of islands (205), it operates like a chained line, indicating a continuous succession of illnesses and delicacy, and you must locate the cause of trouble from other parts of the hand. If in this case the first island be small and they grow larger as they continue, the trouble is increasing. If the reverse marking appears, the trouble is diminishing. As most islands appear larger than mere dots, they generally indicate a chronic state of ill-health during their presence rather than acute attacks. Primarily the island indicates delicacy, and gives warning to look out for trouble. Your first duty is to discover what is causing the delicacy.
In very many hands islands in the Life line will be seen, and the rest of the hand filled with cross-lines. This will indicate great nervousness, and that will likely be the cause of the islands. It will certainly be one cause. On seeing an island, at once begin a search of the entire hand for health defects, and somewhere the cause of the island will be found. Sometimes you will find an island in the Life line and the Head line cut by numerous bars (206); if no other health defects be seen and the cutting bars are fine, this will show that severe headaches cause the delicacy ; or if the bars be deep, brain disturbance of a more serious character is indicated. If islands appear on the Head line (207) with an island on the Life line, the head is the cause of the delicacy. If dots appear on the Head line with an island on the Life line (208), brain fevers will be the cause of the delicacy, especially if the dots be red or purple in color. If dots be seen on the Heart line with an island on the Life line (209), heart disease will be the cause of the delicacy. Dots on the Heart line will indicate acute attacks, and if many are present these attacks come frequently, producing the continued delicate health shown by the island in the Life line. Nails and color will confirm these indications.
If islands appear in the Heart line (210), general heart weakness will cause the delicacy shown by the island in the Life line. Nails and color will confirm this. This will not indicate the acute attacks shown by the dots in the Heart line, but general structural deficiency. If a wavy line of Mercury be seen with an island in the Life line, biliousness will be intense, and will cause the delicacy (211). If the line of Mercury be ladder-like (212), and an island is seen on the Life line, dyspepsia, indigestion, and all forms of stomach trouble will cause the delicacy. Grilles, crosses, cross-bars, and all defective markings on the Mounts will locate the cause of the delicacy as a type defect peculiar to the Mount on which the defect appears. If a dot be seen before the island on the Life line (213), an acute attack will be followed by a period of delicacy ; the nature of the acute trouble to be located from the rest of the hand. Sometimes you will encounter a double set of indications. An island will be seen in the Life line early in life, and some trouble may be shown in the Head line.
Later in the Life line another island may appear, and on the Heart line islands may be seen, or a wavy Mercury line, or defect on a Mount (214). This should be read as two periods of delicacy in the life, one early, and as the defect in the Head line also shows no. 211. early in that line, this will be the cause of the first island in the Life line. The second island shows a second period of delicacy, and the trouble in the Heart line will explain it. The number of islands seen in the Life line will indicate the number of periods of delicacy in the life of the subject, but each one may be caused by a different disease, and these can be found by following the method employed in 214. An island in the Life line, with an islanded line running to it from Saturn, and a second line from middle third of Moon, will locate gout or rheumatism as the cause of the delicacy (215). An island in the Life line with a grille on Saturn and line connecting it with the island, with dots or islands in the Head line under Saturn, fluted and brittle nails, will locate paralysis as the trouble (216). An island in the Life line, with a line connecting it with a red or purple dot on Jupiter, color of hand and lines red, and thin Head line, will show an apoplectic tendency to be the cause of the trouble.
This is more certain if a grille or cross be seen on Upper Mars (217). An island in Life line, grille on Saturn with line connecting, and wavy Mercury line will show extreme biliousness and indigestion as the trouble. Yellow color will confirm this, and bars frequently cutting the Head line or small islands appearing in it will show bilious headaches (218). In all of these cases the island in the Life line enables one to distinguish that the trouble is a defect of health, and not one affecting the finances or affairs of life.

No. 203.

No. 204.

No. 205.

No. 206.

No. 207.

No. 208.

No. 209.

No. 210.


No. 212.

No. 213.

No. 21 4

No. 215.

No. 216.

No. 217.

No. 218.
 
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