Left-handedness

“ Moreover, right or left-handedness is not limited to the hand, but partially affects the lower limbs, as may be seen in football, skating, in the training of the opera-dancer, etc.; and eminent anatomists and physiologists have affirmed the existence of a greater development throughout the whole right side of the body. Sir Charles Bell says: “The left side is not only the weaker, in regard to muscular strength, but also in its vital or constitutional properties. ”

“ I have repeatedly met with cases of ladies who use the needle skilfully with the left hand; but the results of inquiries addressed to musicians and music teachers indicate that in the great majority of cases the cultivation of the left, as the weaker or less skilful hand, has to be sedulously enforced in the training of the female organist and pianist. It is because left-handed pianists are rare that their exceptional dexterity is noted, as in the case of a Canadian lady referred to above: “She had great advantages from her left-handedness. ”

“ In the feet, as in the hands, there is frequently a tendency to greater strength or dexterity on the left side, contrary to what happens in normal persons, and this tendency is manifested in many cases where there is no trace of functional and motorial left-handedness. ”

“ Where left-handedness is strongly developed, it is, on the contrary, not only accompanied with more than average dexterity in the organ thus specialised, but also with a command of the use of the right hand, acquired by education, which gives the individual an advantage over the great majority of right-handed men. ”

“ But, like most other right-handed reviewers of the phenomena of left-handedness, he fails to appreciate the bearings of his own argument in the case of a left-handed person conforming in many ways to the usage of the majority, yet instinctively giving the preference to the left hand. He dwells on the fact that very few left-handed persons have learned to write with the left hand, and that those who can do not write nearly so well with it as with the right hand. ”

“ In reality, a strongly developed left-handedness is, equally with a strongly developed right-handedness, an indication of exceptional dexterity. Such skill as that of the left-handed slingers of the tribe of Benjamin is in no way exceptional. All truly left-handed, as well as all truly right-handed persons, are more likely to be dexterous than those who are unconscious of any strong impulse to the use of either hand. The bias, whether to the right or the left, is, I feel assured, the result of special organic aptitude. ”

“ If the attention of physiologists devoted to cerebral investigations is specially turned to the present aspect of research, cases of well-marked left-handed patients, or what is manifestly of even [Pg 211] greater significance, of exceptionally dexterous right-handed patients, in hospitals, asylums, and gaols, will from time to time present themselves. It has indeed been affirmed that left-handedness prevails among the “light-fingered” experts who find frequent lodging in our gaols. ”

“ If the tendency in their practice to use the right hand is natural, that is to say, innate or congenital, then there need be no nice distinctions in affirming it. But on any clearly defined physiological deductions of right-handedness from the disposition of the organs of motion or circulation, or any other uniform relation of the internal organs and the great arteries of the upper limbs, left-handedness becomes mysterious, if not inexplicable, unless on the assumption of a corresponding reversal of organic structure ”

“ The nurse or mother is constantly transferring the spoon from the left to the right hand, correcting the defective courtesy of the proffered left hand, and in all ways superinducing right-handedness as a habit. But wherever the organic structure is well developed the instinctive preference manifests itself at a very early stage, and in the case either of decided right-handedness or left-handedness, it matures into a determinate law of action, which education may modify but cannot eradicate. ”

“ When you say that left-footedness is (only) as frequent as left-handedness, I am quite sure you are in error. I remember well, when I was a boy, observing the fact among labouring men engaged in what was called in Ireland ‘sodding’ potatoes, in ridges about five feet wide, instead of planting in drills, that in any given number of men, from four up to a dozen, right and left-footedness prevailed about equally. ”

“ On the other hand, it is no less true that, while the experience of every thoroughly left-handed person shows the possibility of training both hands to a capacity for responding to the mind with promptness and skill: at the same time it is apparent that in cases of true left-handedness there is an organic specialisation which no enforced habit can wholly supersede. ”

“ The origin of left-handedness was in large measure due to the location or education of the speech center in the right brain because of injury to dextral organs, but chiefly to disease or deficient vision of the right eye.
Ambidexterity of any general or thoroughgoing kind is neither possible nor desirable, and the attempt to bring it about results in suffering and disease. ”

“ There, it may be, a family, or possibly a tribe, dwelt, among whom left-handedness prevailed to an unusual extent, along with a degree of skill and dexterity, such as is frequently found to accompany the instinctive use of the left hand. ”

“ Left-handedness has, by instinct or from accurate observation, been regarded with disfavour in the proverbial sayings of many nations. It is decidedly common among criminals. Examining 81 normal persons, Marro found 70 right-handed, 7 left-handed, and 4 ambidextrous. Examining 190 working-men, he only found 6 left-handed. Altogether the proportion of normal left-handed and ambidextrous persons was 6.2 per cent. Among criminals, on the other hand, with the single exception of highwaymen, the proportion of left-handed and ambidextrous persons was in every case higher. ”

“ Left-handedness is due to right-brainedness and this is an accident dependent on a diversion of blood supply in an increased amount to this side of the brain in early embryonic life. This question of the criminal and the left-handed individual and their mutual relations is only a good example, then, of how far over zealous advocates of a theory have been led astray in their attempts to bolster it up. ”

