restrained from it. And therefore this prevalency is either uncertainly placed in the laterality, or custom determines its indifferency. Which is the resolution of Aristotle, in that problem which enquires why the right side, being better than the left, is equal in the senses; because, saith he, the right and left do differ by use and custom, which have no place in the senses. For right and left, as parts inservient unto the motive faculty, are differenced by degrees from use and assuefaction, according whereto the one grows stronger and ofttimes bigger than the other. But in the senses it is otherwise; for they acquire not their perfection by use or custom, but at the first we equally hear, and see with one eye, as well as with another. And therefore, were this indifferency permitted, or did not constitution, but nature, determine dextrality, there would be many more Scevolas than are delivered in story; nor needed we to draw examples of the left from the sons of the right hand, as we read of seven thousand in the army of the Benjamites. True it is, that although there be an indifferency in either, or a prevalency indifferent in one, yet is it most reasonable for uniformity and sundry respective uses, that men should apply themselves to the constant use of one; for there will otherwise arise anomalous disturbances in manual actions, not only in civil and artificial, but also in military affairs, and the several actions of war.

Secondly, the grounds and reason alleged for the right are not satisfactory, and afford no rest in their decision. Scaliger, finding a defect in the reason of Aristotle, introduceth one of no less deficiency himself; ratio materialis, (saith he) sanguinis crassitudo simul et multitudo, that is, the reason of the vigour of this side is the crassitude and plenty of blood; * Benjamin Filius Dextræ.

the left, becomes left-handed. But among the Irishe, who cary their children astride their neckes, you shall rarely see one left-handed of either sex.-Wr.

the constant, &c.] Wise men count them unlucky that use the left hand, as going contrary to the generall course of nature in all places of the world and all times since the creation. And although

the heathen drew a superstitious conceyte from don* first on the left side rather then the right, yet that sprang from an apprehension of disorder in soe doing, and consequentlye (as they thought) unlucky, as in that of Augustus, Lævum sibi prodidit cultrum præpostere indutum quo die militari tumultu afflictus.-Wr.

* Some omission or error here.

but this is not sufficient; for the crassitude or thickness of blood affordeth no reason why one arm should be enabled before the other, and the plenty thereof, why both not enabled equally. Fallopius is of another conceit, deducing the reason from the azygos, or vena sine pari, a large and considerable vein arising out of the cava or hollow vein, before it enters the right ventricle of the heart, and placed only in the right side. But neither is this persuasory; for the azygos communicates no branches unto the arms or legs on either side, but disperseth into the ribs on both, and in its descent doth furnish the left emulgent with one vein, and the first vein of the loins on the right side with another; which manner of derivation doth not confer a peculiar addition unto either. Cælius Rhodiginus, undertaking to give a reason of ambidexters and left-handed men, delivereth a third opinion: men, saith he, are ambidexters, and use both hands alike, when the heat of the heart doth plentifully disperse into the left side, and that of the liver into the right, and the spleen be also much dilated; but men are left-handed whenever it happeneth that the heart and liver are seated on the left side, or when the liver is on the right side, yet so obducted and covered with thick skins that it cannot diffuse its virtue into the right. Which reasons are no way satisfactory, for herein the spleen is unjustly introduced to invigorate the sinister side, which being dilated it would rather infirm and debilitate. As for any tunicles or skins which should hinder the liver from enabling the dextral parts, we must not conceive it diffuseth its virtue by mere irradiation, but by its veins and proper vessels, which common skins and teguments cannot impede. And for the seat of the heart and liver in one side, whereby men become left-handed, it happeneth too rarely to countenance an effect so common; for the seat of the liver on the left side is monstrous, and rarely to be met with in the observations of physicians. Others, not considering ambidexters and left-handed men, do totally submit unto the efficacy of the liver; which, though seated on the right side, yet by the subclavian division doth equidistantly communicate its activity unto either arm; nor will it salve the doubts of observation; for many are right-handed whose livers are

weakly constituted, and many use the left in whom that part is strongest; and we observe in apes and other animals, whose liver is in the right, no regular prevalence therein.

And therefore the brain, especially the spinal marrow, which is but the brain prolonged, hath a fairer plea hereto; for these are the principles of motion, wherein dextrality consists, and are divided within and without the crany. By which division transmitting nerves respectively unto either side, according to the indifferency or original and native prepotency, there ariseth an equality in both, or prevalency in either side. And so may it be made out, what many may wonder at, why some most actively use the contrary arm and leg; for the vigour of the one dependeth upon the upper part of the spine, but the other upon the lower.

