LEPTHAKDEDNESS. 481 



years I followed the occupation of nieclianical draughtsman, and I 

 may say that there was absolutely no preference in the use of either 

 hand ; and in marking labels, or lettering a plan, one hand was just 

 as correct as the other." I may add here, that in my own case, though 

 habitually using the pen in my right hand, yet when correcting a 

 proof, or engaged in other disconnected writing, especially if using a 

 pencil, I am apt to resort to the left hand without being conscious 

 of the change. In drawing, I rarely use the right hand ; and for any 

 specially nice piece of work, should find it inadequate to the task. 



The remarks with which Professor Morse follows up the above 

 reference to his own personal experience furnish an apt, though unde- 

 signed, commentary on those above quoted from Dr. Brown-Sequard, 

 relative to the education of the two sides of the brain, and the 

 controlling of the right or left hand by the better developed hemi- 

 sphere. The varying caligraphy of the letter of Prof. Morse exhibits 

 features familiar to me in my own use of the pen ; and he thus pro- 

 ceeds : " You will observe that the first page is written with the right 

 hand, the upper third of this page with the left hand, the usual way 

 [but with reversed slope], the middle third of the page with the left 

 hand, reversed [i.e. from right to left], and now I am. again writing 

 with the right hand. As I have habitually used the right hand in 

 writing, I write more rapidly than with the other." In the case of 

 Professor Morse, the indications of the hereditary transmission of left- 

 handedness nearly correspond with my own. His maternal uncle, and 

 also a cousin, are lefthanded. In my case, the same habit appeared 

 in a paternal uncle and a niece ; and my little grandson, not yet three 

 years old, so far manifests a decided preference for the left hand. 

 Dr. Joseph Workman, for many years Medical Superintendent of 

 the Provincial Lunatic Asylum at Toronto, thus writes to me : "As 

 to hereditament in lefthandedness, I believe in it. I had a maternal 

 uncle lefthanded, and I well remember my mother's having many a 

 battle with one — ^nay, I believe two — of her sons to suppress the pro- 

 clivity." Cases of direct hereditary transmission — in one example, 

 at least, through three generations, — were referred to in the former 

 paper. But it is curious to note, in the above cited cases, how the 

 tendency appears more generally to manifest itself collaterally than 

 in the direct line of descent. 



A Canadian friend, whose sister-in-law is lefthanded, thus writes 

 to me : "I never heard of any of the rest of the family who were 

 2 



