THE HAND WRIST-JOINT. 45 



body. Concte, Luxembourg, Pope, and other illustrious and 

 celebrated men, were victims of rickets. They had long and 

 knotty hands, one of the most constant signs of this malady. 

 If men of inferior intelligence often have thick and inflexible 

 hands, it is because they are often born under conditions which 

 impose rough work upon them. They receive as a heritage, 

 with the toil of their fathers, this clumsiness of form, which is 

 the consequence of this toil. The hand of the man who is 

 not forced by his position to manual labour is always finer 

 and more delicate than that of the workman, and he trans- 

 mits to his children this detail of conformation as well as the 

 general resemblance. The delicacy of the limbs, the prin- 

 cipal element of their elegance, is therefore a sign of race 

 rather than of intelligence, and belongs especially to the 

 oriental. The hand of a European cannot enter the guard 

 of an Indian sword or poniard. Shall we conclude from 

 that that the Anglo-Saxon or the Norman has less intelligence 

 than the Arab or the Hindoo? De Blainville relates that 

 Re'camier attached a certain importance to the form of the 

 hand, and was accustomed to examine those of his pupils 

 with this idea. "Mine," he adds, "were, like the others, sub- 

 mitted to the inspection of the master, and the result was not 

 unfavourable to me." Re'camier being present, confirmed 

 the statement of the former pupil of the Hotel-Dieu, now 

 become an eminent naturalist. But the hand of De Blain- 

 ville was neither fine nor elegant; it was a well-made, 

 vigorous, and muscular hand, like the body to which it 

 belonged; equally skilful, in fact, in holding a sword, a 

 pencil, or a scalpel. 



The wrist-joint, which unites the hand to the fore-arm, 

 resembles in its mechanism that of the shoulder. Eight 

 bones of different and very complicated forms constitute the 

 wrist or carpus. Three of these form the articulation with 

 the fore-arm, the others are united to the five bones of the 

 metacarpus^ the palm, or middle part of the hand, to which 

 the fingers are attached. These are composed of two pha- 

 langes in the thumb, three in the index, middle, ring, and 

 little fingers. The first three bones of the carpus are grouped 

 in such a manner as to present an ellipsoid surface on the 



