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records, and to Egyptian, Assyrian and other monuments, as 
-well as to various members of the Semitic and Aryan groups of 
danguages. All medern nations, with one or two questionable 
exceptions, are right-handed, and have words to signify “left- 
handed” corresponding with the French “gauche” and the 
Italian “mancino.” It appears to be a peculiarity of the human 
race, even the Apes using the right and left limbs indiscrimi- 
nately, and is associated with the higher and more elaborate 
muscular actions of the limbs in Man; and there being no 
other structural difference between Man and the lower animals 
to account for it, the cause of the peculiarity must be sought in 
that part of the system, viz. the brain, in which he excels other 
animals. The left side of the brain was stated to be the larger 
in Man; and it, through decussation of the nerve-fibres, pre- 
sides over the right side of the body, and seems from recent 
observations also to preside over the complex and delicate mus- 
cular actions upon which articulation depends. The preponder- 
ance of the left side of the brain—the lopsidedness of the 
organ—thus engendered by the preferential use of the right 
hand, by the movements in speech and by much of subsidiary 
brain-work directly associated with speech, is not without its 
evil; and instances were adduced, including those of Johnson 
and Swift, in which the left side of the brain had suffered and 
paralysis of the right side of the body had been induced, appa- 
rently, as a consequence of this overwork. The inference was 
drawn that such result might have been avoided had a more 
equal duty been required of the two sides of the brain by a 
more equal use of the two limbs; and in these days of high 
pressure it is of especial importance to attend to such points, 
and by more equal education of the two sides of the body, to 
lead to a fairer distribution of work between the cerebral 
hemispheres. 
Professor PAGET thought that more evidence should be ad- 
duced respecting the greater size of the left hemisphere of the 
