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EDITED BY
WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A. M., LL. D.
VOLUuVE VII.
THE
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES.
12mo, cloth, uniform binding.
THE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES was projected for the pur-
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of introductions, analysis, and commentary. The volumes are tastefully and substan-
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Second edition, revised, and accompanied with Commentary and complete
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INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES
THE MIND OF THE CHILD
PAET I
THE SENSES AND
THE WILL
OBSER VÄ TIONS CONCERMNG
THE MENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BEING
IN THE FIRST YEARS OF LIFE
BY '
W. PREYER
PE0FES80E OF PHTSIOLOQT DJ JENA
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL GERMAN
By H. AV. BROWN"
TEACHER IN THE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL AT WOKCESTEE, MASS.
NEW YOEK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1893
44649
CoPTniGHT, 1888,
bt d. appleton and company.
\ \ \ ^
EDITOR^S PREFACE.
A CAEEFUL study of this work will do ranch to put
one in possession of the method of studying mental
growth in children. Parents and teachers will iind this
method of observation invaluable, inasmuch as it will
make experience constantly profitable.
Experience, it is true, marshals its train of facts be-
fore us in an endless succession every day of our lives.
But, without scientific method, one fact does much to
obliterate all others by its presence. Out of sight, they
are out of mind. Method converts unprofitable experi-
ence, wherein nothing abides except vague and uncertain
surmise, into science. In science the present fact is
deprived of its ostentatious and all-absorbing interest,
by the act of relating it to all other facts. We classify
the particular with its fellow-particulars and it takes its
due rank. Such classification, moreover, eliminates from
it the unessential elements.
The method of science, as Herbart pointed out
involves the ascertainment and fixing of quantitative
relations. " Every theory," says he, " to admit of com-
parison with experience, must be developed until the
same embodies the modifications of quantity found in
that experience." *
* See "Journal of Speculative Philosophy," vol. xi, p. 251, J,
F, Herbart on the application of mathematics to psychology.
vi EDITOR'S PREFACE.
The characteristics of accuracy and precision which
make science exact are derived from quantity. Fix the
order of succession, the date, the duration, the locaHty,
the environment, the extent of the sphere of influence,
the number of manifestations, and the number of cases
of intermittence, and you have exact knowledge of a
phenomenon. When stated in quantitative terms, your
experience is useful to other observers. It is easy to
verify it or to add an increment. By quantification,
science grows and grows continually, without retrograde
movements.
One does not forget, of course, that there is some-
thing besides the quantitative and altogether above the
quantitative. The object itself is more important than
its quantitative relations. The soul as a self-active
essence is the object in psychology. Science determines
the quantitative relations of its phenomenal manifesta-
tion. In other words, science determines exactly the
time when, the place where, the duration and frequency,
the extent and degree of the manifestation of this self-
activity in the body and through the body.
The nature of feelings, volitions, and ideas in them-
selves, is the object of introspective psychology and
metaphysics. But all will concede that parents and
teachers are directly interested in the order of develop-
ment of the soul from its lower functions into its higher
ones, and are consequently concerned with these quan-
titative manifestations.
The author's comj)arisons between the steps of prog-
ress in the child and the same in other animals consti-
tute one of the most valuable features in this book.
It is worth re23eating that the supreme interest to us
EDITOR'S PREFACE. y^
in these observations is the development from lower
degrees of intelligence to higher ones. The immense
interval that separates plant life from animal life is
almost paralleled by the interval between the animal
and the human being. From mere nutrition to sensa-
tion is a great step ; from mere sensation to the con-
scious employment of ethical ideas and the perception
of logical necessity and universality, is an equal step.
Yet it is to be assumed that the transitions exist in all de-
grees, and that the step from any degree to the next one is
not difficult when the natural means is discovered. It is
this means that comparative psychology is discovering.
The infant is contemplated in the process of gaining
command over himself. His sense-organs gradually
become available for perception ; his muscles become
controllable by his will. Each new acquisition becomes
in turn an instrument of further progress.
Exact science determines when and where the ani-
mal phase leaves off and the purely human begins —
where the organic phase ends and the individual begins.
The discrimination of impulsive, reflexive, and instinct-
ive movements, all of them organic, throws light on
the genesis of mind out of its lower antecedent. Imita-
tion is the first manifestation of the transition from the
organic to the strictly spiritual.
In this connection it is, before all, an important ques-
tion, "What is the significance of the relapse into uncon-
scious instinct through the formation of habit ? We do
an act by great special efiort of the will and intellect ;
we repeat it until it is done with ease. It gradually
lapses into unconscious use and wont, and has become
instinctive and organic. We need not suggest the bear-
Viii EDITOR'S PREFACE.
ing of this question on education, wliicli deals so mucli
with the formation of habits, and yet seems to aim
always at bringing to consciousness in the pupil all of
his unconscious presuppositions. Education deals in
explanations. It exhumes for the individual his social
history, his cosmical evolution, and sets before him in a
systematic form the logical structure of his thinking, of
his language, of his ethical and sesthetical motives. It
turns his attention through mathematics upon the neces-
sary forms which all phenomena assume. Everywhere
education proceeds from the particular being before the
senses to the general form of its existence, and drags
into consciousness what has been hitherto merely organic
— involved and implied but unperceived. Education,
in fact, lifts us to the contemplation of the universal
in each individual. Then by the aid of general ideas
we are able to recall the particular facts, or drop them
out of sight, at our pleasure. Learning by science
to comprehend principles — which may be defined as
energies moving according to their own laws — we be-
come independent of memory to a great degree, and may
let the instances which formed our ladder of discovery
drop away. We thus arrive at what the School-men
called the angelic form of knowing.
The work of Professor Preyer before us contains
three parts, respectively devoted to {a) the develop-
ment of the senses, (h) the will, and (c) the intellect.
Parts first and second are contained in this volume ; and
part third, with three appendices, forms a second vol-
ume, to follow immediately.
William T. HLarkis.
Concord, Mass., February, 1888.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
I PROPOSED to myself a number of years ago, the
task of studying the child, both before birth and in
the period immediately following, from the physiologi-
cal point of view, with the object of arriving at an ex-
planation of the origin of the separate vital processes.
It was soon apparent to me that a division of the work
would be advantageous to its prosecution. For life in
the embryo is so essentially different a thing from life
beyond it, that a separation must make it easier both for
the investigator to do his work and for the reader to
follow the exposition of its results. 1 have, therefore,
discussed by itself, life before birth, the " Physiology
of the Embryo." The vital phenomena of the human
being in the earliest period of his independent exist-
ence in the world are, again, so complicated and so vari-
ous in kind, that here too a division soon appeared ex-
pedient. I separated the physical development of the
newly-born and the very young child from his mental
development, and have endeavored to describe the latter
in the present book ; at least, I hope that, by means of
personal observations carried on for several years, I
have furnished facts that may serve as material for a
future description.
X AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
A forerunner of the work is a lecture, " Psycho-
genesis " (the Genesis of Mind), given before a scientific
association at Berhn on the 3d of January, 1880, and
soon after made public * in my book, " Naturwissen-
Bchafth'che Thatsachen und Probleme " (" Facts and
Problems of ]^atural Science ") Berlin, 1 880.
This sketch has given manifold incitement to fresh
observations. But great as is the number of occasional
observations in regard to many children, I do not thus
far know of diaries regularly kept concerning the
mental development of individual children. IsTow pre-
cisely this chronological investigation of mental prog-
ress in the first and second years of life presents great
difllculties, because it requires the daily registering of
experiences that can be had only in the nursery. I
have, notwithstanding, kept a complete diary from the
birth of my son to the end of his third year. Occupy-
ing myself with the child at least three times a day — at
morning, noon, and evening — and almost every day,
with two trifling interruptions, and guarding him, as far
as possible, against such training as children usually re-
ceive, I found nearly every day some fact of mental
genesis to record. The substance of that diary has
passed into this book.
'No doubt the development of one child is rapid and
that of another is slow ; very great individual differ-
ences appear in children of the same parents even, but
the differences are much more of time and degree than
of the order in which the steps are taken, and these
* See Jour. Spec. Philos. for April, 1881, for an English transla-
tion of this lecture of Professor Preyei'. — Ed.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xi
steps are the same in all individuals ; tliat is the im-
portant matter. Desirable as it is to collect statistics
concerning the mental development of many infants —
the activity of their senses, their movements, especially
their acquirement of speech — yet the accurate, daily
repeated observation of one child — a child sound in
health, having no brothers or sisters, and whose devel-
opment was neither remarkably rapid nor remarkably
slow — seemed at least quite as much to be desired. I
have, however, taken notice, as far as possible, of the
experiences of others in regard to other normal children
in the first years of life, and have even compared many
of these where opportunity offered.
But a description of the gradual appearance of brain-
activity in the child, along with the most careful obser-
vation of his mental ripening, would be only a begin-
ning. The development of mind, like the development
of body, must be regarded as dating back far beyond
the origin of the individual being.
If the infant brings into the world a set of organs
which begin to be active only after a long time, and are
absolutely useless up to that time — as, e. g., the lungs
were before birth — then the question, To what causes do
such organs and functions owe their existence? can have
but one answer — heredity.
This, to be sure, explains nothing ; but dim as the
notion is, much is gained toward our understanding of
the matter, in the fact that some functions are inherited
while others are not.
What is acquired by experience is only a part. The
question whether a function of the brain, on which
everything depends in the development of the child's
xn AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
mind, is inherited or acquired, must be answered in each
individual case, if we would not go astray in the laby-
rinth of appearances and hypotheses.
Above all, we must be clear on this point, that the
fundamental activities of mind, which are manifested
only after birth, do not originate after birth.
If they had previously no existence at aU, we could
not discover whence they come or at what time. The
substance of a hen's egg that has been fecundated, but
is frozen as hard as a stone, certainly has no sensation ;
but after thawing and three weeks' warming, that same
substance, changed into a living chicken, has sensation.
The capacity of feeling, in case of the fulfillment of
certain outward conditions, if it be not a property of the
egg, must have originated during incubation from mat-
ter incapable of sentiency ; that is, the material atoms
must not only have arranged themselves in a different
order, receiving through their union and separation dif-
ferent chemical properties, as actually happens; must
not only have changed their physical properties — e. g.,
elasticity, solidity, etc., which are partly dependent on
the chemical, partly independent of them — as likewise
happens; but these atoms must have gained entirely
new properties which were neither chemically nor
physically indicated beforehand, were not to be assumed
or predicated. For neither chemistry nor physics can
attribute to the substances that constitute the egg other
than chemical and physical properties. But if the
warming, ventilation, evaporation, and liberation of
carbonic acid have had their normal course during
incubation, then these new mental properties present
themselves, and that without the possibility of their
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xv
ual experience alone ; rather must each one, by means of
his experience, lili out and animate anew his inherited
endowments, the remains of the experiences and activi-
ties of his ancestors.
It is liard to discern and to decipher tlie mysterious
writing on the mind of the child. It is just that which
constitutes a chief problem of this book.
Peeyek.
Jena, October 6, 1881.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The first edition of tins book appeared in October,
1881. Just two years afterward, a second became ne-
cessary. This dillers from the former chiefly in abbre-
viation of the statements coming from other persons,
and not indispensable ; in improvements in form; in a
more careful and exact formulation of general conclu-
sions ; and in a considerable enlargement of the material
of facts in support of these conclusions. In respect to
the last point, the communications that have come to
me by letter, from the most various sources, have been
of great value.
To all those who have gratified me by sending their
observations concerning the mental development of the
child during his earliest years, I here express my thanks
for the interest they have taken in my presentation, and
for the help they have afliorded me in the laborious
work.
The mental life of the human being is, in fact, so
hard to investigate in its development, that very many
persons must co-operate in the work ; the individual can
oversee but little of it. The evolution of the mind
resembles a stream into which no one descends twice.
Like that, it issues from obscure depths as a clear
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xvü
spring ; the water trickles but scantily at first into the
light of day, and gathers slowly and in stillness to a
murmuring brook. Soon, however, its waves beat with
increasing movement against the banks. The bottom is
no longer clearly visible. Farther on, foaming gorges
pour themselves into the still clear, but agitated waters,
which only the solid rocks can restrain. In like man-
ner self-will breaks against the resisting order of the
world. When, at length, tbe torrent has victoriously
opened its path in the mountains, and has adapted itself
to its environment, then it hastens on, sometimes spark-
ling and smooth, sometimes roaring powerfully, as if,
like the turbulent boy, it would reach distant goals, and
yet would cling to the heart of the mother, to moderate
the spring-tide of the gushing life.
At last, mirror-like in its calmness, powerfully dis-
pensing blessings and diffusing life, it becomes master
of itself, and loses itself in the ocean out of which it
once arose.
Throughout the whole course, from the spring to the
river's mouth, the spectator sees the flow, sees the before
and the after ; he knows, too, that it is the same ele-
ments that are hastening forward, though often united
with new ones, and becoming changed ; that many of
these, indeed, pass oif into vapor, but the river is ever
the same. So is it also with the mind. From birth to
death, the play of its waves does not cease ; new im-
pressions are mingled with old ones, many are forgotten
and changed, yet the individuality remains to the last,
and before the self {Ich) has come to the knowledge,
whither the restless hastening forward is really leading,
the hastening is at an end.
xviii AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
Thus, the highest questions of themselves press upon
the observer of the child, upon the physiologist and the
philosopher, the teacher and the educator, the physician
and the psychologist, the philanthropist and the pastor,
in the joyous form of the smiling, rosy face of the
child, but at the same time these questions are as im-
penetrable as is in general the great mystery of be-
comino; and of ceasinfij to be.
The Authok.
Jena, April 38, 1884.
COE"TENTS.
PAGE
Preface by the Editor v
Preface to First Edition ix
Preface to Second Edition xvi
Introduction by Professor G. Stanley Hall . . . xxi
FIRST PART.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENSES.
CHAPTER
I.— Sight 2
Sensibility to Light, 2. Discrimination of Colors, 6.
Movements of the Eyelids, 23. Movements of the Eyes,
34. Direction of the Look, 41. Seeing Near and Dis-
tant Objects, 50. Interpretation of what is Seen, 60.
Sight in New-Born Animals, 66.
II. — Hearing 73
Deafness of the Newly-Born, 72. First Sensations
and Perceptions of Sound, 76. Hearing in New-Born
Animals, 91.
III. — Feeling (or Touch) 96
Sensibility of the Newly-Born to Contact, 96. First
Perceptions of Touch, 108. Sensibility to Tempera-
ture, 111.
IV.— Taste 116
Sensibility to Taste in the Newly-Born, 116. Com-
parison of the Impressions of Taste, 123. Taste in
New-Born Animals, 137.
v.— Smell 130
Capacity of Smell in the Newly-Born, 130. Discrimi-
nation of Impressions of Smell, 133. Smell in New-
Born Animals, 136.
XX
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEB PAGB
VI, — Earliest Okganic Sensations and Emotions . . 140
Feelings of Pleasure in General, 141. Unpleasant
Feelings in General, 146. Feeling of Hunger, 152. Feel-
ing of Satiety, 157. Feeling of Fatigue, 158. Fear, 164.
Astonishment, 172.
VII. — Summary of General Results 176
SECOND PART.
DEVELOPMENT OF WILL.
YIIL — Movements of the Child as Expressions of Will . 188
Recognition of the Child's Will, 188. Classification
of the Child's Movements, 195.
IX. — Impulsive Movements 201
X. — Reflex Movements 211
XL — Instinctive Movements 235
Instinctive Movements of New-Born Animals, 235.
Development of the Power of Seizing, 241. Sucking,
Biting, Chewing, Tooth-Grinding, Licking, 257. Hold-
ing the Head, 263. Learning to Sit, 267. Learning to
Stand, 269. Learning to Walk, 271.
XII. — Imitative Movements 282
XIII. — Expressive Movements 293
The first Smiling and Laughing, 294. Pouting of the
Lips, 301. Kissing, 304, Crying and Wrinkling of the
Forehead, 307, Shaking the Head and Nodding, 311.
Shrugging the Shoulders, 317. Begging with the Hands,
and Pointing, 318.
XIV. — Deliberate Movements 325
XV. — Summary of General Results 334
miRODUCTIOX TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
If one would train and break horses, however un-
manageable, like Willis J. Powel, who perhaps ex-
celled all others in this art before or since, he must, like
him, study long and patiently the nature of the horse.
If one would raise sheep with greatest success, he must,
like the English herdsman who said that he and his
family were Cotswold people and knew nothing what-
ever of Southdowns, serve a long apprenticeship in
learning the habits, instincts, and all the conditions that
affect sheep development favorably or unfavorably.
The principle has long been a commonplace with breed-
ers and trainers of domestic animals, although many
naturalists now believe that for him who wiU long and
patiently study and think and feel his way down and
back into the soul of a particular animal, there are pos-
sibilities both of scientific discovery and of control and
modification of brute instinct undreamed of before.
The trained agent of charity organizations, who la-
bors among the poor, must prepare himself for eflS-
ciency by careful study of the way in which individual
poor people, and even beggars, think, feel, live, and act.
The modem prison-keeper studies criminals till he be-
comes an expert in the psychology of crime. The mis-
xxii INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
sionarj first studies the existing beliefs and superstitions
of the savage races among whom he is to labor, or, if
not, his work is but httle more effective than if he did
not take the trouble to learn their language.
Teachers as a rule do not study the nature of the
children they instruct in any such way, and that for the
following reasons : First, their business, as too often
viewed, is not to educate or unfold, a process to which
all have a right, but to instruct, or infuse set courses and
sums of information to which the nature of the child
may or may not have a right. Secondly, many think
they have all the knowledge of childhood they require,
from memory of their own childish years. This is
wrong. Mental and moral growth necessarily involves
increasing oblivion of everything of childhood save
mere incidents, and even these are, other things being
equal, remembered inversely as the degree of develop-
ment to fullness of maturity. What remains from this
source often misleads and has no regulative value for
the teacher. Thirdly, many think a course in a text-
book in psychology supplies this need. This is prob-
ably the gravest mistake of all. All such books I know
are far too abstract and schematic, too much devoted to
definition or in some cases even controversy, too com-
monplace and traditional in their subject-matter, so as
to be sometimes an impediment to the fine tact and
instinct that, in minds of finest fiber, divine, perhaps
half unconsciously, the needs and individual nature of
children.
The living, playing, learning child, whose soul he-
redity has freighted so richly from a past we know not
how remote, on whose right development all good
INTRODUCTION TO TUE AMERICAN EDITION, xxiii
causes in the world depend, embodies a truly element-
ary psychology. All the fundamental activities are
found, and the play of each psychic process is so open,
simple, interesting, that it is strange that psychology
should be the last of the sciences to fall into line in the
great Baconian change of base to which we owe nearly
all the reforms, from Comenius down, which distin-
guish schools of today from those of the sixteenth
century. It is a striking fact that nearly every great
teacher in the history of education who has spoken
words that have been heeded has lived for years in the
closest personal relations to children and has had the
sympathy and tact that gropes out, if it can not see
clearly, the laws of juvenile development and the lines
of childish interests.
Among all the nearly fourscore studies of young
children printed by careful empirical and often thorough-
ly scientific observers, this work of Preyer is the fullest
and on the whole the best. It should be read by teach-
ers and parents even of older children, as the best ex-
ample of the inductive method applied to the study of
child-psychology. The development of each sense, and
the unfold ment of the power of voluntary motion, are
traced with great fullness ; and stiU more attention is
devoted to the growth of the ability to speak, with a
suggestive co-ordination of the progressive stages of
decay of the linguistic centers in aphasia and allied
forms of disease.
A work on the whole so good awakens a desire for
still further advance along the same lines. Not only
does Preyer not continue his studies into school age,
but he has not attempted, like Perez, to trace the un-
Xxiv INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
foldment of sentiments and emotions, nor, like Herbart
and Ziller, to tabulate the spontaneous interests of chil-
dren. The most hopeful ett'ort yet made in this direc-
tion was begun three years ago in the institution with
which the translator of this work is connected, and may
be described as follows, as characterized substantially
in the words of the principal, E. H. Russell : Systematic
observation of children is made a part of the regular
work of this normal school, with a view of enlarging
the scope of the ordinary study of psychology, to render
it more objective and useful, to bring the prospective
teachers into closer and better relations to children, and
to gather a store of facts whereby in time to increase
and rectify our present unsatisfactory knowledge of
child-nature. The method is : First, to ex|Dlain to the
students, at the beginning of the second half-year in
school, how to improve their opportunities on the street,
at home, in families of friends, of noticing minutely the
spontaneous, unconstrained activities, bodily and mental
and physical, of children of all ages, at play, study, or
work, etc. Then, at the earliest convenient moment,
concise record is made on blanks with printed headings,
and colored — e. g., white for personal observation, red for
second-hand facts, etc. Tlie records, now some five or
six thousand in number, are classified, so far as can be,
under memory, imagination, deceit, ignorance, mechani-
cal construction, moral sense, etc., etc. Precisely what
the value of this material will be it is now too soon to
say, but as to its good effects on the powers of observa-
tion, tact, psychologic knowledge and interest of those
who make them, there can be no question wliatever.
The students soon become more inte.'ested in children
INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. xxv
and their ways, and more skillful in dealing with them ;
and some acquire mucli ingenuity in following out the
more complicated and obscure processes of child-life.
They also acquire right habits of observation and in-
vestigation generally, learning in some degree the cau-
tion, discrimination, and veracity required in studying
nature. It is so interesting that students must be rather
restrained than impelled to the work ; and graduates are
believed to be distinctly guided toward best success and
pleasure in their vocation by these studies, and display
intelligence and sympathy in dealing with troublesome
■^children. Many of the essays of the graduating class
are based on this work.
While commending this book to American teachers
generally, the writer desires to commend the Worcester
method of psychogenetic study to the careful attention
of principals of normal schools.
G. Stanley Hall.
Johns Hopkins University, January 7, 18S8.
EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATED CITATIONS.
Kussmaul : " Untersuchungen über das Seelenleben des neuge-
borenen Menschen " (" Investigations concerning the Mental Life
of the New-Born Human Being "), 1859 (38 pp.) ; and " Störungen
der Sprache " (" Disturbances or Obstructions of Speech "), 1877.
Genzmer : " Untersuchungen über die Sinneswahrnehmungen
des neugeborenen Menschen " (" Investigations concerning the
Sense-Perceptions of the New-Born Human Being"), 1873 (re-
printed 1882, 25 pp.).
Sigisraund : " Kind und Welt " (" The Child and the World "),
1856.
Grustav Lindner : in Twelfth Annual Report of the " Lehrer-
seminars in Zschopau," 1882, and in the periodical "Kosmos,"
1883.
Frau Dr. Friedemann ; Frau Professor von Strümpell ; and Herr
Ed. Schulte— to these the author is under particular obligation for
MSS.
All other references, sources of information, and names of au-
thors are given without abbreviation.
THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
FIRST PART.
DEVELOPMENT OF TEE SENSES.
The foundation of all mental development is tlie
activity of tlie senses. We can not conceive of any-
thing of the nature of mental genesis as taking place
without that activity.
Every sense-activity is fourfold in its character:
First, there is an excitement of the nerves ; then comes
sensation / and not until the sensation has been local-
ized in space and referred to some point in time, do we
have a jperception. When, further, the cause of this
is apprehended, then the perception becomes an idea.
The adult human being is a person who is responsi-
ble, who acts according to his own pleasure, and is capa-
ble of independent thought. For our understanding of
his psychical states and processes, it is of great impor-
tance to know what is the condition of things as to the
above stages of sense-activity, in the newly-born, and in
the infant, who is not responsible, who does not act ac-
cording to his pleasure, and does not think at all.
I have therefore instituted many observations con-
cerning the gradual perfecting of the senses at the
2 THE MIND OF THE CDILD.
beginning of life, and I commence with a description
of them. In these observations I have had especially
in mind the prominent part played in the mental devel-
opment of the child, at the earliest period, by the sense
of sight.
CHAPTEE I.
SIGHT.
The observations with regard to the development
of the sense of sight during the first years relate to
sensibility to Ught, discrimination of colors, movements
of the eyelids, movements of the eyes, direction of the
look, seeing of near and distant objects, and interpreta-
tion of what is seen. To these are attached some state-
ments concerning sight in new-born animals.
1. Sensibility to Light.
My child's sensibiKty to light, when he was held
toward the window in the dusk, five minutes after
birth, did not seem unusually great. For he opened
and shut his eyes, with alternate movement, so that the
space between the lids was al)Out five millimetres wide.
Soon after, I saw in the twilight both eyes wide open.
At the same time the forehead was wrinkled.
Long before the close of the first day, the child's ex-
pression, as he was held with his face toward the win-
dow, became suddenly different when I shaded his eyes
with my hand. The dim light, therefore, undoubtedly
made an impression, and, to judge from his physiog-
SIGHT. 3
nomy, an agreeable one ; for the shaded face had a less
contented look.
On the second day the eyes close quickly when a
candle is brought near them ; on the ninth, the head is
also turned away vigorously from the flame, w^hen the
candle is brought near, immediately after the awaking
of the child. The eyes are shut tight. But, on the
following day, the child being in the bath, when a
candle was held before him at a distance of one metre,
the eyes remained wide open. The sensitiveness to
light is, therefore, so much greater at the moment of
waking than it is a short time afterward, that the same
object causes at the one time great annoyance and at the
other time pleasure.
Again, on the eleventh day, the child seemed to be
much pleased by a candle burning before him at a dis-
tance of one half a metre, for he gazed at it steadily
with wide-open eyes, as he did also, later, at a shining
curtain-holder, when the bright object was brought into
his line of vision, so that it was in tlie direction in
which he seemed to be gazing. If I turned the child
away, he became fretful and began to cry ; if I turned
him to the light again, then his countenance resumed
the expression of satisfaction. To verify this, I held
the child that same day at the same distance before a
burning candle, once immediately after his waking, and
again after he had been awake some time in the dark.
