El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-07-18

w Why are so many baseball
pitchers left handed2
The prevalence Of the "southpaw" on
the diamond is really extraordinary.
Some Of the most effective twirlers in
- the game have this popularity, and
most batters are said to dread the left
handed pitcher.
It is certain that right handedness
goes back to the earliest history Of the
human race, and that even among the
most primitive peoples today left
hanoedness IS regarded as a defOrmity
so monstrOus that the child thus af-
flicted is usually killed, and sometimes
the mother also. It is, in their view,
an abOmination, worse than idiocy, and
cannot be allowed TO exist.
1t Is safe 10 say that right handed
ness did not begin until after man had
assumed the erect attitude. Even the
highest apes, such as the chimpanzee,
are not right handed. They have not
developed far enough away from the
Quadrupedal condition. Another thing
certain is that human beings did not
acquire speech until after they became
right handed. It was through devel-
opment Of manual dexterity that the
faculty Of word making was gained
Brain Taught by Hand.
The most interesting fact in the case,
however, IS that the choice made in
childhood between right and left hand
determines which OF the two brains, the
left or the right, shall be educated.
For, according TO the opinion now gen
orally held by psychologists, 1t is
through the use Of the hand that the
brain IS taught. If the right hand be
preferred, the left brain (which con-
trolls that member) will acquire the
word making power and all the assO-
ciated faculties which go to make up
what We call intellect But If the left
hand be chosen, the right brain will
enjoy these advantages exclusively.
Only One Brain Educated.
E5Tr1rrefwaTrv eh ~.
understood that, although each enc
OF US possesses two brains, only one Of
the pair becomes educated, the other
remaining through life not only word
less but practically devoid OF thinking
power. II the speech center in the
left brain Of right handed man be
destroyed or seriously injured, he will
never thereafter be able to utter a
word, Notwithstanding the fact that he
has another speech center, still intact
and structurally perfect, in his right
brain It Is there, but he cannot make
It talk because it does not know how.
Such conclusions are not matters Of
guess; they have been derived from
scientific observation For instance,
Dr.. William H Thomson speaks OF the
case OF a man who was brought to
Bellevue hospital, in New York. after q
drunken row The point OF an umbrella
had been thrust into his left eye. It
had not injured the eye, but passing
over the top Of that organ, had poked
a hole through the thin bone of the
eye socket into the speech center of
the brain. The man could still read, /
and could understand what was said to
him, but he was unable to speak a word. /
Either brain IS equally good for ]
sneech. If trained for that PURPOSE.
What does the training2 The hand. It /
Is the child's choice OF the hand that /
decides which brain in after life shall i
know speech. and which shall remain /
Wordless forever. One might add /
also; for the word making /
faculty is the one transcendent human /
endowment which Is so associated with !