Having raised the arm by its muscles, the fingers and thumbs grasp an object, or, in other words, certain muscles which are placed between the bones of the fingers and between the fingers and the bones of the fore-arm, contract and move the bones, which are jointed. The tops of the fingers are bent on the palm, and the thumb is closed on them, and this continues as long as the contraction permits. All the apparatus for long-continued clasping is present in the Gorilla, and there are nearly the same kinds of muscles employed as in man. There are, however, some differences, to one of which it is necessary now to allude. The thumb, for instance, of the Gorilla is of great importance in grasping, but it has not to perform such complicated movements in other things as that of man. In man its movements are most wonderful, and by using one muscle after the other which belongs to it, it can be moved so as to describe a circle with its tip. This is done in the action of “twiddling,” but also in many others where the will hardly influences the muscle, and where the thumb may be said to be moved unconsciously. Gorillas in their quietest and most reflective moods cannot indulge in the sober practice of twiddling, for an important twiddling muscle is absent in them. But it is no great loss, and perhaps it is a real gain, for this muscle would be in the way of rapid clasping, as it rather tends to keep the thumb from the fingers. Whilst the great Ape is thus deficient it has a muscle on the other side of the hand which is not possessed by man, and whose office appears to be to separate as far as is possible the fourth and fifth fingers (their first joints), and by so doing to enlarge the grasp of the whole hand. As the hand of the Gorilla is at least a third larger than that of the averaged-sized man, there is of course a corresponding increase in the space which can be grasped. The muscles are stronger and stouter than in us, and therefore the hand is a more powerful one. Nevertheless it is incompetent of performing many actions which are readily done by a child. [Illustration: HAND BONES OF THE GORILLA.]