The firm-jointed thumb is then the outward sign of a more resisting nature, and the longer the first or nail phalange is, the stronger and more powerful the Will force.
These people seldom make friends so easily or rapidly as those belonging to the other type. On a railway journey they rarely begin a conversation with a fellow traveller, and if they have to do so it will generally be in the form of an argument that "the window must be left open or shut," as the case may be. Heaven help the other poor traveller if he should also happen to have a stiff thumb, and oppose his ideas to those of the first.
The supple-jointed class, on the contrary, enter readily into conversation with strangers, and they often make their greatest friends while travelling. They are affable, charming companions, and give in readily to the wishes of others. In fact, this quality inclines to a weakness that should be guarded against. Among all those men and women who take the "easiest way" a large majority will be found to have very supple-jointed thumbs. This, however, will be greatly qualified by the position and appearance of the Line of Head, the indicator of the developed mental Will.
To have a supple lower or middle joint does not relate to the Will but to the phalange of Logic of the possessor. When this second joint is found supple the subject adapts himself to circumstances rather than to persons. He reasons out that he must bend or adapt himself to the conditions or circumstances of the life in which he is placed.
The Clubbed Thumb ([Fig. 1], [Plate III].), is so called from its being thick like a club. People possessing this class of Thumb belong to the Elementary type as far as Will is concerned. They are brutal and like animals in their unreasonable obstinacy. If they are opposed they fly into ungovernable passions and blind rages. They have no control over themselves, and are liable to go to any extreme of violence or crime during one of their tempers. In fact the clubbed-shaped Thumb has also been designated "the murderer's thumb" on account of so many murderers having been found with this formation.
The possessor of a Clubbed Thumb could not, however, plan out or premeditate a crime, for he would not have the determined Will or power of reason to think it out.
The shorter the Thumb, the nearer the possessor is to the brute in passion and lack of self-control.
The "waist-like" Thumb ([Fig. 4], [Plate III].), and the "straight" formation ([Fig. 5]), must also be considered as the opposite of one another in their characteristics, but in this case the difference is in the quality of Logic or Reason. The former will not use or depend much on such things, he will rely, on the contrary, on tact and diplomacy to gain his point or win his way. The second class have little or no tact, but in all matters depend on argument and reason.