ns the other.

Besides this, we occasionally find a person who is left-handed, as it is
called; that is, his left hand and arm are as much larger and stronger
than the right, as the right is usually stronger than the left. How is
this? Do we find a corresponding change in the internal structure? But
suppose it could be ascertained that such a change did exist, which I
believe has never been done, the question would still arise whether the
difference was the same at birth, or whether the more frequent use of
the left hand has not, in part, produced it.

I do not mean, here, to intimate that a more frequent use of the left
hand than the right would make new blood-vessels grow where there were
none before. But it would certainly do one thing; it would make the same
vessels carry more blood than they did before, which is, in effect,
nearly the same thing:--for the more blood in the limb, as a general
rule, the more strength--provided the limb is in due health and
exercise.

The inference which I wish the reader to make from all this is, that
since the left hand and arm, by due cultivation, and without essential
difference or change of structure to begin with, can occasionally be
made stronger than the right, it is fair to conclude that it may, if
found desirable, be always rendered more nearly equal to it than, in
adult years, we usually find it.

The question is now fairly before us--Is such a result desirable? I
maintain that it is; and shall endeavor to show my reasons.

How often is one hand injured by an accident, or rendered nearly useless
by disease? But if it should be the right, how helpless it makes us! The
man who is accustomed to shave himself, must now resort to a barber. If
he is a barber himself, or almost any other mechanic, his business must
be discontinued. Or if he is a clerk, he cannot use his left hand, and
must consequently lose his time. Or if amputation chances to be
performed on a favorite arm, how entirely useless to society we are,
till we have learned to use the other! It not only takes up a great deal
of valuable time to acquire a facility of using it, but if we are
already arrived at maturity, we can never use it so well as the other,
during our whole lives; because it is too late in life to increase its
size and strength much by constant exercise. Whereas in youth, it might
have been done easily.

Is it not then important--for these and many more reasons--to teach a
child to use with ne