Right hand

“ The number of the exceptionally dexterous right-handed, with an invincible instinctive preference for the use of that hand, though large in comparison with the no less dexterous left-handed, are nevertheless a minority. Habit, social usage, and education in all its forms, in the school, the drawing-room, the workshop, in all the arts of peace, and in nearly every operation of war, have so persistently fostered the development of the favourite hand that it is scarcely possible to arrive at any reliable statistics in proof of the initial proclivities of the large majority of conformists. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Though I think the superiority of the right hand is acquired, and is a result of its more frequent use, the tendency to use it in preference to the left is so universal that it would seem to be natural. ”

“ Such cases, however, amount to no more than evidence of the extent to which the left hand may be educated, and so made to perform all the functions of the right hand. To one, indeed, familiar by practical experience with the exceptional facilities and the impediments of the left-handed, it is curious to observe the difficulty experienced by a highly intelligent scientific student of the phenomena, to appreciate what seems to the ordinary left-handed man not only natural but inevitable. ”

“ This, as Sir Charles Bell conceives, receives confirmation from the fact already referred to, that right or left-handedness is not restricted to the hand, but affects the corresponding lower limb, and, as he believes, the whole side; and so he concludes thus: “On the whole, the preference of the right hand is not the effect of habit, but is a natural provision ”

“ But if, with adze, plane, gimlet, and screw, scythe, reaping-hook, scissors and snuffers, rifle, bayonet, and all else—even to the handle of the parlour door, and the hooks and buttons of his dress,—daily enforcing on the left-handed man a preference for the right hand, he nevertheless persistently adheres to the left hand, the cause of this must lie deeper than a mere habit induced in the nursery.
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It is a misapprehension, however, to suppose that the left-handed man labours under any conscious disadvantage from the impediments thus created by the usage of the majority. ”

“ Any widely manifested difference in the sensitiveness of one of the hands, apart from its habitual use in all ordinary manipulation, and especially among uncultured races, would assuredly seem to indicate some congenital distinction leading to the preferential use of the right hand. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The special positions of hands and fingers will be designated by reference to the Types of Hand Positions. For brevity in the written description, "hand" may be used for "right hand," when that one alone is employed in any particular gesture. When more convenient to use the profile figure in which the right arm is exhibited for a gesture actually made by the left hand and arm it can be done, the fact, however, being noted. ”

“ The 'left' hand, as distinguished from the right, is the hand which we 'leave,' inasmuch as for twenty times we use the right hand, we do not once employ it; and it obtains its name from being 'left' unused so often. ”

“ Even in persons who are left-handed naturally, so that the right side of the brain may be assumed to control the reasoning faculties and their expression, he argues that the left side of the brain “can be so educated that the right hand, which that side of the brain controls, produces a better handwriting than that by the left hand, though that is controlled by the better developed brain.” ”

“ The left hand secretes the object in its palm, while the fingers are allowed to fall loosely down, appearing to retain nothing under them. At the very same moment the right hand must be closed, and remain in shape as if containing the object, with the second joints of the fingers pointed toward the spectators, and the back of the hand toward the ground. ”

“ In all questions of technique it is possible to determine the exact best mode of procedure. But unless the hand be perfectly fitted thereto, the rule should be relaxed, for insisting on positions that are even slightly strained (though possibly, quite comfortable to a differently constructed hand) can only do harm.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE FINGERS OF THE RIGHT HAND—DIFFERENCES OF OPINION THEREON—SAUTILLÉ—THE LOOSE WRIST.
The functions of the right hand fingers are twofold. ”

“ He further adds: “If accurate statistics could be obtained, I believe it would be found that while a very great majority of males are right-handed, the proportion of females is less; and that, on the contrary, a larger proportion of females than of males are ambidextrous or left-handed.” ”

“ But because we do not use the left hand much in doing things, we lose the power of using it quite as well as we use the right hand. Little boys and girls should practice using the left hand. Then if by some accident the right hand is lost, they would not be quite helpless. ”

“ An easy way to verify the last phenomenon is to beg some one to hold the forefinger of the right hand pointed to your left palm, at a quarter of an inch distance, and afterwards his left forefinger to your right palm, when the two sensations, and their difference, are appreciable by the majority of persons.
Persons entranced by mesmeric procedures are often keenly alive to the above impressions. They see light emanating from the finger-tips of the mesmeriser, and feel an agreeable afflatus from his manipulations. ”

“ Q. Why was your right hand placed on the Holy Bible, Square and Compass, and not your left, or both? A. The right hand has ever been considered the seat of fidelity, and our ancient brethren worshipped Deity under the name of Fides, which has sometimes been represented by two right hands joined together; at others, by two human figures holding each other by the right hand; the right hand, therefore, we use in this great and important undertaking, to signify, in the strongest manner possible, the sincerity of our intentions in the business we are engaged. ”

“ Delicate, exact, and finely coordinated movements, such as those of writing and using surgical instruments, I perform always with my left hand while grosser movements involving the whole hand or arm, I am rather likely to perform with my right hand. ”

“ Hold your right hand before a mirror, and you will see in the mirror a left hand. Your right glove will produce its mate in the glass. For you could never use the reflexion of your right glove, if it were present to you as a real thing, for covering your right hand, but only for covering your left. Similarly, your right ear will give as its reflexion a left ear; and you will at once perceive that the left half of your body could very easily be substituted for the reflexion of your right half. ”

“ As a general rule the left hand will show the inherent characteristics of the individual; the right hand shows the same characteristics modified by our surroundings or by the individual's personal efforts. ”

“ To the very end, however, the right hand remains especially 'the hand in which you hold your knife;' and that is exactly how our own children to this day decide the question which is which, when they begin to know their right hand from their left for practical purposes. ”

“ Those, however, who had become affected with disease in the right arm in adult life, when they had already familiarly practised writing with the right hand, and in consequence of disease had been obliged to resort to the left hand, were less successful in writing with the reversed slope. ”

“ The left hand operates a progressive but continual tension upon the bit, while the right hand corrects with the snaffle the false position possible at the beginning and thus secures the flexion at the atlas only. ”

“ The action-patterns we seek are the innumerable activities of the right hand itself. For, as we have previously shown, even to think of the hand involves neuro-muscular activity in it. What the right hand does, is what the concept “right,” as applied to the hand, means. ”

“ 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? ”