1
Professor of Engineering, University of California,
Los Angeles; member, Advisory Committee on Artificial
Limbs, National Research Council, and of the
Technical Committee on Prosthetics, ACAL, NRC.
2
Instructor in Otolaryngology, College of Medical
Evangelists, Los Angeles; formerly Assistant in Engineering
Research, University of California, l.os Angeles.
ical possibilities, give to the hand its capacity
for innumerable patterns of action.
T H E FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURE OE THE HAND
THE BONES
The bones of the hand, shown in Figure 1,
naturally group themselves into the carpus,
comprising eight bones which make up the
wrist and root of the hand, and the digits, each
composed of its metacarpal and phalangeal
segments (Table 1). The carpal bones are
Table 1
BONES AND JOINTS OF THE HAND AND WRIST