Another quality which separates monkeys very markedly from ordinary
mammals is their manipulative expertness, the co-ordination of hand
and eye. This great gift follows from the fact that among monkeys the
fore-leg has been emancipated. It has ceased to be indispensable as an
organ of support; it has become a climbing, grasping, lifting, handling
organ. The fore-limb has become a free hand, and everyone who knows
monkeys at all is aware of the zest with which they use their tool. They
enjoy pulling things to pieces--a kind of dissection--or screwing the
handle off a brush and screwing it on again.
[Illustration: _Photo: W. P. Dando_