Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-08-03
AS WE USEOUR HANDS
THE PREFERENCE FOR THE RIGHT
AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE.
In Primitive Times 1t Is Probable
That Both Hands Were Equally
Used-What the HierOglyphics OF
the Egyptians Teach Us.


handed may start the question wheth-
er the human animal was always right
handed, for abnormality often indicates
a trying back" to an ancestral condi-
ton. Now, when we look at our Ian
guage, and that in the case of man is
a fair test, we find how strongly the
comparative force exhibited by each
of the hands has left its mark on our
common expressions. The right is the
ruling" hand; the left is the worth
less" or the weaker" hand If we re-
gard the derivative meanings of the
names. In words imported from the
Latin certain ability is called ''dex-
terity," or right handedness, while that
which has an evil or unsuccessful influ-
ence becomes sinister" or left handed.
In like manner if we look at words
from a French source we find that a
clever person is "adroit" because he
has right handed qualities, but clum-
sy person is "gauche" because his work
is left handed.
1t is evident that when our race be-
words for ideas and things the rule was
that the members of it were right
handed. And if we examine other lam
guages we find proofs that such a rule
existed among the people using them.
There is, however, good reason for
thinking that man originally could use
either hand equally well.
This seems a hazardous statement to
make about a remote ancestor in the
age before the great glacial epoch had
furrowed the mountains of northern
Europe, but nevertheless it is strictly
true and strictly demonstrable. Just
try as you read to draw with the fore
finger and thumb of your right hand
an imaginary human profile on the
page on which these words are printed
Do you observe that (unless you are an
artist and therefore sophisticated you
naturally and instinctively draw it with
the face turned toward your left shoul-
der? Try now to draw it with the
profile to the right and you will find 1t
requires a far greater effort of the
thumb and forefinger.
The hand moves of its own accord
from without inward, not from within
outward. Then again draw with your
left thumb and forefinger another imag-
mary profile and you will find. for the
same reason, that the face in this case
looks rightward. Existing savages and
our own young children whenever they
draw figure in profile, be it of man
or beast, with their right hand, draw it
almost always with the face or head
turned TO the left, in accordance with
this natural instinct. Their doing so
is a test Of their perfect right handed
ness.
But primitive man, or, at any rate,
the most primitive men we know per-
sonally, the carvers of the figures from
the French bone caves, drew men and
beasts on bone or mammoth tusk turn
ed either way indiscriminately. The in
ference is obvious. They must have
been ambidextrous. Only ambidextroUs
people draw so at the present day,
and, indeed, to scrape a figure other
wise with sharp flint on a piece of
bone or tooth or mammoth tusk would,
even for q practiced hand, be compare
lively difficult (Allen).
In connection with this passage it Is
to examine the reports of
the bureau of ethnology, where it will
be seen that, although the majority of
profles executed by the North Amer
lean Indians follow the rule, many
faces also turn to the right, and it is
found that left handedness, or, rather
ambidexterity. is very common among
these tribes
But doubtless the reader will notice
that in writing his hand moves from
left to right and not from right to left.
Here is an apparent violation of the
principle laid down in the quotation
given from Grant Allen. 1t is, how
ever, more apparent than real. If you
study Egyptian hieroglyphics you will
find that profifes invariably look to the |
left. Hebrew, Arabic, Hindoostanee |
and other ancient languages read from |
right to left. In these, as in some |
modern tongues, we have to begin the |
book at what is to us the wrong end |
The reason of this is that the early Ian |
guages were inscribed, not written. A |
tablet Of marble or a brick formed the |
page The right hand could therefore |
carve or impress the symbol in the nat |
ural way and pass on. With the intro |
1uction of wax tablets of papyrus and |
In later times. of parchment and paper.
A difficulty arose, for If the hand began
at the right and worked leftward it |
would obliterate its own work
Hence the habit of writing from left |
to right, so that not only may the writ
Ing be clean, but also that it may be
visible. With writing from left to right
came also reading in the same, drec-
ton, and one result of this is very curl
BUS. We have become so accustomed
to moving the eyes from left to right
that we instinctiyely look at things in
hat way. Close your eyes in room
md then open them. You will find, I'M
less you make positive effort, that
your eyes take in the objects on the
eft hand first and then move to the