In both cases he shut his eyes.
That he liked moderately bright daylight was appar-
ent from the frequent turning of his head toward the
window when I turned him away from it. This tv^dst-
ing of the head became the rule on the sixth day ; on
4 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
the seventh it was often repeated, and every time that
the face was turned toward the window the expression
of satisfaction was unmistakable.
I have repeatedly made the observation that, when
the light falls upon the face of sleeping infants they
suddenly close the eyes more tightly, without waking,
and this from the tenth day on.
In the case of my child, I found the pupils in ordi-
nary daylight for the most part more contracted than is
the case in adults — certainly less than two millimetres
in diameter; and the lessening of the sj)ace between
the lids, at sight of a bright surface of snow or of a
shining summer cloud, was likewise more frequent and
more persistent than with adults, during the whole
period of observation.
Brightly-shining objects, appearing in the field of
vision, often produce, from the second month on, excla-
mations of delight. But other highly-colored objects
also easily rouse the attention of the infant. In the
tenth month he is pleased when the lamp is lighted in
the evening ; he laughs at the light, and reaches after
the bright globe.
Of the observations of others concerning the sensi-
bility of new-born human beings to light, the following
are to be mentioned :
1. Fully-matured children just born shut the eyes
quickly and convulsively when exposed to bright light.
Individuals, also, among children born two months
too soon, distinguish between light and darkness on the
second day.
2. In the very first hours the pupil of the eye con-
tracts in a bright light, and expands in light less bright.
SIGHT. 5
3. If oue eye of the new-bom child is shut while
the other is open, then the pupil of the latter expands.
4. Infants from two to four days old, sleeping in the
dark, shut the lids tightly, and even awake with a start
when the bright light of a candle comes very near their
eyes.
To these statements of Prof. Kussmaul, the first of
which, in particular, I can confirm. Dr. Genzmer adds
that the eyes of the newly-born, when suddenly exposed
to bright light, make a movement of convergence ; and
that sensitive infants are brought into a state of general
discomfort and made to cry, by a sudden glare of light,
or by a quickly-changing, dazzling light ; this I can
confirm. The alternate shutting and opening of the
eyes, that is often to be seen in infants exposed to bright
light, was seen by Genzmer even in a sleeping child
two days old — a remarkable observation, which waits
confirmation. On the other hand, I never saw a new-
bom child bear dazzlingly bright light quietly with open
eyes. Assertions of an experience contrary to this may,
perhaps, rest on the observation of children born blind.
From all the foregoing statements we conclude
that, with fully-matured new-born human beings, sensi-
bility to light is normally present either directly after
birth, or a few minutes, or at most a few hours, after
birth ; that light and darkness are discriminated in sen-
sation ; further, that the reflex arc from the optic nerve
to the oculomotor lus already performs its function —
especially is this true of the filaments that contract the
pupils. Here, then, we have an inborn reflex, and that
of a double sort, since both pupils contract when the
light reaches one of them. Further, at the beginning,
6 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
sensibility to liglit on awaking, or after being awhile in
the dark, amounts to an aversion to light ; yet a dim
light is already soiiglit, and therefore is not unpleasant,
Finally, we infer that after some days ordinary daylight,
or a brilliant and brightly-shining object, excites cheer-
fulness, the aversion to light disappears, and the head is
turned oftener to the window.
2. Discrimination of Colors.
At what age the child is capable of distinguishing
colors, at least red, yellow, green, and blue, it is hard to
determine. In the first days, it is certain that only the
difference of light and dark is perceived, and this im-
perfectly ; moreover (according to Flechsig), the tractus
ojjticus, which in the matured child is still gray at first,
does not get its nerve medulla, and with that its perma-
nent coloring, till three or four days after birth. And
even then the differentiation of simultaneous bright and
dark impressions proceeds slowly.
The first object that made an impression on account
of its color, upon my boy, w^s probably a rose-colored
curtain which hung, brightly lighted by the sun but
not dazzlingly bright, about a foot before the child's
face. This was on the twenty-third day. The child
laughed and uttered sounds of satisfaction.
As the smooth, motionless, bright-colored surface
alone occupied the whole field of vision, it must have
been on account either of its brightness or of its color
that it was the source of pleasure. In the evening of
the same day, the flame of the candle, at the distance
of one metre, caused quite similar expressions of pleas-
ure when it was placed before the eyes, which had been
gazing into empty space ; and so did, on the forty-
SIGHT. ij
ßecond day, the sight of colored tassels in motion, but
in this ease the movement also was a source of pleasure.
In the eighty-fifth week, when I undertook the first
systematic tests, with counters alike in form but unlike
in color, no trace of discrimination in color was as yet
to be discerned, although without doubt it already ex-
isted. Diflierent as were the impressions of sound made
by the words " red," " yellow," " green," " blue " (these
were certainly distinguished from one another), and
well as the child knew the meaning of " give," he was
not able to give the counters of the right color, even
when only " red " and " green " were called for. We
are not to infer from this, however, an inability of the
eye to distinguish one color from another, for here it is
essential to consider the difiiculty of associating the
sound of the word " red " or " green " with the proper
color-sensation, even when the sensation is present.
At this time, before the age of twenty-one months,
there must have been recognition not only of the vary-
ing intensity of light (white, gray, black), but also of the
quality of some colors, for the delight in striking colors
was manifest. Yet in the case of little children, even
after they have begun to speak, it can not be determined
without searching tests what colors they distinguish and
rightly name.
In order, then, to ascertain how the separate colors
are related to one another in this respect, I have made
several hundred color-tests with my child, beginning at
the end of his second year. These I used to apply
every day in the early morning, for a week ; then, after
an interval of a week, again almost every day, but in a
different manner — as will be shown directly.
8 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
In all these tests I made use of the colored ovals
which Dr. II. Magnus, of Breslau, gives in his " Tafel
zur Erziehung des Farbensinnes " (1879), (" Chart for
the Training of the Color-Sense ").
After the names "red" and "green" had been re-
peatedly pronounced while the corresponding colors
were presented, then these two colors were simply pre-
sented and the questions, " Where is red ? " and " Where
is green ? " were put, always in alternation. The trials
were absolutely without result in the eighty-sixth and
eighty-seventh weeks. After an interval of twenty-two
weeks, on the seven hundred fifty-eighth day, I received
eleven times a right answer, six times a wrong answer.
On the following day the answers were right seven
times, wrong five times ; on the day after that, nine
times right, five times wrong. From this it seemed
probable, already, that the two colors were distin-
guished, either on accouiit of their quality or on ac-
count of their brightness, and that the right names were
often associated with them. To my surprise, however,
on the seven hundred sixty-third day the answers were
right fifteen times and wrong only once, and on the fol-
lowing day ten times right and not once wrong. The
child had therefore firmly grasped the connection of the
sound-impressions " red " and " green " with two differ-
ent light-impressions. For such proportions as those of
the above numbers exclude the possibility of chance.
I carried the test further. To red and green I added
yellow, and wlien the three colors were lying near one
another, each one was rightly pointed out in answer to
the question where it was. Then came a disinclination
on the part of the child to continue, such as often makes
SIGHT. 9
color-tests impossible in children so young. When the
trial was repeated, he was inattentive, and he confound-
ed the three colors with one another. On the following
day, the seven hundred sixty-üfth, green especially was
confounded with yellow. The answers on five days of
the one hundred tenth week were :
Right. Wrong.
Red 26 10
Green 24 7
Yellow 23 5
Total 73 23
Blue was now added as a fourth color. The answers
in eight trials, during the time from the end of the one
hundred tenth to the beginning of the one hundred
twelfth week, were :
Eight. Wrong.
Red 32 14
Green 31 8
Yellow 34 2
Blue 27 12
Total 124 36
Often, especially on being asked " Where is blue ? "
the child would considei- long, observe the four colors
attentively before deciding, and then give me the color
quickly. It appears evident that yellow is recognized
more surely than are the other colors. Yellow seems to
be the easiest to distinguish, and hence the easiest also
to retain in memory. I made other tests of the same
sort, which showed the superiority of yellow. Then
violet was added as the fifth color, called " lila," as easier
to speak, and a different way of conducting the experi-
ment was adopted.
IQ THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
I laid eacli color separately before the eliild and
asked, "What is that?" He answered, 7Toot [Eng.
pronunciation tcrote'] (for roth, red), delp, depp^ gelp
(for gelh, yellow), rihn, ihn [Eng. pr. reen^ een] (for
(/run, green), balau (for Uau, blue), and Ulla (for Ula)
violet).
In the one hundred twelfth week the answers in
four trials were :
Eight. Wrong.
Red 10 2
Yellow 9
Green 9 1
Blue 5 7
Violet 11 1
Total 44 11
Here, too, yellow is foremost ; it was named cor-
rectly nine times, not once wrongly named. Blue comes
last. It was confounded especially with green and vio-
let. If the child's attention failed, I broke off.
Afterward the tests were continued in both ways
combined ; but these proved to be great consumers of
time. It often happens that the child takes no interest
in the colors. Sometimes, from roguishness, he will
not name the color he knows, and will not point out or
give me the one I ask for. At other times he himself
brings the box that holds the color-ovals, and says
wawa = " Farbe " (color), in expectation of a lesson.
The trials in which the attention is undivided are, how-
ever, not numerous.
Gray is added. In the one hundred twelfth and one
hundred thirteenth weeks five tests yielded the follow-
ing answers :
SIGHT. IX
Right. Wrong.
Red l(j 3
Yellow 23 1
Green 14 5
Blue 10 15
Violet 18 1
Gray 10 2
Total 90 27
Yellow maintains the first place, being rightly named
in twenty-two instances, and wrongly only once. The
judgment in regard to blue is the %vorst ; "fifteen wrong
judgments to ten right ones. It is noteworthy that in
this series, as in the preceding, violet is rightly named
oftener than green.
I now bade the child, repeatedly, to place together
the ovals of the same color. After much moving hither
and thither, he succeeded with yellow, red, rose, green,
and violet, but very incompletely. The expressions
"light" and " dark," before the names of the colors, were
beyond the child's understanding. So the saturated and
the less saturated colors, the light and the dark, were,
as before, indicated by the common name of the quality
alone. Four trials with the colors mixed, during the time
from the one hundred fourteenth to the one hundred six-
teenth week, resulted as follows :
Right. Wrong.
Red 15 1
Yellow 13
Green 4 7
Blue 3 10
Violet 11 2
Gray 6
Brown 4
Rose 1 3
Black 3
Total 59 23
12 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
Blue was especially confounded witli violet, also
with green. All very pale colors were confounded with
gray, all dark ones with black. The order in which
the colors were recognized, i. e., rightly named, is now
the following: Yellow best of all, then red, violet,
green ; and worst of all, blue.
On other days I laid before the child, as I had done
previously, a single color, with the question, what it was,
and marked the answer wrong if it were not given right
immediately. The colors are now called by the child
Tott^ delp^ drün^ hlau^ lila, grau, sicarz, 7'osa, hraun.
Four trials in the one hundred fourteenth and one
hundred fifteenth weeks yielded the answers :
Right. Wrong.
Red 13
Yellow 11
Green 7 9
Blue 5 13
Violet 10 3
Gray 1 3
Brown 4 1
Rose '. 3 3
Black 4
Total 58 32
For the first five colors this trial gives the same or-
der of succession as above. Blue and green are very
uncertain ; blue is called drün (meant for grün) and
lila (violet), green is called gray ; and, oftener still, nei-
ther blue nor green is named at all ; while yellow, and
red, and black, are given correctly and quickly.
I now let the child take out of the box of colored
ovals one after another of them, at pleasure, name it,
SIGHT. 13
and give it to me. At the first trial he seized at ran-
dom ; at the second he sought his favorite color, yellow.
Two trials in the one hundred lifteenth week :
Right. Wrong.
Red 6
Yellow 8
Green 1 2
Blue 5
Violet 4 1
Gray 1 5
Brown 1
Rose 3 2
Black 2
Total 25 16
The result is the same as above. Red, yellow, and
black are the only colors that are surely recognized.
I now made no more trials for two months. The
child spent the larger part of the day in the open air,
with me, on a journey ; the greater part of the time was
spent in the neighborhood of Lake Garda.
In the one hundred twenty-first week, an occasional
examination showed a greater uncertainty than before.
Blue was scarcely once named rightly, in spite of the
most urgent cautions. When the trials were resumed,
after our return, the result was bad. I took the colored
counters in my hand and put questions. At the very
first questioning, yellow was indeed named rightly three
times, and not wrongly at all ; but red was twice wrong-
ly and not once rightly named.
1 got the following answers in the one hundred
twenty-fourth week, in the first four trials with all the
colors after the interval :
14 THE MIND or THE CHILD.
Right. Wrong.
Red 17
Yellow 22
Green 18
Blue 13
Violet 9 4
Gray 5
Brown 4 3
Rose 3 4
Black 3
Orange 3
Total 58 49
Here it is still more evident than before tliat red
and yellow are already more surely recognized and more
correctly named than green and blue. On the eight
hundred sixty-sixth day the child, without being con-
strained, took colors out of the box and gave them to me,
naming them as he did so. The colors that were mistaken
for one another were rose, gray, and pale green ; brown
and gray ; green and black ; finally, blue and violet.
In the following experiments, also, the child every
time took the colors out of the box and gave them to
me, telling the names at the same time, without the least
direction. Five trials out of the one hundred twenty-
fourth and one hundred twenty-fifth weeks gave :
Right. Wrong.
Red 29 1
Yellow 16
Green • 4
Blue 6
Violet 14
Gray 8
Rose 14 5
Brown 7 3
Black 3
Orange 6
Total 80 34
SIGHT. 15
Red and yellow are eagerly sought and almost al-
ways riglitly named; blue and green avoided and al-
ways named wrongly (e. g,, as lila, swarz). I now re-
moved all the red and yellow colors from the collection,
and let the child give to me, and name as many of the
remaining ones as he could on a stretch. Now that red
and yellow are wanting, however, he shows from the
first a less degree of interest, and in the case of green he
says " Papa tell ! " In all other cases he had a name for
the color he took. If that was wrong, it was always
corrected by me, often by the child himself ; but it was
always entered in the record as wrong, if the first an-
swer was wrong. In the one hundred twenty-fifth and
one hundred tw^euty-sixth weeks six trials were made in
which this method was strictly observed and the follow-
ing judgments were registered :
Eight. Wrong.
Green 2 19
Blue 6 20
Violet 20 3
Gray 6
Rose 19 6
Brown 15
Black 7 2
Orange 11 7
Total 80 63
The brighter colors were at first selected. The child
confuses orange {owos, as he calls it) with yellow, blue
with violet, green with gray, black with brown.
I tried repeatedly to induce the child to place to-
gether the colors that seemed to him alike, but it was a
total failure. Then I asked for single colors by their
names, but the results of this procedure were Ukewise
16 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
poor. (This on tlie eiglit hundred seventy-ninth day.)
Finally, I took a single color at a time and asked, " What
is that?" In four trials in the one hundred twenty-
sixth, one hundred twenty-seventh, and one hundred
twenty-eighth weeks, the ausweis were :
Right. Wrong.
Red 11 (1)
Yellow 11
Green 1 14
Blue 1 11
Violet 12 1
Gray 6 1
Rose 11 2
Brown 10
Black 6 1
Orange G 2 and (1)
Total 75 34
For green and blue — which are confounded with
gray when they are light, and with black when they
are dark — there is probably a less degree of sensibility,
certainly a less interest. Blue is still called lila. Be-
sides, it is very difficult to direct the attention persist-
ently to the colors. The child, although tested only in
the early hours of morning, seeks now other means of
entertaining himself. Now and then he makes a mis-
take in speaking. (Errors of this kind are indicated by
parentheses) But on the eight hundred ninety-eighth
day every color was rightly named — green and blue, to
bs sure, only after some guessing. In six trials in the
0!ie hundred twenty-ninth, one hundred thirty-hfth, one
hundred thirty-sixth, one hundred thirty-seventh, and
one hundred thirty-eightli weeks the child took the colors
and gave them to me, naming them. The answers were :
SIGHT. lY
Ripht. Wrong.
Red 27 1
Yellow 27
Green 2 14
Blue 2 13
Violet 15 2
Gray 5 1
Rose 10 3
Brown 14
Black 5 1
Orange 12 3
Total ivS 38
There is confounding of colors as before. The only
thing new is the designation gai^nix (for gar nichts,
" nothing at all ") for green and blue. Unknown colors
are now often named green — e. g., blue. In a bouquet
of yellow roses these were designated as yellow, but the
leaves were obstinately called garnix, and so likewise
were very whitish colors, whose quality is, however,
recognizable at once, in a moderate light, by adults ac-
quainted with colors.
On the nine hundred thirty-fourth day there was this
remarkable utterance when green and blue were placed
before the child : grin hlau I'avn e nicht, grosse mann
kann grin hlau, which meant (as appeared from similar
utterances), "I can't give green and blue rightly; a
grown person can." Green was mostly called gray ;
very rarely (inquiringly) it was called red ; blue was
named lila. In the one hundred thirty-first and one
hundred thirty-fourth weeks I made three trials, asking
for colors which I laid out ; in the one hundred thirty-
eighth and one hundred thirty-ninth weeks, in three
trials, sometimes the child took the colors himself, some-
times I put them before him. The answers were :
18 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
Right. Wrong.
Red 14 1
Yellow 24
Green 4 13
Blue 15
Violet 9 5
Gray 5
Rose 9 2
Brown 11 1
Black 7 1
Orange 10 1
Total 93 39
Here begins at last the right naming of green, while
blue is not yet so often correctly designated. The child
took the colors of his own accord and named them in
three trials, in the one hundred thirty-ninth, one hundred
forty-first, and one hundred forty-sixth weeks, as follows :
Right. Wrong.
Red 19 2
Yellow 13
Green 2 3
Blue 3 11
Violet : 6 1
Gray 1 3
Rose 3
Brown 10
Black 3
Orange 8 1
Total 66 19
The red tmce misnamed was dark. The word
" green " was now rightly applied continually to leaves
and to meadows, and, before the completion of the third
year, blue also was almost invariably designated correct-
ly, if the attention w^as not diverted.
SIGHT.
19
"With regard to tlie order in which the colors were
rightly named up to the thirty-fourth month, the total
result is as follows :
JUDGMENTS.
PER (
3ENT.
Right.
233
79
235
139
39
76
47
35
101
61
Wrong.
Right.
Wrong.
I. Yellow
8
8
36
24
7
29
23
33
123
151
96-7
90-8
86-7
85 3
84-8
72-4
67-1
51-5
45-0
28-8
3-3
II. Brown
9-3
III. Red
13-3
IV. Violet
14-7
V. Black
VI. Rose
15-3
27-6
VII. Oranj?e
32-9
VIII. Grav^.
48-5
IX. Green
550
X. Blue
71-3
Total
1,044
442
70-3
29-7
Thus, of the four principal colors, yellow and red
are named rightly much sooner than are green and blue ;
and yellow first — brown is (dull) yellow — then red.
That the color-sensations, green, blue, and violet, exist
in very different proportions, is probably not a peculiar-
ity of the individual. Violet, which was mnch oftener
named rightly than were green and blue, contains the
already well-known red, and may appear to the child as
a dirty red, or as dark red. For it is in fact probable
that blue and greenish-blue were perceived in the earliest
period, not as blue and greenish-blue, but as gray and
black. That green of every sort is not named rightly
till very late, may be owing, in part, to a stronger ab-
sorption of light, by means of the blood of the vessels
of the retina. Although the place of the clearest vis-
ion, in the back part of the eye, is free from blood-ves-
sels, yet the other colors which, like yellow, orange, red,
and brown, reach the retina undimmed, in great exten-
20 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
sion, have, on that account, an advantage over green
and bhie, which are most easily confounded with gray.
Even in the fourth year, bhie was still often called
gray in the dusk of morning, when it appeared to me
distinctly blue. The child would wonder that his light-
blue stockings had become gray in the night. This I
observed on three days.
Gray is, without doubt, along with white and black,
rightly known long before the first discrimination of
colors, but is often wrongly named, for the reason that
green and blue are probably perceived as gray. The
right naming of it became the rule before the end of
the third year, whereas yellow was rightly named, al-
most invariably, nearly a year earlier. To this color
the pigment of the yellow spot is most helpful. Red
may also have an advantage, in the fact that in bright
daylight, when the eyes are shut, especially when snow
is on the ground, that is the only color in the field of
vision [i. e., the eyelids are translucent, and we perceive
red] ; as black is the only one before we fall asleep in
the dark.
On the whole we must, accordingly, declare the
child to be still somewhat lacking in sensibility to the
cold colors in the second year and the first half of the
third year ; a conclusion with which occasional observa-
tions concerning other children harmonize. At any
rate, by very many children, yellow is first rightly
named and blue last. One boy began, before he had
reached the age of four months, to prefer a brilliant red
to other colors.'^ All children prefer, like him, at this
* According to Genzmer : " Untersuchungen über die Sinnes-
wahrnehmungen des neugeborenen Menschen," 1859.
SIGHT. 21
age and long after, the whitish colors, without regard
to their quality.
The incapacity of tlie two-years-old child to name
blue and green correctly can not be attributed solely to
his possible inability to associate firmly the names
"bhie" and "green"' (which he has heard and which
he uses fluently) with his possibly distinct sensations ;
for " yellow " and " red " have already been used cor-
rectly many months before. If green and blue were as
distinct as yellow and red in his sensation, then there
would not be the least occasion for his giving them
wrong names, and preferring red and yellow to them in
all circumstances. The child does not yet linow what
green and blue signify, although he is already acquaint-
ed with yellow and red. Neither does he yet know
what " green " means when, in the one hundred ninth
and one hundred twelfth weeks of his life, he apparent-
ly distinguishes "red" and "green" correctly. Green
is at this time, for him, merely something that is not
red.
I have yet to mention that my child, at the begin-
ning of his third year, moved and handled himself with
smrprising sureness and quickness in the semi-darkness
of twilight ; he thus discriminated well between light
and dark. And at the beginning of his fourth year he
named correctly all the colors except the very dark or
the pale ones, particularly even the most varying shades
of green and blue, to the astonishment of those who
had been occasionally present at the color-lessons here
described, and who had witnessed his numerous errors.
Other children, with sound eyes, are likewise per-
fectly sure in their naming of colors at the age of three
4
22 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
years, thougli very iiucertain at tlie age of two years.
A boy of two and two-thirds years was impressed by the
colors in the following order :
1, dark violet ; 2, yellow ; 3, red ; 4, blue ; 5, green.
Here the first named was singled out before the others
on account of its being dark.*
A boy of four years, who had received no regular
instruction in observing colors, was asked by his father
what colors he saw in a brilliant rainbow that was just
then defining itself sharply upon the gray sky. The
child answered slowly, but with decision, " Red, yellow,
green, blue " ; and he afterward, as 1 am informed by
his father, Prof. Bardeleben, of Jena, always picked
out these principal colors easily among paints, whereas
the naming of \dolet, reddish-yellow, and other mixed
colors, was difficult for him.
3. Movements of the Eyelids,
The eyelids are not often kept apart long in the first
days of life. New^ly-born children, even when awake,
keep their eyes shut far more than they keep them open.
And, when the lids are raised, there appears for the
most part a strange asymmetry. One eye remains open
while the other is shut. Alternate shutting and open-
ing were seen by me frequently from the first to the
eleventh day ; afterward more seldom. Yet my child,
before the first twenty-four hours were passed, had both
eyes wide open, once, at the same time, in the twilight.
During the first month the rule was, that when both
eyes were open at the same time, they were not open
* Frau Dr. Friedemann.
SIGHT. 23
equally wide ; tliis was still strikingly noticeable on the
thirty-first day. At this time, too, the occasional keep-
ing open of one eye only liad not ceased. Further,
even when both eyes were closed, the movements of the
left and right upper lids were frequently not simulta-
neous.
Other remarkable irregular (atypische) movements
of the lids were seen in connection with the raising and
lowenng of the look on one side and on both sides.
Especially, in the fifth week, the lids were often raised
while the look was directed downward, so that the white
sclerotic was visible over the cornea ; a movement that
an adult imitates with difiiculty, and that lends to the
countenance an expression almost of a character to cause
anxiety. But long before the third month the lid fol-
lowed the pupil regularly when the look was downward.
When, on the contrary, the child, as he lay on his back,
directed his glance toward his forehead, which he did
without wrinkling his forehead in the least, the lid was
not always raised, but it often covered the iris close up
to the pupil, sometimes even partially covering the lat-
ter; and this I saw repeatedly as late as the eighth
week.
The " rolling of the eyes " by sick children, the pu-
pils going upward and the upper eyelid downward, so
that only the white sclerotic remains visible in the space
between the hds, is an advanced stage of this physio-
logical irregularity, which appears also in hysterical
patients. Even toward the end of the third month I
saw that when the child looked up (as he was carried on
the arm in an upright position), e. g., to a lamp stand-
ing high, the eyelid was not completely raised, but here,
24 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
too, tlie pupil was touched by the edge of tlie lid at a
tangent. At this time the forehead, which, in the first
days, appeared often in horizontal folds, as is the case
with monkeys, was either not wrinkled at all or very
little, and in exceptional cases, when the look was
directed upward. J^ot till the ninety-eighth day was
my boy's brow wrinkled when he looked upward, and
then not to such a degree as that of an adult, and even
in the eighth month the brow was not wrinkled invari-
ably ; but from the end of the ninth month it was regu-
larly so. This co-ordinate movement is therefore ac-
quired, probably because it enlarges the field of vision,
when one is looking upward, without making it neces-
sary to bend back the head.
