Finger (anatomy)

“ When we clutch at or grasp things, we do so by the strength of the thumb and little finger. If a man scratches his head, he does it with the forefinger; if he wishes to test the heat of the wine95 in the kettle, he uses the little finger. Thus, although each finger has its uses and duties, the nameless finger alone is of no use: it is not in our way if we have it, and we do not miss it if we lose it. Of the whole body it is the meanest member: if it be crooked so that we cannot straighten it, it neither hurts nor itches; as Môshi says in the text, it causes no pain ”

“ From the origin of humanity down to within a century or two, it has been believed that sensation was perceived at the very point where it was felt. A pain felt in the finger was considered as having its seat in the finger itself. Children and many people believe so still. Physiology has demonstrated that the impression is transmitted from the finger-tip to the brain by means of the nervous system. If the nerve is cut, the finger may be burned with impunity ”

“ How can we hope to interpret the secrets of the Master-workers in Music unless we ourselves are in tune? Take stock of yourself each day and see if you are really living.
The new exercise this week is for strengthening the fingers as well as for limbering up stiff joints. Around each of the finger joints, there are transverse ligaments—bands of muscle which hold the lengthwise finger muscles in place and bind them to the bones.
Unless one is using his fingers in a special and unordinary way, these ligaments become stiff and inflexible, so that the movement of the fingers is greatly hindered. ”

“ They say that the forefinger is venomous, and that the superiority of the third is to be ascribed to its being possessed of a nerve; and as they appear to pay a most superstitious reverence to a nerve, whether in the finger, the tooth, or the ear, they do not fail to impress upon their daughters the importance of tasting anything of consequence with the third finger. ”

“ Knotty fingers, when not the result of gout, indicate originality; the smooth taper finger means love of art and a predominance of sentiment over reason. Square fingers denote method, and the spatulate show ability, tact, and action. Very rare is the psychic hand with its slim tapering fingers, its snowy texture and wonderful softness. Well for the world that it is uncommon, lacking as it does usefulness and industry. ”

“ The reason why the ordinary stays are so injurious may be demonstrated by tying a piece of thread tightly round the finger. Immediately that this is done, the circulation of the blood is impeded, and the finger becomes blue and painful, and this simply because an unyielding substance is pressing upon it. ”

“ On flexing the wrist, the hand is tilted to the radial side, but the paralysis of the flexor carpi ulnaris is often compensated for by the action of the palmaris longus. The little and ring fingers can be flexed to a slight degree by the slips of the flexor sublimis attached to them and supplied by the median nerve; flexion of the terminal phalanx of the little finger is almost impossible. Adduction and abduction movements of the fingers are lost. ”

“ For the skin of the finger is connected by a bundle of fine nervous fibres, which run up the whole length of the arm, with the spinal marrow and brain, and we know that the feeling of pain caused by the prick of a pin is dependent on the integrity of those fibres. After they have been cut through close to the spinal cord, no pain will be felt, whatever injury is done to the finger ”

“ Had it been you or I, we should have placed it at once on the ring finger, and there would have been an end of the matter,—but look! the fellow is trying it upon the little finger—that finger is so little, and some how or other, so lonely, he feels for it a tender compassion. A little finger look lonely when in company with three fingers and a thumb? ”

“ It may be well to note here that individuals who have what are called clubbed fingers, or as the Germans picturesquely put it, drumstick fingers, that is, fingers with bulbous ends, the finger beyond the last joint being larger than the preceding part, nearly always have some chronic affection within the thorax. ”

“ Congenital Hypertrophy of the Fingers.—This is a form of local giantism affecting one or more digits, and involving all the tissues. The finger is usually of abnormal size at birth, and continues to grow more rapidly than the others, and it may also come to deviate from its normal axis. ”

“ The thumb is found to be unusually long, and to extend beyond the level of the tip of the third digit. Both thumb and finger are armed with large claws. The index finger is furthermore remarkable in that it is produced beyond the fold of skin which runs along the hinder or post-axial border of the wing for the support of the quill-feathers. ”

