The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-07-29
HE Is LEFT-EARED AND LEFT
DRAINED, But RIGHT-HAND-
ED AND RIGHT-FOOTED.

Right-handed persons are com
monty right-footed as well. That is
to say, they kick or stamp with the
right heel, tap with the right toe
and. in general, do any unsymmetr1-
cal act on the right side, says writ
er in McClures Magazine. We use
2 foot without it's mate far less COM
monty than hand, but when we do
the right side is just as clearly SUI
perior in the one case as in the
other.
Moreover, as DR.. Gould of Phlla-
delphia has pointed out, right-hand-
ed persons are normally also right
eyed. We sight a gun, use teIe-
scope or microscope with the right
eve. We sit on the right side 10
drive in order that the right eye may
have the better vision past the horse S
head. The engineer sits on the right
side of his cab, in spite OF the 1act
that this position brings his left hand
on the throttle, in order to see down
the track with his best eye. we
stand to bat on the side that brings
the right eye most nearly in line
with the ball, even at the cost OF
being an appreciate distance tarth-
er from first base.
So marked, indeed, is this right
eyedness that DR.. Gould goes so far
as to maintain that it is OF itself the
primitive condition out of which
right-handedness has come.
And yet, right-handed, right-foot-
ed and right-eyed as we are, we are
left-eared. We put the telephone to
the ear on one side as mutually and
unconsciously as we put gun or spy
glass to the eye on the other.
Moreover, we are left-brained-
far more completely left-brained
than we are right-handed, right
footed or Ieft-eared. No matter how
thoroughly one-sided we are in body
we do use, more or less, the other
half.
For simple acts, such as an animal
might do, or a young child, the two
halves of the brain work nicely in
double harness. But when it comes
to running a typewriter, playing pi-
ano or talking thirteen to the dozen
this cerebral teamwork breaks
down. Apparently there simply is
not time, when fingers or tongue are
going full speed, for the two halves
of the brain to call each other up
across the corpus colosseum and make
sure that the two halves of the body
are doing the same thing at the same
time. So, for all elaborate acts that
involve thinking and high speed, the
right side of the brain is switched on
completely, and both sides of the
body are run from the left.
When, therefore, we dine lips,
tongue, swallowing muscles and sail
vary glands are all managed from
both sides of the brain. But when
we turn to speak to the waiter the
selfsame organs are handled from
one side only. We open piano with
the right hand and left brain; but we
make music on the crowley end of
the keyboard with the left hand and
left brain The day laborer, doing
rough work with both hands, en-
ploys his whole brain; but the crafts
man, doing nice work with both
hands, probably uses only half Of his.
Indeed, a right-handed man, writ
ing with his left hand, still innerves
it from the left side of his head, as
if it were the other.
Our right-handedness then, is
but the outward and visible sign of
a still more one-sided brain. With
the speech center on the left and
with all of our thinking and remem-
bering done on that side the right
hand rather than the left becomes
the special servant of the mind. Foot
and eye go with the hand. The aud
itory nerves do not cross, like the
others, and the left ear connects
most directly with the thinking APP
paratus.