The raising of the lid along with the downward
look was seen in the first days of infant life, up to the
tenth day, by Raehlmann, and Witkowski also, and
they rightly call attention to the fact that the relation
of compidsory dependence between the raising of the
lid and the elevation of the cornea does not yet exist at
the beginning. The muscle that raises the lid can con-
tract at the same time with the lower rectus muscle of
the eye ; the upper rectus muscle of the eye may con-
tract without the one that lifts the lid : later, this can
no longer be done. There must be, then, at the begin-
ning, within the province of tlie oculomotorius, an in-
dependence of the separate branches, that is afterward
lost. The co-excitement of the branch that goes to the
elevator of the lid (levator palpebras), on occasion of
the excitement of the branch going to the elevator of
the glance (rectus superior), in the upper division of the
oculomotorius, is accordingly something acquired — is
SIGHT. 25
learned afresli by eacTi individual human being— on ac-
count of the help it gives in the act of seeing. Just so,
according to our observations, the perfectly useless ex-
citement of the elevator-branch on occasion of the ex-
citement of the branch that goes to the muscle that
depresses the glance (rectus inferior) in the lower di-
vision of the oculomotorius, though frequent at first, is
so persistently omitted farther on, that adults are hard-
ly able to contract at the same time the lid-elevator and
the eye-depressor (rectus inferior), i, e., to direct the
look downward with the eye wide open. Consequently,
the movements under consideration — of the upper eye-
lid upward in looking up, and downward in looking
down — are not inborn in human beings.
On the other hand, the closing of the lid when it is
exposed to a strong light, as well as the contracting of
the pupil in light, is inborn. But the case here is one
of rellex action of the optic nerve : on the one hand,
upon the orbicularis branch of the facialis ; on the
other hand, upon the h'is branch of the oculomotorius,
not therefore a case of associated movements, but of
purely sensori-motor reflexes.
The quick shutting of the eye by a sudden move-
ment of the lid, followed immediately by the opening
of it — what is called winking — does not appear, as is
well known, in new-born or in very young infants.
The fact is well established that they bear the sudden
approach of a hand to the eye without moving the lid ;
whereas, later in life, every one in such circumstances
shuts the eye for an instant, or even starts back at the
first approach, just as after an actual touch — and this
even when there is a pane of glass before the face — un-
26 THE MIND OF TEE CHILD.
less special practice in the control of this reflex move-
ment leads in manhood to the voluntary inhibition
of it.
I have determined the time in the case of my child
at which the first winking occurred as a sign of fright
at any sudden impression, and as an expression of sur-
prise at a new impression made upon the sense of
sight. My experience is as follows :
I put my hand suddenly near the face of the child,
as he lay quiet with open eyes, without the least reaction
on his part, on the sixth, eighth, eleventh, twelfth,
twenty-second, twenty-fifth, fiftieth, and fifty-fifth days.
During this period the softest touch of the lashes, of
the edges of the lids, of the conjunctiva, or the cornea,
occasioned an immediate closing of the lid. The drop-
ping of the hd up to the twelfth day was, however,
decidedly slower than it is in adults. On the fifty-
seventh and fifty-eighth days I noticed that winking
made its appearance for the first time, occurring when
I put my head quickly near the child's face ; but, on
repeating the experiment several times, both eyes re-
mained open. On the sixtieth day, the quick, simul-
taneous shutting and opening of both eyes in case of
fright at a quick approach to the face (just as in case of
a sudden loud sound), is already the rule. At such
times the child often throws up both arms quickly, alike
whether he is lying down or is held in the arms. This
is the case especially as late as the fourteenth week. At
this time, however, there was not observable any start-
ing back with the head, or the upper part of the body,
at the rapid approach of my face to his ; whereas the
winking now invariably appears promptly, even when
SIGHT. 27
the approacli is repeated sev^eral times in close succes-
sion. It was the same in the fifteenth and sixteenth
weeks. Other children, however (according to Sigis-
mund), do not yet close their eyes in the fourteenth and
even the sixteenth week, M'hen you thrust at them with
the finger as if you meant to hit them. The difference
is probably ownng to the fact that the finger occupies
too small an area in the field of vision compared with
the palm of the hand and with the face. O. Soltmann
found that the seventh and eighth weeks marked the
first appearance of the lid movement in tlie experiment
of the "attacking hand," and my observations accord
with this.
Kot till after the first three months did I observe
that the eyes were closed when, in the bath, water touched
the cornea or even the lashes ; in the first days the wet-
ting of the eyes, even when it was repeated, having oc-
casioned no closing of the lid at all. Probably it is ex-
periences of this kind — of disagreeable sensation when
the exposed parts of the eye are touched — that caused in
the ninth week, for the first time, the closing of the lid
when a large object suddenly approached the eye with-
out touching it ; for the rapid ap23roach is in itself not
pleasing. For the rest, the winking on occasion of a
strong, unexpected impression remained, after it had
once appeared, as an acquired reflex movement, which
returned on every provocation of that sort. Thus, it
followed with uncommon quickness upon a pufi of wind
in the face (e. g., in the twenty-fifth week). The child
stared with an inquiring gaze in the direction whence
the current of air came, after he had responded to it
with the eyelids.
28 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
It is not allowable to assume, in explanation of this
reflex movement, that the idea of danger must iirst be
formed in order to produce the closure of the eyes, as
many suppose. In that case there would be no purely
reflex action, but a habit. But the time is too short for
the production of an idea along with the volitional im-
pulse to lower the lid, and a child of nine weeks has not
yet the idea of danger. He does not know that, with
the sudden change in the distribution of light and shade
in the field of vision, at the approach of the hand, there
may be joined a danger to himself ; and he winks just
the same at a sudden noise, even on the twenty-fifth day
of his life.
Had he the idea of danger, he would start back with,
the head or the upper part of his body at the quick ap-
proach of my hand or my head, as he does later. We
should be forced to adopt the auxiliary hypothesis that
an experience made by the child's ancestors in a more
mature period of life led to a habit which then mani-
fested itself in the descendants early in life as an heredi-
tary habit. This Darwinian view is superfluous, because
the disagreeable feeling that is connected with every
unexpected, sudden, and strong sense-impression, is of
itself suiflcient to induce the closing of the lid. For so
long as the child can not rightly separate his sense-im-
pressions, especially those of sight, so long as he does
not plainly discern the rapid changes in a moderately
bright field of vision, he can not be disagreeably affected
by these changes. But if he is sufficiently developed to
observe sudden and important changes, then he will ex-
perience a disagreeable feeling, will be frightened, and
the immediate consequence of this will be the warding
SIGHT. 29
off of tliat which offends him — lie will shut the eyelids.
Thus, the shutting of the eyes at the sudden impression
of light is seen to be akin to the keeping of them tightly
shut when exposed to bright light during the ürst days
of life ; and it remains only to explain the difference,
that at the beginning the eye remains closed longer, for
the newly-born do not wink. This difference, merely
quantitative, is probably due to the less rapid propaga-
tion of the nerve-excitement, to the greater extent of
time involved in the reflex, and especially to the greater
intensity and duration of the stimulus. Dazzhng light
causes to adults likewise a more disagreeable feeling
than does the rapid approach of a strange hand. Light-
ning produces a momentary closing of the lids ; a sur-
face of snow, brightly illuminated by the sun, occasions
shutting of the eyes and blinking, and even the tight
compression of the eyelids.
The lessening of the space between the lids, and the
complete closing of the eyes, in shutting them tightly, is
effected, upon the whole, by the contraction of the mus-
cle that closes the eye (musculus orbicularis), whereas
the dropping of the upper lid in winking is produced
by the contraction of the lid-muscles (musculi paipe-
brales) alone ; and blinking, proper, at the sight of a
dazzlingly bright object, by the contraction of the ex-
ternal parts of the orbicular muscle (particularly the
orbital and cheek muscle). All these orbicular tilaments
are su]Tplied by the facial nerve (nervus facialis) as their
only motor nerve. As the reflex from the optic nerve
is perfect from the flrst day of existence, since bright
light causes tight closing of the eyes, it follows that
the reflex arc from the optic nerve to this branch of the
30 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
facialis, as well as that to the iris branch of the oculo-
motorius, must be inborn.
The quick shutting and opening of the eye in case
of surprise also becomes more intelligible if we dismiss
the hypothesis of the idea of danger — an idea that is as
yet foreign to the child — and consider rather that every
surprise, even a joyous one, is at the first instant akin to
fright, on account of the unexpectedness it brings with
it — the sudden impression on the senses. Sudden dan-
ger is only a special case. Even in adults an unexpected
loud sound occasions invariably the winking movement
of the lids.
On the twenty-fifth day my child fixed his eyes for
the first time upon the face of his nurse, then upon mine
and his mother's, and when I nodded he opened his eyes
wider, and shut and opened the lids several times. The
same movements appeared when I for the first time
spoke to him in a deep voice, as I did on the day men-
tioned. It was a reflex movement of surprise.
At the end of the seventh month, a green fan being
rapidly opened and clapped together at a distance of
half a metre from his face, my child shut and opened
his eyes quickly every time with an expression of the
greatest astonishment, until I had repeated the experi-
ment a good many times in succession ; and even then
there remained a boundless surprise at the disappearance
and reappearance of the large, round surface. This was
discernible in his immovability, following upon previous
agitation, and in the intensity of his gaze. The play
of the lid is also observed in case of other new move-
ments, especially rhythmical ones, as in hearing new
noises; and then the mouth often remains open, and
SIGHT. 31
the eyes are wide open, yet there is no lifting of the
eyebrows (in the eighth month).
But not only surprise, strong^ desire is likewise as-
sociated with the keeping of the lids open to the maxi-
mum extent. When, in the thirty-fourth week, I took
away from the babe his milk, he gazed at it rigidly,
and opened his eyes wide, and they took on an ex-
pression of indescribable longing. Moreover, sounds of
desire were often expressed imperfectly, with closed hps,
and this continued as a habit with him in the second
year. The eyes were, besides, noticeably more lustrous
than usual, when the child was mastered by strong de-
sire, surprise, or joy, which is to be explained as the
consequence of an excitement of the secretory nerve of
the lachrymal gland (ramus lacrymalis trigemini) ac-
companying the psychical excitement, rather than as
the result of compression of the gland through increased
supply of blood.
More important in regard to psyehogenesis is the
fact, established by me concerning all infants, that from
birth they manifest a high degree of pleasurable feeling
by wide-open eyes ; unpleasant feeling by shutting the
eyes and holding them firmly together. In reference
to the first, it surprised me that when the child was
placed at his mother's breast, and even just before be-
ing placed there, the eyes were regularly stretched
open, and almost always remained wide open when he
began to suck. This was observed in increasing meas-
ure on the third, sixteenth, and twenty-first days. But
also, in a warm bath of 35° C, the eyes were wide open
in the first three weeks, and, although the child did not
laugh, his countenance took on a pleasant expression
32 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
from the widening of tlie opening between the lids.
Audible and visible laughing, which appeared lirst on
the twenty-third day, is simply an advanced stage of
this expression of pleasure, in which " the eyes laugh."
Certain mild impressions of light also produce a wide
opening of the eyes ; this was often observed from the
lirst day on, as has been already stated. In the case of
another child, which cried out immediately after its
head emerged from the womb, I put my ünger, three
minutes later, into the child's mouth and pressed on the
tongue. At once all crying ceased, a brisk sucking be-
gan, and the expression of the countenance, which had
been hitherto discontented, became suddenly altered.
The child, not yet fully born, seemed to ex]3erience
something agreeable, and therewith — during the suck-
ing of tlie linger — the eyes were viddely opened. All
these observations decidedly support the opinion that
pleasure is expressed by wide-open eyes, so far as these
will bear the light of day — in twilight and moderate
artificial light, even from the moment of birth. Equal-
ly certain is it that discomfort is manifested by shutting
the eyes.
The eyes are generally shut together at the first cry
of the child, and later the rule is that all outcry on ac-
count of painful or unpleasant feelings, e. g., hunger,
brings with it a gripping of the eyes together, or, at any
rate, a considerable lessening of the opening between
the lids. And the screwing up of the eyes without
crying and without any vocal utterance, but often with
turning away of the head — e. g., in the second half of the
first year, when the teeth are coming or when the gums
are examined — is an indubitable sign of discomfort.
siGriT. 33
Afterward follows the closing of tLc lids at all sudden
strong sense-impressions, because these bring in their
train unpleasant feelings ; and with feelings of pleasure
the eyes are opened. If that inborn expressive move-
ment is frequently repeated, then it takes place with
greater and greater rapidity, and becomes at last pure
reflex movement, occurring at all sufliciently strong,
new, sudden impressions, before feelings of pleasure or
of discomfort can be developed.
The already mentioned hereditary reflex from the
trigeminus to the orbicular branch of the facialis — the
existence of which is manifested on the iirst day by the
closing of the lid when the hairs of the eyelash are
touched, or when the conjunctiva or the cornea is
touched — this, too, might be, at hrst, a defense agamst
the disagreeable, an expressive movement of displeas-
ure ; since every touch, even the lightest, of the ex-
posed parts of the eye, so abundantly supplied with
nerves, is unexpected and disagreeable. The corre-
sponding reflex path is traveled with less swiftness at
first, because at this time the feeling of displeasure
probably inserts itself between the centripetal and the
centrifugal processes — not to mention the less rapid
propagation of the nerve-excitation. Later, the reflex
closing of the lid will come mechanically, after contact,
without previous feeling of discomfort, and even with
the appearance of the most deliberate purpose of de-
fense. It is as if one said, " I shut my eye because it
might be hm't " — in reality, however, there is no delib-
eration.
The difference between this hereditary trigeminns-
f acialis - reflex and the hereditary opticus - iris - reflex
34 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
shows plainly the difference between reflexes of ancient
inheritance (palaeophvletic) and reflexes inherited more
recently (neophyletic). For the adaptation of the pupil
to bright light, which appears at once and invariably in
the newly-born, and in animals without eyelids, must
have been inherited at an earlier epoch than was the
closing of the lid upon the eye's being touched, be-
cause the latter does not occur so promptly m the new-
ly-born. But the new-born holds the eyes shut when
dazzlingly bright light is thrown upon them, and in
general when it feels discomfort, as does the maltreated
frog. Out of this act of holding the eyes tightly shut
has probably been differentiated the sudden, brief clos-
ing of the lid (opticus-facialis-reflex) that follows all
sudden sense-impressions, and that still in the present
generation, as an acquired reflex, even one that may be
inhibited by the will, stands in contrast with the two
other hereditary reflexive movements of defense.
4. Movements of the Eyes.
The eye-movements of the newly-born and of infants
are of great interest in their bearing upon the history of
the origin of the perceptions of space. The contending
parties, the Nativists and the Empiricists,* in support
of their views, make their appeal expressly to the child
that has had no experience. The J^ativists maintain
that a pre-established mechanism produces from the be-
ginning co-ordinated, associated eye-movements in the
newly-born. The Empiricists hold that this is not the
case, but that the eye-movements of the newly-born are
* See " Elements of Physiological Psychology," by George T.
Ladd (1887), for explanation of these terms.
SIGHT. 35
asymmetric and non-coordinated ; tliat tlie intentional
use of the muscles of the eye is learned only through ex-
perience, and that binocular vision, such as adults have,
becomes afterward possible through the association of
the movements of both eyes in " fixating " an object.
My observations show that, with regard to the sim-
ple matter of fact, both parties are right. Some new-
born children actually make associated, co-ordinated
movements of the eyes several times on the first day ;
others do not. In some cases I saw both these facts in
the same child, but I never found in any child co-ordi-
nated movements exclusively.
I saw my child before the close of the first day of
his life turn both eyes at the same time to the right,
then to the left, frequently, hither and thither, his head
being still ; then, again, he would do it moving the head
in accord. During the whole time his face was turned
toward the window, in the twilight. Nay, only five
minutes after his birth, when I held him in the dusk
toward the window, an associated movement of the eyes
took place. And when I began to observe new-born
children, it happened that I saw a child thirty -five min-
utes after birth (January 4, 1869) move his eyes only as
an adult is accustomed to do, in accord.
Donders and Hering, also, have perceived such
movements of the eyes in the newly-born. The ob-
servation requires only patience, because the newly-
born spend the first twenty-four hours mostly in sleep,
and when awake they cry a good deal, and their eyes
do not remain open.
If we were to rest satisfied with noticing such facts
as these, we should come to quite erroneous results.
36 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
More accurate and often repeated observation of the
eye-movements of the child, especially dm-ing tlie first
six days, taught me that the simultaneous turning of
both eyes to tlie right or to the left is not co-ordinated
with complete symmetry, as it is in adults. In the
cases of a child ten hours old, and of one of six days,
their eyes being wide open, I saw eye-movements that
were associated, and only such, but which sliowed them-
selves, on more accurate observation, to be not perfectly
in accord. On the whole, I have found that, in the
newly-born, one eye very often moves independently of
the other, and the turnings of the head take place in a
direction opi30site to tliat in which the eyes move. The
unintentional character of both movements is plainly
recognizable, and the combination of the two is, at the
beginning of life, accidental. The turning of both eyes
to left and right, also, which is established on the first
day, takes on the appearance of accident, coming in as
one among all possible movements.
As the other muscles of the body and of the face are
contracted, without intention, by the very young infant,
so also are the muscles of the eye.
For this reason we may observe all sorts of non-coor-
dinated movements of the eyes accompanying grimaces,
wrinkling of the brows, and movements of the lips, in
cases where there is no possibility of sight or of sensi-
bility to light, the lids being closed — e. g., on the tenth
day — -while the child is not crying, but is lying still.
Sometimes it falls asleep with eyes half open, as may
be known by its regular breathing and by the repose of
its limbs, and then also are seen various unintentional
movements of the eyes. Among those which attract
SIGHT. 37
notice wlien tlie child is awalce are movements of de-
cided convergence. Tlie child looks like a squinting
child. But at the beginning of the third week of life
the maximum degree of convergence and the strabis-
mus are by no means so frequent as in the first ; the
irregularity of the movements of the eyes, which others
also have observed in many new-born children, is still
clearly pronounced. Scheeler saw in the first days, un-
til the fourth, only non-coordinated movements, and un-
til the tenth day no perfectly correct fixation. Here
his observation ceased. On the thirty-first day, in my
child, strabismus was noticed as rare ; on the forty-sixth,
as very rare ; on the forty-eighth and fiftieth, the same ;
and irregular movements in general, as very rare from
the fifty-fifth day on ; but they did appear until the
tenth week, while the child was awake. During sleep,
however, he moved his eyes asymmetrically as late as
the sixtieth day in a lively manner, often the lids, too,
on both sides, the eyes being haK open and his snoring
uninterrupted. When he had attained the age of three
months, non-coordinated movements of the eyes were no
more to be observed. After this I watched the sleep-
ing child, however, only now and then, and in the ninth
month I noticed an occasional slight irregularity.
This consolidation of the mechanism of the muscles
of the eye does not, however, by any means involve the
cessation of useless co-ordinated movements of the eyes,
as is shown by several experiences. Thus, the gaze of
one child in the twenty-third week was almost regularly
directed toward his forehead. This child, troubled with
an itching eczema on the head, would, at that time, let
his head swing hither and thither when his hands were
5
144649
38 TUE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
held, In ease anything whatever, were it onlj a j)illow,
touched his head.
The eyes of my child easily converged in the ninth
month without any assignable cause, and upon objects
held before his nose at a distance of one or two inches.
In the tenth month the convergence of the hues of
vision seemed disturbed ; a very insignificant squinting
inward appeared, but this anomaly vanished completely
a few weeks later, after I had directed that he should
spend more time out-of-doors, in order to favor his see-
ing at a distance. From that time the movements of
the eyes continued to be normal. The readiness with
which convergence of the eyes, upon my finger, held at
the end of my boy's nose, occurred (as late as the twen-
tieth month), is remarkable, as well as the fact that at
the beginning such high degrees of convergence occur
along with pupils relatively very wide open, which is
not the case with adults.
All these observations are absolutely favorable to the
opinion that conscious vision has decisive influence upon
the regulation of the eye-movements ; that only after
discrimination of the light-impressions by the optic
nerve-center do harmonious centro-motor impulses pro-
ceed from the nerves of the muscles of the eye (the
motor ocuh, abducens, trochlearis of both eyes), and
that at the beginning, before the faculty of sight mani-
fests itself — i. e., so long as only the function of sensi-
bility to light is active — the eye-movements are not asso-
ciated and not co-ordinated. Even when they are found
symmetrical we can not, in face of a majority or of a
very great number of irregular eye-movements, infer a
pre-established, complete nerve-mechanism, having bi-
SIGHT. 39
lateral symmetry and capable of functioning at birth,
such as exists in the case of sucking. For, if man
brought such a mechanism with hiin into the world (as
the chicken and other animals do), how could he come
to make so many irregular, purposeless movements of
the eyes before making permanent use of this mechan-
ism?
The general rule is, that out of concurring non-co-
ordinated movements of the muscles there grow gradu-
ally co-ordinated ones ; so, here, with the muscles of the
eyes. And, after the co-ordinated movements have be-
come confirmed in the act of sight, there takes place,
little by little, an elimination of the superfluous ones, a
preference of those that are useful for distinct vision
with both eyes. Just so the unregulated movements of
the legs at the time of learning to walk become more
and more rare, and of the co-ordinated ones, the most
useful alone are retained, those which do the most serv-
ice with the least effort.
It is surprising that representatives of the nativistic
theory should, notwithstanding, urge in their own sup-
port the results of the investigations in regard to the
newly-born — e. g., Eaehlman and Witkowski, as fol-
lows : " As for the character of the eye-movements in
the newly-born, they are in some respects similar to
those made in sleep, but in many respects not similar.
They are so far similar that they are often entirely non-
coordinated; sometimes, though more seldom, of one
side only; not similar, in that they generally follow
much more rapidly, and in a very great majority of
cases appear to be of both sides and often co-ordinated.
Even at the lirst spontaneous opening of the space be-
40 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
tween tlie lids, following directly upon birth, we saw
apparently co-ordinated lateral movements, which, how-
ever, in extent and intensity, were of irregular character.
The eyes moved for some minutes incessantly hither
and thither with a vast range, such as they do not take
later in the regulated act of vision. Among these we
saw, to be sm^e, non-coordinated movements enter sud-
denly, movements in which the principle of association
had absolutely no part."
With this my observations are in full accord. And
what the observers report of the eye-movements of sleep-
ing children (whose lids were lifted up without their
waking) also agrees in many particulars therewith and
with the statements of Schcßler: "As to the form of
such movements we find, first, lateral turnings that are
associated — i. e., they take place bilaterally and with
ßüeming co-ordination. These are rare in sleep, yet
they seem to occur ; at any rate, it may be said decidedly
that non-coordinated movements of the eyes are the most
frequent ones. We see, e. g., both eyes move slowly
to the right ; the apparently associated side-movement
is, however, not equal on the two sides, but is of varying
force, now in one eye now in the other, so that conver-
gences and divergences are introduced alternately.
Moreover, there are frequently quite abnormal, dia-
metrically opposed movements of the two eyes ; one eye
moves slowly to the right, the other to the left ; or the
right eye upward to the right, while the left moves up-
ward to the left. Finally, there occur vertical variations
of both eyes of such sort that, e. g., w^hile the right eye
turns to the left and somewhat downward, the left eye
turns to the left and at the same time somewhat up-
SIGBT. 41
ward. The most remarkable obsei-vation, however, is
that absolutely one-sided movements occur. AVhile, e. g.,
the right eye seems to fix the observer, the left eye is
seen to move sidewise."
Although all these observations relate to the eyes
of children (and adults) in sleep, they are all, accord-
ing to my experience, perfectly applicable to waking
infants in their first days.
5. Direction of the Look.
The ability to " fixate " a bright object is utterly
lacking in the new-born child, because he is not yet in
condition to move the muscles of the eye at his pleasure,
and every fixation is an act of will. On the other hand,
the ability to turn the head toward a bright object so
that this can produce an image on the retina is often
present on the first day of life. And the gaze of a new-
born child as he lies quiet, with open eyes, is seen di-
rected to the candle that is held before him in passing.
But, in fact, the very young babe stares^ motionless, with
a stupid expression of countenance, into empty space,
and merely seems to " fixate " the object that is brought
into his line of vision. For the staring mth nnchanged
position of the eyes does not cease when the object is
removed. The look does not yet follow the removed
object, neither does the head. Yet the eyes move on
the seventh day independently of the turnings of the
head, and converge strongly.
It has indeed been observed by Kussmaul that indi-
viduals among children prematurely born (two months
too soon) lying with head turned away from the window
in the dusk of evening on the second day of life, repeat-
42 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
eclly tnrned the head to the window and the light when a
change was made in their position ; and I have observed
the same thing in the fullj-matured infant regularly on
the sixth day ; but this is merely a case of desire in a
primitive form, not a case of the gaze following an ob-
ject. The object that is apparently sought is motionless,
and is not a recognized cause of sensation. The nature
of the experience is rather this : such and such a position
of the body or of the head is associated with an agree-
able sensation — in this instance an agreeable sensation
of light — and is therefore preferred ; another position,
a disagreeable one, in which the face is shaded, is avoid-
ed. Just so the head is turned to the warm, smooth
breast of the mother, and the turning away from it is
felt as disagreeable, even in the dai'k.
Accordingly, the turning of the head toward a motion-
less, moderately bright light, that has been noticed in
some children even in the lirst days, can not be regarded
as a voluntary direction of the gaze. At the beginning
there is nothing but staring when the eyes are opened,
and even on the ninth day the turning away from daz-
zling light is no sign of knowledge of direction.
