I thereupon visited houses and institutions where men _do_ work with their fingers, viz., where carvers in wood and ivory, in steel, copper, and stone, painters and draughtsmen, watchmakers and fine mechanists, spinners and weavers, printers and compositors, &c., drive their trade, and after that, people who are in the habit of writing much, and even the whole day, such as authors, copyists, clerks, stenographers, lithographers, as well as sempstresses and workwomen;—in short, all those who have much finger-work, or earn their living by their fingers. And here I observed all kinds of finger diseases, such as stiffness of the joints and limbs, writers’ cramp, hands and forearms debilitated in the highest degree, paralyzed limbs, nervous weakness, &c. Then I said to myself, “A light begins to dawn upon me. I find, _first_, that the fingers are the least exercised, in the ordinary occupations of life, of all the active members of the body; _secondly_, that they are on that account relatively and physiologically the weakest; and, _thirdly_, that they are also the _only_ active members which are not gymnastically trained and treated. I must consider the matter now ANATOMICALLY, PHYSIOLOGICALLY, and GYMNASTICALLY.” And I forthwith began to make all sorts of artistic and mechanical experiments, for the purpose of gymnastically exercising, stretching, and developing the muscles, the ligaments, and joints of the fingers and hands in all directions, so as to strengthen and prepare them for playing the piano and the violin, as well as other instruments, and for all kinds of finger-work and handicraft. In doing so I studied the physiology of the muscles and ligaments, and directed especial attention to the _transverse metacarpal ligament_. In comparing this anatomy with the difficulties experienced, I sought to discover a means more particularly of stretching the _ligaments_ or bands which run _transversely_ across the hands and knuckles. This I succeeded in effecting, and then I discovered, to my astonishment, that the moment I had applied my gymnastic movements to these stout and very obstinate elastic bands, the _muscles_ became instantaneously looser, and moved with greatly increased freedom and agility. In a word, the _muscles were set free_. At the same time I tried on _myself_ various simple, natural, free movements with the joints of the fingers, in order to examine them practically and physiologically, and thus to found a system on solid principles. And I may here be permitted to state as the result, in my own case, that though at that time 54 years of age, after I had diligently practised the course of gymnastic exercises herein described, a comparatively short time, every day, my fingers and wrists became so strong and flexible that I was able to play, and can now play upon the violin many hours daily in succession without fatigue.