LEFTHANDEDNESS. 479 



SO that the greatest average weight occurs between thirty and forty 

 years of age. They do not, however, indicate any such increase in 

 actual bulk as Dr. Brown-Sequard implies ; nor does the evidence 

 lend confirmation to the idea of any very prevalent difierence in the 

 size or weight of the two hemispheres. In the majority of cases, 

 indeed, the comparatively early ossification of the sutures would 

 alone suffice to preclude the possibility of such a growth of the head 

 as Dr. Brown-Sequard assumes to be demonstrable even beyond the 

 age of fifty-six. "Without due allowance for the stiffness of a new 

 hat, and the shrinking of an old one when out of use, the hat- 

 measui-ements on which he relies may prove very deceptive. But, 

 on his assumption relative to the normal excess of the left hemisphere 

 of the brain, there ought to be a greater equality between the two 

 hemispheres in a lefthanded than a righthanded person, owing to 

 the more equal employment of the two sides of the brain by the 

 latter. But he fails to appreciate the bearings of his own argument 

 in the case of a lefthanded person conforming in many ways to the 

 usage of the majority, yet instinctively giving the preference to the 

 left hand. He dwells on the fact that very few lefthanded persons 

 have learned to write with the left hand, and that those who can 

 do so do not write nearly so well with it as with the right hand. 

 " Therefore," he says, " the left side of the brain, even in persons 

 who are lefthanded naturally — so that the right side of the brain 

 controls the reasoning faculties and their expression, — can be so edu- 

 cated that the right hand, which that side of the brain controls, 

 produces a better handwriting than that by the left hand, though 

 that is controlled by the better developed brain." The reasoning 

 here is alike partial and misleading. The lefthanded person sys- 

 tematically submits to disabilities in his efforts to comply with the 

 usage of the majority, not only in holding his pen in the right hand, 

 but in the direction and slope of the writing. A lefthanded race 

 would naturally write from right to left, sloping the letters towards 

 the left, and so would place the righthanded penman at a like disad- 

 vantage, wholly independent of any supposed change in the functions 

 or preponderating energy of either hemisphere of the brain. But 

 even in the absence of practice, the command of the left hand in the 

 case of a truly lefthanded person is so great that very slight effort 

 is required to enable him to write with ease with that hand. 



