SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 39 



dyspepsia, sick headache, liver complaint, chronic bronchitis, paralysis 

 and many other diseases have thus been cured. 



Conclusions. There can be no longer any reasonable doubt 

 that a subtle power exists somewhere within the human organism 

 by means of which sickness and contagions can be to a large extent 

 prevented and many diseases and ailments cured. Nor can it be denied 

 that in order to start this subtle power in operation extraordinary 

 means are usually required. The number of instances thus far care- 

 fully investigated seem to prove that the success of healing by faith, 

 of Christian Science, of hypnotic suggestion, of telepathy, of the 

 numerous isms like Dowieism, Teedism, Kneippism, etc., as well as the 

 special success of individual practitioners of the allopathic, homeo- 

 pathic and other schools of medicine, all depend upon one and 

 the same thing. And that is not primarily the medicine admin- 

 istered, not the application of the water or the oil, not the laying on of 

 hands, not the walking barefooted on the grass wet with dew or frost, 

 not the pilgrimages, none of these, though all have their places and 

 their influence, and hence may not be wholly condemned it is not 

 these that cause the cure but an intuitive power of the subconscious 

 mind which is called into action by these various and very different 

 media. Somehow in our present groping, materialistic condition some 

 'one of these various mediums seem to be necessary to enable the soul 

 to control the functions of the body. Abundant experiments have 

 proved that it is possible to accomplish the same thing by strong in- 

 telligent and continued efforts of the will. 



SCIENCE OF THE HAND. 



Once in every seven years, physicians tell us, the body is com- 

 pletely changed. This change of course goes on all the time. Par- 

 ticles are constantly being destroyed by friction or wear, by accident 

 or by decay and as rapidly new particles take their places. In seven 

 years all the body will have been thus changed and a similar body 

 will have taken its place similar except for the alterations caused by 

 the effect of the mind. Everybody knows how the lines of care creep 

 into the face, or how a morose and gloomy disposition soon shows 

 itself in the countenance. We notice the faces of our friends and as- 

 sociates and read there joy or distress, health or illness, quickly 

 enough. We might quite as readily read the same thing in the hand 

 if we were equally observant of it. The hand is being constantly used 

 to carry out the thoughts of the brain. Students of the hand soon 

 observed that certain characteristic lines and certain slight fleshy ris- 

 ings called mounts, were found in all hands and that these varied ac- 

 cording to the inherited condition of the person's body and his own 

 habits of thought. We say his thought instead of his acts because 

 thought always precedes acts. It was also observed that certain dis- 

 eases and certain lines in the hand always went together. Also that 

 abnormal tendencies, such as the tendency to destroy, or to commit 



