Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/38

 first objects which an able teacher of gymnastics proposes to himself is to equalize the strength and skill of the two arms and legs.

Frequently a want of symmetry is due to the bad habit of sleeping mostly on one side. We can recall quite a number of such instances. Such a habit should never be indulged. It is ruinous to grace in walking, and has, moreover, an injurious effect on the general health by displacing the internal organs, and subjecting them to unequal pressure. We always urge those whom we have the privilege of advising to sleep quite as often on the one side as on the other, and, if they can, occasionally on the back. Persons who are accustomed to sleep together should change sides from time to time. This is especially important in young girls.

Why some persons are left-handed is not clear. It is not merely a habit they learn in infancy. We have known every precaution taken with children to prevent it, tying a bag over their left hands, fastening it in the sleeve or to the side, and other devices, for months together, but without success. Nevertheless, all these means should be tried, and, when they fail, the child must be taught to use both hands alike—to be "ambidextrous," as it is called—which is rarely impossible. Left-handed people, however "dexterous" they may be, are apt to create an unpleasant sensation