M A M M A L I A. 



14:3 



notion upon its centre, acts more efficiently in direct- 

 ng the finders than it'it had as many joints as they, 

 Because when their extremities meet with the thumb 

 it its greatest extent, any of the fingers is bent to a 

 -ight angle at the second joint from the extremity, or 

 his degree of bending is parted among the different 

 oints. 



If the chimpansee were to bring its fingers with 

 heir tips in contact with the thumb, they would be 

 ?o much more bent than they are in the human hand, 

 UK! the thumb is in itself so short, that scarcely any 

 motion could be given to the point of contact between 

 .lie thumb and fingers, by action of the parts distant 

 from the metacarpal joints. When, therefore, the chim- 

 ;mnsee (and the case applies more to any other ape) 

 iiolds a small object between the tips of its fingers 

 ind that of the thumb, all the motion which it can 

 live to that object must be produced by the joints of 

 he wrist, the elbow, and the shoulder. In human 

 abour, especially in the nicer operations, much of the 

 work is done, with all above the wrist, and not a little 

 if it with the wrist itself, in a state of perfect repose, 

 mlcss when the entire hand requires to be shifted 

 from one place to another. Such a hand, therefore, 

 -an work a long time at the more nice and delicate 

 iperations which are confined to moving the joints of 

 he hand itself, without in the least fatiguing the arm 

 ir any other part of the body. In like manner, if a 

 ittle more range in space be required, and the wrist 

 je in consequence put in requisition, all the motions 

 nav still be performed without in the least disturbing 

 he elbow joint, or fatiguing any of the muscles which 

 ire inserted upon the hnmerus. So also, if a more 

 extended range in working calls the elbow joint into 

 ilay, that may be put in motion without in the least 

 listurbing the shoulder, or disturbing the scapular and 

 lectoral muscles ; and if it becomes necessary to call 

 ,he shoulder joint into requisition, that may be done 

 .vhile the body generally is in a state of perfect repose. 

 This may be reversed : the shoulder may be moved, 

 ind so may the elbow, the wrist, and all the other 

 oints to the last phalanges of the fingers, without in 

 he least moving any of the joints which are more 

 iistant, or fatiguing the muscles which produce the 

 notions of these joints. 



In the human subject, therefore.when properly formed 

 uid in a state of health, there is a perfectly distinct 

 ommand over every joint and part moved upon that 



j joint, so that whichever of them is required for any 

 ! purpose is always ready for that purpose, leaving the rest 

 | in a state of repose, though they are all ready to act 

 in concert, when the action required is so complicated 

 as to require their joint action. This is the true cha- 

 racter of a working hand, a hand destined to do some- 

 thing higher and more noble than the mere animal 

 functions of climbing, seizing food, breaking it if ne- 

 cessary, and carrying it to the mouth, and occasional 

 walking, to which the fore paw of the apes, even in 

 what is regarded as the most perfect of their species, 

 is necessarily confined. It is certain that the great 

 majority of mankind do not educate this hand in the 

 way that it ought to be educated, and perhaps there 

 are none who do so properly, and yet there is an 

 inexhaustible fund of ingenuity in it ; and, excepting 

 where it is limited by physical resistance, or by dis- 

 tance too great for its reach, it would be a bold 

 assertion to state one thing which it might not be 

 made capable of doing. We find that even the rudest 

 people soon begin the education of the hand ; and 

 the weapons of the houseless savages of the Australian 

 bush, and also their fishing hooks and basket work, 

 would perfectly astonish those of our rustics who are 

 confined to the mattock and the spade, and such 

 other heavy instruments as require the exertion of 

 the whole body rather than that of the hand. 



When we speak of " educating 1 " the hand, we 

 speak of man as being endowed with mind and capa- 

 ble of general education, both as respects knowing 

 and as respects doing. There is something beauti- 

 fully poetical in the two simple words, in which in the 

 Systema Naturae,' the illustrious Linnaeus draws the 

 discriminating character of man : " Knowing himself," 

 says the Swedish naturalist, and he says no more ; 

 but in this single touch the picture is perfect, for, of 

 all the varied living creatures which people the earth, 

 this can be predicated of man alone. 



If the other animals knew themselves, that is if 

 they were acquainted, or could make themselves ac- 

 quainted, with the structures of their own organs, the 

 modes of action in those organs, and the principles 

 upon which they act, they would be certain to im- 

 prove themselves by education ; but the fact of their 

 never rising above the original instinct, in the indi- 

 vidual or in successive generations, is a proof that 

 they have no such power. The instruction which 

 some of them are capable of receiving, by care on 

 the part of man, is no evidence of the slightest ap- 

 proximation to self-educating on the part of them- 

 selves ; and the best trained horse and dog, which 

 are favourites with their masters, and to a certain 

 extent treasures to them, remain just as ignorant of 

 their own structure and their own capabilities as the 

 wild ass in the desert, and the dingo in the Australian 

 junarles. 



Now, notwithstanding all the fancied similarity 

 to man in the structure of their bodies, and the simi- 

 larity in the internal parts is as great as in the exter- 

 nal, if not greater, there is not half as much suscepti- 

 bility of imposed education in any of them as there 

 is in the dog or the horse, or even in the seal. By 

 nature they are gregarious animals, living more or 

 less in troops ; and the gregarious instinct is just as 

 constant to the animal as any other instinct. Such 

 animals follow each other, both in change of place 

 and in action ; and when they are separated from 

 their kind, brought into a domestic state, and familiar- 

 ised to the sight of other animals or of man, they 



