72 INTRODUCTION. 



attended, not only in their arrangement, but in the inequality of their 

 length ; the advantage of which is forcibly perceived in all our nicer and 

 more delicate manipulations. In numberless instances the graduated 

 length of the fingers is of the utmost service ; for, without such an ine- 

 quality, they would continually interfere with each other, and their action 

 would be clumsy and constrained. When, however, the fingers are folded 

 upon the palm, the tips are brought to a level ; as, also, in grasping a ball ; 

 not so when we grasp other bodies in the common way : yet, in holding 

 the fencing foil, we, in some degree, make them correspond ; but it is in 

 an oblique direction, resulting from the peculiar manner in which the 

 hilt is held ; the first finger being less closed than the second, the second 

 than the third, and so on. In this oblique manner, which combines 

 firmness with ease, we often hold various objects, as the table-knife, the 

 poker, &c. The fingers in the annexed sketch (fig. 68), which is a back 

 view of the osseous framework of the hand, are thus bent. Fig. 69 

 exhibits a palmar view of the hand. 



Two views of the human hand. 



Fig. 68. Posterior view. 69 Palmar view.-<j,a, carpus; b, ft, the metacarpus; c, c, the phalanges of the finger*. 

 (The same letters and figures refer to the same part in both the above illustrations.) 



The bones of the carpus, or wrist, are small, very irregular, and 

 angular in their figure, wedged together, and bound in their respective 

 places by ligaments. 



Anatomists commonly divide the carpal bones of the human hand 



