The Washington herald., 1911-03-05

| to recognize the person in spite OF the
changes that this transposition Of facial
! halves makes
| Curlously enough, the face when built
up in this manner show whether or not
the subject is right or left handed. Our
! facial and cranial development seems
curiously tangled up with our physical and
| mental characteristics. The right face
of right-handed man will be found to
| be more wide-awake in its expression
than that of the left half of the counte-
nance There is something passive. list
! less. and colorless in the left face of the
| risht-handed man or in the right face
of his left-handed neighbor. If a man
is risht-harded the right side of his face
seems more expressive of his physical
makeup and of his intellectual charac-
ter. Students of character assert that
the right face is far more expressive
than the left. Possibly this is because
rightNhanded people are in the majority
1t seems that the face takes a part at
least Of its expression from our physi-
cal activities, from the fact that We
write, swing an AK. sharpen a pencil, or
throw a ball with one hand rather than
the other.
What is it. then. that makes US right or
left handed? Is it hereditary. acquired,
or is it the natural result of the way we
live and do things?
Most infants have a preference for
sleeping on one side or the other. They
are restless and fretful when forced to
sleep on the left side if they have formed
habit of sleeping on the right General
ly speaking. they are allowed to slumber
in the position that suits them most.
The soft bones Of the skull. the cheek
bones. and the curved bony plates that
guard tne brain are slowly twisted and
bent lever so little from their original
positions. Habits of sleeping formed in
babyhood are more than apt to linger on
into childhood and youth. The bones
that were mere soft callouses in infancy
become hardened by lime deposits and
the face and the head take the shape
that they will always have.
Effect of Gum-chewing.
Another of the reasons for this dis
symmetry of the halves of the face is
found in the habit of gum-chewing. 1t
is not old enough as yet to have affected
the present crop Of faces that are not
'mathematicaIly regular. The next gen
Grafton will doubtless see any number of
faces that have been overdeveloped on
one side or the other by the monotonous,
ceaseless efforts of the gum-chewer's Jaw
1SoiS dSO lilS DSduIy SDeCldl-
lists began to sound the alarm note
against the sugared stick of chicle. but
the habit has grown beyond the reach of
any crusade, and overdeveIoped facial
muscles are everywhere apparent. The
gum-chewer uses the muscles on one side
of the face more than those on the other
and the results are apparent within a
few years.
Most women have a trick of resting
their cheek on one hand. >This has an
undoubted effect in shaping the outlines
of the face. The hand pressing upon the
soft flesh covering the cheek bone finally
has its effect. The cheek becomes less
prominent at the point where the hand
rests, and more prominent somewhere
else. Many men, especially those who
work with their minds rather than their
hands. form similar habits that leave
marks upon their faces. The bony struct-
ure of the cheek is not changed but the
flesh is nodded and its outlines radically
changed in this manner. The habits of
the average man are Quickly reflected
in his countensnce.
The real scientists 60 far deeper, how
ever, than any OF the reasons given
above. They go to the brain itself for
an explanation of why we are right or
left faced. II Is pointed out that in right
handed persons all the higher mental
faculties are centered IN the upper part
of the left half of the brain. With left
handed persons the reverse Is true, and
thus far no exceptions have been found |
to the rule.