Here again I agree entirely with Raehlman and
Witkowski, when they report that they have never seen
movements of real fixation up to the tenth day. " It
may occasionally happen that upon a certain change of
the position of the lighted candle, or through some move-
ments of the child's eyes, the eye is accidentally put in
position for the light ; i. e., an image arises on the yel-
low spot, but this apparently intentional relation of posi-
tion between the eye and the object is a purely accidental
one, and assuredly is not based upon a conscious fixation."
SIGHT. 43
"When Darwin says that on the nintli day the eyes
were directed to the lighted candle, the meaning is
simply that the flame was placed in the line of the fixed
gaze ; but when he adds that up to the forty-fifth day
nothing has seemed thus to fasten the eyes, it must be
that the critical period of the beginning of fixation
passed unnoticed.
The second stage is made known by the turning of
the head from one motionless, extended, bright surface
in the field of vision to another. On the eleventh day
my child held his gaze from one to two minutes steadily
upon my face, and tuiiied his head toward the light,
which appeared close by in the field of vision. In like
manner behaved a female child, who on the fourteenth
day directed her gaze, which had been fastened upon
her father's face, to some one who came up, and at the
eight of this person's head-covering the child's gaze be-
came rooted as if with surprise.*
At this time and later it is noticed also that the in-
fant gazes preferal)ly upward toward the white ceiling
of the room. But tlie upward look that grows out of
this, through which the human infant is said to be es-
sentially distinguished from the animal, depends with-
out doubt upon his horizontal position in the arms of
his mother or nurse. If the babe were never carried in
this manner, it would hardly look upward often.
The tidrd stage is attained with the following of a
bright object in motion, and is characterized by the
associated movement of the eyes while the head is mo-
tionless.
It was on the twenty-third day of his Kfe that my
* Frau Prof, von Strümpell.
44 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
child, who was gazhig at the candle burning steadily at
the distance of one metre before him, turned both his
eyes to the left when I moved the cand^.e to the left,
and to the right when the candle was moved to the
right. As soon as I held the burning candle up, both
his eyes were directed upward toward the light, without
any movement of the head. At the same time his face
suddenly assumed a surprisingly intelligent expression,
not before observed. When the light was moved side-
wise the head was moved, often ; but generally the eyes
alone moved. It would also happen that the movements
of the eyes were accompanied by a shght sympathetic
movement of the head. The motion of the candle had
to be very slow always, otherwise it was not followed.
Twenty times that day, certainly, I repeated the ex-
periment, the result of which greatly surprised me, as
other children do not follow a moving light with their
eyes till after many months. I had, to be sure, made
the trial almost every day since the birth of my child,
and thereby the mechanism of convergence may have
got an earlier start.
Two days later, and seven days later, the same trial
was made with the slowly-moved cajadle or with my
hand only. Whenever the movement was slow enough,
the child foUoAved it with his look, moving sometimes the
eyes only, sometimes head and eyes in accord. Every
time that both eyes moved with the light, the counte-
nance assumed again the contented, intelligent expression
which it had never worn until the twenty-third day.
With that day began also active looking (as distinguished
from staring). The outstretched hand, the flame of the
candle, faces when they came into the field of vision,
SIGHT. 45
were looked at, one can not yet say "fixated," because
with this word is associated the notion of vohmtary,
distinct vision. But from this time forth the gaze of
the child was actively directed, daily, without any con-
trived occasion, to bright surfaces in the field of vision
such as have been mentioned.
It is to be noted that no part is played in this prog-
ress by the cerebral cortex. For Longet removed care-
fully the cerebral hemispheres of a pigeon, sparing the
corpora quadrigemina and the rest of the brain, kept
the bird alive for eighteen days, and saw that in the dark
not only did the sudden approach of a light produce
contraction of the iris and blinking, but also as soon as
he moved the burning candle in a circle the creature
made a corresponding movement of the head. To this
act, then, the cerebrum is not indispensable. But after
the destniction of the corpora quadrigemina the trial
yields no results.
While by means of such observations the transition
from staring to looking could be marked with tolerable
accuracy, the passage from looking to observing and
"fixating" objects was not so sharply defined. In the
fifth week the Christmas-tree, with its many lights, was
looked at with pleasure ; in the seventh the child fol-
lowed M'ith both eyes a lamp carried by some one, a
glittering gold chain, or the movements of his mother's
head, much more quickly and exactly than before.
When looking persistently at a face quite near, his
mouth is pursed in a remarkable manner, as is often
seen to be the case in adults when there is a great strain
of the attention.
A week earlier even, on the thirty-ninth day, the
46 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
swinging movement of tassels close in front of the
child's face would elicit a pleased expression and a cry
of delight. It happened also that the child, when he
had been moving actively in his bed, and so had unin-
tentionally shaken it, suddenly became still, and laughed
when the blue tassels over his face were set swinging in
consequence of the shaking.
In the following weeks, gilded picture-frames, that
shone brightly as they reflected the light of the lamp,
were looked at for minutes at a time, and the gaze
was lifted accordingly. Such strong impressions of
light produced gayety, just as swinging objects did.
On the sixty-second day, for example, the child looked
for almost half an hour at a swinging lamp hanging
from the ceiling, with continuous utterances of pleasure.
The eyes did not, however, in this case, follow closely the
separate oscillations. Both eyes, indeed, often moved
simultaneously to the left or to the right, but not in
time with the lamp. His pleasure manifested itself by
movements of the arms, and by sounds such as are made
by a child only when he is pleasurably excited ; his in-
terest was shown by an unwavering gaze.
The day before, the child had looked upon the
friendly face of his mother for some minutes and then
given a cry of joy. It was as if for the first time he
had discovered his mother. The face of his father, too,
which always exerted a quieting influence on the child
when " worrpng," became at this time — before the
tenth week — an occasion of gayety. In the case of a
little girl, the same thing took place in her sixth week.*
* Frau von Strümpell.
SIGHT. 47
All these facts indicate that motionless images on
the retina are distinguished from moving ones, although
distinct sight is not yet attained ; accommodation, in-
deed, is still wanting.
With this the fourth stage is reached, marked by
the ability, which is retained from this time forth, to
direct the eyes toward an object. Right and left, above
and below, are distinguished, and very soon the most
extended use is made of this ability. For now the
child seelis with his eyes untiringly for new objects,
when he is awake and well. This seeking, i. e., prima-
rily the endeavor to give a definite direction to the loolc
and to hold it there, dates back to the first three mouths.
In the tenth week, a girl-child looked for the face of
the person calling her, although it was with difficulty
that she held her head erect. On the other hand, a boy
of the same age,* who was lying on his back, could not
follow with his eyes a cane that 1 moved hither and
thither before him, but simply stared at it.
A third child began, after the end of the sixteenth
week, to look at its hands, and in the twenty-third week
carried to its mouth the finger of another person that
had been put into its hand.f
When, on the eighty-first day, at a distance of about
one metre from my child, I rubbed with my wet finger
a tall drinking-glass, and produced high tones new to
the infant, he immediately turned his head, but did not
hit the direction with his gaze ; sought for it, and, when
it was found, held it fast. From this time forth he fol-
lowed with a more animated look, much more accurate-
* Frau von Strümpell. f E. Schulte.
48 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
ly, even without movements of the head, an outstretched
hand not in rapid motion. When the hand was moved
very quickly, however, the eye did not follow at all
(thirteenth week). What the child seemed to like best
of all to follow with his eyes, was a person walking
back and forth in the room ; he would turn the head
more than ninety degrees, and look attentively after the
moving figure (fourteenth week).
On the one hundred hrst day a pendulum, which
was making just forty complete oscillations to the min-
ute, was for the first time followed surely and with ma-
chine-like regularity. This proves that less than three
eighths of a second is needed for the lateral movement
of the eye. But for the present such quick movements
are not preferred. When, in the sixteenth week, the
infant went with us on a journey by rail, he directed his
gaze, not at the images that were swiftly passing by the
windows, but persistently and attentively at the sides and
ceiling of the carriage, and (after our arrival) at the
new, motionless objects in the room into which he was
brought. The persistent gazing at the ceiling with
head leaning back, peculiar to many infants, was espe-
cially frequent at this time and in the nineteenth week
(p. 43). Yet it is becoming easier for him all the time
to follow objects moved quickly. When I have been oc-
cupied with the child, if I suddenly get up to leave the
room, the child always turns his head round exactly to-
ward me very quickly, and looks after me with great
eyes, one might almost say with thoughtful, inquiring
eyes (fifth month). But it was not till the twenty-ninth
week that I saw the child look distinctly, beyond all
doubt, after a sparrow flying by.
SIGHT. 49
But a Tniieh longer time passed before objects tll^o^\^l
on the floor, playthings which had served to amuse for
a time, were followed with the eyes. Inasmuch as the
point concerned here is of a discovery made afresh by
every individual human being, viz., that bodies are
heavy, and fall if they are not supported, I directed
my attention particularly to this, and I give liere
some observations concerning it in the case of my
chüd :
30th week. — The child very often lets fall to the
floor objects held a short time in tlie hand, but up to
this time he has not once looked after them.
31st week. — If the child sees or hears anything fall,
lie sometimes turns his gaze in the direction where the
fall took place.
33d week. — The falling and letting fall of an object
make no impression, although objects moved slowly
downward are followed with especially close gaze of
both eyes.
olfih week. — The child but rarely looks after an ob-
ject that falls out of his hand.
36th loeek. — Objects thrown to the ground are not
yet followed by the child regularly, or with any expres-
sion of attention, wbereas he fixes his gaze with the
greatest interest on any slowly-moving objects that he
can hold in view, e. g., tobacco-smoke.
Ji3d week. — The child looks after objects thrown on
the floor, oftentimes as if in wonder.
1^7 th week. — The child throws down objects of all
sorts that are put into his hands, after busying himself
%vith them some moments, and frequently looks after
them. Once he threw a book on the floor eight times
50 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
in succession, witli eager attention, wliicli was manifest-
ed by the protruding of the hps.
63d-65th weeks. — Very often the child throws down
objects that displease him, or with which he has played
awhile, and generally looks after them.
78th week. — The throwing away of playthings is
rare (giving up of the habit).
1^2^th week. — Throwing the ball, of all plays, yields
by far the greatest pleasure, and the gaze follows the
ball with special precision.
The knowledge that bodies are heavy would begin,
according to this, in my child, with the forty-third week,
when for the first time the fall of an object previously
held in his own hand causes astonishment. It would
be interesting to know how it is with other children in
this respect. Darwin observed that a child, even in the
eighth month, could not properly follow with his gaze
an object swinging only moderately fast ; on the other
hand, at the age of thirty-two days, this child perceived
his mother's breast three or four inches away ; for with-
out touching it he protruded his lips, and his eyes were
"fixed" (cf. p. 32), just as happened on the forty-ninth
day at sight of a brightly-colored tassel, which made him
stop moving his arms when it appeared in the field of
vision.
6. Seeing Near and Distant Objects.
The approach of the flame of a candle or of a shining
metallic surface to the face of an infant that has not yet
moved its eyes, produces, in the first two to six weeks,
convergence of the lines of vision and strabismus.
This convergence seems to be associated with a strain of
the muscle of accommodation, as Genzmer ascertained
SIGHT. 51
by observation of the lens-images. lie examined one
eye while the other was alternately brightly lighted and
shaded, and he concludes that a previously-formed con-
nection exists between the posititjn of convergence and
the strain of accommodation. This conjecture is, in
fact, very probable. For the ante-natal existence of the
reflex arc from the optic nerve to the motor oculi is
proved by the contraction of the pupil exposed to light
immediately after birth. Now, the motor oculi,
through the excitement of which tlie pupil is contracted,
is also the nerve of accommodation, which strains the
ciliary muscle when near objects are seen, and is at the
same time the nerve which supplies the internal rectus
muscle of the eye and so the muscle of convergence.
When a bright object apjjroaches the eye, accord-
ingly, tlirough the mere excitement of the motor oculi
from the retina outward, the whole machinery of adap-
tation, accommodation, and convergence is at once set
in action. Contraction of the pupil, thickening of the
lens, and looking inward, occur together when a light is
brought near the child, without justifying the suppo-
sition of the least choice or intention in the case, solely
through the reflex excitement of the motor oculi from
the optic nerve outward. At any rate, vision is intro-
duced through the concurrence of these three processes
with the sensation of brightness. Indistinct as the mus-
cular sensation of the ciliary and convergence muscle
may be, it will associate itseK with the sensation of
light the more perceptibly the offener a bright object
approaches the eye. The cont' action of the pupil, more-
over, does not invariably take place^along with conver-
gence in the newly -born (p. 38).
52 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
But thus far the conditions are not fulfilled for
securing a sharply-defined image on the retina, nor if
such an in)age were to arise could the object be distinctly
seen as a bounded surface.
For, as to the first point, it is evident that only
seldom does the flame of the candle (or any bright ob-
ject whatever) come directly within the distance at
which the child's eye sees plainly. The infant seems
to recognize distinctly, earliest of all, the face of his
mother or nurse, since this is light, pictures itself often-
est on his retina, and is at the same time so near that it
comes most frequently within the range of distinct vis-
ion. In this way the diiference between a faint retinal
image (of objects distant or too near) and sharply-defined
images is impressed upon the child. The difiusion
circles must assert themselves less when the moder-
ately bright object is at a certain small remove from
the eye ; at all other distances they make their ap-
pearance.
As to the second point, it is certain that in the first
days or weeks, even if the difi^usion images should be
"Utterly wanting, still the form of the object can not be
plainly seen ; the only distinct sensation is that of bright-
ness. All experiences with ]ieople born blind, but after
some years operated on successfully, point in this direc-
tion. And although learning to see is with such persons
a difierent thing from what it is with normal infants,
because the long repose of the central organs of the
sense of sight causes a partly quicker, partly slower,
functional development of these, yet no radical essen-
tial difference between the two developments of the
process of sight can be established if the operation is
SIGHT. 53
performed during childhood. Even the experiences of
space gained through seizing and toneliirg can not be
directly made available at the first attempt at accommo-
dation by one born blind and gaining sight late in life.
By him, as by the infant, among the countless retinal im-
ages must be preferred above all others, those which are
of moderate brightness and those in which the diffusion
circles amount to a minimum. For very great bright-
ness is disagreeable, like every over-strong nerve excite-
ment, and the dark involves a weaker nerve excitement
than the moderately bright, and thus seems less adapted
to arouse the attention of the eye. Of the images of
medium intensity of light, that which is sharply defined
is observed before all others, for the reason that this one.
apart from the pleasurable feeling it causes, is distin-
guished from all others — precisely through its sharp
outlines — the relative position is better ascertained, and
the object is more easily recognized when seen again.
Thus when the retinal images all appear together the
brighter and sharper ones are preferred ; these impress
themselves first and most enduringly upon children, the
others being consequently neglected. In this way the
function of accommodation is set in operation. Then the
eye can fixate, one after another, objects that are at un-
equal distances from it.
Still the step, from the reflex accommodation at the
approach of an object to the eye in repose to the volun-
tary accommodation at the sight of two unequally dis-
tant objects, remains obscure. Probably it is first taken
upon the ground of a logical process, after the child has
moved himself, or at least his head and his arms, toward
the object. Then first will the knowledge dawn upon
6
54: THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
him, " I do not need to be nearer the object in order to
see it plainly."
Tliis experience can not, however, be turned to ac-
count before the development of the power of choice.
For " fixation " is the voluntary bringing of an illumi-
nated point on the place of clearest vision, the yellow
spot, to a distinct image. The child that for the first
time gazes at the flame of the candle has no power of
choice ; for him, therefore, fixation is not possible. He
simply stares spell-bound by the new sensation.
Binocular fixation must, however, be inexact long
after the first voluntary act of accommodation, because
iiTcgular movements of the eyes are still frequent. Fix-
ation, properly speaking, does not in any case take place
before the day on which for the first time a moving ob-
ject is voluntarily followed with the gaze — not before
the close of the third month (according to my observa-
tions and those of Cuignet).
But for a long time after this critical point, the per-
ception of objects unequally distant from the eye, as also
the estimate of distances, remains imperfect. How
slowly the third dimension of space gets established in
perception, in spite of daily practice, appears from the
following observations, separated by great intervals of
time, made in regard to my boy, whose sight A^'as after-
ward very keen.
In the ninth week the apparatus of accommodation
was already in action. At least I inferred so, from the
fact that, while head and eyes were motionless and the
amount of light remained unvarying in good daylight,
the pupils expanded and contracted alternately several
times, although this was done also even when my face
SIGHT. 55
remained at the same distance from that of the child.
He was evidently experimenting here, letting his eyes
converge more and less strongly, allowing my face to
become distinct and less distinct before them,
17th week. — Objects accidentally seized are moved
toward the eyes. The child often grasps at objects
which are twice the length of his arm away from him ;
indeed, at the same object several times in succession.
18th week. — Reaching too short for the distance is
very frequent.
j^-i-th week. — !New objects are no longer, as was the
case earlier, carried to the eyes (and to the mouth), or,
at any rate, only rarely ; on the other hand, they are at-
tentively regarded and felt with the hands, the mouth
being pursed. When the child regards a stranger near
him (in the seventh month) his countenance takes on
an expression of the greatest astonishment, mouth and
eyes being wide open, all the muscles becoming sud-
denly rigid in the exact position they were last in. The
new retinal image must therefore be quite clear, to be
so easily distinguished from other retinal images of hu-
man faces — i. e., the accommodation is perfect.
4^7th week. — Playing with a single hair (a woman's),
on which the eyes were long fixed, proves the same
thing.
51st tveek. — Some men sawing wood, at a distance of
more than one hundred feet, attract the attention of the
child and give him pleasure. His sight, therefore, is
keen at a distance, as it is for near objects. But that
things plainly seen are at unequal distances he has not
yet comprehended ; for, in the —
oSth week. — The child grasped again and again, with
66 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
great perseverance, at a lamp in tlie ceiling of a railway-
carriage in which he was passing some hours, and was
unusually merry over it.
68th week. — He continues to come short, very often,
in his attempts to seize objects ; he also reaches too far
to the left or to the right, and too high and too low.
96th week. — I stood at the window in the second
story and threw a piece of paper to the child, who was
in the garden below. He picked it np, looked at it, and
held it toward me a long time, with uplifted arm, ex-
pressing his desire that I should take it — a convincing
proof how little he appreciates distance.
108th week. — Looking at small photographic Kke-
nesses of persons known to him, the child at once knows
whom they represent; he must, therefore, have good
power of accommodation, since only in well-defined
retinal images can be perceived the diiferences, often
slight, by which human faces are recognized.
113th week. — Articles of household furniture known
to the child are also recognized at once when represented
in the picture-book, and at a distance of three inches,
and of three feet.
It follows from these observations that the accom-
modation is perfect long before the perception of dis-
tance begins — i. e., the child is able to see plainly ob-
jects at very miequal distances from the eye without
knowing how unlike their distance is, nay, even without
any knowledge of their being at unequal distances. He
becomes acquainted with distance only at a later j)eriod,
probably through the movement of his body towai'd the
object seen, and through the failure of his attempts to
seize wdiat lies at a distance.
SIGHT. 57
Yet, for all children, probably the correct estimate
of distance is first established by this very act of seizing,
because in this there is abundant experience, the num-
ber of the attempts being great. On the contrary, by
the act of offeiing things to others a correct estimate of
distance is not formed till much later, because there is
a lack of experience at the beginning. Giving makes
its appearance much later than tciMng.
In any case the child is much longer in getting his
bearings in space, even after he has the power of visual
accommodation, than are many animals, e. g., the chicken,
which, after a few hours, correctly perceives the dis-
tance of a grain of corn at which it pecks (p. 67). The
luiman being must infer, by a roundabout way, from
many individual experiences, the third dimension of
space, whereas those animals inherit a nervous mechan-
ism which makes this appear by no means a thing to be
learned. In man, right and left, over and under, are
given by means of the arms and legs, as these are sepa-
rated from one another ; but extent from before to be-
hind is not thus given, because the child does not see or
feel itself behind. For the knowledge of extent from
front to rear, i. e., of the dimension of depth, there is
need of movements, especially of seizing ; hence, this is
not acquired until later.
The old, much-mooted question, whether the child
supposes the objects it first sees distinctly (but not yet
as at unequal distances from the eye) to be in the eye
or outside of it, is answered by John Stuart Mill (1859),
according to the Berkeleyan theory of space-perception,
for he says that a person born blind and suddenly en-
abled to see would at first have no conception of in or
58 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
out., and would be conscious of colors only, not of ob-
jects. When, by bis sense of toucb, be became ac-
quainted with objects, and bad time to associate men-
tally the objects he touched with the colors he saw, then,
and not till then, would he begin to see objects.
The correctness of this view is shown by all the
earlier and later reports of oculists in regard to blind
children who learn to see after being operated upon.
The same thing is true of newly-born children that have
their sight ; for, whenever two impressions belonging to
different departments of the senses occur together in
our experience, then from the presence of the one we
infer the other. The knowledge of outness is hence
much earlier awakened and established than that of the
unequal distances of objects from the eye. " At the
age at which a child first learns that a diminution in
brightness and in apparent magnitude implies increase
of distance, the child's ideas of tangible extension and
magnitude are not faint and faded, but fresh and vigor-
ous." In the beginning, however, the perception of
distance, as well as perception by touch, does not exist
at all, and the former is still utterly lacking when the
latter has reached a comparatively advanced stage. For
the experiences wdth persons born blind that have after-
ward learned to see, show that some of these patients
supposed the objects seen to be touching their eyes, as
objects felt touch the skin. Here Stuart Mill is quite
correct in saying, '• That the objects touched their eyes
was a mere supposition which the patients made, be-
cause it was with their eyes that they perceived them."
From their experiences of touch, perception of an object
and contact with it were indissolubly associated in their
SIGHT. 59
minds. The patient would certainly not say, however,
that all objects seemed to touch his eyes, if some of them
appeared farther off than others. Cases of this sort,
therefore, fully prove that children are at iirst incapable
of seeing things at unequal distances. But because the
patients show great* zeal in learning to judge of impres-
sions of sight by means of the sense of touch, they must
also learn to judge of distances.
One question more belongs here : Are newly-born
children of tener myopic (near-sighted) or hypermetropic
(far-sighted) ?
We have the observations of Von Jäger (18 Gl) and
of Ely concerning the eyes of the newly-born and of
infants, but these observations are in part contradictory.
The first observer is of opinion that the configuration
of the eye in the earliest days is myopic, there being an
inborn prolongation of the axis of the eye, which lasts,
however, but a few weeks. Evidence of this he found
also in measurements made in post-mortem examinations.
He maintains, on the evidence of his ophthalmoscopic
and anatomical investigations, that at the beginning the
adjustment for shorter distances prevails, but in the more
matured child the adjustment for greater distances (in
the early years). Ely, on the contrary, who (1880) tested
newly-born children and infants of a few weeks (living
children only) with the ophthalmoscope, making use of
belladonna (whereby a higher per cent can be obtained
for inborn hypermetropia, as he himself remarks), found
that emmetropia, myopia, and hypermetropia are all in-
nate, with a preponderance of the last condition. König-
stein, who examined nearly three hundred children, states
that the eye of the child is probably hypermetropic ex-
60 THE MIND OF THE GUILD.
clusively (1881). Renewed observations, without the
use of belladonna, are desirable, though they are, of
course, attended with great difficulties.
I saw the eyes of my child, on the twelfth day of
his life, shine very brightly (both pupils dark-red) when
the flame of a candle was behind my head at one side.
This glow of the eye indicates hypermetropia at that
time. Later, this child's eyes became emmetropic.
It can not be without influence on the whole mental
development of the child whether he distinctly sees near
objects only, or distant ones also, in the first years of his
life, but there is as yet a lack of data for estimating this
influence.
One thing only I would lay down as settled, viz.,
that the protracted occupation of little children with
tine work, such as the pricking of paper, the placing and
drawing through of threads, etc. — notwithstanding the
fact that these exercises are warmly recommended in
the so-called Kindergartens of Germany, and are prac-
ticed daily for a long time — must be injurious to the
eyes. The prolonged strain of looking at near objects
is for children from three to six years old, even ia the
best light, unqualifiedly harmful. All strain of atten-
tion to near objects in the evening, when lamp-light must
be used, should especially be forbidden, otherwise the
apparatus of accommodation will get a one-sided use too
early, and near-sightedness will be invited.
7. Tlie Interpretation of what is Seen.
Many suppose that the infant, if he distinguishes
at all any individual visible thing, sees " all objects as
if painted upon a flat surface " — that he has as yet no
SIGHT. 61
conception of anytliing external, existing outside of his
eye ; at any rate, no snspicion that anything inoves to-
ward him ; that his seeing seems to he at this time
merely a dim sense of light and of darkness ; the finger
appears to him only as a dark patch in a bright field of
vision, and does not project in rehef from the surface
of the picture.*
In opposition to this I must contend — while I agree
with the view in relation to the newly-born and the first
days of life — that in the second quarter of the first year,
when this is also said to hold good, there must be al-
ready something more than a mere "dim sense of light
and dark." For, in the first place, the convergence of
the lines of vision exists much earlier ; so that the at-
tention is directed to individual points in the field of
vision. Secondly, the glance of both eyes follows mov-
ing objects much earlier, though not voluntarily. Third-
ly, it is early announced, by exclamations of pleasure
and displeasure over single .objects held before the face,
that the discovery has been made of the demarcation in
space of the changing fields, colored, or dark and light,
in the visual plane.
Withal a considerable time elapses before the child
is capable of interpreting the colored, light and dark,
large and small, disappearing and reappearing mosaics
— before he can understand and appreciate, before he
ceases to wonder at transparency and luster, reflection
and shadow. In this the normal babe is inferior, in
learning to see, to the person born blind but gaining
* Sigismund's work on " The Child and the World " (" Kind und
Welt"), 1856.
