180 PHYSICAL EXPEESSION". 



in chorea. Some cases, which constantly present the 

 nervous hand when the individual is awake and 

 the limb is free, lose the posture during sleep. In 

 this state, if the forearm be gently held out by an 

 assistant, the hand falls into the posture of rest, 

 but on awaking the patient, the nervous posture 

 is resumed. 



VII. If there be general, equal, widespread stimula- 

 tion or weakness of portions of the nerve-mechanism 

 governing the postures of a limb, or part of the 

 body, the action of the stronger muscles prevails. 

 General weakness may be indicated by general 

 slight flexion, showing all the nerve-mechanism 

 paretic, and the stronger flexor muscles prevailing. 



VIII. Consider in the posture if any joint, or set 

 of joints, be in position analogous to that of any 

 other posture, and whether the significance of the 

 position of that joint be the same as in the posture 

 to which the analogy is made. 



If we study the analogies of the nervous hand, 

 it seems probable that the wrist flexion has an 

 indication similar to that in the hand in rest. In 

 each case the weakness of the nerve-mechanism 

 governing it is indicated. Now, as to the over- 

 extension of the knuckle-joints, do we see that 

 elsewhere ? In chorea, in the finger-twitching of 

 nervous children, in patients exhausted by fever 

 (subsultus tendinum), we often see extensor move- 

 ments of these joints. This seems to indicate such 

 action as a sign of weakness or irritability, not rest. 



Now, looking at the elementary conditions shown 

 by analysis to constitute the " nervous hand," and 



