THE NERVOUS HAND. 163 



seen, and others with me, in hundreds of cases, 

 usually in nervous children, bad sleepers, those 

 convalescent from chorea, etc. The same posture 

 is sometimes seen in partial hemiplegia. The pos- 

 ture is often bilateral, but is usually unequally 

 represented on the two sides; it is also often seen 

 on one side only, especially in children convalescent 

 from hemichorea. 



Fig. 25. The Nervous Hand. 



Another posture of the hand less frequently seen 

 in pathological states, I described under the name 

 of the " energetic hand," and since so doing I have 

 found the posture figured by H. Meillet of Paris, 

 with the note " Main dite du pre'dicateur em- 

 phatique. La Salpetriere, service de M. Charcot, 

 salle Saint-Paul, No. 6, Ismeric Angot." It is there 

 figured as a permanent deformity resulting from 

 brain disease. Dr. Little also figures this posture 

 as due to spastic contraction. In this posture the 

 wrist is extended, and the small joints are all in 

 flexion. Here analysis shows the large joint, the 

 wrist, in extension, the opposite to the condition of 



