SENSE OF TOUCH. 161 



hands given him because he was the wisest creature ; but he 

 was not the wisest creature because he had hands.* 



13. /The following cases prove that hands are not indispen- 

 sable to genius, and that the human mind can even triumph 

 over the imperfections of the body. A few years since a 

 Miss Biffin was exhibited in London, who was entirely destitute 

 of both upper and lower extremities ; and yet she was very 

 intelligent and ingenious. She could hem-stitch with the 

 greatest facility, turning the needle very rapidly in her 

 mouth, and inserting it by means of her teeth. She also 

 painted miniatures faithfully and beautifully, holding the 

 pencil between her head and neck. All her motions in fact 

 were confined to the tongue and the lips, and to the muscles 

 of the neck. 



14. In the year 1825 there was a young artist in Paris, 

 who had no hands or arms, and only four toes on each foot ; 

 and yet he sketched and painted beautifully with his feet. I 

 have myself seen a young lady, born without arms, who had 

 acquired so much skill in the use of the scissors as to be able, 

 by holding them in her mouth, to cut likenesses, watch-pa- 

 pers, flowers, &c. She would also draw and write, and exe- 

 cute all kinds of needle work with her mouth. A boy was 

 not long since exhibited in the museum of this city, who 

 performed all these things with his toes. This shows that 

 other parts of the body besides the fingers, are capable of 

 acquiring great delicacy of touch.^ 



* On this subject Dr. Elliotson remarks, "As philosophers have 

 ascribed the superiority of man's intellect to his hand, and of the ele- 

 phant's to its trunk, the constructiveness of the beaver to its tail, and 

 the ferocity of the tiger to its teeth and claws, the poor man may be 

 excused who was lately executed at Chelmsford, and left the following 

 directions. " I, Edward Clarke, now in a few hours expecting to die, 

 do sincerely wish, as my last request, that three of my fingers be given 

 to my three children, as a warning to them, as my fingers were the 

 cause of bringing myself to the gallows, and my children to poverty." 

 14* 



