Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1910-01-14
The HUMAN HAND
ITS CUNNING HAS BEEN SACRI-
FICED TO MACHINERY.
People Are Losing the Capacity for the
Finer Movements of the Fingers in
Handicraft of All Kinds.

Perhaps some people would be EN-
barrassed for a moment if they were
asked to describe the ideals which led to
the creation of Philomathic society, or
at least until they had had time to re-
fleet that the word mathematics" signi-
fed to the Greek in the first instance the
whole field of learning. 1t Is then only
fitting that a society banded together
by It's common love of learning should
now and then bid as the chief guest to
its yearly banquet a distinguished eX
ponent of medical knowledge. When
the Liverpool Philomathic society invited
Sir Frederick Treves recently to the
chair of honor it paid its homage to art
no less than to science, and their guest,
whose art has been shown with pen as
well as Scalpel, devoted his address to
to the praise of handicraft and in some
measure to a lament for its decline
among men. He reminded his audience
that the surgeon is above all the man
who uses his hands, and after asking
whether mankind Is, as a whole, losing
that wonderful function, he felt con-
strained to answer yes. In spinning,
weaving, sewing, carving, writing, count
less human hands have been for ages
employed, with the result that works OF
surprising excellence and variety have
been produced.
None will deny that the advance of
handicraft since the days when it was
confined to the shaping of tiintS and the
preparation of hides for garments has
been so amazing as almost to stagger
contemplation. But says Sir Frederick
Treves, with the perfection of mechani-
cal skill the zenith of human handicraft
has been passed. We are losing as a
race the capacity for the finer move
ments of the fingers now that the loom,
the sewing machine and the typewriter
have reduced the products of million
hands into a soulless level of uniform
| ity. Many instances present themselves
to support the thesis. Metal, instead of
| being wrought, is east in molds; fur
niture is decorated by stamping ma
! chimes; the camera and the electric bath
have well nigh killed the engraver's art;
and if there still be such craftsmen
among us as were at once the wonder
and the glory of the middle ages, their
hands find no similar expression for
| their capacities, for there is only here
and there a purchaser for slowwrought,
and therefore, costly, wares. Sir Fred
erick TreveS sighed for the day of hand
+, made lace and handmade boots, and
| every book lover will Join with him in
his eulogy of the crafts &C paper making
and bookbinding when carried on by
hand. From his own profession he drew
! a striking instance of how the progress
of invention may tread toward the de-
| cline of handicraft He could imagine
few phases of activity more difficult or
more subtle than that displayed by the
facilo operator in the pre-anaesthetic
days. Now there is no call to be bril-
liant, for the surgeon can proceed with
easy elaboration, and 'in place of the
flashing of a blade is an action rs stud
led as a movement on a cheSSboar1. "
1--WE quote from the report of his speech
in the Liverpool Courier.) He acknowl-
edged that surgery has gained more
than it has lost, but thought that
nevertheless it no longer attains to its
former perfection az handicraft.
We cannot wholly indorse Sir Freder-
lex Treves' view here. The modern sur
geon is called upon to perform manipu-
lations in the depths of the abdomen,
the pelvis, and even in the brain itself
that never tried the hand and eve of the
dexterous men whose exploits of ampu-
tation or lithotomy were timed by the
second hand of the watch. And in any
general indictment Of machinery ii mus.
be remembered that the machine NAV
be regarded as the extension of the bu-
man hand called into existence by rbe
exercise of the highest faculties Of the
brain. But we agree with much Of Sir
Frederick Treyes' lament. The hand
made thing is always an honest thing
being what il processes to be. and often