222 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL EXERCISE. 



of bones ; in consequence of which, the middle joint is 

 carried a proportionate distance from the palm, so that in 

 doubling each point comes to the same line. 



693. This difference in the length of the fingers, though 

 we are seldom aware of it, serves to adapt the hand to a 

 great variety of uses, which would have been awkwardly 

 performed had they all been of the same length. In 

 writing, for instance, did the little finger project an inch 

 and a half beyond its present place, how awkwardly 

 should we perform. In grasping any small article with 

 the whole hand, a similar awkwardness and difficulty 

 would be experienced. 



694. " Nothing," says Sir Charles Bell, " is more re- 

 markable, 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 in the rigging, would be too 



. great for the texture of mere tendons, nerves, and vessels ', 

 they would be crushed, were not every part that bears the 

 pressure defended with a cushion of fat, as elastic as that 

 which we have described 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." Thus does anato- 

 my prove that the human hand was designed for laborious 

 employments. 



695. Says Ray, " Some animals have horns, some have 

 hoofs, some teeth, some talons, some claws, some spurs, 

 and beaks ; man hath none of all these, but is weak 

 and feeble, and sent unarmed into the world but a 

 hand, with reason to use it, supplies the place of all 

 these." 



696. Thus we see that the " lord of creation," through 



What is said of the different lengths of the fingers in making the hand 

 a perfect instrument ? What prevents the nerves and tendons fro m injm y 

 when we grasp firm a hard body, as when a sailor climbs a rope. 



