Of the Shoulders and Arms.
Q, Why hath a man shoulders and arms? A. To lift and carry burdens.
Q. Why are the arms round? A. For the swifter and speedier work.
Q. Why are the arms thick? A. That they may be strong to lift and bear burdens, and thrust and give a strong blow; so their bones are thick, because they contain much marrow, or they would be easily corrupted and injured.
Q. Why do the arms become small and slender in some diseases, as in mad men and such as are sick of the dropsy? A. Because all the parts of the body do suffer the one with the other; and therefore one member being in grief, all the humours do concur and run thither to give succour and help to the aforesaid grief.
Q. Why have brute beasts no arms? A. Their fore feet are instead of arms, and in their place.
Of the Hands.
Q. For what use hath a man hands, and an ape also like unto a man? A. The hand is an instrument that a man doth especially make use of, because many things are done by the hands and not by any other part.
Q. Why are some men ambo-dexter, that is, they use the left hand as the right? A. By reason of the great heat of the heart, and for the hot bowing of the same; for it is that which makes a man as nimble of the left hand as of the right.
Q. Why are the fingers full of joints? A. To be more fit and apt to receive and keep what are put in them.