The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-05-21
A FEW FACTS ABOUT
YliE FINGERS AND TOES
Why They Number Ten and
Some Points On How We Arc
Expected to Use Them,

(Chicaso Tribune.)

DO you kno" why all your fingers
are not the Same length, why YOU
were horn with finger nails, and why
YOU are Il much better language stu
dent if you arc right handed than if
YOU arc left handed: An English
physlolosist has given us an interest,"
ing series of answers to tho above
everyday questions.
The fact that all our fingers arc not
the same length has always been IL
disadvantage to us" he says. And
the reason that our liltlc fingers and
our ring fingers are SO small and weak
might be difficult To account for if
We took into consideration the present
Use of the hand. liut We can find
good reason when we consider the his
tory OF the hand and look at the
fingers of many kinds of the lower
animals which have fingers more or
less like ours"
Our hands, he goes on to explain,
We're probably used for standing and
walking. as we seem to inherit them
from u "four-footcd ancestors"
Surely We We're never given them i'm
the first place, since our grasp of
hing is SO materially lcsScncd by our
inequality. But if We put our hands
on Il table as il we meant TO walk on
the tips of the fingers We can immcdi-
ately see What a well-balancod sup
port it makes-~with the middle finger
the longest and tho little finger and
the thumb falling behind and balanc-
ing the whole.
we see n same thing at tho ZOO
logical gardens in the ease of the ami
mails that have three fingers, as the
toes of the fore feet might rightly ne
called, and we can notice it any day i'm
the case of h dog or the cat. This is
only one instance of a large number
Il Nf nlScS fIIrntsl1n1 l,- ,,, l,-,I;.,
which help us to understand why Ger
tain things. for which there seems no
particular reason and which may.cven
seem inconNenient to us, are as they
are.
Again, the only possible use for
& nails is to scratch with. an ac-
ton which is more or less dispensed
With in modern society, and that
brings up tho question as to Why we
have ten fingers and toes instead of
perhap s nine. NATURE" this same
Psychologist SAYS. decided on five
fingers for each hand long. long ago,
indeed. ages before man ever appcar-
ed on this earth at all. 1t docs seem
at first as though there We're some OBJ
only n finger or toe for each limb
in the horse. two for the pig. and so
on. But the original figure was five.
The hen. for instance. has only
three and Il half toes, and when We
examine the skeleton of its wing,
which. is really it's arm, we find three
and a half fingers there. With tho
chicken il is the same. Only tho birds
apparently have found that they could
do as we'll With three ard a part of Il
fourth and So have stopped develop
ing. For it is the case with man ana
animals the world owe and through
countless generations as soon AS they
discover that they can do without II
particular part of their anatomy they
begin to dispense with it and finally
lose it altogether"
Again, we are given some interest
ing data on the fad that was much in
vogue some 10 years g and which
has now died down to IA certain eX-
tent. and that is the one that II chill
dren should be taught to use both
hands equally Well. The successes
were few, and the results in the long
run seemed to be that the children
who used only one hand got along bet
ter in their intellectual studies. and
especially in the pursuit of languages,
than those who We're SO deNterouS in
the use of their. two hands equally
we'll.
An examination of thousands of
skeletons showed in every case where
the right arm had had greater deNcl-
opment than the left that there was a
corresponding development OF the left
side of the skull. which was thought
to prove conclusively that left-handed
persons have less language ability
than right-handed ones, and that chill
dren who used both hands Indifferent
ly would he still further behind in the
language capacity.