“ Epicritic sensibility is lost over the little finger, the ulnar half of the ring finger, and that part of the palm and dorsum of the hand to the ulnar side of a line drawn longitudinally through the ring finger and continued upwards. Protopathic sensibility is lost over an area which varies in different cases. Deep sensibility is usually lost over an area almost as extensive as that of protopathic insensibility. ”

“ These are usually of paralytic origin, but include a proportion of cases of true hammer finger. The common form is that already described by Mr. William Adams (Medical Society, December 1890) , in which the inter-phalangeal joints of one or more fingers (most frequently the fifth) are flexed, and [78] the integument on the palmar aspect forms a longitudinal fold, which becomes tense when an attempt is made to straighten the digit; the metacarpo-phalangeal joint is super-extended. ”

“ On a mummy-case in the British Museum is a representation of a woman with crossed hands, covered with rings; the left hand is most loaded. Upon the thumb is a signet with hieroglyphics on the surface, three rings on the forefinger, two on the second, one formed like a snail shell, the same number on the next, and one on the little finger. The right hand carries only a thumb ring, and two upon the third finger. ”

“ The thumb is in a different plane from the fingers; when the hand is laid flat on any surface—as this window-pane, for instance—the palmar surfaces of the fingers touch it, whereas it is the side of the thumb which comes in contact and not the palmar surface. But in this”—he tapped the framed glass with his finger—“the prints show the palmar surfaces of all the five digits in contact at once, which is an impossibility. Just try to put your own thumb in that position and you will see that it is so.” ”

“ Of the limbs, one set, forming a pair, is 'arms'. To the arm belong the 'shoulder', 'upper-arm', 'elbow', 'fore-arm', and 'hand'. To the hand belong the 'palm', and the five 'fingers'. The part of the finger that bends is termed 'knuckle', the part that is inflexible is termed the 'phalanx'. The big finger or thumb is single-jointed, the other fingers are double jointed. The bending both of the arm and of the finger takes place from without inwards in all cases ”

“ In like manner, if we keep the compass-points one or two centimetres apart, and draw them down the forearm over the wrist and palm, finally drawing one along one finger, the other along its neighbor, the appearance will be that of a single line, soon breaking into two, which become more widely separated below the wrist, to contract again in the palm, and finally diverge rapidly again towards the finger-tips. ”

“ The bones of the arm were strong, with strong projections for the attachment of muscles; those of the wrist were few in number and closely united. The rudimentary first finger, or thumb, consisting of a single slender bone, was turned backward toward the shoulder for the support of the membrane in front of the elbow. ”

“ If your finger were amputated you could still have the same experience by a suitable operation on the nerves that formerly connected the finger with the brain, so that the force between the finger-tip and the hard object, as a fact of experience, may exist when there is no finger-tip. This shows that force, in this sense, cannot be what concerns physics. ”

“ Each of them equally appears a finger, whether seen in the middle or at the extremity, whether white or black, or thick or thin—it makes no difference; a finger is a finger all the same. In these cases a man is not compelled to ask of thought the question what is a finger? for the sight never intimates to the mind that a finger is other than a finger. ”

“ It is not sufficient to play the ordinary finger-exercises and scales. As has been shown in the opening chapters, and in the anatomical representations of the hand, all the fingers are not equally strong; for instance, the 4th and 5th fingers are, by nature, much weaker than the others, and it is necessary to remedy this inequality. ”

“ Just where the thumb joins the palm, and between it and the forefinger on the back of the hand, is a muscle which, while at first usually small, can be developed and enlarged by any exercise which necessitates pinching the ends of the thumb and forefinger together, such as carrying a plate of metal or other thin but heavy substance between the finger and thumb. ”

“ Each finger has three bones, while the thumb has only two. The first bone of the thumb, standing apart from the rest, enjoys a special freedom of motion, and adds greatly to the usefulness of the hand. ”

