The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1922-03-05

tunatelyr for us, the skeleton of
the hands and fingers.
After these great reptiles, mostly
dinosaurs. became extinct, the
more human-like hand reappeared
In mammals, to be finally per.
fected by man or, If you prefer. by
Mary Nash. You have a wide
choice here. You can align your
self with the artists who favor
Miss Nash's hand and fingers as
the super beautiful in such things.
or with the Washington scientist
who insists that the hand and
fingers OF Dimetrodon, the ar,
were just as artistic and even more
useful.
True. Dimetrodon got no lime
light like Mary, but he got every
thing to eat that swan. walked or
crawled. His story is quite as SEN
sational as anything Rex Ingram
mas aug out 1OF the screen.
HANDS AND THEIR USES.
How little 1t strikes one. II ~
all, that nearly the bulk OF human
achievements has been performed
by hands. One might say that the
brain was the foremost human
worker, but what would the brain
amount to IL hands did not cult
vate and prepare the food that
makes dts use possible? True.
many machines have been invented
that do the work Of hands, but
their number and achievements is
small in comparison with what re.
mains for hands to do and ever
will remain.
In a sense. every known type OF
animal has hands. In the bird
matters are reversed, and it's feet
and toes are really it's hands, be-
cause its forelimbs were neces-
sarily modelled into organs Of
flight. To the insect hands are 50
important, or rather, what takes
the place Of hands. that some
species in the worm stage of
metamorphosis are endowed with
az many as 1000 OF them. Here
again the process is reversed and
feet are really hands, or at IeAst
are functioning as hands and
fingers.
THE CRABS MANY HANDS.
The crab Is well endowed with
hands and fingers, making his
toes work in sucn capacity. The
manta. or devil fish. has a pair Of
flappers by which he brushes
bushels Of food-little conches-
into his cavernous NAV. The bat
gave up his hands and fingers for
a parachute. so he could fly, but
be retains his nails and hind claws
for use as fingers.
Water birds, with forelimbs for
flight in air and under water, and
with webbed feet for lesser swim.
ming and for steering while SWIM
ming under water with the wings,
still retain the nails Of their feet
for fingers. The toes and nails Of
fowls-the birds that do the most
walking, are really their hands
and fingers.
The ostrich, one-third mammal,
one-third bird and one-third rep.
tile, has small wings. not for flight,
but as aids in swift running, and
makes toes do the work of fingers.
We cannot wholly exclude fish,
since there are species which go
about on land, others which climb
trees and others which make
flights in air. II you take the
head fin of fish and skeletonize
It. that is, reduce it to bones, you
will find a near replica Of the
human hand.
True. fins are never utilized to
eat with. as fingers are utilized.
but their functions are similar in
other ways. as organs OF locomo-
ton. resting In water. and defense
by erection on the back. often dis
closing a formidable array of
spines. We are too likely to de-
fine a finger as just our own OK
elusive function. not given ., any
lower type, over (which We think
we dominate. but do not wholly
dominate. Fingers In their broad.
est sense are any Of tho extremi.
ties which we use az UGH in what
ever fashion.
DIT. Charles w. Gilmore. OF the
Smithsonian Institution, has been