Not P but Moby-Dick (88)

[Mike Jing]

>From Chapter 108:

Hold;  while Prometheus is about it, I’ll order a complete man after a
desirable pattern.  Imprimis, fifty feet high in his socks;  then, chest
modelled after the Thames Tunnel;  then, legs with roots to ’em, to stay in
one place; then, arms three feet through the wrist;  no heart at all, brass
forehead, and about a quarter of an acre of fine brains;  and let me
see—shall I order eyes to see outwards?  No, but put a sky-light on top of
his head to illuminate inwards.  There, take the order, and away.

What does "arms three feet through the wrist" mean here? Is "there feet"
the width of the wrist? Most of the previous translations interpreted it as
the length of the arms, which doesn't seem right.