THE NAILS

THE NAILS

If pink on the outer edge—
Short fits of anger, never malicious.
Ridges on the nail of a certain finger—Held by Escaroles to indicate a stronger devotion and aptitude of the subject to the particular art or profession which that finger represents more specially.

Cross ridges—Dr. Bain, a famous physician, states that in his experience the presence of a deep cross ridge on a nail announces a coming disease which will -manifest it self by other symptoms before the nail has grown so that the ridge gets to the edge of the nail 1. The nature of the disease can be judged by the finger upon which this nail is found. The thumb nail is particularly interesting in this connection. As it takes six months for a nail to be entirely renewed it is easy to estimate in how long a time the illness will due.

Not only the modem physician, but the most ancient in the art, believed that the shape, color, etc., of the nails denoted certain diseases. Hippocrates (460-3 5 7 B.C.) wrote that the Nail of the first finger much bent inward indicates scrofula and consumption; and to this day this diagnosis is accepted as correct.