Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/66

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Faculty of Speech and Speech-Centers

mon-sense-method. The centers in the left brain most closely associated with the governing center of the right-hand were pressed into service. Obviously, it is more in harmony with the principle of common sense to call upon nearby associates in the left brain than to seek aid by crossing to the right over the bridge called corpus collosum. Hence the habit of doing this special work became fixed for life in the centers of the left brain.

What caused the general run of mankind to use one hand more than the other is unknown. The phenomenon may be related in some way to the law of rhythm that seems to operate throughout all nature. All that can be said about it is that nature makes it a rule to accent, as it were, one of a pair of organs. They never are exactly alike in size, shape, or intensity of function. That the right-hand should have received this “accent” or functional emphasis through the ages is another mystery associated with words

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