The Lake County times., 1906-08-01
AS WE USE OUR HANDS
THE PREFERENCE FOR THE RIGHT
AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE.

I
That Both Hands Were Equally
Used-What the HierogIyphics of
the Egyptians Teach Us.
The fact that some persons are left
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 derlvative meanings of the
names. In words imported from the
Latin a certain ability is called ''dex-
terity," or right handedness, while that
which has an evil or unsuccessful infiu-
ence becomes sinister" or left handed.
In like manner IL we look at words
from a French source we find that
clever person is "adroit'' because he
has right handed qualities, but a clum
sy person is "gauche" because his work |
is left handed
1t is evident that when our race be /
came SO far advanced as to frame /
words for ideas and things the rule was |
that the members of it were right !
handed. And if we examine other Ian |
/ guages we find proofs that such 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
4 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 sophisticated0 yop
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 it
requires a far greater effort of the
thumb and forefnger.
"The hand moves of its own accord
from without inward, not from within
outward. Then again draw with your
left thumb and forefnger another mag
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 a 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 a sharp flint on a piece of
bone or tooth or mammoth tusk would,
even for practiced hand, be compare
; lively difficult (Allen).
In connection with this passage it is
interesting to examine the reports of
, the bureau of ethnology, where it will
be seen that, although the majority of
profiles 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
u 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 vii
find that profiles invariably look to the
left. Hebrew, Arabic, Hindoostanet
: and other ancient languages read from
right to left. In these, as in some
= modern tongues, we have to begin th'
- hook at what is to us the wrong end
The reason of this is that the early Ian
guages were inscribed, not written.
:, tablet Of marble or brick formed th,
page. The right hand could therefor
carve or impress the symbol in the nat
ural way and pass on. With the intro
duction Of wax tablets Of papyrus ant
In later times of parchment and paper
n. difficulty arose. for If the hand begal
~ at the right and worked leftward
- would obliterate its own work.
a. Hence the habit of writing from lef
- to right, so that not only may the writ
- ing be clean, but also that it may b
= viSihln With xr-.irirn1r from, Lat 70 ir-l,