230 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



[March 20, 1885. 



as at present. Since, in cases of disease of tlie left side of 

 tbe brain, the right side can be trained to exercise all tlia 

 functions usually performed by the left side, it seems 

 reasonable to bope that we can do as much for the right 

 side of the brain when the left side is sound. Dr. Erown- 

 Sequard suggests, therefore, that no child shall be allowed 

 to remain either right-sided or left-sided, but be initiated 

 aa early as pcssible into two-sided ways. " One day or one 

 week it would be one arm which would be employed for 

 certain things, such as writing, cutting meat, or putting a 

 spoon or fork in the mouth, and so on. In this way it 

 •would be very easy to obtain a great deal, if not all. We 

 know that even adults can come to make use of their left 

 arm. A person who has lost his right arm can learn to 

 write (with difiiculty, it is true, because in adult life it is 

 much more difficult to produce these effects than in 

 children), and the left arm can be used in a great variety 



of ways by persons who wish to make use of it 



There is also another fact as regards the power of training. 

 Even in adult?, who have lost ths power of speech from 

 disease of the left side of the brain it is po.?sible to train 

 the patient to speak, and most likely then by the use of the 

 right side of the brain, the left side of those patients, 

 with great ditiicidty, will come to learn. The same 

 teaching we employ with a child learning to speak 

 should be employed to teach an adult who has lost the 

 power of speech. So also as regards gesture, and other 

 ways of expressing ideas. I have trained some patients 

 to make gestures with the left arm who had lost the power 

 of gesture with the right, and who were quite uncomfort- 

 able because their left arm, when they tried to move it, at 

 times moved in quite an irregular way, and by no means in 

 harmony with their intention. There is a power of train- 

 ing, therefore, for adults ; and therefore that power no 

 doubt exists to a still greater degree in the case of 

 children ; and as we know that we can make a child, who 

 is naturally left-handed, come to be right-handed, so we 

 can make a child, who is naturally right-handed, come to 

 be left-handed as well. The great point should be to 

 develop equally the two sides of the body, in the hope that 

 by so doing the two sides of the brain, or the two brains, 

 may be brought into harmonious action, not only as 

 respects bodily, bttt also as respects mental functions." 



I have thus brought before the reader the hopes, as well 

 as the theoretical views, of Dr. BrownSequard. I must 

 say in conclusion that, although for my own part I do not 

 regard his hopes as altogether well based, believing, in fact, 

 that many familiar experiences are against them, I attach 

 great importance to the theoretical coniiderations to which 

 he directs attention. We may not be able to increase 

 general mental power, and still less to double mental power 

 by calling the two sides of the brain into combined activity 

 (as respects intellectual processes), yet if we recognise the 

 duality of the brain in this respect we may find it possible 

 to assist the reasoning side of the brain in other ways. For 

 instance, it may be found that by considering the facts to 

 which Brown-Sequard has called attention we can more 

 clearly under.stand tbe advantage which the student has 

 long been known to derive from special forms of relaxation 

 It may, for instance, be a specially desirable change for the 

 student to have his emotions called into play, because the 

 overworked reasoning part of the brain obtains in that way 

 a more complete rest. When either side of the head is 

 suffering from temporary ailments, as in migraine (hemi- 

 kranion), special forms of mental* or bodily exercise may 



* An experience of my own seems to suggest this as possible. 

 On one occasion, when I was about to deliver a lecture to a large 

 aadienco (the largest I had ever addressed, in fact, and computed 



be found useful to remove or alleviate the suffering. And 

 it cannot be but that, in studying the eflfects of such experi- 

 ments as Brown-Ssquard suggests, light would be thrown 

 on the interesting and perplexing subject of the brain's 

 action in relation to consciousness and volition. If in 

 addition to such useful results as the?e it should be found 

 that by careful training on Brown-Sequard's plan the 

 duality of the brain can be made a source of increased 

 mental power, or of better mental balance, or of readier 

 decision, so much the better. The progress of science calls 

 for increased mental activity. We want more powerful 

 brains than served our forefathers, for we try to grapple 

 with more difficult questions. The idea is at least pleasing 

 to contemplate, though I fear it is based as yet on no very 

 firm foundation, that as binocular vision gives a power of 

 determining the true position of objects which the single 

 eye does not possess, so bi-eerebral thought may supply a 

 mental parallax enabling men to obtain juster views of the 

 various subjects of their thoughts than they can obtain at 

 present by mental 'processes which are known to be one- 

 sided. 



THE YOUXG ELECTRICIAX. - 



By W. Slixgo. 



(Continued from p. 193.) 

 HIXTS ON DEILLIXG. 



ALTHOUGH we have already spent what might appear 

 to be an inordinately long time in discussing the sub- 

 ject of drilling, there yet remains something to be said in 

 order to render our remarks sufficiently complete to enable 

 the young electrician to perform his work efficiently, and 

 to avoid the necessity for again referring to the subject. 



Ex. XXXYI.- — A few hints may here be given, a due 

 regard for which will help considerably in the effort to per- 

 form drilling succe-sfully. 



(a) The point of the drill should be in the middle of the 

 blade. 



(b) The blade should have sufficient thickness to impart 

 the strength necessary to minimise the risk of breaking, 

 while, at the same time, it must not be so thick as to pre- 

 vent the fine metal cuttings produced by the drill escaping 

 from the hole as the drill makes its way inwards. 



(c) Only the best steel should be employed in making 

 di-ills, and they should be carefully hardened, over-heating 

 being most cautiously guarded against. Failure in drill- 

 making results more frequently from " burning " the steel 

 than from imperfect hardening and tempering. 



(</) The drill in rotating must run truly throughout its 



at nearly 3,000), I was suffering from a headache affecting the right 

 side of the head so severely that the slightest movement caused in- 

 tense pain, and every breathing was responded to by a dismal 

 throbbing of the brain. The headache was not occasioned by 

 excitement, but was connected with a general disturbance of the 

 system from a severe cold, and was intensified by a journey from 

 Chicago to Xew York (where the lecture was delivered), com- 

 pleted only t wo or three hours before the lecture began. Daring 

 the first ten minutes of the address the pain was very great indeed, 

 and was rendered more severe by the effort required in addressing 

 so large a meeting with a voice afiected by catarrh. But from that 

 time the pain grew less, and at the end of the lecture no trace of it 

 remained. The headache did'not return after the lecture was over ; 

 in fact, the rest of the evening was passed in such manifest enjoy- 

 ment of pleasant converse at the Century Club, that several " Cen- 

 turions" who had heard the lecttu-e must in all probability have 

 found it difficult to reconcile the circumstance with the lecturer's 

 statement about his illness. [Ah! goodly fellowship of "Cen- 

 turions"! where else in the world are so many genial souls 

 gathered together ? and where else in the world does the stranger 

 receive so warm a greeting ?J ^ - 