62 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
sight thron gli a surgical operation ; the latter learas
much more rapidly to interpret the field of vision, by
reason of his more abundant experiences of touch.
Some of my observations concerning the interpreta-
tion of the more common retinal impressions of the
child, made at various times, may be brought together
here for illustration.
Gth month. — When I nod with a pleasant look to
my child, he laughs with unmistakable signs of pleasure,
moving his arms up and down. (When strangers accost
him, however, he does not do this.) Once he observed
my image in the mirror, became very attentive, and
suddenly turned around toward me as if he were about
to compare the image in the glass with the original,
or wished to convince himself of the doubhng of the
face.
7ih month. — The infant stares at a strange face near
him fully a minute, and longer, with eyes fixed and
with an expression of the greatest astonishment : he
therefore interprets it at once as something strange.
8th month. — The greatest' interest is aroused by bot-
tles — nursing-bottles, wine-bottles, and bottles for water.
They are " fixated " with a protracted gaze ; the child
%vants them, and they are recognized even at a distance
of two or three metres. The interest is to be explained
by the circumstance that the child now gets his nourish-
ment from the bottle, which he takes hold of several
times a day and sees near by. For this reason he recog-
nizes objects like it in the field of vision more easily
than other objects (except human faces).
9th 7nonth. — Just as it is with bottles that resemble
nursing-bottles, so it is now with boxes that resemble an
SIGHT. 63
infant's powder-box ; these are gazed at fixedly, and are
desired, with outstretched arms and wide-open eyes.
More and more, however, the child shows his interest in
other things and occurrences in his neighborhood ; in
particular, he tm*ns his head quickly toward the door
when it is opened or shut, and observes attentively new
objects that he holds, or that are moving, for a longer
time than formerly.
10th month. — V^isual impressions that are connected
with food are, however, most quickly and surely inter-
preted correctly. The child follows the preparation of
his food with lips protruded and with wide-open, glis-
tening, eager eyes.
11th month. — When the child is awake he hardly
remains quiet a moment ; is always moving the eyes
hither and thither, and in like manner the head, while
he tries to fixate with his gaze every one who comes in
or goes by.
If these facts in regard to isolated sight-impressions
show an early faculty of perception by the eye, since
faces, bright and large moving objects, are soon distin-
guished from other parts of the field of vision and are
easily recognized again, yet the following facts, although
they come from a still later period, prove how far from
correctly new impressions are interpreted.
15th month. — The child grasped repeatedly at the
lighted candle, but not far enough to reach it, and when
he was near enough put his hand into the Üame ; but
never again afterward.
16th month. — In the bath the child grasps at the
jets of water that flow from his head when the sponge
is squeezed upon it, as if these were strings. He tries
64 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
to catch them in his fingers in a pretty m'slj, and seems
surprised at his faihire.
17th month. — The child grasped, at various times,
generally with a laugh, at some tohacco-snioke a few
feet away from him, bent his lingers and exerted him-
self to seize the smoke, which floated between him and
a lamp. Only imperfect conceptions are formed, then,
ev^en yet, of the distance and the substantiahty of ob-
jects.
18th m 072th. — At the unexpected sight of a tall man
dressed in black, the child becomes suddenly still, stares
at the man about a minute, flees to his father and gazes,
motionless, at the tall figure. Immediately after the
man had withdrawn, the child said atta, and was unre-
strainedly merry and lond as before.
Here an unexpected visual impression had evidently
caused anxiety, without any assignable reason, for the
man whose appearance the child did not know how to
interpret was friendly toward him. It was not till the
end of his second year that the child ceased to be so
easily embarrassed by strangers in black dress.
^2d month. — New impressions seem to enchain his
attention in increased degree ; the mysterious grows
more and more attractive.
^]ith month. — The child observes very attentively
animals that are moving, even the slowly - creeping
snail and the beetle. These objects, easily followed
with the eye, appear not to be at all understood, to
judge from the inquiring expression of countenance.
The child is surprisingly tender with them, almost
timid.
At this period the understanding of actions, and of
SIGHT. 65
the use of all sorts of utensils, is further developed than
the ability to interpret representations of them, al-
though an inexhaustible fancy in play has been mani-
fested a long time already in various ways. Sigisniund's
child, at the end of the second year, understood a circle
as representing a plate, a square as a honhon, and had in
his twenty-first month recognized the shadow of his
father, of which he was at first afraid, as a picture, for
he pointed at it joyously, crying " Papa ! " Much later
than this my boy called a square, window / a triangle,
roof ; a circle, ring / four points, little hirds.
Not till after the third year is the ability to repre-
sent known objects, even by lines on paper or by cut-
ting out, manifested. Before this the child wants to
" write," yam-e (schreiben), i. e., to draw; and thinks
that by all sorts of marks he is representing a locomo-
tive, a horse, a spoon, a plate, a bottle ; but does not
succeed without help. I have had information of one
child only that, in its fourth year, without instruction,
could cut animals out of paper with the scissors (giraffes,
greyhounds, horses, lions, camels, fishes) in such a fash-
ion, and draw them so on the slate with a pencil, that
everybody knew at once what the lines inclosed (even in
the case where he had sketched a man sitting). Such a
talent is very rare, and indicates an inherited sense of
form. An average child can not, before the end of the
third year, draw an approximately circular line return-
ing upon itself. This boy of three and a half years,
however, bites animals out of bread, draws them with a
stick in the sand, models them in clay, sees animal
forms in the clouds, and devotes himself to his art with
the greatest perseverance for months, without direction,
ßQ THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
without the least stimulus from parents or brothers and
sisters.*
The surprisingly persistent desire of my boy (in his
thirtieth month), repeated daily (often several times in
the day), to " write " locomotives, Zocopotiwe raiben (he
meant " draw "), sprang from his seeing locomotives fre-
quently. These objects interested him in a remarkable
degree in his third and fourtli years, evidently because
greater changes in the held of vision excite the special
attention of the infant very early, on account of the
great number of optical nerve-tibers excited by the
change of light and dark. In the country the locomo-
tive is one of the largest moving objects. It also moves
swifter than horses. That this, the largest moving mass
perceived, became the most interesting of all, as was the
case with the steamer on the sea, seems therefore nat-
ural.
As to the rest I have not been able to determine in
what way little children represent to themselves such
movements. Many regarded ,the locomotive as tired
when it stood still, as thirsty when its tank was filling
wnth water, as a stove when it was heated ; or they were
afraid of every steam-engine near them, so long as it
was in operation.
8. Sight in Newly-born Animals.
The perfection of sight in quite young fowls, with-
out experience, is astonishing as compared with the in-
complete development of this sense in new-bom human
beings. Let their eyes be kept shut, without injuring
* Frau Dr. Friedemann.
SIGHT. 67
them, from one to three days, and, in many eases, within
two minutes after the removal of the bandage, they will
follow the movements of creeping insects with all the
accuracy of old fowls. Within from two to fifteen min-
utes they peck at any object, estimating the distance with
almost infallible accuracy. If the object is out of reach,
they will run to it and hit it eveiy time, so to speak, for
they never miss by more than a hair's breadth, even
when the kernel of grain at which they pecked is no
larger than the smallest dot of the letter i / seizing at
the moment of pecking is a more difficult operation.
Although an insect is sometimes caught with the bill
and swallowed at the first attempt, they generally peck
five or six times, and pick up crmnbs ouce or twice,
before they succeed in swallowing food for the first
time. So Spalding reports.
His statements hold good, also, according to my ob-
servations, for fowls one day old, not bandaged but kept
in the dark one day ; these, without mother or compan-
ions, at once find their way of themselves wherever
they are, in the incubator or on the table in the labora-
tory. But I can not admit the supposed infallibility to
within a hair's breadth. They miss in pecking by as
much as two millimetres, though seldom. On the other
hand, the attempts at swallowing frequently fail. Here
it should be considered that even grown fowls are not
sure in their pecking, seizing, or swallowing, as any one
that observes closely may easily perceive. The accuracy
is, however, marvelous at the very beginning. A duck-
ling of a day old snapped at a fly that was just flying by,
and caught it ; a turkey of only a day and a half directed
its bill, after the manner of the elders of its race, atten-
68 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
tively and deliberately, at flies and other small insects.
(Spalding.)
Many new-born mammals Lave likewise in the very
first hours of life the ability to move not only the head
but the whole body toward a visual impression — e. g.,
young pigs. Spalding bandaged the eyes of two pigs
just born. One of these was brought immediately to
the mother ; it soon found the teats and began to suck.
Six hours afterward the other was placed at a short dis-
tance from the mother. It found her in half a minute,
after going about in a rather unsteady manner. After a
half-minute more it found the teats. In both cases smell
and taste must, therefore, have determined the direc-
tion of the movement ; in the last case probably hearing
also. But it is not expressly stated whether the mother
made her voice heard. On the following day it ap-
peared that the one of the young ones that had been
left with the mother no longer had on the bandage.
The other was wholly unable to see, but walked about,
bumping against things. In the afternoon the bandage
was taken ofi. Then the creature ran about as if it had
already been able to see before it was bandaged. Ten
minutes later it was hardly to be distinguished from
another young one that had enjoyed the use of its eyes
without interruption. " Placed on a chair, it saw that
the height required considering," knelt down and
jumped off. After ten minutes more this animal was
placed, together with another, twenty feet from the
sty. Both got to their mother in five minutes, at the
ßame instant.
If, in the last-mentioned experiment, smell and hear-
ing not being excluded, imitation of the animal whose
SIGHT. 69
sight has not been internipted is possible to the one
that has been for only twenty minutes able to see, yet
the very remarkable fact of the jumping down from the
chair after the previous kneeling must be based on an
act of sight. The operation of estimating distance,
however imperfect it be in the brain of an animal not
yet two days old, and not able to see till within ten
minutes before jumping down, proves that even thus
early the third dimension of space comes to conscious-
ness through the eye, as the result of retinal impres-
sions, otherwise the animal would not have knelt
before jumping. Now, since it had hitherto had no
sight-perceptions, and in those ten minutes none that
gave occasion for jumping, the association of retinal ex-
citement, estimate of distance, muscular movement for
kneeling and for the jumping that followed, must be
inherited. For no one would attribute to a pig so
young, blind ten minutes before, such a gift of inven-
tion, as to initiate, out of independent deliberation,
a proceeding so rational and so well adapted to its pur-
pose. The animal jumps because its ancestors have
jumped countless times without waiting long or esti-
mating carefully the distance. A human infant does
not possess this association of retinal excitement and co-
ordinated muscular movement. It moves without pur-
pose and falls from the chair. The young Guinea-pig,
on the other hand, does not jump and does not fall by
accident, but lets itself drop, as I have often proved.
Kids kneel and see on the first day of life, without
any example for imitation and without guidance, yet
quickly and efficiently. I have seen them suck in this
manner before they were twenty-two hours old. They
70 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
stride rather awkwardly up to the mother, sniiff at her
teats, kneel down and suck, wagging their tails continu-
ally and pushing with their heads.
In the human being so many more associations of
sight with co-ordinated muscular movements are pos-
sible than in the brute at the moment of birth, that it
takes a longer growth after birth for these all to be de-
veloped.
Kot before the sixth week, as O. Binswanger has dis-
covered, are fully-formed ganglionic cells present in the
human cerebrum, and at the same period are first de-
veloped the cerebral convolutions, according to the in-
vestigations of Sernoif. Therefore, not only does the
human brain continue to grow after birth, but it differ-
entiates itself after birth, not before ; since not until the
second month does it receive its characteristic morpho-
logical marks.
Such complicated mechanisms of associations as those
mentioned can not be developed before birth, because too
many other established inherited mechanisms go along
with them. They are all present potentially, but which
of them finally become most easily operative depends on
experience — i. e., on provocation from without, the more
or less often repeated treading of the separate paths of
association in the cerebro-spinal system. In other words,
the child learns much more than the animal.
The philosopher, Eduard von Hartmann, as early as
1872, used the following striking language with refer-
ence to this difference : " The human child seems to
bring nothing at all with him, but to learn everything ;
in reality, however, he brings everything, or at any rate
far more than does tlie lower animal that creeps all com-
SIGHT. ^ll
plete out of tlie egg ; but he brings everything in an
immature condition, because there is in liim so much to
be developed that in the nine months of embryonic life
it can only be prefigured in the germ. So, then, in the
progressive development of the infant brain the matur-
ing of tendencies goes hand in hand with learning — i. e.,
with the moditication of these tendencies by exercise ;
and the result is far richer and liner than can be attained
in the brutes by mere inheritance."
The superiority of the animal, which utilizes at once
its retinal excitations for its own advantage in jumping,
is thus merely an apparent one, for it lacks the aptitude
to learn other ways of utilizing experiences. This utili-
zation may be conceived of as an inherited logical pro-
cess — i. e., as instinctive ,' since the animal is born more
mature than the human being, it is, unconsciously, earlier
capable of performance such as the human being learns
later through individual experience and accomplishes
only with consciousness.
The same holds true of the association of seeing and
touching, seeing and seizing, and other associations of
which we have yet to speak.
Still, it is not to be denied that in man also the at-
tainment of complicated combinations of this sort — of
movements of the muscles of the eye and the arm upon
receiving certain sense-impressions — is essentially assist-
ed by inherited endowment. The muscular movements
fall into the required groove without imitation the more
quickly, in proportion as these have been the habitual
combinations in the life of the race.
72 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
CHAPTER IL
HEAEING.
The observations concerning the gradual develop-
ment of the faculty of liearing in early childhood relate
to the deafness of newly-born children — which is nor-
mally of only short duration — and to the babe's first
sensations and perceptions of sound. Then follow some
statements concerning the hearing of new-born animals.
1. The Deafness of the Newly-born.
All children immediately after birth are deaf. It
was formerly conjectured merely that the reason why
the new-born child can not hear is the filling of the
cavity of the tympanum with mucus, and that this
physiological deafness lasts until the cavity is emptied.
It is now settled that the temporary deafness is occa-
sioned, also, and chiefly, by the lack of air in the cavity
before respiration.
Several investigators have found in the middle ear
of the foetus a yellowish liquid, others a peculiar ge-
latinous substance. Gelle thinks that the latter comes
from a strong oedematous infiltration of the mucous
membrane of that part, and has its place supplied soon
after birth with air, by means of the respiratory move-
ments, after it has become liquid — as he proved that it
does become, shortly before birth. He found in a cat,
half an hour after birth, both tympanic cavities filled
with air, and no remaining trace of the gelatinous magma.
HEARING. 7-3
The animal liad cried out, and its lungs contained a good
deal of air.
The question how far this gelatinous tissue, hyper-
semia and swelling of the mucous membrane of the
tympanic cavity, a sub-epithelial layer of the membrane,
till up the tympanic cavity before the first respiration,
is not yet decisively answered. Neither has the point
of time been ascertained, after how many respirations
the Eustachian tube, in the human being, is permeable.
Probably the advent of respiration is not alone suffi-
cient to accomplish the emptying of the tympanic cavi-
ties after birth and the filling of them with air ; rather
are repeated swallowing and breathing essential to it,
and a few respirations are not sufficient, as Lesser proved,
to replace with air the liquid contents of the tympanic
cavity of the foetus, or to change their character. Only
after several hours' respiration can air be proved to
exist in the middle ear along with the liquid ; but Lesser
found that the rapidity with which the liquid gave place
to air did not sustain a constant relation to the duration
of the extra-uterine existence. As Lesser examined forty-
two new-born human beings, of whom thirteen were
still-born, sixteen had lived a few minutes after birth,
and thirteen had lived several hours or days, greater
value is to be attributed to his results than to the iso-
lated experiences of others. His results are of practical
importance, and are especially remarkable in that they
show that the foetal condition of the middle ear in
children prematurely born may persist more than twenty
hours after birth. Such children, according to this,
must be deaf somewhat longer than those born at the
full time.
Y4 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
As to tlie rest, the old view of Sclieel (1798), accord-
ing to which the amniotic fluid comes directly into the
middle ear before birth through the Eustachian tube, as
the air does after birth, namely, through swallowing, is
not improbable. And we can not help agreeing with
him when he observes that because some of the amniotic
fluid remains in the tympanic cavity during the first
days after birth, a loud sound is less injurious to the
organ of hearing than if the caväty were at once filled
with air. The collection of fluid in the middle ear
makes adults also hard of hearing. It was well said by
Herholdt (1797) : " Experiments made on animals have
convinced me that in the foetus the tympanic cavity is
completely tilled with mucus and amniotic fluid, which
enters and is renewed through the Eustachian tube. So
the remainder of the amniotic fluid and that in the
tympanic cavity are in equilibrium and the tympanum
is pressed equally from all sides. By this the tympanic
cavity is relieved during the growth of the foätus from
the obstacles that might stand in the way of its proper
development, and the tender tympanic membrane is pro-
tected from harm. After birth the liquor flows out
slowly through the same channel, and the atmospheric
air takes its place. Then first can the organs of hear-
ing perform their functions, though not perfectly until
their development has become complete and the bones
of the head are firm and in reciprocal connection. The
older physicians, who did not know this, dreamed of
an hereditary or inborn atmosphere."
In accord with this are the investigations of Mol-
denhauer and Von Tröltsch (1880). The latter is of
opinion that the hyperplastic mucous membrane, which
HEARING. 75
in the fcBtus almost fills up, like a cushion, the aperture
of the tvinpauic cavity, often shrinks together before
birth ; the mucous cushion may even disaj^pear within
the uterus, in which case something else must occupy
its place, and this can only be the amniotic fluid.
Besides the lack of air in the tympanic cavity, there
is also to be taken into account, as a cause of the deaf-
ness of the human being at birth, the temporary closing
of the external auditory canal, which is due, according
to Urbautschitsch, not to epithelial agglutination, but to
absolute contact of the coatings of the auditory canal.
Many animals, also, but probably no birds, are for this
reason deaf, or hard of hearing, directly after birth. So
much the more surprising is the sensitiveness of others,
e. g., of the Guinea-j)ig, of which something will be said
by-and-by.
If the tympanic cavity in the new-born child is al-
ready filled with air, a deafness of half an hour, or of sev-
eral hours, or even of several days, may be caused by the
closing of the external auditory canal (the obstruction does
not very quickly disappear), or by the narrowness of the
canal. The difference in the results of observations ac-
cording to which infants from one to three days some-
times react distinctly upon the stimulus of sound, some-
times ignore it completely, seems intelligible, however,
if we only take into account the varying rapidity with
which the Eustachian tube and the auditory canal are
pervious to air, apart from all other obstacles, even pos-
sible cerebral ones. On the other hand, I must posi-
tively pronounce false the statements according to which
children from three to four months old possess normally
very slight capacity of hearing, and according to which
76 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
it is hard to give a decided opinion as to whetlier such
children hear at all or not. My observations upon many
infants and mj information from trustworthy mothers
leave no doubt that, long before the third month, in tlie
normal condition, the human voice is heard ; and in
fact mature and sound children before the close of the
frst week of life react, in unmistakable fashion, upon
the stimulus of loud sound, as JJr. Ki'oner, of Breslau,
also found.
The longer continuance of difficulty of hearing is
certainly of great advantage to the infant, as it stands in
the way of the multiplication of reflex movements, and
so of the tendency to convulsions.
But if children born at the right time make no
movement in the fourth week when a loud sound is made
behind them, then there is reason to suspect that such
children will remain deaf and dumb.
2. The First Sensations and Perceptions of Sound.
How many hours, days, or weeks after birth the very
earliest sensations of sound are experienced it is not
easy to determine very accurately, for the reason that
an unmistakable sign that a sensation of sound has been
experienced is lacking. Movements of the eyelids,
starting, throwing up the arms, and screaming, which
appear in the child at the stimulus of sudden loud sound,
appear readily at fright caused by any strong impression,
while slight noises and soft tones remain unnoticed.
The turning of the head toward the invisible source of
sound does not take place till later.
Frequently-repeated attempts to test the ability of
the newly-born to hear, leave no doubt that it is in-
HEARING. 77
creased by exercise, and that an occasional temporary
dullness occurs. But tlie experiments made thus far
are too scanty and uncertain.
Kussmaul could make the loudest discordant noises
near the ears of new-born children during the first days,
while they were awake, without any reaction on their
part. Numerous experiments made by him in this di-
rection had only a negative result. But he adds that
another cautious observer, Feldbauseh, has seen sleeping
children more than three days old start when he broke
the silence by clapping his hands hard. Champney's
child, on the contrary, did not react before the fourth
week upon any noise, however loud, not even clapping
of the hands, if there was no vibration of the room or
of the bed. If a door was slammed-to, the child start-
ed, just as it did directly after birth when the scales of
the balance in which it lay suddenly sprang up. When
fourteen days old, this child turned its eyes toward its
mother when she spoke to it, but as it did not at that
time stir at any noise, however loud, if there was no
shaking, this turning may be attributed to the feeling
of warmth at being breathed upon ; for the movement
took place only when the mother's face was turned to-
ward the babe, and it was presumably a movement of the
head rather than of the eyes.
Genzmer was the first to make experiments by
measuring. He ascertained the greatest distances at
which infants' eyelids quivered at the striking of a little
bell, which was done in just the same way always, with
a small iron rod. It appeared that almost all children
of one day, or certainly of two days, react upon impres-
sions of sound, but theii* sense of heai*ing is, without
78 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
mucli reference to tlie degree of their maturity, at first
unequal, and grows more acute within the first weeks.
Tlie average distance at wliich the striking of the bell
was heard was found to be eiglit to ten inches, but the
figures varied from one to twenty. In one case, that
of a very active child, the distance on the fii'st day was
eight, on the sixth eighteen, on the twenty-fourth
twenty-four inclies ; with a phlegmatic child, the audi-
tory reflexes were on the first day irregular, on the
eighth they occurred at five, on the twenty-fourth at
eleven inches distance from the bell. It may be seen
from these figures how unequal the progress is. But
as the sound could hardly be of exactly the same force
in all the experiments, and as the quivering of the eye-
lids is not caused by the stimulus of sound exclusively,
and as not every sound-stimulus is responded to by a
quiver of the eyelids, this whole series of experiments,
limited to about thirty observations, on fifteen children,
is uncertain.
The observations of Dr. Moldenhauer likewise leave
much that is doubtful, although his mode of proceeding
is better. He made use, as a test of the hearing, of the
French toy, cri-ari, which gives a loud, brief, disagree-
able sound, with discordant high overtones. This sound
continues almost exactly identical after many experi-
ments, and can be made quite close to the ear without
involving other stimulus. The most important result
of this experiment was that, with very few exceptions,
children distinctly reacted at once upon the sound-
stimulus at the first trial. Yet the degree of the reac-
tion was extraordinarily unequal in different individu-
als, and in the same individuals on different days. Fifty
HEARING. Y9
eliilclren were tested. Of tliese only ten were less than
twelve honrs old (these all reacted), and only seven from
twelve to twenty-four hours old, all the rest older. The
least degree of reaction was indicated by a distinct
quiver of the eyelids, even without interruption of
sleej) ; a stronger degree by wrinkling of the forehead.
Then came head-movements, mostly single short twist-
ings of the head ; finally, starting, accompanied by vio-
lent quivering of the head, the arms, and the upper part
of the body ; sleeping children awoke and screamed.
The reflexes occurred more plainly and more quickly
after the end of the second day than on the first two
days. In experiments that followed one another in
quick succession, there was very often manifested a
dullness, going as far as entire absence of reaction.
Children sleeping soundly, and babes nm*sing, re-
acted less distinctly than those awake or half asleep.
Most children, then, even those born three or four
weeks too early, respond in the first days to strong im-
pressions of sound by reflex movements in the region
of the facialis. The action of those just born, in the
first five hours, was not investigated. The four young-
est were six hours old, as the author tells me. Deaf-
ness was in some few cases (four out of fifty) well es-
tablished, even after more than twenty-four hours ; thus
my observation that no reaction follows upon sound-im-
pressions immediately after birth is not modified by
this discovery. In fact, I saw a strong child, of ten
hours, that did not react in the least npon the cri-cri,
and I saw one of six days react very slightly.
Moldenhauer found further that, of four children
who were tested for the first time after more than
80 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
twenty-four hours and did not react, tliree did distinct-
ly react iu later repeated experiments in the same hour
or on the following day. A child of three days did not
react even at the second trial.
When the bell that has been mentioned was struck
by Genzmer softly, very near the ear of children that
heard well (probably more than two days old), they
sometimes turned the head to that side ; if occupied
witli nursing, they broke off from their occupation.
Yery violent striking of the bell made them restless. I
have likewise observed that infants are greatly dis-
turbed by strong sound-stimulus, just as new-born ani-
mals are ; e. g., the shrill whistle of a locomotive near by
easily produces persistent lively movements and violent
screaming in a child previously perfectly quiet, ^ot
every infant, indeed, shows so strong a reaction, nor
does any in the first hour of life. But on the ninth
day the turning of the head (in my judgment accident-
al) toward the source of sound was observed by Mol-
denhauer.
Too great a range is, however, commonly allowed
for individual differences. When some children are re-
ported as starting at loud sounds, even on the first day,
others after three days, others again not till after eight
weeks, there is reason to attribute the last statements to
inaccurate observation, unless they apply only to those
hard of hearing or prematurely born ; or, unless too
deep sounds and unsuitable noises were employed.
If a small tuning-fork, in vibration, warmed and
carefully placed on the head, produces no other reaction
than that produced by a fork not in vibration, similarly
placed, we may infer that the inner ear has some share
HEARING. 81
in the deafness of the newlj-born. But such experi-
ments must be made on many individuals. Molden-
hauer got no deKnite result with tuning-forks on ac-
count of the sensitiveness of tlie skin of the head.
