[5] The following quotations from the works of some of the leading authorities may be of interest to the reader:— “Methodical gymnastic exercises of the hands and fingers afford the very best means of overcoming the technical difficulties.”—Schmidt’s “Annals of Medicine.” “Technical difficulties will most safely and quickly be conquered by proper gymnastic exercises of the hand and fingers.”—Dr Dietz, Member of the Royal Council of Medicine. “To obtain technical skill and muscular steadiness, a gymnastic education is the best means.”—P. M. Link. The gymnast exercises his limbs through preparatory exercises; how, therefore, is it possible for the player of the piano and violin to dispense with this gymnastic preparation of the joints of the hand and fingers?”—Prof. Rector v. Schmidt, President of the Royal Gymnasium. “La souplesse et l’étendue des poignets dépendent du développement gymnastique des forces. La gymnastique développe l’aisance et la grâce.”—Dr M. Bally. “For so great an art as piano or violin playing, the muscles of the fingers are weak; they ought to be prepared by proper gymnastic exercises.”—Ferguson. CHAPTER V. THE FINGER-JOINTS ARE THE LEAST EXERCISED, AND THE WEAKEST. To become a skilful musician is no small matter. There is no art which demands more labour, patience, and especially more _time_, than, for instance, piano or violin playing; and at least half of that time is for years required for the particular purpose of strengthening the muscles of the fingers, and rendering them flexible. And why so many years? Because the muscles, the ligaments, and the tendons of the finger-joints and wrists have not previously been gymnastically exercised and trained. To prove in a practical manner that it is particularly important to prepare the muscles and ligaments of the fingers and hand, I will cite a fact which may appear startling, but which, nevertheless, is true, viz., that the muscles and tendons of the fingers, in spite of their great importance, are, proportionately speaking, the least of all practised in daily life. Take all sorts of people from amongst the labouring classes, such as the smith, the joiner, the gardener, the bricklayer, the stone-mason, the husbandman, the day-labourer, &c., &c. They are at work the whole day, and acquire arms like steel and muscle like giants; but they very _rarely_ use the _fingers_, which, therefore, remain unexercised. And it is the same with the educated classes, without difference of age or sex. This is the reason why the learning of piano and violin playing is attended with such great difficulties, and why the muscles and ligaments of the hand ought to be trained by proper gymnastic exercises. For their weakness arises, for physiological reasons, from the very fact of their inactivity. This fact I will satisfactorily prove in the sequel, for it forms the basis and key of my discoveries. CHAPTER VI.