632 Sir James Crichton- Browne [May 3, 



" This is no doubt due merely to the fact that they do very little work 

 requiring manual dexterity." But the races in which diminished 

 right-handedness has been reported are all backward, non-industrial 

 races, and it is impossible to point to any civilised race manifesting 

 any degree of either-handedness. 



But although this is impossible it is attempted, and I cannot 

 better exemplify the reckless way in which ambidexterity is sometimes 

 bolstered up by its perfervid adherents than by exposing an attempt 

 to establish an instance of the kind. In an authoritative work on 

 ambidexterity published recently we are told that the Japanese are by 

 law and practice ambidextrous. There is a well-deserved encomium on 

 the achievements of that remarkable race in science, art, industry, 

 military and naval prowess ; and then we are told that their pre- 

 eminence in these is " the inseparable concomitant " — these are the 

 words — " of their ambidextral culture." 



Now I knew from my own observations that that statement was 

 incorrect, but I thought it well to be on sure ground, and s<j I sub- 

 mitted it to the Japanese Ambassador, and Baron Komura has been 

 good enough to authorise me to say emphatically, " There is no 

 foundation for the statement that the Japanese are ambidextrous." 

 My friend, Mr. John Dixon, to whom I also appealed, who has lived 

 long in the country and is an expert in Japanese art, characterises the 

 statement as preposterous. " Japan's greatest wood-carver," he says, 

 " Hidari Jingors {circa 1630) was left-handed, and Hidari, which 

 means left-handed, was added to his name because of this personal 

 peculiarity, but I have hundreds of photographs taken by myself 

 showing the Japanese engaged in all kinds of work and play, and 

 proving conclusively that they are a right-handed people." 



We have no ambidextral race and no left-handed race, but in 

 every right-handed race we have a certain number of left-handed in- 

 dividuals, and in the hope of ascertaining the proportion of these in 

 this country and of throwing light upon the subject of right-handed- 

 ness generally, I some years ago circulated a leaflet containing a 

 series of questions relating to various voluntary muscular movements, 

 which through the kindness of friends were placed in the hands of 

 adult men and women, all of the educated and intelligent class, who 

 were requested after careful observation to answer the questions and 

 return the leaflet to me. The returns were in some degree dis- 

 appointing, for of 3500 leaflets which I cast upon the waters, I found 

 only 1)57 after many days, and the explanation of this was that the 

 meaning and purpose of my little catechism was largely misunderstood. 

 The questions, it must be admitted, were liable to misconstruction 

 including as they did — such interrogations as " Can you wink with equal 

 facility with both eyes ? " and " Can you wag your ears ? " and the 

 consequence was that some of those who received the leaflet regarded 

 it as a practical joke and consigned it to the waste-paper basket, 

 while others, knowing something of the source from which it emanated, 



