Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 24, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1901 — Thumb Signals. [ARTICLE]

Thumb Signals.

Specialists in nerve diseases by an examination of the thumb can tell if the patient is affected or likely to be affected by paralysis, as the thumb signals this trouble long before it is in any other part of the body. If the danger symptoms are evidenced there an operation is performed on what is known as the “thumb center” of the brain, and the disorder is often removed. The success of the operation can be told, too. by the changed condition of the thumb. No matter how carefully the Individual may attempt to conceal incipient Insanity, the thumb will reveal it infallibly. It is the one sure test. If the patient in his daily work permits the thumb to stand at a right angle to the other fingers, or to fall listless into the' palm, taking no part ip his writing, his handling ,of things, his multiform duties, but standing isolated and sulky, it is an unanswerable confession of mental disease.