Elementary hands abound in the north of Europe. The individuals characterised by them are always superstitious; witness the Lappes, the Finns, and the Icelanders. By misfortune they are overwhelmed. In India, where they do not naturally exist, they have been artificially produced in a particular caste—the Parias—by political and social institutions. They have been abundant among every people at the dawning of their civilisation; they raised the pyramids in Egypt and the Cyclopean structures in Italy, and are described as existing in a rude state of society in the literature of various nations: witness the Polyphemus of the Greeks, the Melibœus of the Latins, the Caliban of Shakspeare, and the Sancho Panza of Cervantes. This form of hand can unquestionably be produced by premature hard labour, but it is found among the upper classes likewise, where manual labour cannot be supposed to have given rise to it. Physiologically it must be looked upon as an arrest of developement, its main bulk, like the member of the lower animals and of the human fœtus, being made up of the solid palm. It must hence be regarded as a primitive form of the member, as a rudimentary, and consequently an imperfect organ. Transitions from the elementary to other forms of hand are frequently met with. Thus, when the fingers become elongated and somewhat thinner, and the texture of the skin finer, the hand may be said to be intermediate between the elementary and sensitive type, while long, hard, bony fingers indicate an approach towards the motive type. And thus it is that intelligence is more readily to be attained by persons with elementary, than a fine sensibility by those furnished with a motive hand, or great energy in objective action by those provided with a sensitive. 2. _The Sensitive Hand_ (see Plate II.) is rather below than above the average size, palm soft and narrow, fingers thin and delicate, with the extremity plump, rounded, and cushiony, thumb thin and small, skin fine and very vascular, nails narrow and semi-transparent. This type of hand may be looked upon as essentially feminine. It denotes a highly-sensitive frame, and a delicately-organised nervous system. The nervous ramifications distributed to the surface of the body being covered only by a thin layer of cuticle or scarf-skin, are easily excited by impressions from without, and as readily transmit their excitement to the central organs, thus occasioning a prompt and vivid flow of ideas. [Illustration: Plate 2. The Sensitive Hand]