The record-union., 1899-04-30
AMBIDExTROUSNESS.
WHY WE SHOULD TRAIN BOTH
HANDS TO EQUAL USE.
cause OF Observation-Disclosures
Of Research-The Advantage
Of Ambidexterity.
IA paper read recently before the Critic
Siup, Sacramento. by F. H. Metcalf, e

IA "A paper read recently before the Critic
b. s. ' aAns7'''o' oy r. n. Meecan' -
Ambldexter, taken from the Latin
AMBER, both, dexter, right--a person
VINO uses both hands with equal facility.
why we are right handed or right. foot
Gu mas baffied scientists for years, and
- am not prepared to say we are any
itearer the solution of the problem than
we We're at the beginning of the CEN
y. Win, however, present to your
Hotlces some of the many theories that
nave been advanced from time to time
Sonnnlng myself to upper extremltleS
as playing the most important part in
ue1cate manipulation and presuminS
anat none of YOU have aspirations as
contortionists or ballet dancers.
There, are, however, traces of prehen-
SHE capacity in the human foot. There
are numerous cases on record of per-
sons born without arms or who nave
lost them by accident early in life be-
coming quite skfllful in many delicate
operations with their toes-writing
Painting, etc; but the human foot in
Its most perfect development is not q
hand, though the muscles are scarcely
less elaborate, it Is restricted largely
IN its movements by the modern shoe.
But let us return to the hand, one
of the most marked characteristics of
man; it is the organ of the will and
works in unison with both brain and
heart; without it mans intellectual SUI
premacy would count for little It is
the index of character in both men and
women. We have the elementary hand;
"a f1r1
Nall denoting different phases of charac-
Hsr. 1t is the organ of dexterity and
5 f3rce; it performs for us the function
of sight in the darkness; it enables the
blind to receive correct impressions and
thus read by means of raised letters;
ls serves as a dumb, but universal mode
of communication by means of signs
with all nations and races. regardless of
tongue, color or cline
1t gives expression to the genius, elo-
quence, courage and affection, the will
and the power of man. We are all in a
measure hand workers. For the queens
hand the sceptre, the artists the brush,
the authors his pen, the farmer the
pillow, the surgeon and dentist, instru
ments without number; woman her
needle (alt which she is a greater sue
cess than throwing a stone or driving
naiD, for each man and woman there is
some skilled work they can learn to do
The natural capacity of the hands is
a necessary companion to mans INTEL
lectual development. Why not use them
both equally, instead of allowing GUS
tom to make one hand supplementary
to the other? Is there any distinction
in nature. THERE seems to be a decided
and unconscious preference in most peo-
pie, transmitted from the beginning OF
the race, and it has been accepted as
the normal usage of the whole world
(no purely left handed race has ever
been discovered), with no more reason
for its existence than any other special
function of the hand
Thomas Carlyle's right hand be-
came paralyZed after plying the pen
increasingly for years, and when too
late for him to turn to the left with
any hope of success. He often refers in
his journal to this irreparable loss He
says: Curious to consider the insti-
tuition of the right hand among univer-
sal mankind; probably the Oldest hu-
man institution that exists; indfspens-
ible to all human cooperation whatso-
ever" I differ, and shall show later on
that TO be a1nbidextrous would be the
ideal condition for mankind. He speaks
of three mowers, one left handed, try
ing to work together as being the
simplest form of an impossibility. He
adds: II wonder if there are any people
barbarous enough not to have this dis
tinction of hands?"
He said it probably arose in fighting.
Being most important to protect the
heart and adjacencies, to carry the
prove to be the primary source of right
handedness. it is certain when once de-
veloped and followed for any length
of time the tendency is to foster the
use of the right hand even in indiffer-
emit movements. Who knows but what
Mother Eve may have established the
custom in making her toilet, though her
wardrobe was not as elaborate as at
the present day? which has innumer-
able hooks and buttons, all made to
faxten with the right hand. Things are
hardly better in a gentleman's ward
robe, and a left-handed man is COM
PEELED to become in a measure ambi-
dextrous or he is in imminent danger
Of dislocating his shoulder-blade every
time he buttons his trousers.
Yet either hand is capable of great
cultivation. The hand of the savage,
while well fitted for the work to which
it is applied, is a far different instru-
ment from that of the sculptor, artist
or surgeon. The difference is entirely
one of development. As we have in the
ascending scale the cultivated and ed
Gated man, so we have the educated
hand as one of the characteristic feat
ures of civilization The phenomena to
be explained is not merely why one
individual uses one hand better than
another. but it appears that all nations
savage and civilized have expressed
a prefence for the right hand. In that
case it is rain to account for it as an
acquired habit; yet there have always
been exceptions.
In the oldest source of direct his
torical knowledge, the Bible, the Book
of Judges shows that in the tribe Of
BENJAMIN the skill of the left handed
was specially marked, And the Lord
raised up as deliyerer of Israel from
the oppression of Eglon, King of Moab.
Ehud, son of Gera, who was Benja-
1ninte and left-handed." A later chapter
speaks of 700 men of the same tribe
chosen narksmen, adj left-handed, who
could sling stone a hairs breadth and
not miss. It would seem that left-hand-
edness was especially marked in that
tribe.
In the Book of Chronicles it Is said
when David was in hiding from Saul
at Ziklag there came to him there a
company of Saul's brethren, mighty men