RIGHTHANDEDNESS. 197 



right hand and others to the left. There are involved in it the two 

 elements of a preference dependent on organic structure and consequent 

 special adaptability; and a deliberate choice and education of one hand, 

 as the result of a recognition of the convenience and facility to be 

 derived from righthandedness. Of the former we have traces among 

 the lower animals. In the case of dogs, for example, it may be noticed 

 that they rarely move in the direct line of their own body, but incline 

 to the right or left, so that the right hind-foot steps into the place of 

 the left fore-foot, or vice versa. Horse-trainers could probably furnish 

 facts relative to its natural action, indicatiag a use of the limbs of one 

 side more promptly than the other. We readily recognize in the horse, 

 as in other quadrupeds, a regular alternation in its paces, but modified 

 by education for the various requirements of man. In the case, for 

 example, of a horse, regularly trained for a lady's use, the action is as 

 much the result of education, as that of one taught to perform in the 

 circus, or drilled for combined action in military evolutions. It is to be 

 noted, however, that the fashion of a lady's side-saddle has by no means 

 been so uniform as to connect it with a universal righthandedness. 

 The uniform custom at present is for a lady in riding to sit on the left 

 side of her horse, holding the reins in the left hand, with the right 

 disengaged for the free use of the whip or switch. But in Anglo- 

 Saxon MSS, ladies are represented riding on the right side of the horse ; 

 and according to Mr. Thomas Wright, this continued down to about 

 the time of Henry VIII. His two royal daughters, Mary and 

 Elizabeth, are both represented on their great seals riding according to 

 njodern usage, on the left side. A correspondent oi'Ahtes and Queries 

 states that it was very recently, and probably still is, the practice in 

 Brazil, for a lady to sit on the right side of her horse. Such variations 

 in usage or fashion show how readily universal custom may be mistaken 

 for a natural law. 



The elephant is affirmed by some to betray^a strongly marked right- 

 sidedaess. One writer in Nature (April 14th, 1870,) specially refers 

 to it as known to employ one tusk in preference to the other in 

 rooting, &c. But the analogy is of doubtful application to the present 

 enquiry, even though the action could be proved to indicate a constant 

 preference. I observe in a fine specimen of a walrus skull recently 

 added to the museum of the University of Toronto, that the left tusk 

 is longer, larger, and more massive than the right one. 



That a disposition to employ one limb in preference to another is 

 observable in some of the lower animals, is, I think, undoubted. How 



