News in Brief

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20314, 25 May 1934, Page 6

News in Brief

Pennies as Half-crowns. Some pennies can be made to appear very much like half-crowns by being given a coat like silver (says the Wellington “Post”). It is an old practice, and, in spite of the consequences to those detected in employing this money-making scheme, it still lives. Shopkeepers can vouch lor that fact, as there have been some cases lately of the silvered penny being passed over the counter, usually at a busy time. A warning to the unsuspecting to be on guard against the swindle is being passed around. The Right-hand Habit. Out of every 100 people, 17 are born strongly right-handed, three strongly lefthanded, and the remaining 80 have equal capacity for either, states a writer in a Sydney, journal. In the adult, however, out of the 80, only two, as a rule, are ambidextrous, the remainder having acquired the right-hand habit. Many theories have been advanced as to the reason for the predominance in the skill of the right hand over the left. They may be tabulated as follow's:—1, Nursing and infantile treatment; 2. result of practice in writing and drawing; 3, acquired habit; 4, the outcome of war, education and heredity; 5, the result of internal organic structure; 6, instinct; 7, result of visceral distribution; 8, due to arrangement of blood vessels; 9, result of brain one-sidedness. Left-handed people or people who have their left side well trained (thus training the right side of the brain) hardly ever suffer from aphasia. Thus ambidexterity is well worth cultivating for that reason alone, so, although left-handed people should cultivate the use of the right hand as well, righthanded people should cultivate the left hand.