25 JUNE 1927, Page 26

Mrs. St. Hill's BOOK OF THE HAND (Rider and Co.,

15s.) is as she claims a complete grammar of palmistry. Those who believe that the past and future are written in the lines and " mounts " of the hand will find much to interest them here, but little that is new. The end of the book is far more original (it is no fault of the author's that the rest is not, for palmistry claims to be a science), for Mrs. St. Hill tells us, amongst other things, that modern babies hardly ever fold their hands as the infants of Victorian days were wont to do ; that she saw a star in the plain of Mars on the hand of a spider-monkey which met with a violent death : that there is more difference between the hand of a negro and a European than between that of an ape and a negro ; that the little organ monkey has the best thumb and the brightest intelligence of any member of his race •, and finally that the Zoo monkeys have marks of travel on their hands. There are more things in heaven and earth than are comprehended in our philosophy.