628 Sir James Crichton-Broivne ■ [IMay 3^ 



made of yew, carefully fashioned so as to adapt itself to the "'rasp 

 of a very small right hand, and is incapable of use by a left-handed 

 shearer. In the next slide we go back to the Palaeolithic cave- 

 dwellers, and have one of those sketches of animals in a large majority 

 of which the animal is depicted looking to the left, which is suggestive 

 of a right-handed artist (Fig. 12). It is the well-known engraving 

 of the Mammoth found in the cave of La Madeleine. Young 

 children, being right-handed, when set to draw profiles, almost 

 invariably turn them to the left, and this direction of the profile 

 in so many of the cave-drawings — and the same direction is seen 

 in a large majority of the sculptured hieroglyphics of Central America 

 and in the Mexican picture writings — is regarded by Sir Daniel 

 Wilson as a proof that the cave dwellers, and prehistoric men generally 

 were right-handed. " The skilled artist," he says, " can no doubt 

 execute a right or left profile at his will. But an unpremeditated 

 profile drawing, if done by an untaught right-handed draftsman, 

 will almost inevitably be represented looking to the left." 



With the object of ascertaining whether any vestige of this 

 primitive tendency to draw the profile to the left is still discernible 

 among our artists, I have had the curiosity to take the bearings 

 of 1062 portraits in the National Portrait Gallery. It is, of course, 

 the endeavour of the professional artist to overcome any such tendency 

 and to place his subject according to artistic considerations — personal 

 traits and characteristics, light distribution, etc. — without regard to 

 any bias of his own hand ; but in spite of his endeavours, the old bent 

 displays itself. Of these 1062 portraits 165 are full face, fronting 

 the spectator, 718 are three-quarters right or left, and they are pretty 

 evenly divided, 352 being turned to the right and 366 to the left, an 

 inclination of 2 per cent, to the left ; while 159 are profiles, amongst 

 which the inclination to the left is strongly marked. In those 159 

 profile portraits the face is turned to the right in 52 instances and to 

 the left in 107 — that is to say, the left hand profiles are to the right 

 as 2 to 1. 



But besides this preferential direction of the profile to the left 

 which Sir Daniel Wilson regards as an unerring test of right-handed- 

 ness, we have many other evidences of the existence of that habit 

 amongst the Palaeolithic cave-dwellers. In the cave of La Madeleine 

 there was unearthed a perforated antler, on which is scratched a human 

 figure ])etween two horses' heads, and the figure is carrying a baton or 

 stick in its right hand (Fig. 13) ; while another engraving discovered 

 by M. Massenet, represents an auroch hunt, rudely but clearly 

 enough to satisfy us that the hunter's right arm is throAvn back and 

 on the point of hurling a javelin (Fig. 14). Then Palaeolithic flints 

 as a rule appear to be better adapted to the grasp of the right hand, 

 and as regards them Sir John Evans, our highest authority, says : 

 " I think there is some evidence of the flint workers of old having 

 been right-handed, the particular twist in palaeolithic implements, 



