READING THE HAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14587, 25 January 1911, Page 10

READING THE HAND.

As. in the case of Dr. Joseph Bell, tho prototype of Sherlock Holmes, it is to an experienced doctor in the out-patient's department of a big London hospital that you must go to learn the trade-marks of the different occupations. A medical man recently said that a railway porter's left hand is always several sizes larger than tho right. The porter shuts hundreds of carriage doors in a hurry, and it is the left hand he uses, for 99 trains out of 100 leave the platform from right to left. As tho porter stands facing the train ho finds the left hand the natural hand for shutting with, and the constant turning of heavy handles overdevelops the loft at the expense of the other. A sailor is betrayed by his hands, though his gait may betray him. They are permanently half shut. Walking, talking, or sleeping, tho sailor has his hands half shut, and could not open them flat if he tried. This is the result of years of climbing and pulling ropes. And this second Sherlock Holmes assures us- he read 10 novels iujiis life! ,„_„._..