A THEORY OF OCULAR DOMINANCE

Abstract

DOMINANCE in the broadest sense consists of any sort of physiological preeminence, priority or preferential activity of one member of any bilateral pair of structures in the body. Thus, to write right handed or left handed is to have a dominant hand. To start walking, or climbing or putting on one's trousers always with the same foot is to have a dominant foot. The discovery of dominance is lost in antiquity. Handedness has been known for so long that there are words in common speech, such as the French<i>gauche</i>, and the English "gawky," which allude to it. Eyedness, however, is supposed to have received its first scientific mention in 1861, by G. M. Humphrey. In neurology, a first order expectation is that the lateralities (sidednesses) of the various dominances in a given individual will agree. This is because one primary laterality is in position to dictate the lateralities of