Embryonic Grasp

A newborn baby will close its fist on any object which touches its palm--which is to say, the newly delivered infant has a fully developed grasping response. Dr. Davenport Hooker, professor of anatomy at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, knows that the grasping reflex originates in the embryo long before birth. He has an understanding with a Pittsburgh hospital, which notifies him whenever it has on hand a living abortus so that Dr. Hooker can rush to the scene with his photographer, make pictures and experiments before the fetus expires.

At the meeting of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia last week (see above), Dr. Hooker announced that the grasping movement originates in the embryo at the age of about eleven weeks. At this age the embryo, whose thumb is not yet in place, flexes its fingers if the palm is stimulated. At twelve weeks it makes "a pretty fair fist." At 13 1/2 weeks it opens and closes its hand easily. At 15 weeks the thumb comes into play and at 22 weeks the grasp can be described as a real grip.

With admiration in his voice, Dr. Hooker told the spellbound philosophers of a 25-week-old fetus which snatched a glass rod weighing three grams from the scientist's hand, waved it feebly but triumphantly for an instant before the spark of life went out.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.