Fig. 3.
c. Contractors of the fingers, rising from the hand itself, between the bones of the middle-hand (Fig. 4 b), and extending as far as the first finger-joint (Fig. 4 b).
d. Two muscles, also rising from the cavity of the hand, and moving the little finger towards the thumb (Fig. 3 g).
Lumbricales, or Flexores primi Internodii Digitorum, are situated in the hollow of the hand, and pass to their tendinous implantations with the interossei at the first joint of each finger, externally and laterally, next the thumb (Fig. 4 a, b). These perform those minute motions of the fingers when the second and third internodes are curvated by the muscles, and therefore are used in playing musical instruments, whence they are named Musculi Fidicinales, or fiddle-muscles.[3]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Luther Holden, Manual of Anatomy (London, 1861), Lecturer on Anatomy in Bartholomew’s Hospital. Hermann Meyer: Lehrbuch der Physiologischen Anatomie. Leipzig, 1856.
[3] William Cowper, Myotomia reformata. London, 1724. Richard Quain, Professor of Clinical Surgery, Surgeon Extraordinary to the Queen.
CHAPTER III.
EFFECTS OF THIS GYMNASTIC TREATMENT ON THE MUSCLES, LIGAMENTS, AND JOINTS OF THE FINGERS AND THE HAND.[4]
After the explanations just given, it may readily be conceived what effects the cylinders placed between the fingers and the gymnastic staff must produce on the joints and ligaments of the hand.
1. The ligaments connecting the bones of the middle-hand amongst themselves and with the fingers (Fig. 2 aa) are extended and stretched (Fig. 3 bb), and thus those joints, so important in playing on musical instruments, are rendered more moveable.