The pathologic results of dextrocularity and sinstrocularity : read at the meeting of the American Ophthalmological Society, held in Atlantic City, July 13-14, 1904 / by George M. Gould.

  • Gould, George Milbrey, 1848-1922.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The pathologic results of dextrocularity and sinstrocularity : read at the meeting of the American Ophthalmological Society, held in Atlantic City, July 13-14, 1904 / by George M. Gould. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE PATHOLOGIC EESULTS OP DEXTKOCULARITY AND SINISTEOCULAKITY. By George M. Gould, M.D. PHILADELPHIA. , A little observation and a few tests will show tliat, with some exceptions, to be noted later, the right-handed or dextromanual per- son is also right-eyed, or dextrocnlar; and the left-handed is left- eyed. That is to say, there is, in the dextromanual, the same habit- ual and unconscious choice of the image of the right eye for the more expert and important tasks, just as the right hand is chosen for those functions in skilled work. A dextromanual hunter places his gun against the right shoulder because he can sight it with the right better than the left eye. The right-handed person, in playing the violin, violincello, etc., is forced to use the left hand for the more expert task, because he thus sees the fingers and the neck of the instrument without foreshortening and better than he could if , the fingering were done with the right hand. All actions, in fact, are determined by the fundamental necessity that accurate vision shall precede all action, and vision is more accurate with the habitually exercised eye, just as manual function is more expert and reliable with the hand most exercised in a special kind of work. A little closer observation soon demonstrates that not only is the dextromanual also dextrocular, but that he is likewise right-footed, and usually right-eared; he is dextropedal and dextraural. This is equivalent to saying that a person is either dextral, generally, as to ear, eye, hand, and foot, or else he is sinistral. There must mani- festly be a unity in the co-ordinations of all acts, and such co- ordinations would evidently be better with a habitual one-sided similarity of execution running through all kinds of action, so that