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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    there would be no indecision in rapid and dangerous acts. The unity and the resultant promptness and accuracy of all motions is ■ thus enhanced by a synchronous dextrality or sinistrality. The ■ mixed type, illustrated by the so-called ambidextrous, would place! the organism at a wretched disadvantage in the struggle for ex- ^ istence, and in the social struggle of the highest types of civilized! life. 1 The underlying and long forerunning cause, however, of the co- ■ ordination of dextral acts, or of sinistral ones, lies in the necessity ' of the localization of the organ of speech in one or in the other side ^ of the cerebrum. As it is a single and not a dual function, its organ can be only in one place. Pathology has proved what physiology I pointed out, that in the dextral the speech center is in the left side i of the brain, and in the sinistral it is in the right side. Moreover, the intellectual act of writing develops the speech center on the side opposite to the writing hand. The history of cases with tumors and paralyses has settled this question beyond controversy. The speech center may be looked on as the organ through which- intellectual judgment and decision issues in determination and act. The spoken and written word is the most intimate act of the mind, its irrevocable and immediate exponent. Prior to all judgment and ' decision, vision must give the data. Intellect is, in fact, the product B* of vision, and all mental symbols, the letters of the alphabet them- V selves, are but modified visual images. The thing seen is thus BW worked into judgment, and by the third component of human ac- W tion, motion, is wrought into completed function. Vision, judg- -n ment, act, are tlius the imexceptional conditions of human activity K and validity. It is at once plain that if the centers which interme- -1:1 diate these three functions are on one side of the brain, in con- -K, tiguity, and closely united by many intercentral fibers, the resultant act will be more accurate and rapid than if one or two of the cen- ters are in the opposite side of the brain. The commissmal fibers be- tween the two cerebral hemispheres would be fewer and longer, and iB, the co-ordination less clear, sharp and certain. This is the neuro-Bj^^ logic basis for a common dextrality or a common sinistrality ofB function in one individual, and it completely demolishes the foolish fl contention of those who would vainly educate the 2 per cent, of left- - handed children to be ambidextrous. There never was an ambidex-