Huntsville gazette., 1890-06-21
GENERAL PECULiARITlES.
why the Human Family Is Right Handed
and Left-Iecged.

why the Human Family Is Rght-Hnnded
and LeftLeSged.
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 to these early and nat
ural weapons the further persuasions 4
of a club or shillalah. He also fought,
as Darwin has conclusively shown, in
the main for the possession of the fe-f
males of his kind, against other mons
bers of his own sex and species And
if you fight, you soon learn to protect
the most exposed and vulnerable por-
tion of your body. Or, if 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. A hard blow we'll delivered, on
the left breast will easily kill, or, at any
rate, stun even a strong man. Hence,
from an early period, men have used
the right hand to fight with, and have
employed the left arm chiefly to cover
the heart and parry a blow aimed at
that specially vulnerable region. And
when weapons of offense and defense
supersede mere fists and teeth, it is the
right hand that grasps tho spear or
sword, while the left holds over the
heart for defense the shield or buckler.
From this simple origin, then, tho
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 it
distinct pull, and paved the way at
last for the supremacy elsewhere;
for when weapons came into use
tho habitual employment of the
right hand to grasp the spear, sword or
knife made the nerves or muscles of the
right side far more obedient to the con-
troll of the will than those of the left
The dexterity 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 en-
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;
| it was, therefore, the hand with which
| he Clipped it. To the end, however,
| the right hand re aims, 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 the right, as dancing, run
ming, etc The rule in walking is TO
keep to the right, and this appears to
to bear to the right. OF large num-
Der of people from the better educated
| classes asked about the existence Of the
rule, only 67 per cent Of males and 53
| per cent. of the females were aware
| of the rule. The large majority obey it
unconsciously in walking. Crowds tend
| to bear to the right. The left leg being
| the stronger, it is more readily brought
| into action. Hence, soldiers start off
with the left foot. It 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 man takes off
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
| Dr. Carson Of the skeletons of the two
legs,in 54.2 per cent. the left leg was the
longer, and 35.8 the right Foc 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 21.5 per cent.
the right, and in 34.5 per cent. they
were the same size. Measurements at
the first joint gave Sc per cent. left
larger, and at the instep 42.5 per cent
| From the table of the figures it is OBJ
served that the left foot is more fire.
| quently the larger in the male than il
the female. The percentage Of tho
right larger than the left is very con
slant, whereas the numbers Of the left
larger and those in which both feet
were the same size are much more
variable. Man, being naturally or arti-
ficially 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.
Perfectly Natural.