THE HAND AS AN UNRULY MEMBER. 487 
animals,” was Felix Vicq d’Azyr, who published a me- 
moir upon the subject in 1774, four years prior to his 
election as the successor of Buffon, in the French Acad- 
emy. 
He began his comparison by detaching the right arm 
(Fig. 2) from the shoulder, and placing it by the side of 
the leg (Fig. 1). He does not specify the position of the 
hand in this first comparison, but we must conclude that 
it was pronated so as to face the palm backward like the 
sole, and to bring the thumb (Po) upon the inner side op- 
posite the great toe, both because this was the universal 
method of viewing them, and because otherwise the idea 
of parallelism would hardly have suggested itself at all. 
Perceiving the resemblance of the elbow (O) to the knee 
(Pa) ,and thinking that, being similar parts, they must face 
in the same cadia he saa the arm around so that 
the elbow pointed forward, the hand being left as it was 
(Fig. 3); the two bones of the forearm (U and R), be- 
fore crossed, became parallel with each other, the thumb, 
of course, remaining opposite the great toe. 
But although the lower portions of the two limbs were 
thus in harmonious agreement, the anatomist, on exam- 
ining their upper ends, perceived that, while the smooth 
articular surface (Fig. 1, Hd) of the thigh-bone was look- 
ing inward and toward the middle line of the body, the 
corresponding surface (Fig. 3, Hd) of the humerus, by 
which it is attached to the shoulder-blade, was looking in 
exactly the opposite direction. 
= What was to be done? If he left things as they were, 
then the heads of the two upper bones set their faces 
against his idea of parallelism in the most uncompro- 
mising manner ; while if he restored them to their original 
condition, the elbow and the knee came into direct oppo- 
