The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-31
(Chicago Inter Oceon.D

tthlcagO Inter OCeOn.)
Most men, ii has just been discovered.
are right-e1red. 1t is not so much so
that they near better with the right
ear; the left ear will detect the ticking
OF watch as far away as the other.
But while both ears hear. it is the
right ear that listens-a fact which
any one can easily test for himself One
ear will catch faint sound about as
quickly as the other. but the right is
first to recognize the noise and TO know
it from watch or distant trolley car or
railway l. ain or what not.
Curiously, too. the right ear is the
better servant of the mind. Not only
ere sounds better recognized and To-
Gated with this ear. but-always, of
course. in right-handed men-they are
remembered better.
The usual test is to stop one ear of
the subject. red him a string of dis
connected words or a coherent sentence,
and after "A lapse of fixed 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 con-
ditiOns are reversed.
A few persons have been found who
can remember more when they listen
with the right ear alone thanF when
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 of the work.
The better ear is. then, on the side of
the more skillful hand. So, too, is the
better eye.
We sit on the right side to drive. the
locomotive engineer has the right side
of the cab, although this position COM
pells him to use his left hand to con-
troll the throttle valve, and all for the
sake of giving better outlook to the
more useful eye.
Nearly all right-handed men sight
with the right eye, use that eye with
telescope and told it opposite the point
where they read. Left-handed men are
apt to use the left eye for these pur-
poses. Any one can try for himself
ard see whether. though he can make
out the letters on the page equally well
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 accident
or a matter of education. There is a
fundamental right or =. left sidedness
which affects eye and ear as well as
hand.
But this normal right-sidedness al
fects something far more important
and fundamental than eye, ear or hand. |
While one does his best seeing, hearing
and acting On one side of the body he
does all his thinking on one side of his
brain.
The brain is far more one-sided than
the body. It isn't merely a. question of
remembering better or thinking quick
er with one side than with the other. |
81 =
This, one need not point out is, in |
nine men out of ten, the left side. 1t is
we'll known that the nerves cross over |
from one side of the brain to the other |
side of the body. so 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 1
useful members of eacn pair are most 1
closely related to one another. We are 1
because We are left |
Drained. If we chance to be left-hand- |
ed it is because we were, to begin with, |
What, therefore, nature has joined 1
together parents and teachers should /
not attempt to put asunder, some in |
vestigators argue. If child is nat /
urally left-handed it is unwise to at
tempt to make him change. The only |
result Will be 10 break up the quartet /
of hand, eye, ear and BRAIN and shift 4
one member over to the other side to
weaken its connection with the other
organs and to handicap the victim of
mistaken effort.
1t is commonly said that in the power
of speech lies the difference between
men and animals. H. is equally true
that an essential differ enee is the one
sidedness of man. No animal-unleSs.
of course, he has been injured or spe-
ciaily taught-uses one hoof or paw
more skilfully than the other. Animals
are neither right-handed nor left-hand-
ed. They are ambidextrous as they are
wordless-
The two go together. Though mouth
and lips and tongue lie equally on both
sides of the body, right-handed persons