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LET LEFT-HANDEDNESS ALONE! 191
poor, misguided left-handed
child standing out conspicuously
from the right-handed line of scho
ars. Perhaps it is only fair to state
that the boy attends a public school where
outdoor recess is never granted unless parents
or physicians take a hand, and whispering
is considered a penal offense worthy of half an
hour of detention of the inhuman culprit.
Something like four per cent of people are naturally
left-handed. A small minority of these born left-handers ;
broken of the habit and educated as right-handed individu;
The brain centers which control the most delicate movements
the hands and fingers are closely related with the center of
speech. The speech center, in right-handed individuals, is
situated in the left third frontal convolution under the I
temple. This explains why a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke
of paralysis) which involves the left side of the brain
paralyzes muscles on the right side of the body and also '
the function of speech; whereas a hemorrhage on the right
side of the brain paralyzes muscles on the left side only. I
Expression, both facial and bodily expression, is most fli
highly developed in people who are well educated, and it
Tris Speaker of the Cleveland Indians Has Not
Found Left-Handedness a Bar to Success
is feeble in those of untrained or feeble mind. An experienced physician, or
any other good observer, can form a pretty reliable opinion of an individual's
mental status by a mere glance at his face and body when he is talking. Training
the hands to do fine or delicate work is sure to develop
the power of speech at the same time, and vice versa,
because of the intimate associations between the controlling
centers of these functions.
Now there is no doubt whatever that a latent speech
center does exist on the right side as well as the left,
in a right-handed person. We know this because in
certain cases of apoplexy (cerebral hemorrhage) in
which speech is destroyed, the victims have uttered
words or sentences under great emotional excitement,
as in a fire, for example. Likewise persons whose
speech has been completely destroyed by a stroke of
apoplexy may be taught again to speak, just as one
teaches a baby, by patience and perseverance, pointing
out objects or familiar things and naming them over
and over, etc. Of course such speech remains inadequate,
yet it is speech of a kind sufficient for the
unfortunate to make known his simpler wants. Only
by assuming the existence of a latent speech center in the right
side of the brain can we explain this fact.
A measurement of the "ulna-plus", referred to above, appears
to be a reliable indication of right-handedness or left-handedness
in a child. It was described in
He Will Do Better, and ILLUSTRATED WORLD for September, 1916,
Have a stronger Nervous as applied by Professor W. Franklin
System, if Allowed to T • - - , __
WorkLeft-Handed Jones, head of the Department ot