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Instinct

Moving in a Circle

In your last week's number a letter appeared with the initial N.Y, in which it was stated that it is believed in North America that a lost man always strays in a circle towards the left. I may mention that whilst walking in a woody and hilly part of the New Forest, I found, to my great astonishment, that I had described a complete circle, and it was towards the left. My father also tells me that he has been informed (although under what circumstances he cannot recollect) that the same idea obtains in Australia. It has been suggested that the reason of this fact (if fact it is) is, that the right side of the body is stronger than the left; in a confirmation of the truth of this explanation, it is worthy of notice that Dr. Wm. Ogle (in a paper on Dextral Pre-eminence, Medico-Chirurgical Transactions. vol. liv.) finds that men are right-legged as well as right-handed, although the rule has not so universal an application. One of the points adduced by him in evidence is that bootmakers generally find the right foot larger than the left.

If any of your readers who have strayed in a similar manner, would take the trouble to write to you merely stating whether they wandered to the right or the left, it is possible that a sufficient body of facts might be collected either to confirm or disprove this curious belief.

George Darwin

Down, Beckenham, April 29