Sept. 20, 1877] 



NATURE 



445 



The following instances of this " carattere oscillante " 

 (schwankender character, Ecker) of the human hand 

 are taken from what the professor terms " our feminine 

 Olympus " : — 



1. A pretty Piedmontese girl, with the most lovely 

 hands. In both the index longest. 



2. A Jewess of Modena, very lovely, and with beautiful 

 hands. Index much shorter than "ring" finger on both 

 sides. 



3. A handsome lady of Imola, with pretty hands. 

 The index a httle shorter than the "ring" finger. 



4. A Tuscan lady with a most lovely Jiand. Index the 

 longest of the two digits in question. 



5. A lady of Rimini, with a lovely and very small hand. 

 Index longer on both right and left sides. 



6. A Neapolitan lady with a wonderful face and figure, 

 and with handsome but large hands. Index shorter than 

 the "ring " finger on both sides. 



7. A Ferrarese lady, pretty, and with a hand of rare 

 beauty. Index the shortest in each hand. 



S. The prettiest lady in Meldola, with lovely hands. 

 Index the longer on both sides. 



9. A lady with the most lovely face and figure and with 

 beautiful hands. Index the shortest in both hands. 



10. A Jewess of Livorna, handsome, and with the most 

 lovely hands. The right index the longer, the left the 

 shorter. 



11. A lady of Cremona, with a wonderful face and 

 figure, and with large but beautiful hands. Index longest 

 on both sides. 



12. A Venetian lady, very beautiful, and with " divine " 

 hands. Index slightly longer on both sides. 



Prof. Mantegazza considers that his observations 

 partly confirm and in part check the conclusions of his 

 German colleague. To the examples taken by Prof. 

 Ecker from the domain of art, the former adds the follow- 

 ing interesting passage from Prof. Casanova (" Memoires 

 de Casanova," tome vi., p. 252 ; Bruxelles, 1S71), relative 

 to an argument between this author and the celebrated 

 painter Kafaele Mengs, on the subject of the two digits in 

 question : — 



" I remember' that one day I took the liberty, in the 

 course of viewing his pictures, of calling his attention to 

 the fact that the hand of a certain figure seemed out of 

 drawing. In fact the fourth finger was shorter than the 

 second. 



" ' A pretty observation,' he replied ; ' look at my hand,' 

 and he held it out, 



"'See mine,' I answered, 'I am convinced it does not 

 differ from that of other sons of Adam. 



" ' From whom, then, would you have me descend 'i ' he 

 replied. 



" ' Ma foi ! ' I said, after examining his right hand, ' I 

 do r.ot know to what species to refer you, but you certainly 

 don't belong to mine.' 



" ' Then your species is not a human one, for the form 

 of the hand ol man and woman is just like that.' 



" ' I bet you a hundred pistoles that you are mistaken,' 

 said I. 



" Furious at my contradiction, he throws aside pn'ette 



and brush, rings for his servants, and makes them all 

 show their hands. His rage was great when he dis- 

 covered that in all of them the ring finger was longer 

 than the index. Feeling however, the absurdity of his 

 conduct, he ended the scene by the following mo/ : — 



" ' I am delighted, at any rate to be, to a certain point, 

 unique of my kind.'" 



Sig. Paolo Lioy — evidently a trustworthy observer — 

 having been asked by Prof Mamegazza to direct his 

 attention to the subject in question, returned the following 

 answer: — "I have examined about two hundred indi- 

 viduals but it is remarkable that only in fitc tnan and in 

 the /(•// Iiand have I seen the index longer than the 

 ring finger. In all the rest, and in both sexes, the ring 

 finger is always the longest, and, with the exception of 

 nine persons, in whom it is but a little longer, it is gene- 

 rally much so ; in this, too, in hands fairly beautiful— 'in 

 manine assai belle.' It is, therefore, remarkable that, as 

 far as I have been able to see, painters and sculptors give 

 the in3ex the greater length. This I have noticed in all 

 the designs of Canova, the most painstaking and purest 

 idealiser of beauty ; as I have been able to verify in cer- 

 tain figures of Titian and Ary Scheffer." Sig. Lioy, thus 

 confirms, as Prof Mantegazza remarks, the observations 

 of Dr. Ecker. 



With regard to the transmission from parent to offspring 

 of the peculiarity of the hand which forms the subject 

 of this article. Prof. Mantegazza states that in many 

 cases he has been enabled to verify the heredity of 

 these characters in certain families in which the father 

 and mother differed as to the relative lengths of the two 

 fingers in question ; the children exhibitmg the digital 

 proportions of that parent to which they bore the greatest 

 resemblance. 



This interesting paper concludes with the following 

 remarks : — " If, however, I have been mistaken in the 

 interpretation of the asthetic value of the Eckerlan cha- 

 racter (' del carattere eckeriano '), it would be difficult 

 to find a judge more impartial than myself, in that 

 nature has given me a left hand with an index almost 

 as long as the ring finger, and a right hand with the 

 index shorter than the ring digit. But if artists wish to 

 deduce a practical lesson from this very brief dissertation, 

 I would advise them to give to the more perfect creations 

 of their tool or pencil an index somewhat longer than 

 the ring finger, without, however, wishing to deny to 

 human nature the liberty of making very beautiful hands 

 with a ' ring,' finger longer than the index." 



J. C. Galton 



NOTES 



FlLiPPO Parlatore, Director of the Museo di Fisica e 

 Storia Naturali, at Florence, and of the Botanic Gardens, died 

 suddenly, of a fit, on Sunday, September 9. He elaborated the 

 Gnetaceje and Coniferae, for the sixteenth volume of De Can- 

 doUe's " Prodromus," and was author of a partly completed work 

 on the Italian flora. 



We regret to announce the death of Prof. Jacob Nriggerath, 

 lecturer on Mineralogy at Bonn University, who died at the 

 advanced age of 90 years, on Thursday last the 13th instant. 



Sir Joseph Hooker and Prof. Asa Gray, who, as our 

 readers know, are accompanying Dr. Hayden on a scientific tour 

 in Western America, had, the American Naturalist states, col- 

 lected, previous to August I, nearly 400 species of rare plants, 

 being thus enabled to study critically in their native habitats the 

 species they had during past years described from dried speci- 

 mens brought in by expeditions. Both Sir J. Hooker and Prof. 

 Gray will prepare reports on the botany of the West for the 

 F.leventh Report of Hayden's Survey. 



