THE ARREST OF THE BODY \ic^ 



To estimate the importance of this apparently 

 insignificant organ, try for a moment without using 

 the thumb to hold a book, or write a letter, or 

 do any single piece of manual work. A thumb is 

 not merely an additional finger, but a finger so 

 arranged as to be opposable to the other fingers^ and 

 thus possesses a practical efificacy greater than all 

 the fingers put together. It is this which gives the 

 organ the power to seize, to hold, to manipulate, 

 to do higher work ; this simple mechanical device 

 in short endows the Hand of intelligence with all 

 its capacity and skill. Now there are animals, 

 like the Colobi, which have no thumb at all ; there 

 are others, like the Marmoset, which possess the 

 thumb, but in which it is not opposable ; and 

 there are others, the Chimpanzee for instance, in 

 which the Hand is in all essentials identical with 

 Man's. In the human form the thumb is a little 

 longer, and the whole member more delicate and 

 shapely, but even for the use of her highest 

 product, Nature has not been able to make 

 anything much more perfect than the hand of 

 this anthropoid ape. 



Is the Hand then finished? Can Nature take 

 out no new patent in this direction ? Is the fact 

 that no novelty is introduced, in the case of Man 

 ^ proof that the ultimate Hand has appeared? 



