The Number Concept | Page 5

the first 5; but oftener the fingers of the right hand are used, with a
reversal of the order previously employed; _i.e._ the thumb denotes 6,
the index finger 7, and so on to the little finger, which completes the
count to 10.
At first thought there would seem to be no good reason for any marked
uniformity of method in finger counting. Observation among children
fails to detect any such thing; the child beginning, with almost entire
indifference, on the thumb or on the little finger of the left hand. My
own observation leads to the conclusion that very young children have
a slight, though not decided preference for beginning with the thumb.
Experiments in five different primary rooms in the public schools of
Worcester, Mass., showed that out of a total of 206 children, 57 began
with the little finger and 149 with the thumb. But the fact that nearly

three-fourths of the children began with the thumb, and but one-fourth
with the little finger, is really far less significant than would appear at
first thought. Children of this age, four to eight years, will count in
either way, and sometimes seem at a loss themselves to know where to
begin. In one school room where this experiment was tried the teacher
incautiously asked one child to count on his fingers, while all the other
children in the room watched eagerly to see what he would do. He
began with the little finger--and so did every child in the room after
him. In another case the same error was made by the teacher, and the
child first asked began with the thumb. Every other child in the room
did the same, each following, consciously or unconsciously, the
example of the leader. The results from these two schools were of
course rejected from the totals which are given above; but they serve an
excellent purpose in showing how slight is the preference which very
young children have in this particular. So slight is it that no definite law
can be postulated of this age; but the tendency seems to be to hold the
palm of the hand downward, and then begin with the thumb. The writer
once saw a boy about seven years old trying to multiply 3 by 6; and his
method of procedure was as follows: holding his left hand with its palm
down, he touched with the forefinger of his right hand the thumb,
forefinger, and middle finger successively of his left hand. Then
returning to his starting-point, he told off a second three in the same
manner. This process he continued until he had obtained 6 threes, and
then he announced his result correctly. If he had been a few years older,
he might not have turned so readily to his thumb as a starting-point for
any digital count. The indifference manifested by very young children
gradually disappears, and at the age of twelve or thirteen the tendency
is decidedly in the direction of beginning with the little finger. Fully
three-fourths of all persons above that age will be found to count from
the little finger toward the thumb, thus reversing the proportion that
was found to obtain in the primary school rooms examined.
With respect to finger counting among civilized peoples, we fail, then,
to find any universal law; the most that can be said is that more begin
with the little finger than with the thumb. But when we proceed to the
study of this slight but important particular among savages, we find
them employing a certain order of succession with such substantial

uniformity that the conclusion is inevitable that there must lie back of
this some well-defined reason, or perhaps instinct, which guides them
in their choice. This instinct is undoubtedly the outgrowth of the almost
universal right-handedness of the human race. In finger counting,
whether among children or adults, the beginning is made on the left
hand, except in the case of left-handed individuals; and even then the
start is almost as likely to be on the left hand as on the right. Savage
tribes, as might be expected, begin with the left hand. Not only is this
custom almost invariable, when tribes as a whole are considered, but
the little finger is nearly always called into requisition first. To account
for this uniformity, Lieutenant Gushing gives the following theory,[10]
which is well considered, and is based on the results of careful study
and observation among the Zuñi Indians of the Southwest: "Primitive
man when abroad never lightly quit hold of his weapons. If he wanted
to count, he did as the Zuñi afield does to-day; he tucked his instrument
under his left arm, thus constraining the latter, but leaving the right
hand free, that he might check off with it the fingers