The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-11-14
NORMAL MAN R|GHTARED
That Is, the Right Side is
the Better Servant.
LOCATES SPEECH AREA
Curious Features of the Onesided-
ness Of Man-One Thing That Dis.
tfnguishes Him From the Beast
Why Left Handed Children Should
BE Trained That Way.

Most men. 1t has been discovered.
are right cared. 1t is not SO much
that they hear better with the right
ear. for the left eur will detect the
ticking of a watch as far away as the
other; but while both ears hear, II is
the right ear that listens-a fact
which any one can easily test for
himself. One ear will catch a faint
sound about as quick as the other.
but the right ear is the first to recog-
nize the noise and to know 1t for
watch or distant trolley car or rail-
way train or what not,
Curiously too the right ear Is the
better servant Of the mind. Not only
are sounds better recognized and To-
GATED with this ear, but-always, of
course, in right handed men-they
are remembered better.
The usual test It to stop one ear
Of the subject, read him a string of
disconnected words or a coherent
sentence, and after the lapse of
flxed time let him see how much he
can recall. 1t turns out that when
the left ear has been stopped and the
hearing has been done with the right
distinctly more can be recollected
than when the conditions are re-
versed.
A few persons have been found
who can remember more when they
listen with the right ear alone than
when the both are in use. The ear
which merely hears only confuses the
one that pays attention.
Apparently with men naturally left
handed all this is reversed and the
left ear does most the work.
Nearly all right handed men sight
with the right eye, use that eye with
a telescope and hold 1t opposite the
point where they read. Left handed
men are apt to use the left eye for
these purposes. Any one can try
for himself and see whether, though
he can make out the letters on the
page equally we'll with either eye, he
does not read more rapidly and easily
with one eye than with the other.
Right or left handedness is, there
fore, something more than an acci-
dent or a matter Of education. There
Is fundamental right or left sided
ness which effects eye and ear as
we'll as hand.
The brain is far more onesided
-
question Of remembering better or
thinking quicker with one side than
With the other. One side absolutely
does It all.
This, one need not point out, is, In
nine men out Of ten, the left side.
Il Is we'll kown that the nerves cross
over from one side Of the brain to
the other side Of the body, 80 that
the left brain manages the right side
Of the body and the right brain the
left half.
Practically, then. eye, hand. ear
and brain are all tied together. The
more useful members of each pair
are most closely related to one an
other. We are right handed be-
cause we are left Drained. II we
chance to be left handed 1t ia be-
cause we were. to begin with, right
brained.
What, therefore. nature has Joined
together parents and teachers should
not attempt to put asunder. some
investigators argue. II a child Is
naturally left handed 1t is unwise to
attempt to make him change. The
only result will be to break up tho
quartet of hand, eye, ear and brain
and shift one member over to the
other side to weaken Its connection
with the other organs and to handi-
cap the victim of mistaken effort.
The left handed person is made
artificially right handed. He still re-
mains left eyed and left cared. He
still does his thinking with the right
side of his brain. His speech center
Is still on that side. Sight, hearing.
thinking and speech are related. as
they should be. But for writing,
Ciphering, drawing, or anything else
that requires both thought and skill
all the nervous impulses instead Of
flowing out normally and directly
from the hight brain to the left hand,
have to cross over to the other side Of
the head and pass out from there to
the other hand. One crossing from
outside world to mind, and one from
mind to outside world is natures
rule. To introduce more crossing
into the circuit Is to put another OBJ
stacle between the idea and the ex-
pression.
We are then right or left handed
because we are right or left Drained.
The distinctively human facility Of
articulate speech has been grated on
TO one side of the brain only. The
other side Is as dumb as the brain OF
a dog.
Nobody knows why, In the nrst
place, the speech center got on the
left side. But being there. 1t gives
hand and eve and ear on the rfSfit