Physiognomy or face reading is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object, or terrain without reference to its implied characteristics—as in the physiognomy of an individual plant or of a plant community.
Lithographic drawing illustrative of the relation between the human physiognomy and that of the brute creation, by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690).
Illustration in a 19th-century book about physiognomy
Giambattista Della Porta, De humana physiognomonia (Vico Equense [Naples]: Apud Iosephum Cacchium, 1586
Johann Kaspar Lavater
Palmistry is the pseudoscientific practice of fortune-telling through the study of the palm. Also known as palm reading, chiromancy, chirology or cheirology, the practice is found all over the world, with numerous cultural variations. Those who practice palmistry are generally called palmists, hand readers, hand analysts, or chirologists.
A fortune-teller conducting a palm reading, with lines and mounts marked out on the person's left palm
Gold stamped front cover of The Psychonomy of the Hand
The Fortune Teller, by Caravaggio (1594–95; canvas; Louvre), depicting a palm reading
The Fortune Teller, by Enrique Simonet (1899), depicting a palm reading