Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1904-05-03
4EFT-HANDED PEOPLE.
They Are Most Numerous in the Grim
inal Class-Results of Pro-
fessor's Researches.

fNo - Universally kuONH, We
use the right hand very much
more commonly than the hft, the
number of persons who are more
agile with the left hand being
comparatively small. They are or.
dinarily found among women, chill
dren and sayages and they were
more numerous in ages past than
they are now. Much has been
written of these persons, but as
no one has heretofore tried to de-
termine their frequency by means
of statistics, i decided to under.
take that task, with the aid of my
friend, Prof. Marro," says Prof.
Cesare Lombroso, in the North
American Review.
"Among 1,029 operatives and
soldiers | found Il proportion Of
four per cent. among men and five
to eight per cent. in women.
Among lunatics the proportions
are not much different. On the
other hand, studying a certain
number of criminals, the quota of
left-handedness was found more
than tripled in men, 10 per cent.
and nearly quintupled in women,
% per cent. Some particular
kinds of criminals, however, as,
for example, swindlers, offered me
again much greater proportion.
33 per cent, while murderers and
ravishers give less-frOm nine to
ten per cent. At all events, this is
new Characteristic, which con
meets criminals with savages and
differentiates them from sane PEG
pie, as well as lunatics.
"As appetite comes in eating
according to the prOverb), so,
once in the midst of these firsttlis-
coveries, l wished to see if / could
not go further in my researches.
Until now, | thought, left-handed-
ness only has been studied.
Would it not be worth the trouble
to search. if there be not, also,
left-sidedness' as applied to the
senses-that is, if there be not
men who have a greater sensi.
hility on the left than on the right
side? With this idea l instituted
a sort of physiological surveil-
lance over a number of my
friends and colleagues, and over
some workingmen.
"As a result, found that left
sidedness is in much larger pro
portion than left-handedness,
showing itself in no less than 2G
per cent. of normal people. The
curious fact appeared also that
left-handed people do not have
more of this sensitive left-sided-
ness than right-handed people,
and not even as much, at least in
the sense of touch, as criminals.
who average y per cent, although
they show a difference in the IN
tensity of the sense of touch.
The proportion of sensitive left
sided people among criminals,
however, becomes very much more
if one takes into account the sen
sibility to pain, which they have
more highly developed in the left
side, and visual sharpness, which.
according 10 the calculations Of
DR.. Bono. is not only greater i'm
them than in honest men, but is
more accentuated in the left eve
than in the right. In lunatics, as
is revealed by the researches Of
TOnini and Amadei, this sensitive
left-sidednesS is almost more the
rule than the exception, rising as
high as A per cent. 1t appears,
then, that left-handed people are
more numerous among criminals
and sensitive left-sided people
among lunatics.
"Here | will note a curious
thing. Long before l, after much
technical observation, came to
this conclusion, the people in the
provinces of Emilia, Lombardy
and Tuscany had already declared
the same when they framed and (
used the saying: He is left-hand- |
ed to express the idea that a per .
son is untrustWorthv."