Grasp

“ The feet must also be practised to clasp objects between their upper surfaces, by crossing the legs, so that, the soles of the boots not being felt, they may produce the sensation of a grasp by a hand. ”

“ Those skin ridges, apart from any relation they may have either to the sweat-pores or to the special nerves of touch and temperature which lie near them, serve a useful purpose in helping the horny hands of toil to grasp its tools firmly. They occur in a few other parts of animals somewhat near to us in the scale of being. ”

“ When he has obtained a firm hold with both hands, he moves one of his hind-paws, and after firmly grasping the branch with it, he moves the other. He never quits his hold with his hind-paws until he has obtained a secure grasp with his hands." The remarkable tenacity of grasp in its feet is largely due to the automatic action of the flexor muscles of the toes (the digits continuing flexed even after death) , and the mere extension of the leg largely contributes to the "effortless suspension of the body" (Murie) , as in the Fruit-Bats and other species which hang passively by their hind-limbs. ”

“ Thus, in grasping a bough with the arm at full length above the head, so as to leave it with a swing in order to grasp another rapidly and for a correspondingly short period of time, the fingers require to be kept together as much as is possible, and to remain more or less bent on the palm. ”

“ In apes the foot is formed almost exactly like our hand, with a large thumb-like great toe quite free from the other toes, and so articulated as to be opposable to them; forming with the long finger-like toes a perfect grasping hand. ”

“ The hand is small, short, broad, and rather thick, and the thumb appears short, giving an air of clumsiness in handling anything; and the power of grasping is not great. The lower limbs are in good proportion to the body, and the feet, like the hands, are short and broad with a high instep. ”

“ Palm and Sole of Man.
The palm of man’s hand is a miracle of adaptations for touch and grasping, but has lost most of the coarse structure formed in response to stimuli of pressure and friction which we saw were common in lower mammals. This indeed he shares with most simian forms. The skin of our hands is now very much what we make it and responds very soon to fresh positive or passive conditions. ”

“ These have become accustomed to an upright gait in their climbing; hence the feet are used for supporting the body and the hands for grasping. Both [92] thumb and great toe are opposable; but the foot is a true foot, and the hand a true hand, in anatomical structure. The face, hands, and feet have mainly lost the covering of hair. ”

“ We can realize the importance of this group of movements when we think that our fore limbs are specifically grasping organs, while in the great majority of animals they are organs of locomotion along with the hind limbs. Originally grasping had to do, undoubtedly, with the taking of food and not much else. In civilized man we have in addition the use of all kinds of tools from the coarsest to the finest. In most four-legged animals the chief organ of grasping is the mouth. ”

“ What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include similar bones, in the same relative positions? ”

“ Texture of bark, anatomy of muscle beneath, reflected lights in recessed hollows, stains of dark moss, and flickering shadows from the foliage above, all are there, as clearly as the human hand can mark them. ”

“ But if a class of students in drawing should plant themselves down in the woods, using the oaks, the elms and the beeches for models, their progress toward an exact and synthetic knowledge of form would be slow indeed. The tree forms would permit them too much latitude. The articulation of a limb upon the trunk of an oak, for instance, might start a foot higher up or a foot lower down and still be in character, but the articulation of a knee joint, an elbow, or a shoulder of the human figure must be true to the inch. ”

“ The leg, completing as it does the form of man, should make a great part of that human scenery which is at least as important as the scenery of geological structure, or the scenery of architecture, or the scenery of vegetation, but which the lovers of mountains and the preservers of ancient buildings have consented to ignore. The leg is the best part of the figure, inasmuch as it has the finest lines and therewith those slender, diminishing forms which, coming at the base of the human structure, show it to be a thing of life by its unstable equilibrium. ”

“ When it goes out in search of food, it soars into the air, and floats in circles over the water, watching every inch of it as narrowly as a kestrel watches a stubble-field. No sooner does a fish rise toward the surface to take a fly, or to leap into the air for sport, than the Osprey darts downwards, grasps the fish in its talons, drags the struggling prey from the water, and with a scream of joy and triumph bears it away to shore, where it can be devoured at leisure.
The bird never dives, neither does it seize the fish with its beak like the kingfisher. ”

“ To begin with, I shall draw a man such as lads draw on walls, a line for each arm, another for each leg, with the fingers longer than the arm. Long after, one or other of us will notice this lack of proportion; we shall observe that the leg is thick, that this thickness varies, that the length of the arm is proportionate to the body. In this improvement I shall either go side by side with my pupil, or so little in advance that he will always overtake me easily and sometimes get ahead of me. ”

“ The front or palmar surface of human hands, and the corresponding solar or plantar surface of the feet, are marked with alternate ridges and furrows, lying for the most in nearly parallel rows, but often again at certain points on palm or sole, curving, splitting, twisting, or joining to form patterns of much intricacy. The ridges, called technically rugæ (sing. ruga) , are punctuated at very frequent intervals with small openings, which are the mouths or pores of the sweat ducts connected with certain glands which lie deep in the lower strata of the skin. ”

“ To test this conjecture I extended my arms in a groping posture and stepped a pace forward, feeling to right and left, till, having gone five or six paces from the ladder, my fingers touched something cold, and feeling it, I passed my hand down what I instantly knew by the projection of the nose and the roughness of hair on the upper lip to be a human face! ”

“ Then there was a movement, a movement that blanched the watching faces to a more pallid white—that dangling, wobbling leg drew inward slowly, very slowly, and hip and knee, as though guided by some mighty power, immutable, supreme, came deliberately into normal form. ”

