428 Canadian Record of Science 



handed workmen, he still comes to the conclusion that 

 in those localities men at that period were as a rule right- 

 handed, some were ambidextrous, and others were left- 

 handed ; as Sir Daniel himself was naturally left-handed, 

 his opinion on the effect of education as a reason for 

 right-handedness is especially valuable, and he says that 

 " my own experience as one originally left-handed is 

 " that in spite of very persistent efforts on the part of 

 " teachers to suppress all use of the left hand, I am 

 " now thoroughly ambidextrous, though still with the 

 " left the more dextrous hand." 



On page 130, Sir Daniel says, "But the entire num- 

 ' ' ber of left-handed warriors of the tribe appears to have 

 " barely amounted to 2.7 per cent. Out of 26,000 

 " Benjamites, as we are told, all warriors, there were 

 " 700 chosen men of the tribe, every one of whom was 

 " left-handed and could sling a stone at a hair's breadth 

 " and not miss. The instinctively left-handed is more 

 " dextrous in the true sense of that term. He is not 

 " only an exception to many right-handed men, he is 

 " still more an exception to the large majority in whom 

 " the bias is so slight and the dexterity so partial that 

 " their practice is little more than a compliance with 

 " the usage of the majority." 



Still more, the fact of the difficulty of overcoming 

 by education the natural predilection of some individuals 

 to use the left hand instead of the right, so far goes 

 to destroy the theory that education is the reason why 

 men are mostly right-handed, and points out that there 

 is some other reason why there is a natural inclination 

 to use the right hand in preference to the left. 



Sir Daniel "Wilson also quotes from Froude's Thos. 

 Carlyle, whose "sad misfortune it was to lose the use 

 " of his right hand when he had reached the advanced 

 " age of 75. The period of life was all too late to turn 

 [i with any hope of success to the unaccustomed and 

 " untrained left hand, and in his journal more than one 

 1 ' entry refers to the irreparable loss. ' ' But one curious 



