Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — Growth of Finger Nails. [ARTICLE]

Growth of Finger Nails.

A prominent uptown manicure wh» has devoted many years to the study of the subject states as the result of hi* observations that the finger nails of the human species grow more rapidly in children than in adults, and That the growth is slowest with the aged. His observations, however, do not stop at thia, for he finds that both in childhood and age they grow faster in summer than in winter, in one instance a nail that required 132 days to renew in winter renewed Jn summer in exactly 116 days. During both seasons the patient upon whom this experiment waa made enjoyed normal health. The method of testing this growth was in each instance the same. The nail was pared close and slightly notched at the quick. Both the right and the left hand were studied, with the result that he affirms that the growth of finger nails is more rapid on the right hand than on the left. As the person was right-handed it is presumed that the contrary is true of left-handed individuals. One peculiarity of the growth of finger nails injiddition to those stated is that the period of renewal differs proportionately with the length of the fingers. Thus it is more rapid in the middle fingers than any other. In the fingers on either side the middle finger the period of renewal is about equal and slower. It is even more slow in the little finger, and slowest of all in the thumb. Comparing the same fingers of the different hands, the person who discovered these curious phases of growth states that on an average the nails on the left hand fingers of a right-handed person require eighty-two days longer to renew than those of the left hand. In one particular the growth of the nails and hair and beard are governed by the same law, that of growing more rapidly in summer than in winter. —[New York Herald. .