634 Sir James Crichton-Bi'oitme [May 3, 



performances of the two hands. In one case, for instance, the return 

 was : " I am ambidextrous, but more so on the right side." In 

 another : " I am ambidextrous but can only play golf with a right- 

 handed club." In another : I am amljidextrous but in cutting or 

 using scissors preferentially employ the left hand." In still another : 

 " I am ambidextrous and can operate with either hand, but would 

 have been left-handed if not corrected in infancy." 



These cases are really instances of natural left-handedness modified 

 by right-handed education, or of mixed right and left-handedness. 

 A few movements in each of them were executed with equal facility 

 and precision by both hands, but all other movements are relegated to 

 one hand or the other, and the preferential use of one hand is not 

 difficult to trace. 



In several of the 20 cases in which ambidexterity was claimed 

 without qualification, there were indications under other questions, 

 such as those relating to movements in the legs and face, that a one- 

 sided tendency existed, and all my inquiries lead me to doubt whether 



Fig. 15. 



strictly speaking complete ambidexterity exists in any fully developed 

 and civilised human being. However assiduous the training may 

 have been, how^ever near the approach to equality may seem to be, 

 there always remain some movements in which one hand or the other 

 habitually takes the lead. No doubt very close approximations to 

 complete am])idexterity occur, and a classical instance is that of 

 Major-General Baden Powell, who, it is said, is accustomed to use both 

 hands interchangeably, to mount equally well on either side of his 

 horse, to employ sword, ]>istol and lance erjually well witli both hands^ 

 and to shoot off the left shoulder as ra])idly and accurately as from 

 the right, and a specimen of whose right and left handwriting I show 

 you (Fig. 15). Hut this writing, and indeed all the writing that is 

 exhibited as ambidextral is nothing of the kind, for the muscular 

 movements and nerve processes involved in writing with the right hand 

 from left to right with the little finger first, are entirely different from 

 those involved in writing with the left hand also from left to right 

 with the thumb first. The only genuine ambidextral writing would 



