484 LEFTHANDEDNESS. 



enforced habit. The extent to which edncation is systematically 

 directed so as to develop the use of the one hand at the expense of 

 the other, is illustrated by the conventional rules for the use of the 

 knife and fork. It is not sufl&cient that the knife shall be invariably 

 held in the right hand. The child is taught to hold his knife in the 

 right hand and his fork in the left when cutting his food ; but when 

 either the fork or spoon is used alone, it must forthwith be trans- 

 ferred to the right hand. All voluntary employment of the left hand 

 in any independent action is discountenanced as awkwardness or 

 gaucherie ; and thus the left hand, with a large majority, especially 

 among the more refined and artificial classes of society, is rendered a 

 comparatively useless member, employed at best merely to supple- 

 ment the other. 



Guided mainly by my own personal experience, I remarked inci- 

 dentally, when drawing the former paper to a close, "that the same 

 influences appear to affect the whole left side, as shown in hopping, 

 skating, foot-ball," &c. But this is more partial and imcertain. Dr. 

 Brown-Sequard affirms that rightsidedness affects the arms much 

 more than the legs, and in proof of this he states that " it is exceed- 

 ingly rare that the leg is affected in the same degree by paralysis as 

 the arm." Dr. Joseph Workman thus writes to me : " When you say 

 that leftfootedness is (only) as frequent as lefthandedness, I am 

 quite sure you are in error. I remember well, when I was a boy, 

 observing the fact among labouring men engaged in what was called 

 in Ireland sodding potatoes, in ridges about five feet wide, instead 

 of planting in drills : in any given number of men, from four up to a 

 dozen, right and leftfootedness prevailed about equally. Each pair 

 carrying up the work of a ridge required to be right and leftfooted 

 men. I am myself leftfooted ; and of eight brothers, I believe about 

 four were left and four rightfooted. Sir Charles Bell, in asserting 

 that ' no boy, unless he is lefthanded, hops on the left foot,' asserts 

 far more than the fact. I believe every boy will hop on his spade, 

 foot ; at least I do so, and I am not lefthanded ; and I instinctively 

 do so because I dig with this foot. You have appealed to your 

 observation as to lefthandedness in i-eapers. I can corroborate your 

 statement that it was very rare to see in Ireland a boon of reapers 

 without one lefthanded among them." 



The use of the lower limbs is much more independent of direct 

 conscious volition than that of the hands, and the purposes to which 



