How to get an idea of the variety of things which the hand can do.
I have mentioned in this chapter a few of the things that are done by the hand, but there is no end to the things that can be done by this set of machinery. You can get some idea of this in two ways—by moving your hands and fingers about in all sorts of ways, and by thinking of as many as you can of the different things that people, in work or in play, do with their hands. And observe in how many more ways the hand is useful than the foot is. The foot has but a few things to do compared with the multitude of things done by the hand.
Questions.—What animal has something like a hand? How does it compare with your hand? Why would you call the hand a set of machinery rather than an instrument? What is said about the fingers doing heavy and light work? Tell about the rope and the thread. What is said about the different kinds of both coarse and fine work that the hand can do? What is said about playing on an instrument? What is said of the alphabet of the deaf and dumb? What is said about the common things done continually by the hand? What is said of the hand as an instrument for feeling? If your hand had no feeling, what would happen? Tell about the woman who lost the power of motion in one arm and feeling in the other. In what two things is the hand different from the machines made by man? What are the parts of the machinery of the hand? In what two ways can you get an idea of the variety of things that this machinery can do?
CHAPTER XXII.
WHAT ANIMALS USE FOR HANDS.
Though animals do not have hands, they have different parts which they use to do some of the same things that we do with our hands. I will tell you about some of these in this chapter.
How teeth can serve in place of hands.
You see this dog dragging along a rope which he holds in his mouth. He is making his teeth answer in place of hands. Dogs always do this when they carry things. They can not carry them in any other way. You carry a basket along in your hand, but the dog takes it between his teeth, because he has no hand as you have.
I have told you, in another chapter, how the cow and the horse crop the grass. They do it, you know, with their front teeth. They take up almost any kind of food—a potato, an apple—with these teeth. These teeth, then, answer for hands to the cow and horse. Their lips answer also the same purpose in many cases. The horse gathers his oats into his mouth with the lips. The lips are for hands to such animals in another respect. They feel things with their lips just as we do with the tips of our fingers.