And therefore many things are philosophically delivered concerning right and left, which admit of some suspension. That a woman upon a masculine conception advanceth her right leg, will not be found to answer strict observation. That males are conceived in the right side of the womb, females in the left, though generally delivered, and supported by ancient testimony, will make no infallible account; it happening ofttimes that males and females do lie upon both sides, and hermaphrodites, for aught we know, on either. It is also suspicious what is delivered concerning the right and left testicle, that males are begotten from the one, and females from the other. For though the left seminal vein proceedeth from the emulgent, and is therefore conceived to carry down a serous and feminine matter; yet the seminal arteries which send forth the active materials, are both derived from the great artery. Beside, this original of the left vein was thus contrived to avoid the pulsation of the great artery, over which it must have passed to attain unto the testicle. Nor can we easily infer such different effects from the diverse situation of parts which have one end and office; for in the kidneys, which have one office, the right is seated lower than

That a woman, &c.] This instance is most true, as I have often tryed upon wager, whereas they sodenlye rise from their seate, yf both feete be freee.-Wr.

VOL. III.

6 That males, &c.] All this while hee does not disprove this: and the reason is as good as 't is manifest.-Wr.

C

the left, whereby it lieth free, and giveth way unto the liver. And therefore also that way which is delivered for masculine generation, to make a strait ligature about the left testicle, thereby to intercept the evacuation of that part, deserveth consideration. For one sufficeth unto generation, as hath been observed in semicastration, and ofttimes in carnous ruptures. Beside, the seminal ejaculation proceeds not immediately from the testicle, but from the spermatick glandules; and therefore Aristotle affirms (and reason cannot deny) that although there be nothing diffused from the testicles, an horse or bull may generate after castration; that is, from the stock and remainder of seminal matter, already prepared and stored up in the prostates or glandules of generation.

Thirdly, although we should concede a right and left in nature, yet in this common and received account we may err from the proper acception: mistaking one side for another; calling that in man and other animals the right which is the left, and that the left which is the right, and that in some things right and left, which is not properly either.

For first, the right and left are not defined by philosophers according to common acception, that is, respectively from one man unto another, or any constant site in each: as though that should be the right in one, which upon confront or facing, stands athwart or diagonally unto the other, but were distinguished according to the activity and predominant locomotion upon either side. Thus Aristotle, in his excellent tract, De Incessu Animalium, ascribeth six positions unto animals, answering the three dimensions, which he determineth not by site or position unto the heavens, but by the faculties and functions; and these are imum summum, ante retro, dextra et sinistra; that is the superior part, where the aliment is received, that the lower extreme, where it is last expelled; so he termeth a man a plant inverted; for he supposeth the root of a tree the head or upper part thereof,

7 mistaking one side, &c.] Wee take that to be right and lefte which God and

nature call soe: and all other reasons are frivolous. Vide Luke i, 11; Gal. ii, 9. Let itt be noted that God cals the left hand the side hand, i. e. beside the right hand, to which he gives in that very

place, the name of déğıɑ ut Ps. xc, v, 7, ἐκ τοῦ κλίτους σου χιλιὰς, και μυριὰς ἐκ δεξιῶν σου. κλίτος autem, ut norunt eruditi, proprie significat declinationem a recto, et hic, a rectâ.-Wr.

whereby it receiveth its aliment, although therewith it respects the centre of the earth, but with the other the zenith; and this position is answerable unto longitude. Those parts are anterior and measure profundity, where the senses, especially the eyes, are placed, and those posterior which are opposite hereunto. The dextrous and sinistrous parts of the body make up the latitude, and are not certain and inalterable like the other; for that saith he, is the right side, from whence the motion of the body beginneth, that is, the active or moving side; but that the sinister which is the weaker or more quiescent part. Of the same determination were the Platonicks and Pythagoreans before him; who, conceiving the heavens an animated body, named the east the right or dextrous part, from whence began their motion; and thus the Greeks, from whence the Latins have borrowed their appellations, have named this hand déğı, denominating it not from the site, but office, from doua:, capio, that is, the hand which receiveth, or is usually employed in that action.

Now upon these grounds we are most commonly mistaken, defining that by situation which they determined by motion; and giving the term of right hand to that which doth not properly admit it. For first, many in their infancy are sinistrously disposed, and divers continue all their life 'Agioregoì, that is, left-handed, and have but weak and imperfect use of the right; now unto these, that hand is properly the right, and not the other esteemed so by situation. Thus may Aristotle be made out, when he affirmeth the right claw of crabs and lobsters is biggest, if we take the right for the most vigorous side, and not regard the relative situation: for the one is generally bigger than the other, yet not always upon the same side. So may it be verified, what is delivered by Scaliger in his Comment, that palsies do oftenest happen upon the left side, if understood in this sense; the most vigorous part protect

8 that hand is properly, &c.] This exception is soe far from destroying the generall rule, that itt rather confirms itt. For the most parte of all men in all nations of the world are right-handed, and in those that use the lefte hand, the righte hand keepes the name; how

should hee else bee distinguished from all men that are right-handed. And thoughe the left hand bee as useful to some as the right to all others, yet itt is still their left hand; and by that name they are distinguisht, and cald left-handed men.--I'r.