Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-12-18


we understand that its seeming short
steps each announ ces that down in the
heart Of the great building the tiny, tremb
ling second hand of the regulator has Just
completed another delicate circle anC
marked the fight Of another minute.-.W
F. W., in Springfield Republican.
THE RIGHT HAND.
No Reason Why it should be SO Much
More Important Than the Left
There must be few persons of inquiring
disposition who have not at some time
speculated upon the subject of Sir Daniel
Wilson's treatise on the origin of right.
handed-ness and the causes that have es-
tablished its predominance. Most people
are content to account for their right
handedness by the influence of education,
custom or heredity. Or, they will say il
IS by nature or instinct that they use the
right hand in preference to the left The
number of the left-handed, according to
the best authorities, is but per cent of
the worlds population. There are nc
grounds for supposing that in historic
times at least the percentage of the left
handed exceeded this figure. Nor 60 Sir
Daniel Wilson's resources in prehistoric
art and archaeology tend to snow that the
preferential use of the right hand was not
general among mankind The use of the
left hand appears TO have been always ex-
ceptional. The right hand ruled; the left
was subservient. We may venture to sug-
gest that we owe the historical record of
such examples of left handeduess as Sir
Daniel Wilson cites-e. G. the 700 left
handed Benjamite slingers-q1ite as much
TO the wonder excited among the right.
handed, as to any exceptional degree of
skill, estimated by the FORMAL standard.
But the ancient and unyarying prevalence
CT the rule of the right, while it suppl s
the inquirer with the keenest Indictment,
does not tend to simplify the obscurity of
It's origin. Then. too, the curious per-
slstence of left handedness, in spite of the
ever increasing forces of custom and edu-
cation, Is problem that naturally comes
within the scope of inquiry. Why should
the one hand be preferred before the other ?
Why has the right hand been thus honor
ed? Why that particular hand was
chosen, Carlyle ob erves, lis question
motto be settled mot worth asking, except as
kind of riddle Happily such is not Sir
Daniel Wilson's conclusion, or the world
had been deprived of an ingenious and
stimulative book. That there IS right
side In man does not admit of serious
dispute, although Sir Thomas Browne was
mot yet assured which was the right
side, or whether there be any such dis
tincti0n in nature" The distinction of
right and left oates from remotest anti
guilty. Not to know the left hand from
the right Is the privilege of infancy. But
1t is still an open question whether the
distinction Is natural. There can be no
doubt, however, as to the preference of
the right hand. If it can be shown, -
remarked Sir Daniel Wilson, ''that all
nations, civilized and savage, appear to
have used the same hand, it is in vain to
look fer he origin OF this as an acquired
habit. Only by referring it to some
anatomical cause can its general rreva-
lence among all races and in every age,
be satisfactorily accounted for" And it
Is to this conclusion that Sir Daniel Will
son s inquiry decidedly points. From the
very birth of arts and crafts man has been
right handed. The evidence of ancient
sculptures and paintings is overwhelming.
Passing beyond such comparatively mod
ern examples as the sculptures of Assyria
and Egypt to the art of Pal8olithlc man,
when the primitive artist was free to do
what was right In his own eyes, the gen
eral preference OF the right hand is fully
established. Mr.. Cushing and other
practical investigators into the art of flint
Notwithstanding agree that the cave
men were, as a rule, right-handed The
study OF language, again, reveals the un-
1Versal honor accorded to the right hand
n all circumstances and relation of human
life, and the not less striking preiudices
against the left hand and left handed
ness. Sir Daniel Wilson supplies abund-
ant Illustration of these points, sufficient,
indeed, to Justify the inquirer in seeking
a physiological or anatomical explanation
OF the preferential use of the right hand.
Science, however, has not arrived at the
solution of tho mystery, and the final
phase OF the inquiry is left undecided. 1t
follows, of course, that if physiology could
explain the preference for the right hand
1t could also satisfactorily account for
strange and invincible exceptions to the
Iuie. II, tor example, ght-handedness is
due to departure from perfect symmetry
III the arrangement of the vital organs of
the BODY, a reversal of the normal con-
dltlon would confidently be looked for in
the lett-handed. But the theories of
specialists appear to be all more or less in
conclusive. GA the whole. Sir Daniel
Wilson lncIines rather to the view that
finds an.expanation to right handedness in
the superior development Of the left cerebal
hemisphere, which influences the whole
action OF the right side of the body. But
he observes, with great force. In his re-
marks on DR.. Brown-Sequar1,s argu-
ments, that this eminent physioogist
like most other rieht-handed review ers
the phenomena Of left-handedness, fails TO
appreciate the bearings of his own argu-
mPnt in the case of a left-handed pers on
conforming in ulauy ways to the usage Of
the majority, yet instinctively giving the
preference to the left-hand." Sir Daniel
wilson describes himself as ''incorrig;blv
ft-handed," and with all the education
of his right hand he has never lost his
per eIentlal instinct for using the left. la
actlous that demand muscular force he uses
his left baGd This. we believe is trus Of
most left-handeI PEI sons, and may have In
rspired. Charles Reade's notion that the
ank barbarian amb -iextcouS, for tie
letr-handed are wholly OF partially ambi-
dextrouS Blu, as Sir Daniel Wills N am
Ply demonstrates, there is 10 proof what
ever that primitive man was left handed
and amibl-dextrous. Ia short. the wrong
ness of right handedness is falacy. The
advantages of ambi deterity could scarcely
be very consld, Fable among fighting
people, OF lie h rnced. ess would have sur
vived, through training to a much greater
extent thai 1t has. 1t iseasy TO see why
was never n ourased in the disciplined
forces of the Greeks and Romans. Exeep-
tional dexterity, as Sir Daniel Wilson
forclbly remarks, is the gift of the true
right and Of the irur ief,-handed
-Exch.