HAND AND LEFT-HANDEDNESS. 29 
original make or framework of the body.” In the great majority of cases this lies above 
the transverse axis of the body, with a consequent facility for balancing best, and turning 
most easily and securely, on the left foot, with the impulsive power effected by the muscles 
of the right lowerlimb. Man is thus, as a rule, right-footed : and, according to Dr. Buchanan, 
by a necessary consequence becomes right-handed. By a series of diagrams he accordingly 
shows the assumed variations : (1) the centre of gravity above the tranverse axis, with 
its accompanying right-handedness ; (2) the centre of grayity corresponding with the 
transverse axis, which he assigns to the ambidextrous; and (3) the centre of gravity 
below the transverse axis begetting left-handedness. The whole phenomena are thus 
ascribed to the instinctive sense of equilibrium, which constitutes a nearly infallible guide 
in all the movements of the human body. The greater development of the organs of 
motion of the right side is therefore, as he conceives, rot congenital, but arises solely from 
the greater use that is made of them. The relative position of the centre of gravity 
depends accordingly on the original conformation of the body. Broad shoulders, muscu- 
lar arms, a large head and a long neck, all tend to elevate the centre point; while the 
contrary result follows from width at the haunches and a great development of the lower 
limbs. 
The intermediate condition, in which the centre of gravity falls upon the transverse 
axis, with no instinctive tendency to call into action the muscles of the one side of the 
body in preference to those of the other, constitutes, according to Dr. Buchanan, the most 
happy conformation of the body. “It belongs,” he says, “ more especially to the female 
sex. Itis this that so often renders a young girl a perfect model of grace and agility. 
It is the same conformation that enables the ballet-dancer to whirl round on her one foot 
till the spectators are giddy with looking at her, when she completes her triumph by 
revolving with the same ease and grace on her other foot also.” He further adds: “ If 
accurate statistics could be obtained, I believe it would be found that while a very great 
majority of males are right-handed, the proportion of females is less ; and that, on the 
contrary, a larger proportion of females than of males are ambidextrous or left-handed.” 
Consistently with the ideas thus set forth, both Dr. Buchanan and Dr. Struthers 
regard right-handness as an acquired habit, though under the influence and control of the 
mechanical forces indicated by them. “ As the question,” says the latter, “ in so far as it 
can bear on the cause of the preference of the right hand, must turn on the weight and 
position of the viscera in the child at the period when the predominance of the right hand 
is being gradually developed, in the second and third years and afterwards, it is necessary 
to make the calculation from the facts as presented in children.” In a letter to myself he 
thus writes: “I have again and again verified the fact in my own children, that in early 
childhood there is no preference for one hand more than the other.” But this, as has been 
already shown, may be partly due to modes of nursing and other temporary causes 
affecting the child in its first infantile stage ; and though it may undoubtedly be affirmed 
of many, if not indeed of the majority, of children at that stage, a certain number will be 
found to manifest a distinct preference, at a very early age, for one or the other hand. In 
the case of a niece of my own, the left-handedness showed itself very soon; and in my 
grandson, it was independently observed by its mother and nurse, and brought under my 
notice, that so soon as he was able to grasp an object and transfer it from one hand to the 
other, he gave the preference to the left hand. A like decided preference for the right 