“ Age.—In the minute germ, or embryo of a month, the form of the hand resembles that of one of the lower animals. It puts on the appearance rather of a respiratory organ than of an instrument of prehension, and, being completely destitute of fingers, presents a great analogy in form with the fin of a fish. As the little being increases in size, the fingers become gradually developed. They at first appear as small bud-like projections attached to the perfectly-formed palm. ”

“ In order to make the stroke, the foot is first drawn forwards, when the toes close together and the webs fold, so as to offer to the water the least possible resistance; but when the back stroke is made, the toes spread out, while the action of the limb is at the same time, in most instances, obliquely outwards. ”

“ It is not necessary in Painting that the exact form and outline of every limb, and almost of every muscle of the body, should be expressed beneath the folds of the drapery; it is sufficient if these are so disposed as to indicate in general the situation and attitude of the principal limbs. ”

“ The effect, to us, is not particularly pretty, more especially after the remark of an observer when you are admiring it that it suggests an anatomist’s model of a human leg or arm, made to indicate the positions of the sinews and muscles, the veins and the arteries. ”

“ This movement of the whole limb is what we think of when the joint's nerves are excited in that way; and its place is so much more important than the joint's place that our sense of the latter is taken up, so to speak, into our perception of the former, and the sensation of the movement seems to diffuse itself into our very fingers and toes. But by abstracting our attention from the suggestion of the entire extremity we can perfectly well perceive the same sensation as if it were concentrated in one spot. ”

“ We should now examine the curious curve of the hind-leg and the way in which the muscles and sinews draw back, also the shape of the bone as it touches on the ground, and the great paw as it comes forward and lies limply at rest. ”

“ This objection is answered, by observing that our ideas of the shape, place, and solidity of our limbs, are acquired by our organs of touch and of sight, which are situated in our fingers and eyes, and not by any sensations in the limb itself. ”

“ Everything in the structure of the fore-limbs indicates the animal's burrowing instinct,—the length of the bone, which corresponds to the human radius, or fore-arm,—the breadth of the hands,—and the bend of the arms, which are so fashioned that the elbows project outwardly. ”

“ As I toiled along, my useless limb causing me each day more trouble, I felt I should like to lie down on the grass, with stones 'twixt head and shoulders for my pillow, and repose, as Nature was reposing, in sovereign strength. ”

“ Examples of gradation in the human form are the gradual tapering of the limbs and the fingers, the exquisite line from the female neck to the shoulders and the bosom, the blushes on the cheeks, so long as they do not assume the form of a hectic flush, and the delicate tints of the complexion in general, varying with emotional states, according as the veins and arteries are more or less filled with the vital fluid. ”

“ The hand, fixed to the end of a long articulated column of bones, and, through its skin-covering, particularly in the cavity, endowed with high sensibility, raises itself to the importance of an organ of feeling, which, moveable in all directions, [Pg 17] apprizes us of the extent of matter, and of its physical qualities. ”

“ With advancing spring these knobs commence to grow, feel warm to the touch, and sprout out, as it were, round the scar. One branch takes a forward direction, whilst a second and larger one makes its way backward. ”

“ To the head is given the direction of the whole frame, hence its position at the top; and, since the animal creation possesses all the six irregular motions, and the head ought not to roll upon the ground, the human form is long, with legs for walking and arms for serving the body, and the anterior part is fashioned differently from the posterior. ”

“ Now one of the hindmost legs closes in to the body, while all the others hold on—now another, and another, each in their turn; and by this skilful manoeuvre they have contrived to advance the body nearly an inch along the ceiling. One of the foremost legs advances again, and they proceed as before. ”

“ When the first stroke comes it startles him and he rubs his eyes and wonders where he is; he continues to rub his eyes and wonder till the sixth stroke has sounded. Then he collects his thoughts a little, and by the ninth stroke remembers that if he is quick enough, he can shut up his book, get down from his high and uncomfortable perch, and stretch his legs a little in a ramble through the church-yard or round the Park. ”

“ Every foot has one principal stress or accent, and this or the syllable it falls on may be called the Stress of the foot and the other part, the one or two unaccented syllables, the Slack. Feet (and the rhythms made out of them) in which the stress comes first are called Falling Feet and Falling Rhythms, feet and rhythm in which the slack comes first are called Rising Feet and Rhythms, and if the stress is between two slacks there will be Rocking Feet and Rhythms. These distinctions are real and true to nature ”

“ These are principally formed by the smaller lines running with the pores of the skin. Great care must therefore be taken in determining these forms, because very much depends on their position. The numbers herein referred to have reference to Plate II of the hand which I have set apart for the express purpose of showing these marks and signs.
The first space of the hand near to the mounts is that part which has principally to show the animal passions—lusts and intrigues. ”

“ The head may be kept in constant movement, the itchy white parts being rubbed on any object within reach, and the limbs are stretched, the front ones forward and the hind backward, with a tendency to rub them with the nose or foot. ”

“ There are two arms and two legs growing out of the human trunk. The branches of a tree we call limbs, and so we speak of the arms and legs as limbs. We sometimes call the arms the upper extremities, and the legs the lower extremities. ”

“ The creatures of the woods, standing quite still, are difficult enough to see; but I have a notion that the eye, unknown to itself, catches the sum total of little flexings of the muscles, movements of the skin, winkings, even the play of wind and light in the hair of the coat, all of which, while impossible of analysis, together relieve the appearance of dead inertia. ”

“ Each of his eyes is exactly the shape and size of one brick. So is his nose. And his mouth is as long as two bricks side by side. They all turn a very bright red, when they appear, as though light were shining through them. ”

“ One theory, as you know, is that palmistry derives its authority from the fact that the lines are produced by the opening and closing of the hand—originally, at least—the fundamental markings being inherited, as are our fundamental mental characteristics—and that such alteration of the tissue is directly affected by the character. One stamps his own particular way of doing things upon his palm. ”