The thumb is not seen in the least in one kind of Colobos, the true
Colobos (_Colobos verus_); in others it is like a little knob, but in
none is it of any use. In the corresponding member of other Monkeys
there are three bones, one placed before the other. The first, the
metacarpal, is the nearest the wrist, and is jointed to the wrist-bone
called trapezium, and in front it is in contact with the second bone,
or the first phalanx of the thumb. This is ended by the second phalanx,
which bears the nail. These are terms used by anatomists, and the
word metacarpal means “the next in order of rank to the wrist.” These
metacarpal bones intervene between the knuckles and the wrist, and
are long and parallel with each other, there being five in the hand.
They are not usually very movable on the wrist, but that of the thumb
is, and they have a joint at the further end which unites them with
the so-called internode or phalanx-bone, No. 1. The word internode
means between joints, and the term phalanx is one of those unmeaning
applications of Greek terms which abound in anatomy. The phalanx was
an order of battle, and means rows placed in parallel order: the
internodes of the fingers, when in place, are one before the other and
side by side, like the soldiers in the Greek order of battle. Each
phalanx represents a bone: there are two in the thumb, and three in the
other fingers. In the Colobos there is a joint on the wrist-bone for
a thumb, but no thumb exists, but there is just a little vestige of a
bone, and it is probably the first phalanx, or internode, and not the
metacarpal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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