620 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of that common reverence for the past, and for the unexplainable, 

 which not only unconsciously augments the actual, but revolts at the 

 reduction of these works to the level of the existing red-man. 



- 



WKITma PHYSIOLOGICALLY CONSIDEEED. 



By GAEL VOGT. 



MODERN investigations have shown us that certain parts of the 

 brain, situated in the region of the temples, have a predomi- 

 nant share in the formation of articulate language ; or, to express it in 

 a short phrase, that the majority of men speak by means of the third 

 frontal circumvolution of the left cerebral hemisphere. All who have 

 occupied themselves a little with physiology know also that the nervous 

 fibers cross each other in the brain, so that the movements of the left 

 arm are commanded by the right hemisphere, while those of the right 

 arm depend on the left hemisphere. Rushes of blood, extravasations, 

 and apoplexies are unfortunately more frequent on the left side than 

 on the right side of the brain : attacks of the left hemisphere are con- 

 sequently followed by paralysis of the right limbs, and aphasia, or an 

 impossibility to speak ; bat injuries to the right hemisphere, while they 

 paralyze the left limbs, generally leave language untouched. 



Does this center exist for writing as well as for language ? Inas- 

 much as we are in the habit of writing with the right hand, it is evi- 

 dent that the movements necessary for the action of writing must be 

 paralyzed by an affection of the left hemisphere. But we may learn 

 to write with the left hand. The question, we see, becomes general ; 

 it extends to the general movements in writing, and is concentrated at 

 last in a single point : are there facts which force us to admit a par- 

 ticular cerebral center, on which the movements in writing dejDend ? 

 In other words, does the manner in which we write depend upon a 

 physiological necessity determined by the structure of the brain ? 

 All peoples write with the right hand. It is of little importance wheth- 

 er this preponderance of the right is founded on a particular structure, 

 or whether it is in great part the result of education and habit ; man, 

 writing with the right hand, writes therefore under the direction of 

 the left cerebral hemisphere. 



If this is a general fact, and I know of no exception to it, we may 

 ask how it happens that the arrangement of the letters and the lines is 

 so different among different peoples. The peoples of Eastern Asia, as 

 a rule, arrange their letters from above down, and the lines from right 

 to left ; the Shemites and the Europeans put the lines one below an- 

 other, but the Shemites arrange their letters from right to left, while 

 the Aryans arrange theirs from left to right. The Shemites have cen- 

 tripetal writing, the Aryans have centrifugal writing. 



