THE THUMB

THE THUMB

The “Thumb, which is the least important and constant digit of the anterior extremity in the rest of the mammals becomes in man the most important element of the terminal segment, and that which makes it a hand properly so called.”
Infants, up to the time when their intelligence begins to be developed, keep their hands continually closed, folding their fingers over the thumb; but in proportion as, with the body, the mind becomes developed, the thumb in turn folds itself over the fingers.
Epileptic patients in their fits fold their thumbs before the rest of their hands, which shows that this evil, which is instinctively apprehended before it is actually felt, affects the organization by which one perceives and knows, before it affects the organization by which one merely feels.