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Show I THE LEFT HANDERS. t . : Ji Berlin school physician; Dr. Schaefer, haa ? ben studying the hands and habits of 18,000 school children, to see if he can discover any special facta ; about left handed people. lie ' first sent circular letters to parents, asking- which hand their chil-ftlren"ued chil-ftlren"ued tor writingTeatTng, playing, et Alio 't , .the presence or absence of any hereditary element; g) whether the child slept on the right or left side or 1 ' back, and whether the conditions developed during school age. The Medical Record says. "It waa 'found that over 98 per eent of children wer v right-handed, the girls having a slight superiority in this 1 reaper. Leas thaa 5 per cent were left-handed. There were bat thirty-eevea ambidexters in th entire number (I' Sl Pr eeut). Berhoned by grade, th lowest showed the highest perrentege thia dwindling gradually to the - highest gradri with alight irregularities. This incidence msv be exlained ia various ways, none completely satis- - fsc'tory. Dirert or collateral aaeeetry of left-handed children chil-dren ahows that about one rae ia three ha a hereditary element. The statistical evidence ahowa very plainly that . right-hanJed children tend to aleep on the right aide, and left handed children on the left side. . "JJirsor writing predominates in th left-handed by wide margin. . There is ao evidence, however, that the apeech renter ia notably affected. 8l uttering and stammering, stam-mering, etc., are sot more common ia the left-handed. There is no evidence that a left-handed child i any way handicapped ia regard to ability to earn hi living, although al-though it la something of a hardship for him to learn 'right handed' writing. The watchword of th day ia nt to antagonize lei t handedness, but to develop 'left ' culture' in the right-handed end 'right culture ' ia th left-handed, or relativ ambidexterity." It haa beea demonstrated that left-handed new, or ita equivalent, is present in apea and many, lower animal. From the- foregoing it would -seem that left- - - fiandedness more than; likely depends upon a habit of childhood and that it ought not is be difficult to make any child, b;- a little practice, ambidextrous. This should be encouraged, for it makes a child healthier and fits him for many occupations. Miners . hsve to take on this accomplishment, nd it is a fact that the man who can use the right or left . hud at will has, in a great many Itia'ds of .work, a . (lockled advantage over his fellow workmen. Then the uite of both handa keepa all the muscles of the human frame in better form for the world's work and the body ia kept by it evenly developed, and all ils functions are kept balanced, to say noih- ing of the advantage of the art to a woman who citn throw a stone up a hill or a flat iron further than a right-handed woman ean. |