CHAPTER XIX.
FLEXURES OF THE PALM AND SOLE.
Those flexures of the palmar and plantar skin which are called by Galton chiromantic creases, and said by him to be no more significant to others than palmists than the creases of old clothes, have received a remarkable amount of pseudo-scientific attention since earliest times in Chinese and Greek history. The former even added podoscopy to their chiromancy. The line of life, the line of the head, the line of the heart, the line of fortune and that of the liver, figure freely in fortune-telling of modern drawing-rooms by women who ought to be in Holloway gaol, but are not. The gipsies, their predecessors and equally honest teachers, did not employ such high-sounding words, but I believe that by observing closely the bearing, looks, dress and manner of their dupes, while pretending to study their palms, both classes of practitioners, like phrenologists, are able to tell a good deal of what their customers are, and being shrewd persons they are able to guess pretty well what they will be and will do.
I agree with Galton that these creases of hand and foot are no more significant than those of an old coat-sleeve, a pair of trousers, or boots; but they are not less significant of certain muscular habits of the wearers of those articles.[65]
The flexures in question are in line with the subjects of the two preceding chapters, and require little more description in detail than is afforded by the accompanying illustration of mammalian hands and feet.
Description of Flexures.
There are two classes which may be conveniently called here Primary and Secondary, the latter being too variable and accidental for further notice. The former lie in three main directions and are longitudinal, oblique or transverse. They represent in graphic characters the nature and degree of the functions exercised by muscles moving the joints which underlie them, and are often called “flexion-lines.” They are “folds so disposed that the thick skin shall be capable of bending in grasping while it at the same time requires to be tightly bound down to the skeleton of the hands and feet, so as to prevent slipping of the skin which would necessarily lead to insecurity of prehension, just as the quilting and buttoning down of the covers of furniture by upholsterers keeps them from slipping. For this purpose the skin is tied by fibres of white fibrillar tissue to the deep layer of the dermis along the lateral and lower edges of the palmar fascia and to the sheaths of the flexor tendons. The folds, therefore, which are disposed for the purpose of making the grasp secure, vary with the relative lengths of the metacarpal bones, with the mutual relations of the sheaths of the tendons and the edge of the palmar and plantar fascia. . . . The sulci are emphasised because the subcutaneous fat, which is copious in order to pad the skin for the purpose of holding, being restricted to the interval between the lines along which the skin is tied down, makes these intervals project, and these are the monteculi.”[66]
This account of them from a leading anatomist shows that not for nothing have these creases been evolved. They are inherited, have an important function and are worthy of study in their humble way: they may be even dignified with the name “character.”
They are often double over the joints of the fingers and toes, but, from the functional point of view and for simplicity, may be reckoned as single.