48 Proceedings of the Roijal Irish Academy. 



but the overwhelmiiig mass of it perishes with the individual. Other- 

 wise, long before this stage of the world's history, the disparity be- 

 tween the right and the left arms in a race of mechanics, such as 

 smiths, would have become as great as the difference between the hind 

 and the fore-legs of a kangaroo. This would be manifest in babies. But 

 every baby is ambidextrous, in this point resembling the aju.<^t8eftos 

 heroes of Homer, and reviving thus the characteristics of the primal 

 people in the world's youth. The trouble which arises to parents 

 who insist on teaching children, at table, to hold the knife in the 

 right hand, ^^ is proof that no overmastering effort is produced by here- 

 dity. The child has no marked preference until taught ; but it must 

 be remembered that such teaching may come by the influence of 

 example and the faculty of imitation, as well as in obedience to dic- 

 tates. There is on record the case of a child, the offspring of a family 

 all of whose members were right-handed for remembered generations, 

 becoming left-handed when under the care of a left-handed nurse, and 

 hen, when brought home, becoming right-handed. 



We are bound, I believe, to accept the fact of an inherited tendency, 

 but not to allow it undue influence. Is there any means or method of 

 proving, demonstratively, the fulness of personal acquisition ? The 

 ■ problem is, on the face of it, one of difiiculty, because it would seem 

 to involve the necessity of taking young children, and rearing them 

 apart from all influence which might come to them from the words, 

 example, arts or implements of the race. The details recorded of the 

 peculiarities of so-called "wild men" are not sufficient for this ob- 

 ject. 



There is a method, however, which reaches to the end we desire 

 to attain. Dr. Carpenter, in his characteristically able work on 

 "Mental Physiology," called attention to the effect of fatigue and 

 impaired nutrition in weakening memory by reducing the physical 

 condition of the brain. An interesting illustration is given from the 

 experience of Sir Henry Holland : "I descended, on the same day, 

 two very deep mines in the Hartz mountains, remaining some hours 

 underground in each," he writes. " While in the second mine, and 

 exhausted both from fatigue and inanition, I felt the utter impossibi- 

 lity of talking longer with the German inspector who accompanied me. 

 Every German word or phrase deserted my recollection ; and it was not 

 until I had taken food and wine, and been some time at rest, that I 

 regained them again."'* Now, we have here, from our view-point, an 

 example and proof, showing that an acquired possession can be, and 

 is, lost by exhaustion and impaired nutrition. To be more precise, it 

 may be possible to say, that the more recent and extra-ordinary acquisi- 

 tion appears to go first. This is illustrated by the case of many Continental 

 emigrants in America who, when near death, lose their acquired Eng- 

 lish, and speak in their original tongues ; and more minutely in the 



21 V. q. Franklin : A Petition of the Left Hand, p. 494. Philadelphia. 



22 Holland, p. 160, in Carpenter : Mental Physiology, p. 441, 1875. 



