Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1890-06-19

GENERAL PECuLlARlTlEs.


why inc human famiit ~ llght7ihnuou
and Leit-Legged.
The reason why men are as general
rule right-handed is thus ingeniously
given Primitive man, being by nature
a fighting animal, fought for the most
part at FIRST with his great canine teeth,
his nails and his fists, till In process Of
time he added 10 these early aud nat
ural weapons, the further persuasions
Of club or shillalah. He also fought
as Darwin has concluslvely shown, in
the main for tha possession OF the fe-
males Of his kind, against other mem-
bers Of his own sex and species. And
II you fight, you soon learn TO protect
the most exposed and vulnerable por-
tion of your body. Or, II you don't nat
ural selection manages it for you, by
killing you of as an immediate conse-
quence. To the boxer, wrestler or
hand -to-hand combatant, that most vul-
nerable portion is undoubtedly the
heart hard blow we'll delivered, on
the left breast will easily kill, or, at any
rate, stun even strong man. Hence,
from an early period, men have used
the right hand 10 fight with, and have
employed the left arm chiefly TO cover
the heart and parry blow aimed at
that specially vulnerable region. And
when weapons of offense and defense
supersede mere fists and teeth. II is the
right hand that grasps the spear or
sword, while the left holds over the
heart for defense tho shield or buekler.
From this simple origin. then, the
whole vast difference of right and left
in civilized life takes its beginning. At
first, no doubt the superiority OF the
right hand was only felt in the manner
OF fighting But that alone gave 1t
distinct pull, and paved the way at
last fer the supremacy elsewhere;
for when weapons came into use
the babitual employment of the
right hand to grasp the spear sword or
knife made the nerves or muscles of the
right side far more ohedient to the con-
troll OF the win than those of the left
The dcxterity thus acquired by the
right-see how the word 'dexterity"
(from the Latin dexter, the right i'm
plies this fact-made it more natural
for the early hunter and artificer TO em-
ploy the same hand preferentially in the
manufacture of flint hatchets, bows
and arrows, and all the other manifold
activities OF savage life. 1t was the
hand with which he grasped his weapon;
1t was. therefore, the hand with which
he Clipped It, To the end, however,
the right hand remains, especially the
hand in which you hold your knife;"
and that is how your own children to
this day decide the question, which is
which, when they begin to know their
right hand from their left for practical
purposes.
Now man being right-handed, it would
naturally be supposed that he is also
right-legged, but this does not appear
to be the case. Standing and working
with his right hand, there is a tendency
TO use the left leg for balance. Many
people find less exertion in going round |
circles TO the right than to the left.
Race paths are nearly always made for
running in circles to the right, So the
majority OF movements are more readily |
performed to &le right, as.dapSing, run
ming. etc The rule in walking is to |
keep to the right, and this appears to |
be almost universal. 1t is more natural |
to bear TO the right OF large num- |
Der of people from tho better educated |
classes asked about the existence of the |
rule, only 81 per cent of males and So /
per cent. of the females were aware
of the rule. The large majority obey it |
unconsciously in walking. Crowds tend I
to bear to the right The left leg being |
the stronger, u Is more readily brought I
into action. Hence, soldiers start off /
with the left foot II is the foot which |
is placed into the stirrup of the saddle
or step of bicycle when mounting So |
the left is the foot wich a man takes of /
from in jumping In the experiments
of Mr.. G.. II. Darwin, blindfolding boys
and telling them to walk straight, the
right-handed one divered TO the right,
and vice versa. From measurements of
DIR. Carson of the skeletons OF the two
legs, in 54,2 per cent the left leg was the
longer, and 35.s the right. For meas
urements of feet, Prof. Ball collected
the drawings and measurements of 200
pairs, with the result that in A per cent.
the left was longer, in 2t5 per cent.
the right, and in 345 per cent they
we're the same size. Measurements at
the first joint gave So per cent left
larger, and at the instep AZ. 5 per cent
From the table .of the figures it is OBJ
served that the left foot is more fre-
quently the larger in the male than in
the female. The percentage of the
right larger than the left is very con-
stant, whereas the numbers of the left
larger and those in which both feet
we're the same size are much more
Man, being naturally or arti-
hcially right-handed and left-footed,
tends unconsciously to bear TO the right;
lower animals, on the other hand. APP
pear nearly always to circle to the left.
Boston Herald.