100 NATURAL HISTORY. 



many parts of their superfices. These parts cf ouv. 

 body cannot, therefore, give any just idea of their form; 

 but .those on the contrary, which, like the Rand, art- 

 divided into small flexible and moveable parts, and 

 which, consequently, can apply themselves at one and 

 tile same time, upon the different plains of the super- 

 flees of the bod}', are those, wliieh, Li e.ftect, give us 

 the ideas of their form, ar.d of iheir size. 



It is not, therefore, only because there is a greater 

 quantity of nervous tufts at the extremity of the fin- 

 gers than in any other part of the body. It is not, a* 

 it is vulgarly pretended, because the hand lias the 

 most delicate sense, that it is in effect the principal 

 organ of feeling. On the contrary, we can say that 

 there are parts more sensible, and where the sense of 

 feeling is more delicate, as the eyes, the tongue, &c. 

 But it is merely because the hand is divided into ma- 

 ny parts, all moveable, all flexible, alt acting at the 

 same time, and all obedient to the will ; it is, because 

 it is the only organ which gives us distinct ideas of 

 the form of bodies. Animals which have hands, ap- 

 pear to be the -most acute. Apes do things so like 

 the mechanical actions of man, that it seems as if 

 they had the same succession of corporeal sensation 

 for the cause of them. Animals, which are deprived of 

 this organ, as they cannot grasp any object, and as they 

 have not any part divided and flexible enough to be 

 able to adjust itself upon the superfices of bodies, they 

 certainly have not any precise notion of the form, or 

 of the size of them. It is for this reason that we of- 

 ten see them in suspense, or frightened at the aspect 

 of objects which are the most familiar to them. The 

 principal organ of their feeling is the muzzle, as this 

 part is divided in two by the mouth, and as the tongue 