A very vigorous male child, born after his time, wns
seen by Dr. Deneke, in the lying-in asylum at Jena, six
hours after birth, to close his eyes tighter every time
the doctor struck two metallic covers together close to
his ear. In this case, however, the reflex may have been
started by the current of air arising from the sudden
motion. A very strong new-born child, weighing nearly
four and a quarter kilogrammes, did not react upon
any noise, when I tested it half an hour after birth.
That is the way all ordinary children behave just after
birth. By ever so loud a noise, clapping of hands close
to the ear, whistling, very loud screaming, they are not
within the first half hour, according to my experiments,
brought to screaming from a state of quiet, nor quieted
if they are screaming. But they cry out if you blow
on them, if you press softly on their temples, or strike
them upon the thigh, after they have begun to breathe.
Only there is a noticeably longer interval between the
contact and the outcry than at a later period.
I saw my child, in the twenty-first hour of life,
move both arms symmetrically, at a loud call, but this
is perhaps to be attributed to being breathed on ; for
clapping of hands, whistling, speaking, produced no
result, and on the second and third days no reaction
upon sound-stimulus could be induced. It was not until
the first half of the fourth day that I was convinced
that my child was no longer deaf. For hand-clapping,
or whistling, close to him then produced sudden open-
g2 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
ing of the half-sliut eyes, as the child lay warm and
satisfied with food, and to all appearance comfortable.
As this result followed every time on repeated trials
the fourth day, but not once on the third day, there
can be no doubt that in this case the sound was heard
by means of the tympanum on the fourth day, but not
before. It also happened for the first time on the
fourth day, and indeed several times, that the child
when crying stopped as soon as I began to whistle close
to him. This observation was made also upon babes of
two and three days old. On the eleventh and twelfth
days I noticed that my child became quiet always at
the sound of my voice, which seemed also to call forth
a sort of intense expression of countenance that, how-
ever, can not be described.
On the twenty-fifth day pulsation of the lids often
followed when I spoke to the child in a low voice, stand-
ing before and near him. On the following day he
started suddenly when a dish that he could not see was
noisily covered near him. He is frightened, then, al-
ready, at unexpected loud sounds, as adults are. On the
thirtieth day this fright was still more strongly mani-
fested. I was standing before the child as he lay quiet,
and being called, I said aloud, without changing my
position, "Ja!" (yes). Directly the child threw both
arms high up quickly, and made a convulsive start with
the upper part of his body, while at the same time his
expression, which had been one of contentment, became
very serious. The same scene was enacted at another
time on the slamming of a door.
In the fifth week the sensibility to sound has in-
creased to such a degree that the cliild seldom sleeps in
HEARING. 83
the daytime if any one walks about or speaks in the
room ; whereas, so late as the seventh day, a loud call
did not wake the sleeping child. The increased sensi-
bihty is also proved by the quick turnings of the head
when any one sits on the child's bed without being seen
by him, and also by the starting at moderately loud
noises.
In the sixth week I noticed this starting at quite in-
significant noises, even when the child was asleep and
did not wake. About this time he could already be
quieted at once, when he was screaming, by his mother's
singing. The first time this happened the child opened
his eyes wide, evidently a symptom of astonishment at
the new sensations of sound. On the following day,
when his mother again quieted him by singing, he gazed
at her with wide-open eyes (cf . p. 46), so that I already
suspected he had associated the tones he heard with the
oval of the face he saw, as is unquestionably the case
with older children (e. g., of four months) when they
laugh and utter joyous cries as soon as the mother sings
anything to tliem.
In the seventh week the fright at a loud sound was
still greater than before. Dishes fell to the floor several
times while the child was asleep. Instantly both arms
went up swiftly, and remained for more than tiüo
tniimtes upright in that strange position with fingers
outstretched and parallel, without the child's waking.
The attitude reminded one of the spreading of the wings
of a frightened bird. There appears to be already a
greater sensibility to tones, possibly to melodies, for an
expression of the greatest satisfaction is perceived on
the child's face when his mother hushes him with cradle-
84 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
songs softly sung. It is worth noticing, also, that even
when he is crying from hunger a low sing-song causes
a pause in the crying and attracts attention. Speaking
does not effect this invariably, by any means.
In the eighth week the infant heard, for the first
time, the music of an instrument — the piano. He made
known his satisfaction at the new sensation by an un-
usual straining of the eyes and by lively movements of
arms and legs at every forte, as well as by smiles and
laughter. The higher and softer tones made no such
impression. This delight in music manifested itself in
like manner in the following months, from which we
may conclude that more than a year before the first im-
perfect attempt at speech there is discrimination between
(musical) sounds and noises. The child of two or of
three months often utters sounds of satisfaction when it
hears music.
In the ninth week the sound of a repeating watch,
which had earlier produced not the least impression on
the child, now aroused his attention to the highest pitch.
But his head was not turned with certainty toward the
source of sound, whereas he would follow a moving
hand accurately. At every sudden noise, scream, call,
tones, clapping of hands, there is a quick shutting and
opening of the eyes, and very often the arms are at the
same time lifted quickly, no matter in what position the
body is held. The same in the fourth month. In the
seventh and eighth the closing of the lids predominates.
The raising of the arms has already become rare.
In the eleventh week I noticed for the first time,
what some others have not perceived before the second
quarter of the year, though some have done so earlier,
HEARING. 85
that tlie child, beyond doubt, moved his head in the di-
rection of the sound heard. I knocked on a mirror, be-
ing behind him. Immediately he turned his head round
toward the source of the sound. At this period it is in
general surprising with what ease single tones, scales,
and chords attract the attention of the babe, to such a
degree that the greatest restlessness subsides at once
when these are sounded, and he hearkens with an in-
tense gaze.
In the twelfth week the turning of the head toward
the sounding body was sudden, even when the look did
not take at once the right direction. When the direc-
tion was found, the child would hearken evidently with
close attention (cf. p. 87.)
In the sixteenth week the turning round of the head
toward a sound takes place with the certainty of a reflex
movement. Before this time no notice at all was taken
of more distant sound-stimulus — a hand-organ below in
the garden, the voice of a person speaking aloud at the
other end of the room ; now both these sounds cause
lively motions of the head, and an altered, not dissatis-
fied, expression of countenance.
The first noise artificially produced by the child him-
self, one that gave him apparent pleasure and was ac-
cordingly frequently repeated, was the crumpling of
paper (especially in the nineteenth week). In the
twenty -first week, at the beating of a gong, sounded
for the purpose of taking his photograph, he became
motionless — his attention was so enchained by the new
noise — and stared with fixed gaze at the metallic plate.
In general, his hearing became so much more acute in
the fifth month that, when taking his milk, he almost
:gQ THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
invariably broke off from liis occupation and turned
about whenever a noise, not altogetlier too sliglit, was
made near liim.
After a half-year the babe often kept his gaze steadi-
ly directed for minutes at a time on my face, and with
an expression of wonder, with eyes and mouth open,
when I sang single notes to him. He utters a joyous
cry at military music.
In the eighth month there is a quick closing of the
lids, a single wink of the eyes for the most part, not
only at every loud, sudden sound-impression, but even
at every new one — e. g., when the voices of animals are
imitated. This is no longer the expression of fright
merely, but of astonishment also. In fright there has
come, in place of the raising of the arms, a starting of
the whole body and a convulsive movement of arms and
legs together, which was also observed as early as the
second month. The rapid shutting and opening of the
eyes continued unchanged.
In the ninth month, when the child more than twelve
times in succession shut down the cover of a large
"caraffe," so that a loud slam was heard every time,
this winking of the eyes and starting of the whole body
took place every time, the countenance meanwhile ex-
pressing great attention. The reÜex movements in this
case were not, then, the expression of fright, for the
child himself eagerly repeated the shutting down of the
cover after I had raised it. The combined tactual and
visual impression surpassed in interest the accompany-
ing phenomenon of sound ; the intensity of the latter,
however, was so great as to involve the reflex move-
ments. At this period I often saw, dm'ing the sleep of
HEARING. g7
the child, lively movements of the hands after sound-
impressions that did not waken the sleeper, the remains
of an earlier reflex raising of the arm. Not only does
the child turn his head round when he hears my voice
"without seeing me, but (as also in the tenth month) at
every new loud noise — e. g., thunder. So, too, the turn-
ing of the head in the first and second weeks, when a
loud sound is heard, is not a directing of the head toward
the soui'ce of sound (p. 80) ; this does not take place
till later (p. 85).
During teething, the sensibility to acoustic stimulus
is, moreover, noticeably increased. A loud word then
produces winking, fright, quicker breathing, screaming,
and tears.
In the eleventh and twelfth months, the screaming
child generally allows itself to be quieted in a few mb-
ments by a decided " Sh ! " just as it did in the first
month. ]^o other spoken utterance has this effect, not
even the sharp " ss " or " pst," but any siugiug, even
false notes, will do it.
At this time — the three hundred nineteenth day —
occurred a remarkable acoustic experience, which gives
evidence of gi-eat intellectual advance. The child
struck several times with a spoon upon a plate. It
happened accidentally, while he was doing this, that
he touched the plate with the hand that was free;
the sound was dulled, and the child noticed the dif-
ference. He now took the spoon in the other hand,
struck with it on the plate, dulled the sound again, and
so on. In the evening this experiment was renewed,
with a like result. Evidently the function of causahty
had emerged in some strength, for it prompted the ex-
88 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
periment. The cause of the dulling of the sound by
the hand — was it in the hand or in the plate? The
other hand had the same dulling effect ; so the cause
was not lodged with the one hand. Pretty nearly in
this fashion the child must have interpreted his sound-
impression, and this at a time when he did not know a
single word of his later language.
In the twelfth month the child was accustomed, al-
most every morning, to observe the noisy putting of
coals into the stove, A. On the thi'ee hundred sixty-
third day it took place in the next room, in the stove,
B. The child at once looked in the direction of the
sound, but as he discovered nothing he turned his head
around nearly one hundred and eighty degrees, and re-
garded the stove, A, with an inquiring gaze : that stove
had already been filled. This likewise shows logical
activity applied to perceptions of sound, and this before
the ability to speak.
Such experiments were from time to time carried
on after this, entirely of the child's own accord ; e. g.,
in the thirtieth month the child, while eating, held his
hand by chance to his ear while a kettle of boiling water
stood before him. At once he becomes attentive, no-
tices the diminution in the force of the sound, takes
his hand away, listens in silence, open-mouthed and
with an expression of surprise, to the modification of
thp. sound, holds his hand to his ear five or six times,
and establishes the fact anew each time, like an experi-
menter, until the connection between the alteration in
the sound and the movement of the hand no longer
seems wonderful, because he has perceived it several
times.
HEARING. g9
I note here that one of the earliest sound-perceptions
in which causality operated without language, is the one
mentioned (p. 87), occurring on the eighty-tirst day.
I have not been able, notwithstanding the greatest
attention and very much outlay of time, to record any
more observations of this sort concerning the activity
of reasoning without speech, in the domain of sound.
After the end of the lirst year the child strikes
with his hands on the keys of the piano, and looks
around occasionally while doing it, as if to assure him-
self that somebody is listening to him. He takes pleas-
ure in a canary-bird, laughing when it moves and listen-
ing in silence when it sings, and then laughing again.
In general, laughing is frequent in the following months
at new noises, like gurgling or clearing the throat (fif-
teenth month). Even thunder made the child laugh.
A favorite acoustic occupation consisted in holding
a watch to his ear and listening to the ticking (sixteenth,
seventeenth, and twenty-fourth months). But some-
times the watch was held behind the auricle and some-
times against his cheek. If I held it above, on his head,
the ticking was heard (nineteenth month), as could be
told by the look of attention. The conduction of sound
by the bones must have been already established for
some time past.
The pleasure in music, that showed itself even in
the first three months, increased manifestly in the six
following months. But it was nearly the end of the
second year before the child, who was roused to the
liveliest movements by hearing the most varied kinds of
music, performed these movements in time. He did
indeed dance, but in his own fashion, not rhythmically
90 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
(twenty-first month). Somewhat later, he would him-
self beat time with toleral)le correctness with the arms,
or with one arm, trying meanwhile to sing over a song
that had been sung to him (twenty-fourth month), but
he did not succeed in this till later, and then imper-
fectly. Playing with fife and drum at that period gave
hardly more pleasure than striking some keys of the
piano, and that with both hands at once. But I nnist
add that it was absolutely impossible, notwithstanding
nmch pains, to teach the child to name rightly even the
three notes C D E (end of third year), though his
hearing for noises and vocal sounds was in general
acute.
Another child, on the contrary, a girl, could, in her
ninth month, sing correctly every note given her from
the piano, and seemed to find discords unpleasant ; at
least she always wept bitterly at that age whenever any
one blew on a small tin trumpet. This child, and two
others of the same family, could sing before they could
talk, and sing correctly airs that had been sung to them.
'Not only the pitok, but the stress and the shade of tone
are given by such musical children (in the eighth month),
who listen to all music with the greatest strain 'of atten-
tion. Such a child even sang itself to sleep (in the
eighth month), and later (in the nineteenth month), ac-
companied songs and pieces sung and played by others,
clapping its hands in correct time. (Fran Dr. Friede-
mann.)
Another little girl takes pleasure in hearing music
(in the eleventh month), likes to strike on the keys of
the piano, and when any one begins to sing airs that
have often been sung to her, she springs and accompa-
HEARING. 91
nies the singing with the movement of her body, and
tm*us her hands this way and that. (Fr. v. Strümpell.)
Through the whole of the third year it was not easy
to waken my child by sound-impressions alone. He
often fell asleep even when there was a racket near
him, and yet his hearing was acute enough wdien he
was awake, as appears from the observations reported.
Even the knowledge of the direction of sound,
though imperfect, still appeared earlier than in other
cases. Darwin reports — e. g., that one of his acutely-
hearing children, when more than seventeen weeks old,
did not easily recognize the direction from which a
sound came, so as to turn its gaze thither ; with which
should be compared the above statements (page 85) ;
also that of Yierordt, that sometimes in the fourth
month the child begins to turn his head in the direction
of the sound ; and that of R. Demme, who found that
of about one hundred children only two, at the age of
three and three and a half months, distinguished the
voices of their parents from those of other persons call-
ing to them ; these children made animated movements
and joyous utterances ; all the other children were much
later in making this distinction.
Individual differences, partly hereditary, partly ac-
quired, are in this department very great.
3. The Hearing of New-born Animals.
Guiiiea-pigs not yet twelve hours old show unmis-
takably, by movements of the ears, as I found, that
they hear all high tones of from one thousand to forty-
one thousand double vibrations a second. For when,
unseen by the animals, everything around being still,
92 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
I struck one of my forty small tuning-forks that ranged
tlirough that interval (from the C of the third octave to
the E of the eighth) the ears of the animals were always
immediately moved in time, either lowered or folded ;
and at loud tones the creatures invaiiably started. This
reflex movement, nowhere mentioned hitherto, viz.,
the contraction of the auricles, took place with such ma-
chine-like regularity that I can compare no other move-
ment with it in regard to precision, with the exception
of the contraction of the pupil to light. In gro^^^l
Guinea-pigs the auditory reflex for all these tones of the
tuning-forks is likewise easy to prove ; but it is some-
times very slight, especially after frequent repetition of
the experiment. In the first half-hour after birth it is
utterly wanting. New-born animals are accoi'dingly deaf
at the beginning.
On the other hand, it was at once demonstrable that
all healthy Guinea-pigs an hour after birth, even those
born some days before their time, respond to the most
varied noises, both loud and soft — e. g., clapping of
hands, by a quiver of the whole body ; at first often by
a spring and by movements that seem like attempts
to flee. This behavior can have its origin only in he-
redity.
The reflex arc from the auditory nerve to the motor
nerves has been so frequently used by their ancestors,
when in moments of danger a noise made flight advisa-
ble, that the representatives of the present generation,
without as yet any knowledge of danger, quiver at the
first noise that comes. Even in the human babe of a
few days old the starting at a sudden sound is a relic of
this fright, and the same is true of adult human beings
HEARING. 93
and horses. The first movement of the eyelid npon
sudden noiseless sight-impressions is, on the contrary,
to be explained differently, as I showed above (page 28) ;
because tlie movements of flight, the starting and tlie
drawing back of the head, are wanting in the begin-
ning.
Kew-born Gninea-pigs are especially sensitive to
sounds of slight intensity. They recognize their mother
by hearing on the first day of their life, even when she
grunts quite softly and interruptedly, whereas they do
not recognize her by sight after four or five days, as
I found (1S7S) by a series of laborious experiments.
As, moreover, the voice of the mother and that of the
other little ones of the same litter produces a direct
movement toward the source of the sound, when the
members of the family have been separated, the direc-
tion from which the sound comes must be perceived on
the first day.
The same is true of new-born swine. For Spalding
observed that, at the age of only a few minutes, if they
are removed several feet from their motlier, they soon
find their way back to her, guided apparently by the
grunting she makes in answer to their squealing. Tlie
mother, in one case that w^as observed, got up in less than
an hour and a half after giving birth to the young, and
went off to feed ; the young ones went around and tried
in every way to get nourishment, followed the mother and
sucked while she ate standing. One of the young ones
was put in a bag the moment it was born and kept in
the dark till it was seven hours old. Then it was placed
outside the sty, a distance of ten feet from where the sow
lay concealed inside the house. The pig soon ' recog-
94 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
nized ' the low gruntino; of its motlier, went along ont-
side the st}', struggling to get under or over the lower bar.
At the end of five minutes it succeeded in forcing itself
through under the bar, at one of the few places where
that was possible. No sooner in than it went without a
pause into the pig-house to its mother, and w^as at once
like the others in its behavior. There can be no doubt
that in this search the sensation of sound caused by the
grunting was (for the creature that had not until five
minutes before been exposed to the light) decisive of the
direction to be pursued. Still, smell does not seem to
have been excluded.
Among the animals that hear well at the very be-
ginning must be counted the chicken just from the egg.
For soon after leaving the shell, as soon as it can run, it
follows the cluck of the hen ; and even beforehand, in
the egg after the shell has begun to burst, it responds
by peeping to sounds of that kind. If it remains for a
day or tw^o in tlie dark after it has been hatched in the
incubator, and is then exposed to the light at a distance
of nine or ten feet from a box in w^hich a brooding-hen
is concealed, it will, after chirping one or tw^o minutes,
betake itself straight to the box, following the call of the
hen, though it has never seen and never before heard
her. This takes place, too, when it involves the over-
coming of obstacles in the grass, the passage over un-
even ground, when the little creatures are not in condi-
tion to stand on their feet. Even chickens deprived of
sight from tlie first follow blindly the call of the cluck-
ing hen when they come within five or six feet of her.
Mr. Spalding, who conducted both these experiments,
also made chickens deaf before they left the shell by
HEARING. 95
sealing their ears with several folds of ^mmed paper,
iiucoverod- their ears again after two or three days, set
them free within call of the hen which was separated
from them by a board, and then saw that, after turn-
ing around a few times, they ran straight to the spot
whence came the first sound they had ever heard. Tg
them, therefore, the first sound-sensation could not be
empty or meaningless. It became at once perception,
and inherited memory asserted itself in a psycho-motor
way. So thinks Spalding. But I have been able to
prove in the case of thirty chickens hatched in an incu-
bator, from one to three days out of the shell, that when
food had been placed before them several times and a
knocking upon wood made at the same time, they gen-
erally ran, every time I knocked in their neighborhood,
to the spot whence the noise issued, although there was
no food there. They had, therefore, recognized the
direction of the sound already, and had learned some-
thing, or at least they had associated that special sound
with the food. For they did not leave their place for
other noises — e. g., whistling or the clucking of the hen,
which they had never before heai'd ; but they listened
instantly to the clucking when I brought several cluck-
ing-hens successively into the neighborhood unseen by
them, and they started at a loud report without moving
from the spot. Besides, it is questionable whether the
chickens with ears sealed were actually deaf, and whether
they had not heard the voice of the hen before the stop-
ping of the ears. The chick peeps before the shell has
a crack in it, as I often perceived ; has, therefore, heard
its own voice, certainly, before emerging from the shell,
and possibly the voices of others likewise.
96 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
At all events, the hearing of chickens just out of the
shell, and of many new-born mammals, is vastly superior
to that of the just-born human babe, both in regard to
the discrimination of pitch and loudness of sound, and
in respect to the perception of kinds of sound, the direc-
tion and perhaps the duration. It must be the case that
the normal human being at birth hears nothing, then
hears individual sounds indistinctly, then hears much
indistinctly, and very gradually hears distinctly an in-
dividual sound out of tlie number of those indistinctly
heard, finally hears much distinctly, and distinguishes
strong, high tones earlier than deep ones. Every mother
loses many thousands of words that she speaks, whis-
pers, or sings to her child, without the child's hearing a
single one of them, and she says many thousand words
to him before he understands one. But if she did not
do it, the child would learn to speak much later and with
much more difficulty.
CHAPTER III.
FEELING.
The observations concerning feeling in the newly-
born and the infant relate chiefly to sensibility to con-
tact, to the first perceptions of touch, and to sensibility
to temperature.
1. Sensibility of the Newly-born to Contact.
The mature new-born cliild is known to be less sen-
sitive to painful impressitjns than are adults. But it
would be a mistake to infer from this a condition of
FEELING. 97
anaesthesia or analgesia. For apart from anomalous
cases, as of new-born cliildren apparently dead, scream-
ing and movements can be elicited from children and
animals just born, when they are for the first time quiet
and motionless, by pinching the skin ; or, in the case of
a child, by slapping the upper part of the thigh. I have
convinced myself most fully of this in regard to chil-
dren born at the right time, and prematurely born
animals some minutes after birth, but at the same time
I was convinced that the expressions of pain lack by a
great deal the intensity and duration they have in older
children. In this respect the newly-born resembles the
foetus, differing from it, however, to this extent, that
immediately after pulmonic respiration begins, every
sort of irritation of the skin produces stronger reflexes.
Often the reflex mechanism starts into activity at once,
the first time air is breathed. The clock was already
wound up, as it were, but the pendulum gets its regular
swing only through respiration. Before this it oscillated
temporarily and with breaks, urged only by weak im-
pulsions. By the act of birth the central nervous sys
tem is first literally awakened. And there is nothing
against the assumption that the first contact, pressure in
the act of birth, causes pain. I have twice heard a child
scream whose head only was as yet bom, and the ex-
pression of countenance in this half-born condition was
one of extreme discomfort. The compression of the
body, and the compression of the skull that had just
preceded, probably awakened the child out of its intra-
uterine sleep.
That mide contact in the act of birth may cause pain,
in the strict sense of the word, to the mature foetus, is
98 TUE MIND OF THE CHILD.
probable, because tlie foetus may in the same circum-
stances experience pleasure; for when I put into the
mouth of the screaming child, whose head alone was as
yet born, an ivory pencil or a finger, the child began to
suck, opened its eyes, and seemed, to judge from its
countenance, to be " most agreeably affected " (cf . p. 32).
Since in adults the sensibihty of the skin and of the
mucous membrane varies greatly according to the num-
ber of nerve-extremities of the part of the skin that is
tested, we are especially interested to know whether
such differences in sensibility to contact are already
manifest in the newly-born. Kussmaul, whose exj^eri-
ments of the year 1859 were repeated and supplemented
by Genzmer, 1873, was the first to investigate this ques-
tion experimentally. He found several facts that indi-
cate the hereditary character of certain differences. I
will give the results of these observers on this point
along with my own.
Tongue. — Tickling the tip of the tongue on the up-
per surface with a smooth glass rod occasions sucking
movements ; meantime the edges of the tongue curve
upward on both sides of the rod and the lips protrude
like a snout. At the same time appears the pantomime
that indicates the sensation " sweet." When the mid-
dle of the tongue is touched on the upper surface, the
eyes are shut tight, the nostrils and the corners of tlie
mouth are raised ; there is no sucking. Tickle the root
of the tongue and of the palate, and the results are
choking, opening the mouth Made, sticking out the
tongue, lifting of the larynx, increased secretion of
saliva, pantomime for "bitter" corresponding to the
expression of nausea in adults.
FEELING. 99
These differences in the reflex movements and the
sensations, according to the part of the tongue tickled
bj the rod, whether the tip of the tongue, the middle,
or the root, may be regarded as established in general,
but can not be proved in every individual case. Thus
movements do not invariably follow the touching of the
middle of the tongue. I have often been unable to elicit
any movements at all from new-born children by using
the glass rod. Yet in most cases children act exactly Hke
just-born rabbits and Guinea-pigs in this respect, sucking
at the rod when it presses in front, and pushing it out
when it presses in the back part of the cavity of the
mouth. When an infant has eaten enough, it does not
suck at all, and when tired it sucks irregularly and
feebly. But the results obtained in regard to new-born
children whose stomachs are empty leave no doubt that
even before birth the two paths from the sensory nerves
of the tongue to the beginning of the motor nerves of the
tongue, the nervus hypoglossus, and from there to its ex-
tremities in the tongue, are developed and passable, and
that the sensibility of the upper surface of the tongue —
from the tip to the root — to contact is, like that of the
palate, inborn and already considerable, entirely apart
from sensibility to taste. That along with the sucking
at the rod there should be movements of swallowing is
a further consequence of that practicability of the reflex
path established before birth in the swallowing of the
amniotic fluid. But none will assume the existence of
the sensations "bitter" and '' sweet" at the mere touch-
ing of the tongue, for they do not appear in such con-
ditions even in adults. The mimetic movement for
" sweet " is rather that of satisfaction associated with the
100 THE MIND OF THE GUILD.
agreeable feeling that comes with sucking, and the
mimetic movement for " bitter " is that of discomfort
associated with the disagreeable feeling manifested by
choking.
