HAND AND LEFT-HANDEDNESS. | 35 
position of the viscera, is more easily tested. It is one that has been repeatedly suggested ; 
and has not only received the sanction of Professor Hyrtl, but is supported by some 
undoubted cases in which the two conditions coexisted. But, as Dr. Pye-Smith remarks, 
“a few such instances only prove that transposition of the viscera does not prevent the 
subject of the abnormality from being left-handed. Though attention has hitherto been 
little drawn to this point, there are enough cases already recorded to show that for a 
person with transposed viscera to be left-handed is a mere coincidence.” In confirmation 
of this, Dr. Pye-Smith refers to four cases, one of which came under his own observation 
in Guy’s Hospital, where the subjects of the abnormal disposition of the viscera had been 
right-handed. In the “ Rochester (N.Y.) Express,” of October, 1877, a notice appeared of 
an autopsy on the body of George Vail, of Whitby, Ontario, who had recently died in the 
Rochester Hospital. Dr. Stone, as there stated, “noticed upon the first examination, when 
the patient came for treatment, that there was what is technically called ‘juxtaposition of 
the heart,’ which is a very rare condition. He was gratified at the autopsy to have his 
diagnosis coufirmed, the heart being found on the right side of the body, instead of the 
left.” I immediately wrote to Whitby, and in reply was informed that no one had ever 
noticed in Vail any indication of his being left-handed. A similar case of the transposition 
of the viscera, in which, nevertheless, the person was right-handed, recorded by M. Géry, 
is quoted in Cruveillier’s “ Anatomie,” (I. 65.) Another is given by M. Gachet, in the 
“ Gazette des Hospitaux,” August 31, 1861; and a third in the Pathological Transactions, 
Vol. XIX. p. 447 (“ Nature,” April 28, 1870). This evidence suffices to prove that there is 
no true relation between the transposition of the viscera and left-handedness. Dr. 
Struthers has shown that ‘‘as far as the viscera alone are concerned, the right side is at 
least 225 ounces heavier than the left, and that this is reduced 7? ounces by the influence 
of the contents of the stomach, leaving a clear preponderance of at least 15 ounces in 
favour of the right side.” The preponderance of the right side, he adds, is probably 
considerably greater than 15 ounces, and it is rendered still more so in the erect posture. 
The total weight of viscera on the right side he states at 50? ounces, while that of the left 
side is only 28 ounces, giving a visceral preponderance on the right side of 22? ounces. 
But if this relative excess of weight on the right side be the true source of right-handed- 
ness, the transposition of the viscera ought to be invariably accompanied with a corres- 
ponding change. A single example of the preponderant cause, unaccompanied by the 
assumed effect, is sufficient to discredit the theory. 
There remains to be considered the source suggested by Professor Gratiolet, when he 
turned from the organs in immediate contact with the arm and hand to the cerebral 
centre of nerve force. The statements advanced by him that the anterior convolutions of 
the left side of the brain are earlier developed than those of the right, when taken in 
connection with the well-known decussation of the nerve-roots, would account for the 
earlier development of the muscles and nerves of the right arm; but his opinion has been 
controverted by competent observers. This, however, does not dispose of the question. 
A recent observer definitely affirms that “the large proportion of cases of ataxic aphasia 
occur in association with right-sided hemiphlegia, although others are on record in which 
it has appeared in connection with left-sided hemiphlegia in left-handed persons.” 
(Encyc. Britann, art. Aphasia.) In those an intimate relation is thus established between 
right or left-handedness and the development of the opposite cerebral hemisphere. “The 