“ The finger nails are there and all the fine lines that can be traced on the inside of the hand and fingers. There are many lines on the surface of the human body that require the aid of a magnifying glass to discern ”

“ If another person gently trace a line across our wrist or finger, the latter being stationary, it will feel to us as if the member were moving in the opposite direction to the tracing point. If, on the contrary, we move our limb across a fixed point, it will seem as if the point were moving as well. If the reader will touch his forehead with his forefinger kept motionless, and then rotate the head so that the skin of the forehead passes beneath the finger's tip, he will have an irresistible sensation of the latter being itself in motion in the opposite direction to the head. ”

“ When he has tried some time and failed to find it, you take your hands from your pockets, having got the false finger into position between the second and third fingers. Showing the hands back and front (the addition of the extra finger will not be noticed) , you pass them several times over the head of the gentleman, then, lowering them to his head, you detach the finger and draw out the handkerchief. The false finger is then laid down on the table under cover of the handkerchief.
Fig. 11
The finger is made of thin spun brass, painted flesh color. ”

“ The articular structures [7] show no trace of disease, the tendons are normal, the finger retains all its strength within the progressively narrowing range of motion left to it by the disease, and the utility of the hand may for a long while be little impaired. Sooner or later other fingers may become involved, and the affection may appear in the opposite hand, to follow a like course. The process of contraction is slow in progress, perhaps extending over ten or twenty years; it is painless, and is uncomplicated by any signs of active inflammation. ”

“ Now place your finger on the table, and your watch by the side of your hand, and tell your finger to beat 60 times in the minute, or 100 times, or 150 times, or 200 times, and the finger will obey you—because it is moved by muscles which are subject to the will, while the heart is composed of muscles which are not subject to the will. Why should this be? Why should man have the power to regulate his finger, and not to regulate his heart?
For the sustentation of our bodies it is needful that the blood should ever be in circulation. ”

“ A Light Extension is to be made in the Fingers to reduce 'em, and a small Dressing is to be prepar'd for every Finger, almost like that of the Arm. The Fingers are to be somewhat bent, and the inside of the Hand is to be trimm'd with a Bolster, to retain 'em in this Situation. The Bolster is also to be stay'd with a Band, and the Arm to be put into a Scarf. ”

“ The simplest form of finger-ring worn by our ancestors, consisted of a band of metal, merely twisted round to embrace the finger, and open at either end. One of these rings found upon the finger-bone of an early Saxon, in excavating at Harnham Hill, near Salisbury, was found on the middle finger of the right hand of a person of advanced age. Sometimes several rings were found on one hand. Among the bones of the fingers of the left hand of an adult skeleton was found a silver ring of solid form, another of spiral form, and a plain gold ring. ”

“ Never let the patient do this for himself, unless you provide him with clamps or wide rubber bands for the purpose, as he cannot be trusted to make the pressures long enough or strong enough to accomplish satisfactory results.
Pressure exerted over the first or second joint of the first finger will control pain in the cuspid and bicuspid teeth. The second finger is related to the two molars, but sometimes the third (or ring) finger must also be employed for this region. ”

“ A longitudinal incision is carried through the whole thickness of the integument along the middle of the dorsum of one of the two united fingers, a second along the middle of the palmar aspect of the other finger, and by dissection each digit is made to furnish a rectangular flap to cover in the raw surface of its neighbour. The division of the tissue left after raising the flaps must be made with great care, in order to avoid injury to the digital nerves. ”

“ If the finger be applied over the artery as it is pulsating by the edge of the fillet, at the moment of slackening it, the blood will be felt to glide through, as it were, underneath the finger; and he, too, upon whose arm the experiment is made, when the ligature is slackened, is distinctly conscious of a sensation of warmth, and of something, viz., a stream of blood suddenly making its way along the course of the vessels and diffusing itself through the hand, which at the same time begins to feel hot, and becomes distended. ”