RIGHTHANDEDNESS. 227 



rapidly the Turin enchorial papyrus already referred to, first with the 

 right hand and then with the left, while some of the characters were 

 more accurately rendered as to slope, thickening of lines, and curve, 

 with the one hand, and some with the other, 1 have found it difficult 

 to decide on the whole as to which hand executed the. transcription 

 with greatest ease. In proof of the general facility thus acquired, I 

 may add that I find no difficulty in drawing at the same time, with a 

 pencil in each hand, profiles of men or animals facing each other; but 

 the attempt to draw different objects: as a dog's head with the one 

 hand and a human profile with the other, is unsuccessful, owing to the 

 complex mental operation involved. There is thus here what to an 

 ordinary observer would appear to be thorough ambi-dexterity. Never- 

 theless, while there is little less commancl of the right hand than in the 

 case of one exclusively right-handed, it is wholly acquired ; nor has 

 the habit of half a century overcome the preferential use of the other 

 hand. It may be added that the same influences appear to affect the 

 whole left side, as shown in hopping, skating, foot-ball, &c. 



An exaggerated estimate is formed of the difficulties experienced by 

 a left-handed person in the use of a screw-driver, gimlet, scissors, &c. 

 " From the opening of the parlour door to the opening of a pen-knife," 

 says Sir Charles Bell, "his disadvantage is apparent." Much of this 

 is founded in misapprehension. With rare exceptions, habit so entirely 

 accustoms him to the requisite action, that he would be no less put out 

 by the sudden reversal of the door-handle, knife-blade, or screw, than 

 the right-handed man. Habit is thus constantly mistaken for nature. 

 The laws of the road, so universally recognized in England, have become 

 to all as it werea second nature; and as the old rhyme says : 



" If yoii turn to the left, you are sure to be right; 

 If you turn to the right, you are wrong." 



Yet throughout British America and the United States, the reverse is 

 the law; and the new immigrant, adhering to the usage of the mother 

 country, is sorely perplexed by the persistent wrong-headedness, as it 

 seems, of everyone but himself. 



Yet the predominant practice does impress itself on some few imple- 

 ments in a way sufficiently marked to remind the left-handed operator 

 that he is transgressing normal usage. The snuffers are so peculiarly 

 right-handed as to involve difficulty and awkwardness in spite of the 

 dextrous shift of inserting the left thumb and .finger below, instead of 



