226 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 



first rank of bones ; in consequence of which, the mid- 

 dle joint is carried a proportionate distance from the 

 palm, so that in doubling each point cornes to the same 

 line. 



This difference in the length of the fingers, though 

 we are seldom aware of it, serves to adapt the hand to 

 a great variety of uses, which would have been awk- 

 wardly performed had they all been of the same length. 

 In writing, for instance, did the little finger project an 

 inch and a half beyond its present place, how awkward- 

 ly should we perform. In grasping any small article 

 with the whole hand, a similar awkwardness and diffi- 

 culty would be experienced. 



" Nothing," says Sir Charles Bell, " is more remarka- 

 ble, as forming a part of the prospective design to pre- 

 pare an instrument fitted for the various uses of the 

 human hand, than the manner in which the delicate and 

 moving apparatus of the palm and fingers is guarded. 

 The power w 7 ith which the hand grasps, as when a sai- 

 lor lays hold to raise his body in the riging, would be 

 too great for the texture of mere tendons, nerves, and 

 vessels ; they would be crushed, were not every part 

 that bears the pressure, defended with a cushion of fat, 

 as elastic as that which we have described in the foot 

 of the horse and camel. To add to this purely passive 

 defence, there is a muscle which runs across the palm, 

 and more especially supports the cushion on its inner 

 edge. It is this muscle which, raising the edge of the 

 palm, adapts it to lave water, forming the cup of Dioge- 

 nes." Thus does anatomy prove that the human hand 

 was designed for laborious employments. 



Says Ray, " Some animals have horns, some have 

 hoofs, some teeth, some talons, some claws, some spurs 

 and beaks ; man hath none of all these, but is weak 

 and feeble, and sent unarmed into the world but a 

 hand with reason to use it, supplies the place of all 

 these." 



Thus we see that the " lord of the creation," through 



What is said of the different lengths of the fingers in making the hand 

 & perfect instrument 1 What prevents the nerves and tendons from in- 

 jury when we grasp firm a hard body, as when a sailor climbs a rop 7 



