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SCOTTISH REGIONAL HOSPITAL BOARDS

THE Secretary of State for Scotland has made the

following appointments to the five Scottish boards. Out

of 36 appointments, 18 are reappointments of retiringmembers. Those now appointed will hold office until

March 31, 1955. The names of doctors are shown in bold

type.NORTHERN REGION

Reappointed: N. MacIver.New members: A. Lamont, M.B., a.p. ; Rev. W. MacLeod ;

C. Murray, r.R.c.s.E. ; E. Macintosh (to March 31, 1953) ;two appointments outstanding.

NORTH-EASTERN REGION

Reappointed : : James M. Burnett ; Alexander Lyon,D.S.O.; Mrs. Helen M. Taylor, M.D.New members Prof. A. Cameron ; G. I. Davidson, M.13. ;

J. L. Hill; R. Muir Wilson ; Sir Hugh Turnbull, K.c.v.o.,R.B.E. (to March 31, 1953)..

EASTERN REGION

Reappointed-: J. J. Duffy; James E. Prain; ProvostW. J. Ross.

New members : Mrs. A. M. Allardice ; A. R. Moodie,M.c.s.B.; James Simpson, .8. ; A. F. Wood, M.B.

SOUTH-EASTERN REGION

Reappointed :0. A. Cunningham ; Prof. D. M. Dunlop,F.R.C.P. ; J. McKelvie, J.P. ; J. Sneddon.New members : J. J. R. Duthie, F.R.c.P.E.; Major D.

Russell; J. P. Watson ; Councillor R. Burnside, j.r. (toMarch 31, 1953) ; two appointments outstanding.

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WESTERN REGION

Reappointed Prof. J. Aitchison, B.SC., L.D.S. ; J. DunlopEx-Provost Fyfe, M.B.E. ; F. Gormill ; W. McLaughlin ;A. Miller, r.B.F.p.s.; Prof. G. M. Wishart, F.R.F.P.S.New members R. J. Hastings, M.B.E. ; Carrick McDonald,

M.B.; P. McKenna ; Captain J. P. Younger, C.B.E., D.L. ;P. K. McCowan, F.R.C.P. (to March 31, 1953).

THE LISTERIAN FESTIVAL

SINCE 1924 the Royal College of Surgeons of Englandhas awarded, once in three years, a Lister medal inrecognition of distinguished contributions to surgicalscience. As this year’s recipient, Sir JAMES LEARMONTH,delivered his Lister Oration at the college on April 4.We hope to publish it next week.At the Festival dinner in the evening Mr. HARRY CROOK-

SEANK, the Minister of Health, proposed The College, towardswhich he expressed much kindness. Sir CECIL WAEELETr,responding as president, said that when Lister joined thecouncil in 1880 there were 1200 fellows, but now there were3500. The Nuffield College of Surgical Sciences wouldaccommodate 75 postgraduates, and the address of the

college would be 35-45 Lincoln’s Inn Fields. He hoped thatthe Lister Oration of 1955 would be given in its new greathall. Mr. PHILIP MITCHINER proposed The Guests, includingtwo members of the Lister family, A. R. Lister, F.R.C.S.,and W. A. Lister, F.R.C.P. Lord SIMONDS, the Lord Chancellor,was careful to disclaim responsibility for the Lords’ decisionon the previous day that the college is a charity. Mr. A. L.GEYER, High Commissioner for South Africa, spoke of thedebt owed to the college by the profession in his country.Sir JAMES PATERSON Ross, vice-president, paid a movingtribute to the Lister Orator-a welcome representativeof surgery, he said, in Europe and America, and known evenm Scotland. How were all these wonderful things done ?Partly perhaps by living 400 miles from London, whichenabled Sir James Learmonth to read in transit TheHistory of the Peloponnesian TVar. Responding, the LISTERORATOR said that he would carry back to Edinburgh thecollege’s good wishes to the school of which he came asrepresentative.

Before our Time

LEONARDO’S LEFT HAND

NORMAN CAPENERF.R.C.S.

Tims week the 500th anniversary of the birth ofLeonardo da Vinci on April 15, 1452, has been celebratedthroughout the world. Leonardo was an artist of supremegenius and he was pre-eminent equally as a scientist.These aspects of his work are marvellously displayed inthe exhibition now at Burlington House, and doctors,no matter what their special interest, will find there muchto fascinate them, quite apart from the aesthetic interestof the exquisite drawings-the products of his " ineffableleft hand."

It is commonly thought that Leonardo was left-handed, and the great authority A. E. Popham writes :

" One factor in Leonardo’s drawings is, however, constant,his left-handedness. He apparently never drew with his righthand and the strokes of the pen or other instrument where

they can be distinguished, slope down from left to right, notin the normal direction from right to left."

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But though it is, of course, true that Leonardo usuallyused his left hand, I am not at all sure that he was

properly a left-handed person. By this I mean, from theneurological viewpoint, he was not clearly a right-cerebral-hemisphere-dominant individual. In the modern world,dominance of the right hand probably assumes a greatersignificance than it did in the ages when craftsmanshipwas all-important. We have become too conscious of our

right hand, because of its association with the writtenand spoken word. As Focillon, the,French writer onaesthetics, has neatly put it :

" The hands are not a pair of passively identical twins.. Norare they to be distinguished like younger and older childrenor like two girls with unequal talent, one trained in all skills,the other a serf dulled by the monotony of hard work. I donot believe altogether in the eminent dignity of the right hand.Deprived of the left it retires into a painful, almost sterilesolitude. The left hand, which signifies unjustly the evil sideof life, the sinister’ portion of space, the side from which onemust not come upon a corpse, or enemy or bird-the left handcan be made to perform all the duties of the right. Fashionedlike it, it has the same aptitudes, which it renounces in orderto assist its partner."

In craftsmanship the two hands develop their ownspecial skills which by habitual use cannot very readilybe transposed. Such bimanual skill is different fromambidexterity in which either hand can do a job equallywell, or more often, some people believe, equallyimperfectly. -

How does all this apply to Leonardo ? Was he a right-cerebral-hemisphere-dominant individual ? I believethere is reasonable doubt about this, and that to dismisshim as left-handed (as has so often been done) is to taketoo superficial a view of the matter-though after 500years it may be impossible to answer the question withcertainty.

THE EVIDENCE OF THE DRAWINGS

I have long studied Leonardo’s drawings in reprodiie-tion. It has, however, been a great revelation to see somany of the originals. Some years ago when I firstbelieved it possible that Leonardo was primarily a right-handed person, I noticed that Richter in his LiteraryTVorks of Leonardo da Vinci states that Leonardo’searliest notes at the age of 21 were written mirror fashion.Richter discounted secrecy because there is no reason tobelieve that Leonardo wanted to hide his investigationsfrom other people ; and in any case mirror-writingwould have been a poor way of doing this. Richterthought that the right hand might have been crippledin an accident, and he quotes Leonardo’s remark that he