CHAPTER XIII
ADVICE TO THE STUDENT. THE BEST MEANS TO MAKE CASTS OR TAKE IMPRESSIONS OF THE HANDS
students of this subject must make casts of hands in plaster of Paris, wax, or any other suitable material, in order to make a library or collection, both for their own private study, and also as a valuable record of their work.
Before you read any hands professionally, you had some thousands of casts, impressions on paper, and photographs of hands in your possession, and you then only you will be able to derived the most valuable aid from being able to analyse and study their shapes and markings at your leisure..
The best means of taking these impressions is to obtain a small gelatine roller used by printers for fine work, such as die stamping, a tube of printer's ink, and a small sheet of glass to roll the ink out until it covers the surface of the roller in an even way.
The roller may then be passed over the surface of the palm, the hand pressed firmly down on a smooth sheet of white paper, and with a little practice, most excellent impressions can easily be obtained.
When the impression is dry it can be dated, numbered, and placed in an album for reference.
In order to remove the black ink from the hand, powdered washing soap, well brushed into the hand with a nail brush, and a little hot water is all that will be found necessary.
These impressions taken with printer's ink are far better than those taken by smoking a sheet of paper by camphor, or by a candle, or any other means.
The best time for examining hands is during the day, first because the light is better and, above all, because the circulation of the blood does not redden the entire palm as it does at night, and the finer lines can consequently easily be detected.
As it is described earlier , the right and left hands should be examined together to note what difference there may be in the shape and position of the lines, but the markings on the right hand are the only ones to be relied on.
Lastly, do not be for ever on the lookout for faults and failings in the subject whose hands you may be examining, remember no one is perfect, and that faults and failings may in the end be as stepping stones "by which we rise from our dead selves to higher things."
