Also called: The active hand · The nervous-active hand · D'Arpentigny type 3

Where on the hand: Recognised from the fingertips and the palm's outline: tips spread out at the ends like a chemist's spatula, on a broad palm.

What it looks like: The whole hand broad, knife-like in profile, flat and firm; a large thumb; sensitive, well-developed fingertips. The palm is broad either at the wrist or at the finger bases, giving two sub-varieties.

The hand of action, movement and originality — the explorer, engineer, inventor, pioneer, athlete and surgeon. Restless, independent, impatient of restraint, and drawn to the outdoors, the sea, machinery and discovery.

Western reading: The third of D'Arpentigny's seven types; its two sub-varieties are distinguished by whether the palm broadens at the wrist or at the fingers.