Hide Article Text (OCR)
trWRITE E)Scientist Proves by Working Both Hands Your Mind Becomes More Powerful.K HALF CF MS DEVELOPEDSchools Should Develop the Left Side Equally With the Right to Get Proper Results.You would increase your working power ii you could have the use o£ all your brain. Recent extraordinary experiments by psychologists seem toprove beyond a doubt that the greatestindividual efficiency can be procured by the proper training of both hands. By thus bringing the nerves of both sides of the body into action dormantbrain cells come into use. A British psychologists, in a paper in which he gives an excerpt, suggests that even genius may be due to the fact that ■ both sides of the brain are working up i to their capacity.A certain large business firm, our : authority tells us, has important com*- mercial relations with the Argentina j Republic. The business was develop- . j and its existence continued thror- i : the tact and diplomacy of a third nu i | ber of the firm, who was stationed .;t j Buenos Aires.His position required, of clt;c;r:;c, a ( knowledge of Spanish, which !*■' poke ! fluently. In the midst of tiie most sue*] cessful month the lirm had enjoyed 1 since its establishment this South j American member died unexpectedly.; The two partners were thrown into a panic. Owing to the peculiarly deli-! cate relations that existed between the | lirm and its Argentine market no one i but either surviving member could be: iutrustcd to undertake the continua*: tion of the business so unexpectedly endangered. It was imperative fhatone of them sliould depart for South| America. It was deemed that the younger man, who was About 85 years old, should undertake this task.But he knew almost nothing of Span-! ish. However, he set about mastering the language under a competent teacher. Several days passed and little was accomplished. He redoubled his efforts and the number of hours he daily devoted to the work. Several more days passed, v.ith little result. Hismain shortcoming, a vital one, was hisdifficulty in memorizing words.The two partners were on the verge of despair. Then the unbelievable happened. The wife of the junior partner had a poor relation who sometimes was invited to dinner. This man didnot amount to much from a commercial point of view; in fact, he always had been looked upon as a failure anda dreamer..As liflt;* runs now he was both of these. One night. Jest at the critical juncture in the junior partner’s affairs, this dreamer, who dabbled a little in modern psychology, dropped in to dinner as an urn \pected guest. The conversation bet .* * - i the host and his wife naturally drifted to the desperate-situation in which his lirm found itsel: and to his inability to progress in a supposedly easily acquired language as the reason.The “dreamer lisim-d with marked in;erlt;-st. Then, turning to his agitate! host, hi* said in , quiet way: i think1 can help you. And help him he did. for a month later, due entirely to the instruction of the •'dreamer, the junior partner sailed for Buenos Aires with a practical knowledge of Spanish. What had happened? What did the • dreamer say that night at dinner?He said something like this: You’re a shrewd business man and a successful one. too. but 1 don't suppose you ever give your gray matter any thought. Have you ever heard about a ‘speech center?* Well, you’ve got one all right, on the left side of your brain, and it’s carrying about as much of a load as it can carry in remembering and using the EngUvh language.Fortunately you have, or ought to have a second ‘speech center* on the other naif of your brain, but its never used: it’s like a white sheet of paper that’s never been written on. It ought to absorb the Spanish you wapt just like a sponge taking up water. It’s asleep, dormant—you'll have to trick it into life and action.In your instance and under the circumstances the only way I can think of doing so will be by writing down every Spanish word and phrase you study with you left hand.**Extraordinary as it may seem, this t is a true story.It has long been common psychological knowledge that the left half of the brain has full command over the right side of the body, while the right half of the brain exercises a like command over the left side of the f body. An electric shock applied to : the right half of the brain will cause movement on the left side of the body, similarly the left half of the brain mo stimulated affects the rigl.t side of the body.Every movement of an arm or leg originates in a well mapped-out center , on the o pas Re half of the brain. Any ■ injury to one of these centers sho$* itself in st\roe form of paralysis, \ but always on opposite side.If we havi ^ speed centers which have never been , developed, as proved in Ibe two illnbtratlons presented, is it not possible that we have other brain centers nmnted* asleep, wasting, solelybemse we lift thus tar net leaned’ oI their presence and how to bringthem into the field of activity? It hasbeen