636 THE HAND AS AN UNRULY MEMBER. 
in consequence of the necessity for the extremities of both 
pair of limbs to strike the ground so as to propel the body 
in the same direction : but if we begin with the upper parts 
of the limbs, we shall perceive an idea of antagonism which 
may be easily traced in the hands when they are put in 
what may be termed their normal position (Fig. 2) ;* and 
although this brings the thumb on the outer side, and thus 
opposite the little toe, yet if we recollect that in most 
animals the thumb is rather smaller than the other digits, 
instead of larger as in man, and that therefore its assumed 
superiority is really confined within a very narrow limit, 
we may conclude, when the question comes, Shall the 
thumb force the arm and the forearm into parallelism, or 
shall it conform to the idea of antagonism which they sug- 
gest, that the latter is the fairer and more philosophical 
view of the matter. 
It sums up thus. Begin your studies of the limbs at 
the periphery, with the hands and the feet, and assume a 
correspondence of thumb and great toe, you will then see 
an apparent parallelism as to the extent of which no two 
investigators can agree, and by which they have been 
led to twist, to fracture, and to dislocate the limbs in a 
manner most unjustifiable; and to regard the body as a 
structure with but one end and no centre, a geometrical 
absurdity. 
But commence at the centre, at the middle of the ver- 
tebral column, and regard the body as having not only 
two sides but two ends, antagonistic in position and in 
function ; then you will see that the limbs which are given 
= from the two poles of this longitudinal axis, are like- 
ind limbs in 
than a natural ranged are isine that there is no one natural atti 
