226 RIGHTHANDEDNESS. 



Hyrtl affirms its prevalence ia the ratio of only two per cent. But 

 among the old Benjamites, and the Hebrews generally, it must have 

 been more common ; nor can I doubt that the tendency of a high 

 civilization must be to diminish its manifestation. My own attention 

 has been long familiarly directed to it from being myself naturally left- 

 handed, and the experience of upwards of half a century enables me to 

 controvert the belief expressed by Dr. Humphry, on which he founds 

 the deduction that the superiority of the right band is not congenital, 

 but acquired, viz., that "the left hand may be trained to as great 

 expertness and strength as the right." My own experience accords 

 with that of others in whom inveterate left-handedness exists, and 

 shows the education of a life-time contending with only partial success 

 to overcome an instinctive natural preference. The result has been, 

 as in all similar cases, to make me ambidextrous, yet not strictly 

 speaking ambi-dexterous. 



The direct value of such personal experience in determining some of 

 the questions under consideration must be the excuse for a brief refer- 

 ence to its teachings. With an instinctive preference for the left 

 hand, which equally resisted remonstrance, proffered rewards, and 

 coercion, the writer nevertheless learned to use the pen in the right 

 hand, apparently with no greater effort than other boys who pass 

 through the preliminary stages of the art of penmanship. In this way , 

 the right hand was thoroughly educated, but the preferential instinct 

 remained. The slate-pencil, the chalk, and pen-knife, were still inva- 

 riably used in the left hand, ia spite of much opposition on the part of 

 teachers; and in later years, when a strong taste for drawing has been 

 cultivated with some degree of success, the pencil and brush are nearly 

 always used in the left hand. At a comparatively early age the 

 awkwardness of using the spoon and knife at table, in the left hand, 

 was perceived and overcome. Yet even now, when much fatigued, or 

 on occasion of any unusual difficulty in carving a joint, the knife is 

 instinctively transferred to the left hand. Alike in every case where 

 unusual force is required, as in driving a large nail, wielding a heavy 

 tool, or striking a blow with the fist, and in any operation demanding 

 unusual delicacy, the left hand is employed. Thus, for example, 

 though the pen is invariably used in the right hand in penmanship, 

 the crow-quill and etching needle are no less uniformly employed 

 in the left |^hand. Hence, accordingly, on proceeding to apply the 

 test of the hand to the demotic writing of the Egyptians, by copying 



