The psychonomy of the hand, or, The hand an index of mental development according to Mm. d'Arpentigny and Desbarrolles, with illustrative tracings from living hands / by Richard Beamish.

  • Richard Beamish
Date:
[1865]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The psychonomy of the hand, or, The hand an index of mental development according to Mm. d'Arpentigny and Desbarrolles, with illustrative tracings from living hands / by Richard Beamish. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    grown person. In a child from twelve to fourteen months old they presented the ap- pearance of those in the heel of an adult. “I have counted,” says Meissner, “on the first phalange of the volar surface of the forefinger of a full-grown man, one hundred and eight corpuscles of touch and about four hundred papillae in a square line. On the middle portion of the second phalange, forty corpuscles, and on the last phalange, fifteen; but in the skin over the metacarpal bone of the little finger, eight only.” With regard to the foot, Meissner found on the planter surface of the first phalange of the great toe thirty-four corpuscles; on the middle of the sole (planta pedis) from seven to eight only. The accuracy with which the blind acquire the art of reading from raised characters, and in some cases of appreciating colour, shows the wonderful perfection to which this sense may be brought. Nor is this all; it appears to be endowed with the power of con- veying to highly sensitive organisms the physical condition of the individual. M. Collenge, according to M. Desbarrolles, is thus gifted. By placing a finger of any person in his ear, he can determine the sex, age, and temperament; the state of health or disease; whether suffering is of a passing or of a serious character; if death be near, or whether it be apparent or real. The first effect of the application of the finger seems to be to produce a buzzing sound in the ear; then perfectly distinct, but irregular, crepitations (petilements et gresillements). Other parts of the body are said to produce the buzzing sound, but the crepitations are obtained from the tips of the fingers and ball of the great toe only. If the individual be dead, neither of these phenomena occur. Amongst all the lower animals examined by Meissner, the true corpuscles of touch were found only in the papillae of the hands and feet of the monkey. “ They are smaller than those of man,” he says, “ in proportion to the size of the animal, and about equal to those of a child of fourteen months old.” This marked difference in the development of the corpuscles of touch between man and the lower animals, entirely coincides with the difference which has been found to characterize the brains also of man and apes. “ The most capacious gorilla skull yet measured,” says Mr. Huxley,(1) “ has a content of not more than thirty-four and a half cubic inches, whereas that of a child four years old has from sixty-one to seventy-seven cubic inches ; so that it may be safely said that an average European child of four years old has a brain twice as large as that of an adult gorilla but when the brain of the gorilla is compared with that of a fully developed man, the difference is wide indeed. This will be seen by reference to a table given by Dr. Morton in his valuable work, “ Crania Americana.”(2) (i) “ Evidence of Man's Place in Nature.” Number of Skulls. Mean Internal Capacity, Cub. Inch. Largest. Smallest. 1. Caucasian 02 87 109 75 2. Mongolian 10 83 93 69 3. Malay 18 81 89 64 4. American 147 80 100 60 5. Ethiopia l 29 78 94 65 B 2
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