Nikola Tesla - "Four Hands that are Worth Study"

This is an article from 1896 that I found in the Newspaper Archives while researching Nikola Tesla. It's not exactly scientific, but it is interesting...and the best part is that a sketch artist carefully sketched Tesla's hand and the drawing was published in this article:

The World, New York, New York, page 19. Sunday, July 5, 1896.

FOUR HANDS THAT ARE WORTH STUDY.
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The student of palmistry may learn something from a study of the pictures of hands herewith presented.

The smallest one is that of the baby monkey born ten days ago in the Central Park Zoo. The largest is a sketch of the hand of Nikola Tesla. One of the other hands is that of Johanna, who was well known to visitors to the Central Park Zoo last winter, and the other belongs to a New York baby that first saw the light of day last Sunday. all of them are life size.

The baby monkey is a wee mite, and its hand is small and insignificant. Few monkeys are born in captivity, and those which do come into the families of the bandarlog folk who live in cages rarely survive the teething period. Perhaps this baby monkey will have better luck, and it may live to be admired and respected for years.
THE BABY MONKEY.The mother, Mrs. Cleopatra Max, does not seem to be the best nurse in the world. She adores the bit of monkey which she hugs to her bosom, but she has an inordinate curiosity about it, and, she examines it somewhat roughly at times, holding it up by the tail to get a good look at it. The baby will not be on exhibition for some time, as such an exhibition would diminish its chances of life, which are small enough at the best.

Perhaps an expert palmist might examine the lines in the hand and thus tell whether the infant is what an insurance expert would designate as a "good risk."
THE HAND OF JOHANNA.The hand of Johanna, the gorilla that was at the Central Park Zoo all last winter, is immense when compared with that of the baby monkey. Johanna's fingers are pointed, an indication of an artistic temperament. It will be remembered that this talented monkey drew some clever pictures last winter, some of which were printed in the Sunday World. The baby will never have a hand as long and as large as Johanna's, for the baby is a different kind of simian.

But the baby will have whiskers when

she grows up. Mamma Max has nice long whiskers on each side of her face. She does not seem to be particularly proud of them, and it is possible that she would patronize a facial expert and have the hairs removed with electricity if she knew of such vain things.

There is great strength in the tiny fingers of the baby monkey. Those fingers, no larger than straws, can support the weight of the body all day long. The little one hangs to its mother's breast with remarkable tenacity, clasping the clawlike fingers in the hair.

In their wild state it is necessary for the baby to cling on while the mother climbs trees or runs through brush to avoid an enemy, and being captive does not change that ability. Should Mrs. Max escape from her cage and run through the park at her best speed and climb to the topmost branches of the tallest tree, the baby would be found hanging to her when the race was over.
TESLA'S HAND AND A BABY'SNikola Tesla has a remarkable hand. It is large and strong. Action is expressed in every joint. The thumb is long, with large joints and a broad, well-formed nail. The lines in the hand are deep, well colored and full of meaning to the chiromancer.

Compare it with the hand of Baby Davis, of Caristadt, N. J., born last Sunday. It hardly seems possible that the two hands belong to the same species. While they are of the same general shape, there is a vast difference in the formation and in the size. And yet the baby boy will some time have a hand that will approximate the hand of Mr. Tesla in size, but it is doubtful if such a thumb will ever grow on the hand of the infant.

Mr. Tesla is proverbially modest, and he laughingly declined to allow a photograph to be made of his hand. The picture presented herewith was made from a sketch by an artist. The formation of the lines of the palm is interesting. The line of fate, which passes from the wrist down the palm, or the luck line, as it is sometimes called, is remarkably strong and clearly defined.

The line of life, which surrounds the base of the thumb, could not be better, and there is no reason why Mr. Tesla should not be making electrical experiments long after other men of his age have been gathered to their fathers.

But the remarkable feature of it is the thumb. Its length and breadth indicate logic, will, perseverance, reason--things which Mr. Tesla possesses to a notable degree.

If the baby monkey had a thumb which would rival the one on Mr. Tesla's hand, that baby monkey would be the brainiest ape that ever delighted children by eating peanuts. But no monkey ever had such a thumb, and few men can boast of one.