10 
lower phalange, it becomes the index of a high destiny remarkable 
for good or evil. When it is broken it indicates uncertainty in 
attaming success. ‘The line of Apollo, or the sun, if distinctly 
defined, signifies a desire for celebrity and love of the arts. The 
hepatic or liver line ought to interest us if there were any truth in 
chiromancy, for we are told if it is well defined and ofa good colour, 
it indicates sound health, harmony of the fluids (whatever that 
may be), rich blood, excellent memory, a good conscience, and 
success in business. If undulating and tortuous, it is indicative of 
liver derangements and doubtful honesty, which two I can quite 
conceive might well go together. Cross lines generally indicate 
defects. Thus on the mound of Jupiter, they signify superstition, 
pride, egotism ; on Mercury, a tendency to pugnacity and violence; 
on the moon, to sadness, discontent, and morbid imagination; all 
which qualities are plainly traceable to the supposed attributes of 
the heathen deities after whom they are named. Transverse lines 
always indicate obstruction; the most perfect line is spoilt by 
another running across it. I might go onall night if I enumerated 
the different significations of all the lines, crosses, mounds, &c., of 
the hands, and the qualities to be deduced from their smoothness, 
colour, prominence, and various other appearances—enough, if I 
have pointed out to you the few grains of wheat in all this bushel of 
chaff, and showed there is something to be learnt, some truth to be 
gleaned, even from the mysticisms and absurdities of chiromancy. 
Novemsper 131TH, 1883. 
The second ordinary meeting was held on November 13th, at 
the Town Hall. The following paper was read by Dr. Tyson, on 
PAIN. 
Pain, perhaps many of you have thought, is hardly a fit subject 
to bring before the members of the Natural History Society, and to 
you who have considered it from only a moral point of view, I 
admit that it is not, and I think would be better treated in a ser- 
mon; but pain has a very important physical bearing—known to 
most of you unhappily—and it is to this part of my subject I shall 
mainly speak this evening. What is pain? In the first place, 
pain of whatever kind has its seat in the brain, and without the 
latter there is no such thing as pain. For instance, if certain 
