MENTAL CONTROL OF THE MUSCLES 203 



forefinger actions we make, in order to find that the turning 

 of the hand, the wrist and the forearm into one controlled 

 lever is at once subconsciously effected. The conscious 

 holding of the pencil between the forefinger and thumb 

 nay, the conscious holding of a blade of grass by them 

 will keep the wrist under rigid control so long as attention to 

 this action is maintained. 



CONSCIOUS EFFORT 



I use the word " consciously " with a definite and precise 

 meaning, and I do not mean " consciously " thinking of 

 writing, but " consciously" thinking of how to do it while 

 doing it the writing. We have made the muscular control 

 of the pencil into a habit, and we can now, therefore, make 

 other muscular movements at the same time, but no two 

 original muscular movements can each be successfully 

 thought out and successfully carried into effect at the same 

 moment of time. When writing, etc., as when using the 

 rod, a secondary and considered action of the wrist is not 

 required* attention must not be devoted to the wrist, 

 but to the thumb and forefinger. 



The habit of writing has been acquired during the long 

 forgotten, but nevertheless wearying hours of attention 

 during our youth. The mental habit of thinking in the finger 

 and the thumb alternately is not taught to children ; they 

 have to acquire it, and the complicated muscular movements 

 which have grown into the harmoniously continued action 

 called writing, are, as a rule, the result of an acquired knack. 

 Try to write with the left hand for the first time, and you will 

 begin to appreciate the mental processes which are involved 

 in that which has become one of the most common of our 

 habitual activities of the right hand. 



* Although such a wrist action can be easily made, when writing or casting 

 has become a habit, by a secondary mentally controlled effort. 



