March 26, 1904. THE HOSPITAL. 461
Hospital Clinics and Medical Progress,
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SIMULTANEOUS
AMBIDEXTRAL WORK. V
A lecture on this subject was delivered last
week before the Ambidextral Culture Society by
the Secretary, Mr. John Jackson. The lecturer
referred to the equal skill-in rapid and compli-
cated movements of the two hands, which is dis-
played by skilled pianists, as a familiar example
of simultaneous ambidextral skill Indeed, among
ordinary individuals who have culivated the use
of only one hand there is, not merely a strong
inclination to exercise both hands in totally
different and unrelated duties which demand dis-
tinct and dissimilar movements at the same
instant, but the exigencies of life and the impera-
tive claims of certain occupations necessitate a
very high standard of simultaneous skill, which
standard there is 110 great difficulty in securing.
But to the ambidextrous individual this synchron-
ising development is natural and inevitable. The
principles which it is the object of the Ambidex-
tral Culture Society to maintain are:?(1) That
it is possible to do two things well at the same
time, and that every ordinarily intelligent person
is capable of becoming as expert in the perform-
ance of two concurrent and unrelated acts as he
can be in the separate accomplishment of one.
(2) That the acts which are thus designated as
concurrent or simultaneous are, so far as the senses
can determine, absolutely so, whatever the refine-
ment of analysis and science may ultimately
declare them to be. For all practical purposes
they occur precisely at the same instant, though
they may theoretically be nothing more than
inconceivably rapid alternations of volition. (3)
That a certain amount of simultaneous work,
under specified conditions, is healthy and expedi-
ent. (4) That under other particular conditions
it is necessary and harmless. (5) That, whilst it
is both proper and advantageous to prepare and
qualify children for the execution of two-handed
work, and more especially of two-handed writing,
during their school life, it would be unwise, if not
pernicious, to encourage or prescribe for artisans
and others the least amount of simultaneous
manual labour over and above what has hitherto
been found requisite for the effective execution
of the work to be done in the several industries
of manufacturing life.
Sixty years ago Dr. A. L. Wigan published his
monograph on " The Duality of the Mind," the
expression of a belief 30 years old (the doctor
himself was 60 when the book was published),
which belief he says he had held all that time
" with daily increasing conviction," and, further,
he states that he '' discussed the subject with more
than a hundred of the first men in Europe," and
that he " cannot remember a single objection
made by a man of that stamp which has not
vanished after my explanation." Among Dr.
Wigan's 20 propositions are the following: ?
" 1. That each cerebrum is a distinct and
perfect whole as an organ of thought..
" 2. That a separate and distinct process of
thinking or ratiocination may be carried on in
each cerebrum simultaneously.
" 3. That each cerebrum is capable of a distinct
and separate volition, and th^t there are very
often opposing volitions. . . ,
" 20. That every man is, in his own person,
conscious of two volitions, quite distinct from the
government of the passions by the intellect; a con-
sciousness so universal that it enters into all
figurative language -on the moral feelings and
sentiments, has-enlisted into the service of every
religion and forms the basis of some of them?
as the Manicliean."
In recent years Brown-Sequard and others have
directed attention to the same question. The
former states that " We have a great many motor
elements in our brain which we neglect absolutely
to educate. Such is the case particularly with
the elements which serve for the movements of
the left hand. Perhaps fathers and mothers will
be more ready to develop the natural powers of
the-left hand of a child,'giving it thereby two
powerful hands, if they believe, as I do, that the
condition of the brain and spinal cord would
improve if all their motor and sensitive elements
were fully exercised."
Apart from the opinions of individual authori-
ties, corroborative evidence is to be found in
familiar experience. How many clerks, for
example, may be seen accurately casting up long
rows of figures, while not merely conversing with
another, but often telling an amusing tale with
great rapidity, and this without an interruption
or an interval of even a second of time in the
narrative ? In other pursuits similar evidence
of concurrent mental processes can be adduced.
With regard to the question of whether the
volitional impulses which govern the processes
performed simultaneously by the two hands are
really themselves simultaneous, or whether the
" inconceivably rapid alternation" theory is
correct, it is impossible to say, but the proposition
is a correct one that these transmissions of will are
progressing concurrently from two totally differ-
ent and independent agencies, each of which is
equal to its confrere in every particular so far as
reason and the closest observation can see.
It is the aim and purpose of the Ambidextral
Society to insure that every child at school shall
be so drilled in both separate ajxd simultaneous
use of his two hands that whatever line of life he.
may enter he shall be fully prepared with two
perfectly developed hands, equally sensitive,
equally strong, and equally skilful. Such a
scheme, whenever it is made an integral part of the
national education, will undoubtedly raise the
standard of excellence, and increase materially
the effective working power of every individual,
and of the community.
Illustrations of simultaneous ambidextral work
were given on blackboards by Miss Daisy Jackson
and several young ladies from the North Hackney
462 THE HOSPITAL, March 26, 1904.
High School; the former drawing, at the request
of one of the audience, a clock with the left hand,
and the time indicated by the hands with the
right hand, and the latter giving specimens of
two-handed sumultaneous drawing in duplicate.


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