Too much is as bad as not enough, and often does more damage to the subject and to the world. It is an unreasoning force, which may be more harmful than a passive weakness.

The tips of the thumbs must be noted as carefully as those of the fingers, for different tips will increase or diminish strength. A conic tip to the thumb (76) makes the subject impressionable and weakens or softens the strength of the will. The conic qualities of impulse, love of beauty, and idealism take some of its strength away from even an excessive length of will phalanx. The subject will be less tyrannical, despotic, and more easily influenced if the tip of will be conic. All through the scale this conic tip will add its softening and reducing qualities to the various degrees of will shown by the length of the will phalanx. The conic tip on deficient will phalanges makes a subject hopelessly weak, shifting with every change of the wind, and instability becomes the leading characteristic. The conic-tipped thumb is the impressionable person, with will power modified and reduced by the qualities of the conic tip. Whatever the length of the phalanx, when making your estimate take something off For the conic tip.

No. 76. CONIC TIP TO THUMB.

The square tip (77) is the practical, common-sense tip. It is the one which adds strength, when found on the deficient will phalanges, adds common-sense to the normal development, and makes the excessive length more pronounced in its operation. In the latter case it is almost as bad as the spatulate tip, for an excessive length of will phalanx with a square tip makes the subject fanatical in his obstinacy.

No. 77. SQUARE TIP TO THUMB.

The spatulate tip (78.) adds all the spatulate qualities to the thumb. It adds action, independence, and originality, and its operation will give a commanding turn to the will. The apatulate tip adds great strength to a deficient will phalanx, gives originality and action to a normal, and fire, action, and ingenuity to an excessive, length. It is a benefit to the weak, and adds to the excess of the strong, both in its active operation and the originality which finds new ways to expend force. Willi the excess in length of will phalanx, the spatulate tip is a positive menace, and always endangers the success of the subject. These three tips all have reference to the shape of the tip, and follow the same formations as the tips of the fingers. We must consider several other shapes of the will phalanx which are often seen and yet which cannot be classed as belonging strictly to any of the above classes.

No. 78. SPATULATE TIP TO THUMB.

Many thumbs will be found with the will phalanx broad as viewed from the nail side, but not thick through. This is not the flat, nervous phalanx, for it is not thin enough, yet it is not as thick as is the clubbed thumb. It is the extreme breadth, often called " paddle-shaped," that is its distinctive feature (79), and this breadth belongs to a long phalanx, giving both length and breadth but not thickness. This shows an exceedingly firm detemiination, which in excessive developments, degenerates into absolute tyranny and obstinacy. It is always a strong phalanx and must be read so. Even if the length should be somewhat deficient, this " paddle-shaped "phalanx will make it strong. This strength of will is not usually backed by robust health, but is much oftener found with weak physical constitutions. It is an indication of strong mental will, which goes boldly through a trying emergency and then collapses after the strain is over.

No. 79. PADDLE-SHAPED THUMB.

No. 80. CLUBBED THUMB (CALLED THE MURDERER'S THUMB).

The father of this subject was a sailor. In a fit of drunken rage he attacked a companion, beating him into insensibility. He fled thinking he had killed him, ran home and recited the scene of the fight to his wife, continuing the recital at intervals through the night. In nine months a child was born marked with a clubbed thumb, a deep crimson band surrounding it. That child is the subject of this illustration.

Occasionally a thumb is found with the will phalanx thick and rounded, or broad and thick, with a nail short and very coarse in texture. This is not the consumptive formation of nail and tip, but is found on the hands of healthy persons. Owing to its peculiar club-like formation, it has been called the Clubbed thumb (80), and owing to the thickness, coarseness, and brutal obstinacy shown, has been designated the "murderer's thumb." This clubbed thumb shows terrific obstinacy, and on a bad hand, a common grade of it; which produces a coarse degree of a good quality and is coupled with a violent temper. Whether these coarse and disagreeable qualities have been, or ever will be, brought out is another question. If they have not, if the environments are good, a clubbed thumb will never display its rough and brutal side. We may not, however, ignore the fact that a mine lies underneath, and it will only take a match properly applied to explode it. These clubbed thumbs are largely hereditary, and their presence, on any hand, can be traced back to some parental influence. I have seen cases where they have gone from generation to generation, and yet have never produced harmful results. They are dangerous companions, however, and not to be trifled with at any time.

The fact that they are called "murderer's thumbs," should, by no means, lead you to conclude that the owner either has or necessarily will commit murder. They are, as a matter of fact, found on very mild-mannered people, in which case their presence is due to something occurring at conception, or during the gestation of the subject. But put one of these clubbed thumbs on a hand developed all at the base, with a big Mount of Venus, hard consistency, no flexibility, short fingers very thick in third phalanges, and very short in first phalanges, with short nails, and the lines in the hand deep-cut and red, and the first impulse of the subject, on being crossed, is to beat your brains out. Many murderers have had clubbed thumbs; they have also had bestial hands like the one just described. Their brutal instincts being strong, jealousy most often has led them to fits of violent rage, and the terrible qualities of the clubbed thumb have given them passion and determination strong enough to take human life. In this case the clubbed thumb becomes the murderer's thumb.