Lij_)S. — The sensibility of the lips to contact is
great immediately after birth, for even very faint
touches of them with a feather produce (on the sixth
day) starting or movements of sucking, provided the
newly-born are awake and hungry. Especially stroking
of the lips with the finger easily produces sucking.
But I have not seen these sucking movements ap-
pear invariably in mature children just born or in ani-
mals. A machine-like certainty in their appearance is
wanting, probably because those just born are not in
every case hungry. Tlie situation of the human foetus
makes it easy for the lips to be touched by the hands
long before birth, and the swallowing of the amniotic
fluid presupposes a streaming of it over the edges of
the lips and so a frequent excitation of the nerve-ex-
tremities.
The reflex sensibility of the upper lip even outside
the red border, which is surprising on the first day, I
found also in the seventh week, when the touching of
the lip produced an animated play of feature perceptibly
greater than in adults.
Mucous Mejnhrane of the JVose. — Irritation of the
mucous membrane of the nose causes, in the matui-e
newly-born, strong reflexes. The vapor of acetic acid
and of ammonia occasions violent sneezing, or corruga-
tion of the forehead, or at least blinking, sometimes
rubl)ing of the face with the hands. Tickling the inner
surface of the wing of the nose produces movements of
FEELING. 101
tlie eyelids, stronger and appearing sooner on the side
tickled than on the other. If the irritation is increased,
the child moves its head and puts its hands toward its
face. Sometimes, too, there is a secretion of tears, which
is the more remarkable as children generally shed no
tears in the first days of life.
The reliex excitement of the lachrymal nerves (ra-
mus lacrymalis nervi trigemini) and the reflex secretion
from the nerve-extremities in the mucous membrane of
the nose outward, are accordingly possible at a surpris-
ingly early period. Here we have, besides, a case of in-
born reflex activity of a gland within the domain of one
and the same nerve ; for the centripetal and the cen-
trifugal (secretory) fibers, which go to the tear-gland,
belong to the fifth cranial nerve (trigeminus).
The great sensibility of the nasal mucous membrane
to contact is, I must add, not present until the last
weeks before birth, as children born at seven months
make only doubtful responsive movements. Yet this
sensibility has been found to be just as great in a child
born at eight months as in those bom at the right time.
It is a purely hereditary peculiarity. Since there is
hardly any occasion within the womb for an excitement
of the inner surface of the nostril, this reflex arc from
the nasal branches of the fifth cranial nerve to the face-
nerve (facialis) must be a very firmly established one.
The same is true of the reflex paths that go from
the extremities of the trigeminus in the nasal mucous
membrane to the spinal motor nerves, inasmuch as a
regular shaking has been observed by me to follow
upon a gentle touch of the nasal mucous membrane.
In the first three months of the second year, my
102 TEE MIND OF THE CHILD.
boy one day accidentally touclied the septum of his
nose witli a raveled string. He at once made a wry
face (excitement of the facialis), did not cry ont,
but shook, throwing his body violently this way and
that, as if the certainly very disagreeable sensation of
tickling in that spot were to be shaken off.
Conjunctiva and Cornea of the Eye and the Eye-
lid. — If the conjunctiva, the edge of the cornea, or an
eyelash be touched in the newly-born, a closure of the
lid follows. Which of these parts are the most sensi-
tive is matter of dispute. Kussmaul thinks the lashes,
but Genzraer could touch these three or four times in
some children without causing closing of the Hd, where-
as the closure never failed when the cornea was touched,
and generally touching of the conjunctiva was followed
by a bilateral closing of the lids. If we consider the
fact that in adults the lashes can be touched without
even an inclination to close the lid, but not so the con-
junctiva or the edge of the cornea, we can not agree with
Kussmaul in this case. I find also in new-born Guinea-
pigs and in chickens just out of the shell the periphery
of the cornea more sensitive to contact than the lashes
or the hds and their edges. In all three cases, however,
closing of the lid appears soon after birth, most quickly
of all upon the touching of the cornea.
Blowing in the face of new-born children through a
tube also causes closing of the lid, but only when the
cornea or the conjunctiva or the lashes are reached by
the air, and the eye of the side that is blowm upon is
shut tighter and more quickly than the other.
From my experiments upon new-born, normal
chickens and Guinea-pigs, it appears that the closing of
FEELING. 103
the lid does not follow quite so promptly immediately
after birth as it does later. Still, the interval during
which the inactivity of the reflex can be recognized,
without arrangements for measuring the time, is very
short, since with chickens, e. g., only a few hours after
leaving the shell, the nictitating membrane is pushed
forward when I touch the comer of the eye.
In a babe of eight days the eye shuts, when I touch
the upper lid without touching the lashes ; but in one of
eleven days the closing of the lid upon the touching of
the conjunctiva is considerably slower than in adults
(p. 26).
On the fiftieth and fifty-fifth days the lightest touch
of an eyelash produces an instant closing of the lid. In
contrast with this sensitiveness stands the fact already
mentioned (p. 27), that the child in the bath, during the
first weeks of life, keeps its eyes open even when luke-
warm water touches the cornea. In the seventeenth
week the eyes were closed if even a drop of water
touched the lashes. The persistent keeping of the eyes
open in spite of wetting, at a considerably earlier period,
which always surprised me afresh, considering the great
sensitiveness of the cornea to the touch of the finger,
suggests the surmise that even before birth the eyes
have been accustomed to contact with liquid, through
being sprinkled ^\dth the amniotic fluid, and so have
sometimes been opened. The embryo chick occasion-
ally opens its eyes many days before leaving the shell,
as I perceived.
On the whole, it appears that this reflex ai'c from
the trigeminus to the facialis is capable of performing
its function before birth, inasmuch as the reflex closing
104 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
of the eye upon being touclied takes place immediately
at bii'tli even in animals born prematurely, and is thus
an ancient inheritance ; but sprinkling with water, as
in the case of the adult, is not equal, as a reflex stimulus,
to a dry touch ; on the other hand, blowing induces a
vigorous closing of the lid, and even sneezing, in the
very young infant as well as in the one of six
months.
Nose. — When the tip of the nose is touched, the
new-born child shuts both eyes tight ; if one wing of
the nose is touched he closes, generally, only the eye on
the side touched ; at a stronger irritation both eyes are
shut, the head being meanwhile somewhat drawn back :
these being inborn reflexes of the nature of defense.
Palm of the Hand. — Put a finger into the hand of
a new-bom babe, and his hand closes around it. A fillip
of the finger against the hand produces a withdrawal of
the latter, and very likely a movement of the other arm.
But I find the sensibihty of the palm of the hand to be
less than that of the skin of the face, for rude touches
of the hand may often fail to call forth reflex move-
ments.
Sole of the Foot. — Touching the sole of the foot of
a new-born child causes spreading of the toes ; slapping
the sole causes a backward bending of the foot, a bend-
ing of the knee and of the hip joint. If the stimulus
be greater, the same movements are generally made in
addition, in the same order, with the other leg. The
prick of a needle most easily causes, in the newly-born,
reflex movements of pain, from the sole of the foot out-
ward, viz., restlessness and screaming, but the time
that elapses between the first touch and the beginning
FEELING. 105
of the movement — the reflex period — is longer than in
adults, and extends to two seconds.
The slvin of the forearm and of the leg, in the new-
ly-born, has an inferior sensibility to contact ; that of the
shoulders, the breast, the abdomen, the back, the upper
part of the thigh, is less sensitive still. If the new-born
child is not merely touched, but slapped with the hand,
then general movements take place, often screaming and
persistent restlessness, which indicate that the stronger
sensation of touch has become painful. Yet, according
to Genzmer, the prematurely born do not react at all
upon moderate pricks of a needle, during the first days ;
the mature newly-born, immediately after birth, do so
indeed only faintly or not at all, but after one or two
days they do so plainly. This shows the dependence
of the force of the stimulus upon the number of the
nerve-extremities that are affected. The slap reaches
many, the prick few extremities of the cutaneous nerves.
But the sensibility to pricks of the needle, which is
greater from the beginning in those born too late, in-
creases noticeably during the first week.
I found in the case of my boy that the sensibility of
the skin in different places was not so unequal in the
first twenty-two hours as it was later, but it was surpris-
ingly great ; for the child reacted by movements upon
the slightest touches of his face. On the second and
third days, for instance, he started with a movement of
the arms at gentle touches. On the seventli day the
child is not waked by loud sound-stimulus, but is waked
by a touch on the face. On the forty-first day, when
the child had gone to sleep in my arms, I laid him on
a sheet and then drew the sheet slowly away. At the
106 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
first pull, both arms were moved quickly and simulta-
neously toward the head and back again, without tlie
child's waking. Here we have not a localized touch, but
a general slight agitation, calling forth the same reflex
movement as a touch or a sound would do. In the
fourteenth week, too, a sudden touch of the sleeping
child occasioned a quick throwing up of both arms.
According to this, the reflex excitability for local tac-
tile stimulus is undoubtedly greater in the first weeks
than it is later. In the second year of life I found it a
good deal dulled.
I may mention here also two remarkably sensitive re-
gions in the skin of the infant. In the second quarter
of the first year it appeared that the greatest disquiet,
the loudest crying, the most distressed expression of
countenance, as the child was turning and tossing hither
and thither, at once vanished when a person put his
little finger into the auditory canal. The child's eye
assumed a peculiar expression of strained attention. If
this sudden alteration had not invariably taken place
even when the child was screaming, one might think
rather of an acoustic than of a tactile excitation. Or,
could the diminution of the loudness of his cries
through the stopping of the ear attract his attention?
In that case we can not understand why the child that
is not crying but is quivering in the bath becomes quiet.
For the rest, the experiment failed almost invariably
after the end of the first six months ; from that time on
it always failed, and Kroner found that not all new-
born children were quiet when the external auditory
canal was tickled, but that some put their hands to the
face and not to the ear.
FEELING. 107
How sensitive the dry skin of tlie forehead is to
wet, is often shown by the reflex movements of babes at
church-l)aptism. I once saw an infant of thirty-eight
days, which remained tolerably quiet through the whole
baptismal ceremony, make a sudden movement of both
arms at once toward the head, without screaming, as
soon as the lukewarm water trickled on its forehead.
At the second wetting, directly afterward, there was a
similar convulsive movement almost as of repulsion;
and at the third, the child sneezed. According to this,
the reflex excitability of the surface of the face in re-
gard to wet is greater in the sixth week than it is in
adult age. The adult can not be stirred to so vigorous
reflex action by such a wetting as this of the christen-
ing with a few drops of water, although he may be by
sprinkling.
Yet it seems difficult to determine the exact time
when the great reflex excitability to contact manifested
by the above facts, has so far subsided that a degree of
excitability corresponding to the normal condition of
adults is reached.
Apart from hereditary individual inequalities, and
the frequent morbid development of the reflexes in
early infancy into convulsions, the time when the re-
flexes begin to be inhibited is of the greatest aecoimt,
no less than is the wearing out of the nerve-paths by
frequent repetition of the excitements, in regard to the
ultimate decline of the sensibility to touch. In the
very earliest period, and before birth, the nerve-patlis
are not yet so easily passable as after repeated reflex ex-
citation ; hence the longer time occupied in the reflex.
It appears from numerous experiments of mine upon
108 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
unborn animals, and of Soltmann upon new-born and
very young ones, that the sensibility of the nerves of the
skin, estimated by the ease with which the reflexes take
place upon slight stimulus, is continually on the increase,
up to a certain point of time that may be designated as
the beginning of inhibition of the reflex. But it is to be
observed here that, while the central paths are traversed
more and more easily through frequent use of them
(and more rapidly, up to a certain limit), the peripheral
extremities of the cutaneous nerves must be dulled
through the inevitable stimulus of contact of wet and
of cold, soon after the reflex activity has attained its
maximum. For the permanent excitations of the skin
of the infant must diminish the excitability of the
nerves of the skin. What is gained, therefore, in cen-
tral excitability (cranial and spinal activity and excita-
bility) is lost in peripheral, and it is very probable that
the reason of the slighter sensibility to pain in the newly-
born is of a central character, because in the long repose
before birth the extremities of the cutaneous nerves may
have become very excitable while the brain was not yet
active.
2. The First Perceptions of Touch.
From sensibility to contact it is a great step to the
perception of touch. To the original consciousness be-
longing to sensation is added the experience of succes-
sion, and with that the consciousness of time ; then the
simiiltaneousness of the sensations of contact, and with
this the consciousness of space ; finally, the conscious-
ness of the causal connection of two or more contacts
that have come to consciousness in time and space, and
with this the idea of the body touched.
FEELING. 109
If the new-born cliild is slapped, it has a sensation,
for it cries out ; but it knows nothing of the place where
it is struck, and nothing of the cause of the blow. If
it is struck again after an interval, then there is the pos-
sibility of a recollection, and so of a distinction of time.
If the blow falls frequently upon different parts of the
skin in like fashion, then distinctions of space will also
come gradually into the child's consciousness besides
the mere sensations of pain, since different extremities
of the skin, different nerve-fibers, are each time excited
by the blow. If the blow is renewed with intervals of
freedom from pain, then the hand that strikes will
gradually, only after considerable time, to be sure, be
pushed away or avoided as the cause of the pain. If
the sensation of contact is, on the contrary, pleasurable,
then it will be desired. In both cases movements must
be executed, and these lead again to new sensations of
contact, which may be even more important in the gene-
sis of mind.
Thus, the sensation of touch in the tips of the fingers,
upon the first successful attempts at seizing, must as-
suredly be very interesting to the cliild, otherwise he
would not, after grasping at and getting hold of an ob-
ject, observe his own fingers persistently and attentively
even when (in the twenty-third week) one hand acci-
dentally gets hold of the other in moving the hands
about. Here the discrimination between the mutual
contact of two points of the skin of his own body and
the contact of one point of the skin with a foreign ob-
ject is undoubtedly a great step toward the cognition of
the self (des Ich).
The earliest association, in time, of one sensation of
110 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
contact with aiiotbei*, is probably that which is given in
the act of nursing. Wlien the nipple conies between
the lips, there follows upon this sensation of touch the
sensation of wet (the milk) in the mouth (to which the
new sensation of sweetness also joins itself). Herein is
given the hrst perception of touch. The newly-born
makes one of his first experiences, namely, this, that upon
a certain contact of the lips follows a different, an agree-
able sensation in the mouth. Hence the contact with
the lips is desired. Every similar soft touch of the lips
is therefore agreeable. But how far from being firm
the association of the space-element with the time-ele-
ment is, appears in this, that the newly-born sometimes,
as I observed, after "trying" at the breast, take the
skin of the breast near the nipple into the mouth and
suck at it a long time. And how late in being estab-
lished is the causal connection between the lip-contact
with the nipple and the sensation of liquid sweetness in
the mouth when nursing, is manifest from the fact that
the infant keeps up for many months the habit of suck-
ing his own fingers and foreign objects.
From this it appears, at the same time, how much
more easily and more strongly the time-succession of two
sensations impresses itself than does the connection in
space or the causal connection. For the first act of suck-
ing, after the first contact of the lips, brings countless
other sucking movements in its train. Because it in-
duced an agreeable sensation (of sweetness), it remains
in the memory. The first causal connection of the lip-
contact with the nipple, localized in space, with the
sweet taste of milk, occurs not only later and so with
more difficulty, but also is more easily forgotten. Else,
FEELING. Ill
after seeing that tlie desired sensation of sweetness and
the flow of the milk occur only on sucking at the well-
distinguished breast or the nursing-bottle, the child
would not keep up so long the useless sucking at every
object, capable of being sucked, that is brought to the
mouth (even the fingers) when the feeling of hunger be-
gins. However agreeable to the child the sucking at
the fingers may be, his hunger is not lessened by it, and
the sweet taste is not induced. Yet he sucks away ob-
stinately, as if he thought the milk might be drawn from
the fingers too. The fact that the milk in the breast is
not visible may help to keep up the physiological error,
and it would be worth while to investigate whether in-
fants that take milk exclusively from the breast of the
mother continue the useless sucking of all sorts of ob-
jects longer than do those who draw their milk exclu-
sively from transparent bottles.
The habit of useless sucking seems the more strange,
as the infant shows very early a sort of activity of un-
derstanding in this field ; shows it by unambiguous
movements, viz., by opening wide the eyes at sight of
the mother's breast.
3. Sensibility to Temperature.
Concerning sensibility to differences of temperature
the observations are few.
Whether the sudden cooling of the child immediately
after birth, which may amount to several degrees, occa-
sions a sensation of cold, is a question with regard to
matm'e newly-born children, as well as the prematurely
born, even in the cases where they shiver. For although
an unpleasant feeling is certainly associated with the with-
112 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
drawal of warmth, yet in this particular case the possi-
bility is lacking of comparing temperatures. AYithin the
womb the constant, unfelt temperature of the foetus is
somewhat his/her than that of the mother. From the
first instant of complete birth there begins a general
and probably a pretty uniform cooling, because the air
that surrounds the just-born child has only one tempera-
ture, and the child is wet all over the surface of its body,
and so the evaporation must cool off the whole of the
skin. Xow, the great difference in the temperature of
the skin, befoi'e and after birth, will be perceptible, in
part indirectly, through contraction of the vessels, and
in part directly, through peripheral excitation of the
nerves, but at tii'st only as an unpleasant feeling. As
soon as the warm bath, into which the newly-born is
usually dipped, brings back the skin nearly to the tem-
perature that has been kept constant for months within
the womb, the excitement (which had never before ex-
isted) of the nerves susceptible to temperature subsides,
the contraction of the capillaries of the skin ceases, the
feeling of discomfort passes away, and the first agree-
able sensation of comfortable warmth is given ; in gen-
eral, the first agreeable sensation since birth, for most
children. It is agreeable, through the contrast with the
refrigeration, as the altered physiognomy of the newly-
born in a bath of 36° C. shows, in comparison with that
of the still wet, shivering, screaming, just-born babe, to
whose head the vernix still adheres. Besides, I saw —
at the second bath — that the dry fingers were spread
out, a thing that could not be caused by the moisture.
As early as the seventh day the expression of pleasure
in the widely-opened eyes, immediately after the bath,
FEELING. 113
was different. No sensuous impression of anj kind is
capable of calling forth such an expression of satisfac-
tion, at tliis period, in the infants observed by me.
Still, in addition to the sensation of warmth, there is the
freedom from swaddling-clothes which are often asso-
ciated with a disagreeable uTitation of the skin.
In any case, the feeling of warmth and the feeling
of cold are plainly manifest after the first bath, neither
of these having been distinguished as such before birth,
or probably directly after birth.
It is likely, also, that the powerful effect of a sud-
den general refrigeration upon the nerves of the skin,
through the dipping of the just-born babe into ice-cold
water, which has been made use of with the greatest
success in restoring to Hfe children apparently still-bora,
is attended with discomfort, even where the danger of
strangling has been obviated. If the breathing has be-
gun, this very strong stimulus produces a remarkable
eifect, the low whimpering being changed to a loud out-
cry. This eiy is the same as that which follows upon
a vigorous (painful) slap. From my experiences with
newly-born animals, which cry out lustily on the appli-
cation of electricity to the skin, and at other kinds of
strong cutaneous stimulus, I can but regard this out-
cry as an utterance of pain ; but it does not follow that
the cooling of the child just born produces a sensation
of cold. This can only come, as has been said, through
contrast, where the possibility of com])arison exists ;
therefore, after the first warm bath. The first coohng
produces merely an unpleasant feeling.
We have but few experiences also with regard to
local warming and cooling.
114 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
About twenty children were tested by Genzmer,
who touched different parts of the surface of the skin
with an ice-cold iron rod, and saw lively reflex move-
ments invariably appear. But, as the stimulus of touch
was not excluded in this case, his further experiments
of wetting and then blowing on the skin in special places
are of rather more account. This sort of stimulus, ap-
plied to the sole of the foot, produced withdrawal of the
foot; applied to the hollow of the hand, it produced
closing, then withdrawal of the hand. When the cheek
was cooled the head was turned to one side. Unfor-
tunately, nothing is said of the age of the children. In
such cases the age should be reckoned by hours, and
when new experiments are instituted, the blowing,
which of itself acts as a reflex stimulus, is to he avoided ;
and, above all, the previous temperature of the skin
ought to be determined. Little children very often
have cold hands and feet without making any complaint.
Possibly this in itself causes less reflex sensibility to the
stimulus of cold and greater to the stimulus of warmth.
It i? known that even quite young infants become
restless and cry readily when they are wet anywhere
with cold water. This dislike of the local withdrawal
of warmth persists, during the first years of life, until
at length the knowledge that a washing with cold water
is refreshing overcomes the fear of cold (in the third
year).
Moreover, how sensitive individual children are,
in perfectly sound health, in regard to the discrimina-
tion of cold and warmth, was evident to me in the ex-
periment of ordering the daily bath to be made colder
gradually. The water could be cooled to 32^° C. with-
FEELIXG. 115
out lessening the child's pleasure. But every time the
water was reduced to the neighborhood of 31^° C. or
less, the child screamed uninterruptedly until warmer
water was added. The temperature of the skin, there-
fore, was presumably very near 32° C, But when the
child was two and a half years old, he laughed and ut-
tered joyous sounds in water of the temperature of the
room — in a cold bath, therefore, such as formerly made
him cry ; and in his fourth year he objected to taking
a warm bath 36° C. In the seventh month he became
pale, always, at being put into water from 3-i° to 35° C,
but regained his ordinary color within one or two min-
utes. The case here is not one of direct contraction of
the canillaries of the skin through sudden withdrawal
of warmth, but is a case of vaso-motor reflex action,
because it was precisely the skin of the face, which was
not dipped in the water, that became most pale, and
this happened as late as the age of more than two years.
The sensibility of the mucous membrane of the
mouth, of the tongue, of the lips, to cold and warmth
is also surprisingly great in many infants during the
first days. If the nursing-bottle is but a little more
than blood- warm, it is refused, often witli violent scream-
ing ; and if it is some degrees colder than the milk sucked
from the breast of the mother, it is refused likewise.
Therefore, in experiments designed to test the gusta-
tory sensibility in new-bom children, the liquids em-
ployed must have the exact temperature of 3Y° C. Yet
infants learn easily to drink water and milk of the tem-
perature of the room they live in, if their drink is given
to them, when they are hungry, only at this tempera-
ture.
116 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
The sensibility of the lips to differences of tempera-
ture in liquids is in any case determined by the con-
stant temperature of the amniotic fluid before birth,
and of the mother's milk after birth.
The difference in the neutral point of temperature
between the mucous membrane of the mouth (tongue),
and of the skin (e. g., the hand) which in the adult
amounts to 5° or 6° C. (whereas before birth it is zero),
can in general hardly establish itself in the first days of
life. The tongue and the mucous membrane of the
mouth maintain through life almost the same neutral
point they had before birth ; whereas the external skin
only gradually gets its varying neutral points through
unequal refrigeration.
CHAPTER IV.
TASTE.
The observations concerning the sense of taste re-
late chiefly to the question w^hether the newly-born
have a sensibility to taste such as makes possible at
once the distinction between diiferent savors. ]^ext
comes the comparison of gustatory impressions already
recognized as different. Then follow some statements
as to taste in newly-born animals.
1. Sensibility to Taste in the Newly-born.
"We know, from mimetic reflex movements of the
same sort as those of adults, that the newly-born, and
even those born a month or two before their time, react
upon substances that have a taste, when these are intro-
TASTE. 117
duced into the mouth by means of a pencil. Kussmaul
tested the sense of taste in this way in more than twen-
ty newly- born children, making use of cane-sugar, qui-
nine, common salt, and tartaric acid. Genzmer repeat-
ed these experiments with twenty-live children, most of
whom he observed immediately after birth and from three
to six days after, some up to the sixth week. Kussmaul
found that the salt, the quinine, and the acid occasioned
grimaces as an expression of dislike, but with much
variation in the manifestation in individual cases. The
sugar, on the other hand, produced movements of suck-
ing. The liquids to be tested were all warmed, so that
the reaction npon them can not be ascribed to a feeling
of cold in the mouth.
As the acid, however, acted on the mucous mem-
bi'ane, it might cause pain in addition to the sour taste ;
yet the children did not cry out, and after the edges of
the tongue were touched with a crystal of tartaric acid,
the grimaces appeared instantaneously in two new-born
children, while the crystal placed in the center of tlie
upper surface of the tongue caused no change in the
countenance for a considerable time, until the acid was
sufficiently dissolved to reach the edges of the tongue
that were sensitive to it. So that it is the sour taste,
and not an incidental painful eifect of the acid, that
elicits the "sour" look. The suspicion that the latter
is generated only by excitation of the nerves of taste
through the acid, is not pertinent ; accordingly, we have
here a certain ability to distinguish sensations of taste,
active directly after birth, before anything has been
swallowed except the amniotic fluid swallowed before
bii-th.
10
118 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
The psychogenetic importance of this fact demands
a more detailed examination of the observations on
which it rests.
Kussmaul found that the newly-born sometimes re-
spond to the taste of sugar with the mimetic expression
for bitter. It might thus be thought that the sensations
were not distinguished, but were responded to irregu-
larly, now with one, now with another, reflex move-
ment. But the circumstances under which the reflex
takes place are not irregular. " Some made a wry face
at the first introduction of the solution of sugar, while
they took in the rest of it with satisfaction. It was
not the sensation of taste in itself apparently that was
in fault, but another psychical experience, the surprise
caused by the sudden effect on the sensitive nerves.
One of the children even started directly with fright,
when it came so suddenly to taste the unfamiliar liquid
(which was warmed). Children tliat had reacted strong-
ly upon quinine, commonly made a grimace again, or
several times in succession, when a solution of sugar
was introduced, but Avith decreasing animation, until
finally a comfortable sucking and swallowing were sub-
stituted. This accords with the experiences that every
adult has in his own case, viz., that a very bitter or
nauseous taste does not allow itself to be at once sup-
planted by a sweet one, but at every fresh stimulus of
the gustatory sense by substances of different savors, it
recurs with decreasing force."
