38 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



IV. CONSIDEEATIOISJ' OP THE StETJCTUEAL AND AcatTISITIOlfAL ELEMENTS 



IN DEXTEiL PeE-EMINENCE, WITH CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE AmbIDEX- 



TEEiTT OF Peiheval Man. By Geoege Sigeeson, M. D., Ch. M. 

 [Eead, June 25, 1883.] 



The subject of the preferential employment of the right hand, with 

 incidental reference to dextral predominance generally, is one which 

 has attracted some attention and given rise to different opinions. It 

 is a question obviously surrounded by difficulties, and therefore that 

 there have been conflicting speculations is not a matter of surprise. 

 If I venture to deal with it now, it is because a certain number of 

 facts have come under my observation which, by permitting the adop- 

 tion of a method of exploration that is new as regards this subject, 

 though it has rendered good service in others, are calculated to secure 

 some addition to the domain of exact knowledge. 



I. From the most ancient times, of which record remains to us, it 

 would appear that special attention was given to the right — at least, 

 in certain races. The Book of the Laiv of Menu, which has been 

 referred to the thirteenth century^ before the Christian era, is precise 

 upon this point. The distinction is not made on account of the crea- 

 tion of mortals being assigned to either lateral portion of the Self- 

 Existent Being. Still, in the religious ceremonies, the worshipper 

 should walk around the sacred fire from left to right, and use the 

 right hand in pouring the water.^ Again, when passing by, a Brah- 

 man should always keep his right to a mound of earth, a cow, an idol, 

 a Brahman, a vase of clarified butter or of honey, a place where four 

 roads meet, and well-known great trees. ^ In the Bible there are 

 several passages indicating that the right was associated with excep- 

 tional honour : the most prominent, though not the most ancient, being 

 found in the Psalm commencing, "Dixit Dominus Domino meo: sede 

 a dextris meis."^ Evidence exists, and has already been noted, that 

 amongst the Greeks and Romans (as amongst the Prench), the left was 

 associated with awkwardness and untowardness. Dr. HoUis has re- 

 marked that on most ancient stone monuments and rock sculptures at 

 Gizeh, Angkor, and Mundore, as well as in the Assyrian bas-reliefs, 

 the right hand subserves the pui'poses of supplication or war.^ An 



1 M. Chezy, Journal des Savants, 1831, cited and endorsed by M. Loiseleur 

 Deslongcliamps. 



- B. iii. 214. V. q. Sir Samuel Ferguson's article on the ancient Irish Cere- 

 monial of Deisiul. — Proc. R.I. A. 



3 B. iv. 39. 



* V. q. Gen. xlviii. 14-19 ; Judges iii. 15, 21. 



^ Journal of Anatomy and Fhysiologij, vol. ix., p. 263. 



