THE WANT OF FORE-ARMS AND HANDS. 453 
thinly covered with an integument of skin. It may be 
readily conceived what great advantage the boy would 
take of this peculiarity. Any solid substance which he 
purposes to carry, is, by the bony and unyielding extremi- 
ty of the left stump, so pressed against the fleshy cushion 
that invests the termination of the right limb, as to form 
for its reception a hollow or bed. By this simple contri- 
vance, substances of almost any shape, whether angular 
or spherical, are equally well retained in their situation. 
Nor is the strength and activity with which the lad wields 
his stumps less worthy of attention ; his play - fellows 
beini^ well aware how able he is to defend himself with 
them, and how severe a blow they are capable of inflicting. 
Lastly, in describing the peculiar formation of these limbs, 
I may remark, that, at their abrupt terminations, there is 
the same curved or v/aving configuration of the cuticle, 
which so peculiarly distinguishes the apices of the fingers ; 
and, consistently with this appearance, the boy affords, on 
all occasions, the most ample proofs, that the extremities 
of his stumps are gifted with a sensibility and accuracy of 
touch, by no means inferior to that degree of delicacy which 
physiologists have conceived to be peculiar to the structure 
of the hands. 
When I first saw Mark Yarwood, he was actively en- 
gaged at a well-known school-game with the boys of his vil- 
lage. He took up a common marble, and with a conjunct 
motion of the muscles of the arms, seldom failed to hit, 
with the greatest dexterity, the mark at which he aimed. 
He has, indeed, the reputation of being the best marble- 
player in the school. It is, however, evident, that the 
united effort of the two stumps can, at the utmost, exer- 
cise the function of only one hand. The lad's ingenuity 
is, therefore, continually on the alert in forming devices 
for the execution of projects, Avhich, in others, require the 
