ACQUIRED AND ABNORMAL CHARACTERS. 45 



" The father and mother were semi-ambidextrous. 

 All the children and the grandchild are ambidextrous 

 to an annoying degree ; all of the movements which 

 they perform with one hand are simultaneously per- 

 formed by the other hand. The girls are obliged to 

 use only one hand when dressing themselves, or when 

 cutting patterns, and hold the other hand down by 

 their side, because the two hands perform the same 

 movements at the same time, and would interfere 

 with each other. 



" Attention was called to the fact that the father 

 of the grandchild is not semi-ambidextrous. 



" Dr. Dupuy has made experiments upon these 

 persons, and has found that, if the skin of the fore- 

 arm on one side be kept well dry, and a rapidly-inter- 

 rupted electrical current be used, so as only to call 

 forth reflex actions, it is possible to induce synchro- 

 nous movements in the fingers of both hands, and also 

 muscular contraction in the lumbricales muscles of the 

 fingers, which are too rapid to be carried on by the 

 will." 1 



Wild animals, living on islands not often visited 

 by man, do not fear him, but allow the closest ap- 

 proach without hesitation. 



"When the Falkland Islands were first visited by 

 man, the large, wolf -like dog (Canis antarcticus) fear- 

 lessly came to meet Byron's sailors, who, mistaking 

 this ignorant curiosity for ferocity, ran into the water 

 to avoid them. Even recently, a man, by holding a 

 piece of meat in one hand and a knife in the other, 



1 " Proceedings of the American Neurological Association," in the 

 Virginia Medical Monthly, August, 1877, p. 392. 