“ Gripping, as with the dynamometer, does not seem to correlate so well with known facts, as do the other tests of movement.
Left-handedness as an element in individuality becomes conspicuous in school procedure especially in writing, drawing, shop work, or any work where the hand is an important factor in the performance. It may become conspicuous in vocational endeavor, either as an asset or a handicap. In a few kinds of performance, such as baseball or tennis, left-handedness gives an advantage, all other things being equal. ”

“ If the transposition of the viscera, and the exceptional pressure of the heart on the right, instead of the left side, were the source or the unvarying concomitant of left-handedness this could be tested with ease on the living subject. But the brain is beyond our reach; though pathological phenomena, along with the results of vivisection in the study of lower animal life, have thrown a flood of light on its functions ”

“ Vague statements from time to time appear, affirming a prevalence of left-handedness among certain barbarous races. A writer in the Medical Record in 1886 says: “No purely left-handed race has ever been discovered, although there seems to be a difference in different tribes. Seventy per cent of the inhabitants of the Punjab use the left hand by preference; and the greater number of the Hottentots and Bushmen of South Africa also use the left hand in preference to the right.” ”

“ Not only are cases of exceptional facility in the use of both hands of frequent occurrence, but while right-handedness everywhere predominates, left-handedness is nowhere unknown. The skill of the combatant in hitting with both hands is indeed a favourite topic of poetic laudation, though this is characteristic of every well-trained boxer. ”

“ Yet they naturally follow from it; for so soon as volition comes into conscious play, and the hand obeys the mind, and becomes an organ of the will, the psychical element is felt to dominate over the physical; including that very force of will which aims at eradicating the exceptional left-handedness, and enforcing an undeviating submission to the law of the majority.
It is unquestionably of first interest to the psychologist to inquire not only why the child, at the early stage in which a choice of hands is manifested, should prefer the right hand for all strong movements ”

“ Most people, in fact, are left-brained, that is, all their delicate and specialized movements are handed over to the charge of the left hemisphere. The ordinary right-handedness for such movements is only a consequence of that fact, a consequence which shows outwardly on account of that extensive decussation of the fibres whereby most of those from the left hemisphere pass to the right half of the body only. ”

“ As far as it is possible to offer any hypothesis from the few facts tabulated, it may be said that right-handedness implies a high development of muscular control, but slightly improved by the introduction of the visual element, as far as the right hand is concerned; but for the left hand muscular control comparable to the right-hand control can be obtained only with visual control; in short, I fail to find evidences of cross-education, where the visual element is absent, nearer than about 50% of the mean error. ”

“ Under no enforcement of a violation of his innate impulses does the left-handed person ever exchange hands. He acquires an educated right hand and retains the dexterity of the left. In those cases where, by reason of injury or disease, the sufferer is compelled to resort to the neglected hand even late in life, it proves quite possible to train it to sufficient aptitude for all ordinary requirements. ”

“ So soon as the child is old enough to be affected by such influences, the fastening of its clothes, the handling of knife and spoon, and of other objects in daily use, help to confirm the habit, until the art of penmanship is mastered, and with this crowning accomplishment—except in cases of strongly marked bias in an opposite direction,—the left hand is relegated to its subordinate place as a supplementary organ, to be called into use when the privileged member finds occasion for its aid. ”

“ Besides this, we occasionally find a person who is left-handed, as it is called; that is, his left hand and arm are as much larger and stronger than the right, as the right is usually stronger than the left. ”

“ The truly left-handed, equally with the larger percentage of those who may be designated truly right-handed, are exceptionally dexterous; and to the former the idea that the instinctive impulse which influences their preference is a mere acquired habit, traceable mainly to some such bias as the mode of carrying in the nurse’s arms in infancy, is utterly untenable. ”

“ There is no doubt, however, that it is (in right-handed people) on the left side, and little doubt that it consists of elements of the hand-and-arm region specialized for that service, The symptom may exist when there is little or no disability in the hand for other uses. If it does not get well, the patient usually educates his right hemisphere, i.e. learns to write with his left hand. ”

“ Who has not experienced the difficulty of folding a tie, tying a knot, or even buttoning a collar or a boot, &c., when the right hand has been temporarily incapacitated? And who, except the ambidextrous man, would be bold enough to shave himself entirely with the left hand? ”

“ But when it comes to flinging a stone or other object a long distance, I always use the left hand as coming the most natural. There are two things which I cannot possibly do with my right hand, and that is to drive a nail, or to carve, cut, or whittle. ”

“ As I have said, I was next sent to the United States Army Hospital for Injuries and Diseases of the Nervous System. Before leaving Nashville, I had begun to suffer the most acute pain in my left hand, especially the little finger; and so perfect was the idea which was thus kept up of the real presence of these missing parts, that I found it hard at times to believe them absent. Often, at night, I would try with one lost hand to grope for the other. As, however, I had no pain in the right arm, the sense of the existence of that limb gradually disappeared, as did that of my legs also. ”