26 BIMANA. 



exclusively to man. The whole frame conforms to the hand, and 

 acts with reference to it." The human hand is not only power- 

 ful, but exquisitely susceptible of impressions, and possesses the 

 most delicate touch. Every finger, except the one called the 

 ring finger, is capable of independent movements, a power 

 possessed by no other mammal. The thumb is lengthened so as 

 to meet readily the tips of any of the fingers ; the fingers them- 

 selves, and especially the pulpy tip at their ends, are supplied 

 with a nervous tissue endowed with a discriminating sensibility 

 that is peculiar to man. 



" The difference in the length of the fingers serves a thousand 

 purposes, adapting the hand and fingers, as in holding a rod, a 

 switch, a sword, a hammer, a pen or pencil, engraving tool, etc., 

 in all which a secure hold and freedom of motion are admirably 

 combined. Nothing is more remarkable, as forming a part of 

 the prospective design to prepare 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 with which the hand grasps, as when a 

 sailor lays hold to raise his body to the rigging, would be too 

 great for the texture of mere tendons, nerves and vessels ; they 

 would be crusked were not every part that bears the pressure 

 defended with a cushion of fat as elastic as that we have des- 

 cribed 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 Diogenes."* 



The brain of man, in proportion to the residue of the human 

 system, surpasses in volume or extent that of every other mam- 

 mal, as is shown by the proportion which the cavities con- 

 taining the brain and face bear to each other. The size of the 

 brain is sometimes estimated by the facial angle,f which, in the 

 average of Europeans and their descendants on this continent, 

 is 80o ; but in the adult Chimpanzee is only 35o, and in the 

 Orang or Satyr is, .according to Professor Owen, 30o. 



The blood necessary for an organ so developed as the human 

 brain, is carried to it by arteries which do not subdivide as in 



* Sir C. Bell's Bridgewater Treatise on the Hand. 



" \ The facial angle is found by drawing a line from the most prominent 

 part of the forehead to that of the upper jaw bone, and observing the 

 angle which it "forms with another line through the external auditory canal 

 to the base of the nose, or, (the head being in a vertical position,) with a 

 horizontal line." 



