IS IT RIGHT TO BE LEFT-HANDED?

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18626, 23 July 1930, Page 13

IS IT RIGHT TO BE LEFT-HANDED?

OUR FATHERS CHANGED THE WAY OF NATURE.

Has it ever occurred to you that with the exception of man no animal uses one forelimb or one hind-limb in preference to the other? Unless they have been injured, fourfooted animals use either of their forelimbs just as readily for striking, clawing, or digging, and monkeys are ambidextrous. Amongst human beings, however, nearly everyone has one hand and one foot that is more skilled than the other, and in more than ninetynine cases out of a hundred it is the right; No savage tribe consists of ambidextrous men, and no tribe of left-handed men has ever been known. A few people here and there are left-handed, fewer still are ambidextrous; on the whole man has more strength in the right hand and foot and is much more skilled in their use. Curiously enough, the majority of young babies are practically ambidextrous. A child that received no training whatever and did not copy other people would probably grow up to be, like its ancestor thousands and thousands of years ago equally skilled with bo.th hands. Children should never be forced into right-handedness if they show a preference for use of the left, or be ambidextrous. Long before the dawn of civilisation primitive man was a solitary being, but as time went on he found it safer and altogether more comfortable to combine with others of his kind. The community built a village and always stood together to defend their homes when danger threatened. The men of the village formed its little army of defence. Brain Work—and Balance, Now if men armed with clubs, axes, or swords are fighting should to shoulder they must all use the same hand for wielding cheir weapons or confusion will result. Imagine for a moment that you are brandishing an axe in your right hand and that your nextdoor neighbour, armed in the same way, is left-handed. It is clear that you will hamper each other. But it was not only for fighting that the advantage of all men using the same hand was seen. . Village communities planted corn round their settlements and at harvest time turned ofit to reap it. Picture the confusion and the injuries that would result amongst a line of harvesters with scythes if some were right and some left-handed. Once he began to be civilised, man had to make up his mind to use one hand or the other for warfare and for work. Why was the right chosen all over the world? Before you can deliver an effective blow with a weapon I or a stroke with a reaping tool you must swing the body back a little first of all. Just as an experiment stand up, extend first the right arm and then the left, and see in which direction the body swings back most easily; you will find that it is a trifle easier and more natural to swing backwards towards the right. On the right side of the body is the liver, the heaviest of all the organs. Hence a back swing towards this side is easier, and once the body is moving forward a heavier blow can be delivered with the right hand than with the left, since there is rather more weight behind it.

Did you know that the left half of the brain controlled the right side of the body and the right half the left side? It is so, and to-day, after centuries of right-handedness, the left half of the brain is in most cases just a little better developed than the right.