474 LEFTHANDEDNESS. 



implement. The handle is of yew, and is ingeniously and tastefully 

 carved so as to lie obliquely to the blade, and allow of its use close 

 to the ground. But a greater interest attaches to the fact that it is 

 a righthanded implement, carefully fashioned so as to adapt it to 

 the grasp of a very small hand, and as incapable of use by a left- 

 handed shearer as a mower's scythe. Its peculiar form is shown in 

 the accompanying illustration ; and Dr. Keller, in noting that the 

 handle is designed for use by the right hand, adds : "Even in the 

 Stone Age, it has already been noticed that the implements in use 

 at that time were fitted for the right hand only." This, however, 

 like other generalizations on the subject, is an assumption resting on 

 very insubstantial evidence. Examples of implements of the Stone 

 Age, whether palaeolithic or neolithic, suggestive of any discrimination 

 in the use of one hand in preference to the other, must be exceedingly 

 rare ; and so far as the deer's horn picks recovered from " Grime's 

 Graves " flint pits afibrd any illustration of this, primitive tools are 

 not invariably righthanded. 



When formerly treating of righthandedness, I was not aware of an 

 interesting article by Dr. Pye- Smith, in the "Guy's Hospital Reports 

 for 1870-71," from which I have quoted above. I am indebted to 

 the author for a revised reprint, entitled "The connection of Left- 

 handedness with transposition of the Yiscera and other supposed 

 Anatomical Causes." The theory that lefthandedness is due to the 

 transposition of the viscera, or to the exceptional origin in certain 

 cases of the left subclavian artery before the right, as shown in my 

 former paper, not only lacks confirmation, but is contradicted by 

 ascertained facts. The first of these explanations, which refers left- 

 handedness to the transposition of the viscera, is noticed by Dr. Pye- 

 Smith as " the only explanation, so far as I know, which has been 

 ofiered of the peculiarity." This theory has been often proposed, has 

 received the high sanction of Professor Hyrtl, of Yienna, and 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 lefthanded. 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 lefthanded is a mere coincidence." In confirmation of this, Dr. 

 Pye-Smith refers to four cases, one of which came under his oAvn 



