If the fingers are rigid and in semiflexion it is possible to articulate all the metacarpo-phalangeal joints, fitting them with a spring, which keeps them flexed, and arranging for active extension as already described for the thumb. All that is necessary is to terminate the cord by five separate strings instead of one. In certain special cases this arrangement may be useful (Figs. 155 to 157). It seems to us useless to render the interphalangeal joints automatic. As to the attempt which Beaufort appears to have made to give movement to the wrist also, we do not believe that any practical result has as yet been attained. For the relative length of the fingers and the utility of a nail on the thumb and on the index finger see figures 150 and 151. _Shape of the Hand._ In the usual pattern (Figs. 149 and 151) the fingers are semiflexed and the thumb grips against the index finger, which is shorter than the middle finger as in the natural hand. If it is desired to pick up a ball, for example (Fig. 151), it will be seen that the middle finger projects and gets in the way. For this reason it is advisable that the index finger be longer than the middle, and in addition it is useful to furnish the thumb and index finger with a little projection representing the nail (Fig. 150). In figure 148 will be seen an arrangement which allows the thumb to grip not by the tip, but by the whole length of its palmar surface (to hold, for example, a notebook). The fingers of this hand have ball and socket joints constructed in the way shown in figures 152 to 154. The joints keep passively the position in which they are placed. The attachment of the ball of the joint on an intermediate tenon is similar to that of the thumb shown on page 98. The articulation of the index finger prevents the sufficient excavation of the thenar eminence for the insertion of the Beaufort thumb with its powerful spring. The wrist rotates upon a bayonet joint. [Illustration: FIGS. 152 to 154.] The fingers shown in figures 155 to 157 are joined together into a single piece, which articulates with the metacarpal part of the hand upon a transverse axis. They are held in a position of flexion at the metacarpo-phalangeal joints by four palmar springs and they are opened away from the thumb by the action of a cord which bifurcates from the thumb cord on the back of the hand. The pull of this cord is exerted upon the upper angle of a triangle from the lower border of which four cords pass on to the back of the phalanges. Figure 156 shows detail of a finger. We know that attempts have been made to isolate by surgical means the masses of the extensor and flexor muscles in the end of the stump, making from them little prominences, perforated with a tunnel which is lined with skin. The cords pass through the tunnels, and in this way are worked voluntarily. We are not sure that this is practicable. [Illustration: FIGS. 155 to 157.--_Automatic fingers._