The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1876-11-18
Our 0Iu.
Why are We Right Handed2

Why are We Right Handed?
There i, in Sir Charles Bells Bridge
Nater treatise, quaintly.worded passage
ii which the author endeavors to deal
with the reason why We normally use the
right hand in preference of the left. At.
Ter surfeit of Haeckle and Darwin after,
as must Be the case when one attempts to
keep en- rapport with modern scientific
thought, becoming fairly imbued with the
notion that distinct creative acts never
took place and that fire, mist and the pri-
NAL germ are our legitimate ancestors in
unbroken line, there is something positively
refreshing to turn back to earlier writings,
and there to find a material theory con
temptu0usly dismissed in order that the
author may anchor his faith to the idea
that man was created right-handed by
Divine Intention. He says that 'the pre-
ference Of the right hand is not the effect
Of habit, but is natural provision, and is
bestowed for very obvious purpose )" but
what that purpose is he fails to make clear,
except inferentially in the statement that
utherc ought to be no hesitation which
hand Is 10 be used or which foot is 10 be
put forward nor is there, in fact, any such
indccision. Any one who has ever wit
messed the amusing spectacle of a squad
OF raw recruits learning the goose step.
will be disposed to combat this last asser.
ton II requires longer teaching than
WON Be imagined to impress upon the
embryo soldier that the left foot is first to
be moved. Experience goes clearly to
show, besides, that the average individual
steps of Unfortunately with either foot
and hence the selection of the left foot,
merely to secure uniformity in the military
Giles. has been made, though the very fact
again is curiously at variance with the
above authors intimation that heaven
implanted instinct teaches us to put the
right foot forward
We have mentioned Bells treatise not.
however, for the sake of the theory which
ho maintains, but for the one which he
rcjects in few brief lines. 1T is affirm
cd, Y he says, ''that the trunk of the artery
going to the right arm passes off from the
heart so as to admit the blood directly and
moro forcibly into the small vessels of the
arm. This is assigning cause which is
Unequal to the effect" he adds and prob.
ebly supposing that no other cause would
ever be combined Herewith to bring it up
70 equality, he CURLY pronounces it "par-
ticipation in the common error of seeking
Ii the mechanism the cause of phenomena
xhich have deeper source" said source
boing supernatural. For the man who
discovered the functions of motion and
1e6sation pertaining to the brain and
spinal marrow who located the sensory
7erves, and those which form the wonder
nj telegraphs commanded by the will, and
who showed that the nerves of the differ
emit senses are connected with distinct
81 the active interference Of an Unknown
Power with human mechanics is indeed
strange, 1t is to this faith, however,
that must be ascribed this neglect to
prosecute the investigation which, very
reoently carried through by n French
physician, DR.. Fleury, Of Bordeaux, have
adduced facts showing that our natural
impulse to use the members on the right
aide Of the body is clearly traceable to
probably physiological causes.
DR.. Fleury, after examining an immense
number Of human encephala, asserts that
the leff anterior lobe is little larger than
tho right one. Again he shows that, by
examining large number of people, there
II an unequal supply Of blood to the two
rides Of the body. The branchio.cephalic
5 trunk, which only exists on the right of
the norta, produces, by a difference in
terminatiou, an inequality in the waves
Of red blood which travel from right to
leIt. Moreover. the diameters Of the