CHIROMANCY, ki'ro-rnan'si (from Gk. xelp, chcir, hand i.Lavrcia, divination), or PALMISTRY. The art of divination through the study of the palm of the hand. The inter pretative science of the band in general is termed chirosophy. It is divided into two branches—ehirognomy, which is concerned with studying man's tendencies through the form of the band and the fingers, and ebiromaney. which pretends to foretell by inspecting the lines of the palm. Chiromancy is an ancient art which was known among the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Egyptians, and Hebrews, and was cultivated by the philosophers Plato, Aristotle. Antioehus, Ptolemy, and others. Aristotle found on an altar dedicated to Apollo a treatise on ehiro maney, written in letters of gold, and presented it to Alexander the Great as a gift worthy of his lofty mind. References to the subject are in Aristotle's Hist. ,Inimalium (i. 15), and in the Problemata and Physiognomiea, doubt fully assigned to him. A reference in Juvenal (Sat. vi. 581) is evidence that the art was practiced among the Romans. That ehiromaney was prac ticed and accepted seriously in the Middle Ages we know from frequent references to it in writ ings of that period. Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, and Cardanus seem to have been greatly inter ested in the subject. Later it became involved in jugglery, until in the Nineteenth Century it again received a certain amount of serious eon sideration, largely owing to the work of two Frenchmen—Adrien Adolphe Desbarrolles (1801 76) and Casimir Stanislas d'Arpentigny (born 179S), an officer in the French Army.
Palmistry treats mainly of the mounts of the hand, with the lines on them and the lines in terlacing the palm. The left hand is usually the one studied, since it is less affected by There are seven mounts—that at the base of the first finger is the mount of Jupiter; the middle finger, the mount of Saturn; the ring finger, the mount of Apollo; the little linger the mount of Mercury; beneath Mercury the mount of Mars; at the wrist, the mount of the Moon; and at the thumb, the mount of Venus. More important even than the mounts
are the four great lines—the line of life, of the head, of the heart, and of fortune. The three first named suggest the letter Al, and represent the trinity of human existence—sensation, in telligenee, and action. The line of life, which follows the mount of Venus and meets the line of the head, determines the length of life, possi bility of illness. etc. The line of the head, which crosses the palm obliquely from Jupiter to Mars, indicates the intellectual quality. The line of the heart, which crosses the hand horizontally from Jupiter to Mercury, indicates worth of character; the nearer the line approaches Jupi ter the better the character. The line of fortune, which cuts the hand vertically, if clear and straight foretells a prosperous life. Other lines of special interest are the Venus line. the line of the liver, and line of Apollo. In general, the lines indicate the strength or weakness of ten dencies, according to their length and clearness.
Each mount indicates a certain quality; an absence of the mount, an absence of the quality. Jupiter normally developed indicates love of honor and a happy disposition; Saturn, pru dence and wisdom, and therefore success: a love of the beautiful and noble aspirations; Mercury, a love of science, industry, and com merce; Mars, courage and resolution; the Moon, a dreamy disposition and morality; Venus. a taste for beauty and a loving temperament. Be side the mounts and the lines are squares, stars, circles, points, triangles, crosses, rings, branches, chains, forks. islands, etc., which corroborate or modify according to their situation the indica tions deduced from the inspection of the mounts, the lines, and the form of the hand and the nails.