Psychosomatic Medicine 24:234-239 (1962)
© 1962 American Psychosomatic Society

Investigation of the Palmar Sweat Count of Young Male Subjects under Normal Conditions

¹ Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and the Army Occupational Research Group, London, England

The number of active sweat glands in 4 mm. sq. of the pad of the right middle finger was assessed daily under standardized conditions in 20 men, age 18 to 31, for a period of 7-28 days.

The indication appeared of two basically different groups, differentiated by the variance of their daily counts: a regular group with a low variance and an irregular group with a very high variance.

To support this finding a second similar investigation was undertaken later on 12 of the men, 6 from each group. Statistical confirmation of homogeneity for the regular sweating group was obtained, that for the irregular group, however, was not completely established as a result of an anomalous change of variance in one of the 6 subjects selected in the limited sample. Nevertheless, at this stage it seems reasonable to accept the division into two homogeneous consistent groups especially as the difference between the means for each was highly significant.

As palmar sweating is controlled by central autonomic activity and reflects emotional change it was suggested that the two groupings might be associated with other basic physiological and psychological properties.

Basic levels of the palmar sweat index were found to be significantly different between individuals but were found to alter unpredictably with the passage of time.