296 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



LEFT AND RIGHT HANDEDNESS. 



In a notice in Nature, by Mr. Pye Smith, of a pamphlet 

 upon left-handedness by Dr. Daniel Wilson, of Toronto, it is 

 stated, as general results from the investigations of the au- 

 thor and others, that we may conclude (l) that the primitive 

 condition of man and other vertebrates was, as their early 

 foetal condition still is, one of complete bilateral symmetry 

 of structure, and also of functional symmetry ; (2) that this 

 primitive ambidextrous use of the limbs is occasionally su- 

 perseded in animals, and constantly in all races of men of 

 which we have any knowledge, by a preferential use of one 

 side, and that this is a necessary step in development as soon 

 as the more delicate operations performed by a single hand 

 take the place of those of digging, climbing, etc., in which 

 both take part. It is, in fact, a differentiation produced by 

 the same causes which have led to the specialization of the 

 fore and hind limbs in frogs, birds, or kangaroos, compared 

 with their uniformity of structure and function in fishes, croc- 

 odiles, and horses. (3) The prevalent choice of the right hand 

 when differentiation was established must have depended on 

 some slight advantage, at present unascertained, by which 

 dexterity at last suppressed gaueherie. (4) The occasional 

 preference of the left hand, which is often partial and some- 

 times hereditary, does not depend on any "coarse" structural 

 abnormality, but is an instance of atavism of reversion to 

 the primitive and universal ambidextrous, or to a subsequent 

 and partial left-handed condition. 12 A, June 13, 1872, 120. 



A SEA-SERPENT IN A HIGHLAND LOCH. 



A very remarkable communication, entitled " The Sea-Ser- 

 pent in a Highland Loch," is published in Land and Water 

 for September 7, and contains a circumstantial account, ap- 

 parently considered veracious by Frank Buckland, of a re- 

 markable beast in Loch Hourn. This, according to the arti- 

 cle, was seen by the writer on two occasions in August, when 

 the weather was still and hot, and the sea like glass. The 

 animal resembled a serpent, and its length was estimated at 

 about ninety-six feet. The body was thrown in a succession 

 of undulations or curves, eight in number, in addition to the 

 head and neck. The motion of the animal was caused by the 



