Various uses of the hand.  — with the hand we affirm or reject the proposition with more force than with the tongue.  It is the first to greet, and the last to bid our friends goodbye.  We use it to express our joy and pleasure, or to give vent to our fear and horror.  In the hour of peril we employ it in powerful supplication to Him to whom we look for succor and help, and it adds force and power to the appeals of suffering, of sorrow and of woe.  It bestows its loving caresses on the Downey cheek of the baby, invokes the blessings of Heaven, pleads for mercy, or hurls curses on our enemies. Indeed, we do not always seem to realize how many notes in the tune of human life a hand of man is made to play.  Its beauties, it’s perfect at its ability, it varied endowments, and the different uses to which it is applied, are almost beyond our thoughts, and he was deprived of this useful member sustained a loss that none can estimate, nor the wealth of Croesus compensate.

The Croesus reference relates to a very rich king that lived around the 500 BC period in what is today modern day Turkey.  The reference of course is one that indicates that some things when lost can not be made up for with money at any level.  You can repair some injuries, you can even compensate for others such as a drug addiction by attending drug rehabs.