shown that we habitually use lessthan one-half of our brain for thinking purposes.The question arises as to whether or not the left hand should be made to develop a cunning equal to the right hand, not for purely ‘‘business’* and •Trades reasons, but for the individual’s own good and efficiency as well.The school Instruction of today, says Varia Kipiani of Belgium, “is productive of the most deplorable onesidedness of the child’s body. Through the exclusive teaching of the right hand only what might bo called ’pedagogical paralysis* is produced in thechild, which in later years, particularly in late adult life, often becomes a true medical paralysis. What does this mean? Simply this. That a paralysis of one side of the body in a grown person is often the result of failing to develop equally the right and left sides of the body of the child! That statement would be difficult to disprove when considered in ail its possible ramifications. It is startling enough to take the breath away!Katscher of Germany, though not so radical, is equally positive. The equaldevelopment of the two hands would facilitate instruction ot hand and brain, he says, for the child so trained learns his lessons more quickly, comprehends better, remembers longer what he’ learns and executes all that lie lias to do more promptly. Those so trained show themselves in all ways superior to those who whave learned the use of only one hand; In short, they are twice as efficient.None of us are quite so well balanced as we think we are. Prof. Van Vlerliet of the University of Ghenthas brought this fact to light just recently. He shows that we are all lopsided, so to speak. After making many repeated tests on more than 200 students this Belgian professor neatly demonstrated, for instance, that in all who are right-handed the right hand is muscularly the stronger, while in the left-handed tlie left possesses the greater muscular strength,.But there’s nothing extraordinary about that, you may exclaim. Probably not, but you will have to admit that what followed was at least surprising, for in experimenting to determine whether or not there is any difference in the acuity or sharpness of the nerves of hearing on the two sides, the experiments showed that In persons whose hearing was considered in every way normal the right ear hears far the better in right-banded individuals, while, on the contrary, it is the left ear which detects sounds more easily in all persons who are left-handed.If such facts were demonstrable in the case of the hearing, what could he shown as regards the eyesight? The professor made further tests. He learned that as to the sharpness ofthe optic nerve, eyesight in those whose eyes were declared normal is far keener in the right eye of righthanders,” but far bciter in the left of those who happen to he left-handed.” He later made these tests in thousands of eases and always with the sauie surprising results.Even as regards the .sensitiveness ofthe touch, the results were equally convincing. In this same series of experiments Hu? right-handed were found to have a superior sense of touch 0*11the right side in contrast to the “left-handed, in whom this sense is moredelicate on the left side.Brietlv, then, from the point of view of the development of the nervous system. all humanity is divided into two parts or side.*., with one-half of the nervous system, including tin* brain, better developed than the other half,and the left sirti with an equally half-developed nervous system the exact opposite of the other.The great fact to remember in this discussion, it is urged, is that most of us are using just one-half of our brain power. One-half of our brain cells are asleep -‘‘subconscious’'—ami need to be aroused into activity by some method and thus brought into the field of consciousness and usefulness.For instance, a complete injury of the right half of the brain would cause a complete paralysis on the left side of the body. Now, we all have a speech center situated on one-half of the brain, on the left side.in right-handed persons, but. curiously enough, on the right side in all who arc left-handed. lTp to a short time ago It was thought that we had only one of these speech centers. It was Prof. Fraenkel of Germany who upset this time-honored belief.Prof. Fraenkel had a patient who had lost his speech through disease or injury to his speech center In the brain. The occurrence is by no means an uncommon one. This patient was right-handed. By putting him through a systematic course of writing exercises with the left hand Fraenkel succeeded in completely restoring the speech of this unfortunate, an achievement until recently never dreamed of as possible.IACI£1EtfIC
Newspaper Details
Bedford Democrat
Bedford, Indiana, US
Wed, Apr 10, 1918
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 02 Nov 2022
Other Publications Near Bedford, Indiana
Bedford Weekly Mail
Bedford Daily Mail
Bedford Democrat
Bedford White River Standard
Bedford Independent