These deductions I must agree with, in every re-
spect. I saw my child, the first day of his life, lick off
the powdered cane-sugar that was put on the nipple,
whereas he licked nothing else; so the sweet alone
TASTE. 119
seemed desirable. On the second day, however, ho
licked at the mother's milk just as he had done at the
sugar, with a calm, satisfied expression of conntenance.
When this child later received salted food and food of
different kinds, the first thing that was remarkable at
every new sensation of taste was the expression of sur-
prise ; and, as late as the second quarter of his second
year (nay, occasionally in his fourth year), he would
shudder, shut his eyes and distort his face in the strang-
est fashion, when he tasted a new food that was agree-
able to him in spite of his grimaces ; for he often wanted
it directly afterward, and took it then soon with the
expression of satisfaction. On the other hand, it was
often easy to persuade the child, after he had learned to
s]3eak (as a hypnotized adult may be persuaded), that a
sourish or generally unattractive food, which he at first
refused, was very pleasant to the taste, so that he would
then want more of it. It is necessary to distinguish
sharply from the very first, on the one hand, the ex-
pression for the disagreeable manifested at the sudden
new sensation, and the expression, not appearing till
after this, of the agreeable that is excited by the pleas-
ant taste ; and on the other hand, the expression for the
disagreeable at the bitter, the salt, or the sour taste, and
that for the agreeable at the sweet taste.
It is certain, from all observations, that the newly-
born distinguish the sensations of taste that are decid-
edly different from one another, the sweet, sour, and
bitter.
But then Genzmer found in his experiments that
individuals newly-born responded to an attenuated solu-
tion (one quarter to one per cent) of quinine, and one
120 . THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
of vinegar, bj sucking movements, jiist as they did to
a solution of sugar, in one case, indeed, a child on the
first day, as also in the sixth week, sucked at a five-per-
cent solution of quinine without any sign of dislike (Kuss-
maul's solution was of four per cent). If the solution was
more concentrated, the child made a wry face of com-
plaint, as the others were wont to do at a weaker solu-
tion (beyond one degree), then began to cry, and made
it manifest that the disagreeable nature of the taste had
become perceptible to him.
Inasmuch as it has been established that there are
great individual differences among the newly-born in
their gustatory sensibility, and that, allowing for a consid-
erable blunting of this through experimenting, there was
only in the case of individuals in the first week a refine-
ment of taste for differences in intensity, the hypothesis
is forced upon us that, in the case of the attenuated solu-
tions the gustatory sensations of many children were too
weak to be found either agreeable or disagreeable ; that
new-bom children especially are not yet in condition to
press the substance to be tasted against the hard palate
with the upper surface of the tongue, whereby the dis-
tribution to the end-organs of the nerves (these, more-
over, being probably less numerous in the little tongue)
is favored and hastened. In the case of these attenu-
ated solutions there remains, then, only the effect upon
the sucking-mechanism, as in the case of touching the
tongue with the finger. There is no need of the addi-
tional hypothesis that a weak bitter or sour taste is
agreeable to individuals among the newly-born, in order
to understand that the reaction upon a weak bitter or
sour is not accompanied with the same animated reflex
TASTE. 121
movements as a strong stimulus induces, but is ac-
companied witli sucldng. In general, the newlj-born
make a wry face after the introduction of a three to
five per cent quinine solution ; they shut the eyes tight,
the throat is convulsively contracted, the mouth is
opened wide, and the liquid is ejected along with
the mucus of the mouth, which is generally secreted
very scantily, but in this case abundantly. The " bit-
ter " expression of countenance is thus quite a diif erent
one from the " sweet," even on the first day of life.
But it is ditf erent also from the " sour," as in the case
of adults, since in the movements of choking the cor-
ners of the mouth are drawn sharply up and sidewise;
so they are, according to Genzmer, at the introduction
of pretty strong acetic acid (which anv way is unsuited
to such experiments on account of its smell). The
strongest solutions caused, besides, in his experiments,
agitation and screaming for the most part ; sugar, on
the contrary, is tasted with satisfaction by all newly-
born children, when it acts in sufficient quantity, after
the first surpiise is over. About this there is no doubt.
Since very sour and very bitter substances call forth
in the newly-born difierent reflex movements under cir-
cumstances otherwise similar, and very sweet substances
call forth quite different movements still, therefore these
various gustatory qualities are distinguished.
The fact that weak solutions of bitter and of sour are
by some taken in much the same way as weak solutions
of sweet, with sucking movements, with no sign of dis-
comfort, is explained by the slight sensibility of the
tongue for degrees of intensity. The sensations of con-
tact caused by the substances to be tasted, sensations
122 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
■vrhicli of tliemselves start sucking movements, over-
power at tbat time the weak sensations of taste. But
what to one child tastes strong, to another tastes weak.
For many cliildren one per cent of acetic acid was too
sour, while they would suck away at a two-per-cent so-
lution of quinine ; with others it was the reverse. This
fact, too, is in accord with the above statement.
The association of certain mimetic contractions of
muscles with certain sensations of taste is a surprising-
ly strong one — it is inborn. Cliildren born about two
months oi- more too early are no less sensitive to the
gustatory stimuli spoken of than are those bora at the
right time.
Accordingly, the opinion, often expressed, that the
new-born infant possesses only a general sensation of
taste, and that the qualitative differences of taste be-
come perceptible to him only through his becoming ac-
customed to them — this opinion falls to the ground.
Were it correct — did every moderate stimulus what-
ever of the nerves of taste cause sucking movements as
a simple reflex, and did any strong stimulus whatever,
on the other hand, cause choking, likewise as a simple
reflex — then the most intensely sweet taste must be re-
garded as only a moderate stimulus, and the fact before
recognized as established would be inexplicable, that
under circumstances alike in other respects the mimetic
expression for bitter is different from that for sweet and
from that for sour, when the corresponding gustatory
stimuli are strong enough.
Kussmaul's inference from his experiments is there-
fore correct, that the sense of taste in the newly-born
is already capable of acting in its characteristic forms of
TASTE. 123
sensation ; the sensation received by it is not one alto-
gether undefined and vague.
2. Comparison of the Gustatory Impressions.
The sense of taste seems to be the first of all the
senses to yield clear perceptions, to which memory
directly attaches itself, as Sigismund rightly pointed
out. The gustatory impression of the milk to which the
child is accustomed abides, so that a comparison may
be made with strange milk. Of this ability to compare
the child soon makes use, for, during the whole nursing
period and even longer, the taste of sweet is preferred
by far to all other tastes, and these others are experi-
enced with signs of disgust when they ai'e strong, and
this from the first day on.
Burdach is wrong in affirming that not till the end
of the first month does the babe begin to object to
medicines, on the ground that then first is the child
disagreeably affected by astringent, bitter, salt, sour
tastes, whereas at the beginning he takes every liquid —
e. g., camomile-tea and tincture of rhubarb, just as will-
ingly as milk, and does not yet manifest choice. If the
camomile-tea and the tincture of rhubarb are sweetened,
and are not cold or hot, he takes them ; but liquids that
are not sweet, or that have a strong taste, or that are
cold or hot, he does not take so readily as he does
milk. The cavity of the mouth is, even for the newly-
born, something more than a mere "sucking-organ."
Although the food is not so mixed with saliva, by mus-
cular movement, and so brought into contact with the
mucous membrane of the mouth as it is later, still it is
tasted and especially its temperature is noticed.
124: THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
In fact, I have found the gustatory sensitiveness to-
ward different degrees of intensity considerably in-
creased very early. Thus, my child on the second day
took, without hesitation, cow's milk diluted with water,
which on the fourth day he stoutly refused. He must
have compared the less degree of sweetness with that of
his mother's milk. But an extremely small quantity of
cane-sugar sufficed to make the bottle acceptable. It
only needed a few grains appUed to the mouth of the
bottle.
Now, as bad-tasting medicines generally have some
correctiv^e, especially sugar, added to thetn, it is not sur-
prising that infants often take them at once without
discrimination. I have repeatedly convinced myself
that this is the case, and at the same time tliat those
medicines tasted sweet. If they are very sweet — e. g.,
one hundred parts sugar to one part calomel — they are
taken willingly, even by the child of six months and
more ; the younger child does not need so great an ad-
dition, precisely because it does not discriminate so
nicely, but it rejects strong-tasting substances that are
offered to it without any corrective.
Every new taste occasions in the babe of more than
six months old a play of countenance which at first sug-
gests surprise, then either a desire for more, or disgust.
But very often the food that was at first desired is
ejected after a second trial, with turning away of the
head; and, as has been mentioned (p. 110), that which
at first caused expressions of displeasure is directly aft-
erward desired. Here are at least four different points
to be noticed : 1, the stimulus of the new ; 2, the sensa-
tion of taste ; 3, the sensation of touch and of tempera-
TASTE. 125
ture in the moutli ; 4, the sense of smell. All four may-
act in harmony, but they may also counteract one an-
other so that the child does not know whether the new
thing tastes good to him or not, etc. Where the taste
alone varies in two impressions of like sort, as with sweet
and salt, the child of six months can discriminate ac-
curately at once.
How far the comparison of the gustatory sensations
discriminated may be carried after the weaning of a
child has taken place, is shown, in the case of my child
and some others, by the following observations :
From the one lumdred fiftieth day on, the breast was
to be given him only in the night. But after five nights
the child refused to take the breast as hitherto, prob-
ably because in the days preceding so much cane-sugar
had been added to the boiled and diluted cow's milk, that
it tasted somewhat sweeter than milk from the breast.
At the end of the twenty -third week the child had a
new nurse, whose milk it took eagerly. Then w^ere
taken, apparently with equal willingness, this milk and
diluted, sweetened cow's milk, as well as meat-broth
with yolk of egg, and yolk of egg beaten up in cow's
milk.
From the one hundred and eighty-fifth day on, no
more nurse's milk. Cow's milk boiled (one part water
out of four parts), with a little egg, seems to relish.
Water-gruel with yolk of egg was taken once, but not
again ; leguminous food of that sort is refused after a
single trial.
From the eighth month on, the child was fed almost
exclusively for months on Nestle's "prepared food"
(Kindermehl), which was most agreeable to him. He
126 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
utters a crj of joy, as if to make known his pleasure at
the good taste, and this more loudly and persistently
than over any food thus far tried. It would hardly be
possible for an adult, owing to the sameness of the taste,
to take for so long a time uninterruptedly, several times
a day, nothing but this prepared food.
9tli month. — With great surprise — at the new taste —
the child took yolk of q^^ mixed with cane-sugar. He
drinks water with liking, and sucks wdth pleasure at a
piece of white bread. But in this the sucking doubt-
less yields more pleasure than the taste.
11th month. — The child takes, without pleasure,
meat-broth with <ig^ that has a slightly salt taste. He
rejects obstinately scalded skimmed milk without sugar,
but likes dry biscuit.
IMh month. — The child is very fastidious (wäh-
lerisch) in regard to the taste of his food ; refuses fari-
naceous food except "prepared food" and biscuit.
Everything bitter was now, and for the two years fol-
lowing, detested, slightly salt food no longer so.
The idiosyncrasy of anti|)athy to many articles of
food (even in the fourth and fifth years) went so far
that even the sight of such food (e. g., peas) called forth
lively demonstrations of disgust, even choking move-
ments, a phenomenon exhibited by many childi'en, and
one that leads us to infer a largely developed capacity
of discrimination in taste and smell.
As to the practical bearing of this, I hold, as a fixed
rule— however much it may be at variance with the
prejudices of a traditional method of training — that a
young child should in no case be constrained to eat food
that is distasteful to him. I can see no advantage what-
TASTE. 127
ever to the cliild from such seventy, but it may very
likely have an injurious effect upon the nutrition and
the development of character, even if vomiting does not
follow soon after the meal.
The refusal of the little child to eat certain kinds of
food is by no means — as Hey f elder thinks it is — naugli-
tiness. The babe is right in refusing to drink sour milk
in the fii'st place ; and at the critical period of weaning
it is not the child that deserves punishment when he re-
jects the salted food or food hard for him to digest, but
the nurse that forces it on him who deserves it. Such
constraint first develops often enougli an antagonism to
some dishes, and general willfulness. This is afterward
vainly contended against as idiosyncrasy or naughtiness.
But let the child's taste in the beginning have free
course — guarding him always against excess — and he
will of himself become accustomed to the food of the
family. In this matter it should not escape notice that
this last presupposes a certain blunting of smell as well
as of taste, which the child gains only in the course of
years.
3. Taste in Newly-born Animals.
In newly-born animals, also, w^hose sense of taste I
.tested, there is certainly a decided preference for sub-
stances of certain particular tastes, along with indiffer-
ence to solutions that are qualitatively unlike and weak
to the taste, and the memory of tastes is developed on
the first day.
Experiments on little Guinea-pigs, only eight to six-
teen hours old, and separated from the mother after two
hours, proved to me absolutely that concentrated water-
solutions of tartaric acid, soda, glycerine, intioduced
128 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
into the mouth through glass tubes, are swallowed just
as greedily or eagerly as cow's milk and water, with
vigorous sucking. But then the empty tube, placed
with the end upon the tongue, occasioned just such
sucking. The experiments conducted in this manner
can not, therefore, yield much that can be depended
upon. Touch, as a reflex stimulus to sucking in hungry
new-born creatures, overpowers any taste-stimuli acting
at the same time. Newly-born animals that have eaten
enough do not, however, suck regularly in general.
For this reason another criterion, at least for the
recognition of an agreeable sensation of taste, is of es-
pecial value, viz., licking. This must be regarded as a
sure sign of enjoyment of the sweet in the case of new-
born human beings also — they lick persistently sugar,
but not crystals of tartaric acid, or the nipple-shell that
is not sugared.
A Guinea-pig, not yet seventeen hours old, was placed
by me in a glass box along with a bit of oil of thyme,
a bit of camphor, and a piece of sugar-candy. The
creature ran about, stayed longest by the sugar, gnawed
at a corner of that, and thereupon began to lick the
sugar very eagerly. One could see plainly how it
stretched forth the tongue and drew it along the smooth
surface of the crystal. After it had kept up this opera-
tion for some minutes, apparently with great satisfac-
tion, I removed it, bandaged both its eyes, and repeated
the experiment after tw^enty-four hours. To my sur-
prise the animal now again distinguished the sugar, al-
though it had not touched the oil of thyme and the cam-
phor, and although it could not see. This was probably
owing to the smell. The glass and the wood were not
TASTE. 129
licked, but the sugar was licked just as before, and just
as it was after the animal was again allowed the use of
its eyes. I have not seen other Guinea-pigs manifest on
the first day such decision in taste. But the one in-
stance proves that the sensation of sweet can be dis-
criminated on the first day, can be desired and be found
agreeable.
The chick just out of the shell also distinguishes dif-
ferent kinds of food l)y the taste. For when I placed
before a chick boiled white-of-egg, boiled yolk, and
millet, it pecked at all three, one after another, as it did
at bits of egg-shell, grains of sand, spots and cracks in
the wood floor ; but only at the yolk-of -egg did it peck
often and eagerly. When I took the last away, and
then, an hour later than the first trial, placed it again
before the chick, the creature ran directly to it and took
some of it, whereas at the first trial it had tasted the
white-of-egg only once, and had swallowed only one
grain of millet, rejecting the rest obstinately afterward
as before. This preference of the yolk-of-egg rests ac-
cordingly upon discrimination and taste-memory.
New-bom animals, therefore, distinguish qualities of
taste without having had any other gustatory impres-
sions than those of the amniotic fluid swallowed in the
This remarkable capacity can rest only on inherited
recollection — on an instinct of taste.
Further experiments in this matter, especially upon
newly-born human beings, are urgently to be desired,
in order to ascertain in detail, better than hitherto, the
gradual increase of sensibility according to the difiierent
degrees of concentration (in solution), and the charac-
130 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
teristic reflexes for agreeable and disagreeable sensations
of taste. Only chemically pure, odorless, strong-tasting
substances should be used, in accurately graded quanti-
ties, for such experiments ; preferably dissolved in luke-
warm, distilled water ; for sweet tastes, glycerine, cane-
sugar, and sugar-of-milk ; for bitter, sulphate of qui-
nine; for salt, cooking-salt ; for sour, tartaric acid and
lactic acid ; for alkalines, soda.
CHAPTER Y.
SMELL.
The observations concerning the faculty of smell re-
late first to tlie evidence of its existence in the new-born
human being ; next to the discrimination of impressions
of smell on the part of the infant. These are followed
by some statements concerning smell in new-bom ani-
mals.
1. Faculty of Smell in "the Newly-born.
The child can, even in its first days, be constrained,
by strong-smeUing substances, to mimetic movements.
Kussmaul has ascertained that new-bom children in
sleep, when the odor of asafoetida or of the very bad-
smelling Dippel's-oil enters their nostrils, frequently shut
the eyelids tighter together, distort the face, become
restless, move the head and the arms, awake ; and go
to sleep again when the cause of the smell is removed.
Genzmer observed tliat well developed, lively children,
are brought to screaming by strong impressions of smell.
He made use of the ill-smelling aqua foetida anti-
SMELL. 131
hysterica, which was rubbed with a pencil upon the
upper edge of the upper hp of sleeping and waking
children. The infants made movements of sucking,
when but little hquid was put on ; of choking, when
more was put on ; the eyes, too, were screwed up and
the countenance was distorted, as after strong gustatory
impressions. How many hours old the children were,
is not stated.
In these observations the sensation of wetness has
been overlooked, and both investigators have failed to
consider that in their experiments there was by no
means an excitement of the nerves of smell exclusively.
The failure of the first to obtain decisive results when
he selected waking infants, and the circumstance that
only strongly stimulating substances were found effica-
cious, as well as the appearance of strong reflex move-
ments, points rather to an excitement of the sensitive
nerve (the trigeminus) than of the nerve of smell (the
olfactory). Still the tests with asafoetida ai-e to be re-
ferred to the latter alone. Children born a month too
soon likewise react on odorous substances in the above
fashion (Kussm.aul).
The proof of the existence of the faculty of smell
in the newly-born child would be produced, if its mother
or nurse would make up her mind to smear her breast
with a strong-smelling substance that has no taste, or
if some volatile stuff like petroleum, spirits of wine,
cologne-water, asafcetida, in small quantity, were put
upon a nnrsing-bottle or a nipple-shell. If the child
then refuses to suck at the breast or the bottle that
smells of the stuff, and does not refuse the source of
milk that has been left in its natural state, then the
132 THE MI\D OF THE CHILD.
child can smell. For in case of weak odors of tliis sort
it is not to be assumed that there will be perceptible
accompan\nng excitement of the nasal fibers of the tri-
geminus. Such experiments are urgently to be wished.
A girl babe of eighteen hours obstinately refused the
breast upon the nipple of which a little petroleum, or
oil-of -amber, had been rubbed, but gladly took the other
breast. This experiment of Kroner's alone corres]3onds
to my suggestion given above (made in 1878) ; only it
ought to be repeated -svdth a number of very young
children. For the observation that infants in the first
days reject the breast of the mother, when this has by
accident acquired a strange smell, was not instituted with
regard to infants just bom. And the fact that many
new-born children after having once tasted their mother's
milk, refuse for a long time, in spite of hunger and
thirst, to take any other food, is not convincing, for this
is not a case of sensations of smell exclusively, nor again
of children just born.
On the other hand, some of Kroner's observations
are decidedly in favor of the view that the nonnal child
can smell, a quarter of an hour after birth, and a few
hours or days after. For it turns up its nose and makes
a wry face when Dipj^el's-oil or amber-oil is offered it,
and " children several hom'S old become generally rest-
less, screw the eyelids tight together, open the mouth,
and thrust out the tongue."
In all experiments of this kind concerning the sense
of smell in the newly -born, care must also be taken that
the nostrils shall be perfectly open to the passage of the
air. The child must breathe easily with his mouth shut.
The filling of the nostrils with amniotic fluid excludes
SMELL. 133
the possibility of a sensation of smell before birth. But
directly after the beginning of respiration this liquid is
displaced by air, and it is a question whether then the
olfactory ;nucous membrane needs first a longer invigo-
ration by the air before the olfactory cells can be the
means of a sensation of smell, or whether a reaction fol-
lows immediately uj)ou the inhalation of air that has an
odor.
2. Discrimination of Impressions of Smell.
The sense of smell, when it has once been aroused
to activity, continues to be of decisive importance to the
infant in the choice of food, and this from the beginning.
Sensations of smell are present, for the first time, not at
the age of four weeks, or from the second month on, as
many think, but even in the first days, and the pleasant
and unpleasant feelings occasioned by them increase in
intensity from day to day. Children of a few weeks
sometimes do not take the breast of a nurse whose skin
has a disagreeable smell, and they cry out as soon as the
breast approaches them. There is no doubt that chil-
dren born blind very early smell the spoon filled with
milk or broth, and the disinclination of many infants, in
the first week, to take cow's milk after they have had
the breast, must be ascribed to the smell rather than to
the taste, since they sometimes refuse the milk when it
is brought near them without tasting it. In such a case
the decisive experiment would be to hold the child's
nose and bandage its eyes, to see whether it would not
then take willingly the new food. At all events, the
sense of smell in children bom blind plays an essential
part in the taking of food, and develops its own memory
as early as does the sense of taste.
11
134 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
Whether the babe, however, knows its sleeping
mother in the night by the smell, as animals undoubt-
edlj do, must be left undecided. To me it is probable
that the child does not recognize her when it does not
see, hear, or feel her.
That the sense of smell is concerned in the seeking
of the nipple, on the part of the babe that is merely laid
by the nurse but not otherwise assisted (as is the case
with animals), also seems to me improbable from my
own observations in the lying-in hospital. For the chil-
dren, indeed, push hither and thither (often with sur-
prising quickness and violence), with the whole head
against the breast (like young lambs, kids, calves, foals)
with open mouth and intermittent movements of the
lower jaw ; but in my own child it was not till the
eighth day of life that I saw this groping about ; and
whether the sense of smell co-operates in this is doubt-
ful, for the child often sucked at the wrong place.
Later, long after weaning, the sense of smell is un-
questionably the least turned to account for the knowl-
edge of things. Impressions of smell are regularly con-
founded with impressions of taste. The following notes
regarding the behavior of my child show how late in
his case smell appeared distinctly :
In the fifteenth month, freshly-ground coffee and
cologne- water, both of which he liked very much to
smell in his third year, made no imj)ression at all, or
only a slight one. They were not desired, neither were
any movements made to repel them if they were held
under the nose of the child when his mouth was shut.
At the end of this month, however, cologne-water held
under his nose made the child laugh. lie took pleasure
SMELL. 135
in the odor as in any other new, agreeahle sense-impres-
sion. In the sixteenth month he was affected in just
the same way by the odor of oil-of-roses.
In the seventeenth month, however, the inability to
separate smell and taste sliowed itself still in unmistak-
al)le fashion. For every time that I wanted to make
the child smell something — for example, when I held a
hyacinth or an essence to his nose — he would open his
month, and in fact take the sweet-smelling flower into
his mouth. He thought, therefore, that as he had hith-
erto had agreeable sensations of smell only in connection
with taste (of milk), he must now, since he was smelling,
also taste — a very interesting proof, in relation to the
genesis of mind, that sensation is independent of the
knowledge of the organ of sensation ; and that the
reasoning processes depend upon the preceding associa-
tions of sensation.
In the eighteenth month the child no longer carried
regularly to his mouth the objects he was to smell or that
he wanted to smell ; he had therefore recognized the
separation of smell from taste. If I gave him a rose, say-
ing, " Smell of it ! " (" Kiech einmal ! ") he would put
the flower to his nose, with his mouth shut, and inhale
the aroma through the nose, though, to be sure, only
after exhaling the breath many times against the flower.
For a long time " smell " was understood to mean ex-
haling, probably because the nurse, in order to indicate
smell, had always feigned a sneeze. Yet the opening
of the month occasionally appeared later also, when the
child was to smell anything. Genuine snuffing, taking
in the air for the purpose of smelling, did not take
place.
136 THE MI\D OF THE CHILD.
As no exercises in smelling are in general instituted
for children, and as the infant almost always has a sour-
ish smell of half -digested milk, and has little opjDortunity
to smell anything except milk and his own perspiration
and that of his nurse or mother, tlie late development of
smell, as a conscious act, is not surprising. The im-
portance of this function for testing the atmosphere and
food, and for cleanliness, is unfortunately almost uni-
versally underestimated. We find, too, as is well known,
in many, probably in most, adults, a great uncertainty
as to whether they have a sensation of smell or a sensa-
tion of taste, or both. The civilized child ordinarily
grows up without instruction in this respect, although
it would be very useful to impress upon him early the
various kinds of smell, in association with definite ex-
pressions for them, as is usually done with colors and
tones.
3. Smell in New-born Animals,
Many mammals are capable of distinguishing differ-
ent impressions of smell only a few hours after birth.
Especially in the case of new-born Guinea-pigs, no
one of which was more than seventeen hours old, I was
able easily to establish this fact. For when I put ill-
smelling substances, like asafcetida, in not too small
quantities, on the bottom of a wide-mouthed glass bottle,
lying in a horizontal position, into which the animal
under observation crept, the creature repeatedly wiped
and rubbed its nose with the fore-feet. Further, the
animals turned away, with a quick sidewise movement
of the head, after concentrated propionic acid, or car-
bolic acid, or water-ammonia, had been held before them
some seconds. Often they sneezed at the same time
SMELL. 137
with a peculiar noise. The smell of camphor, on the
other hand, seemed to be not disagreeable to young
Guinea-pigs ; for they stayed a long time in a glass half
filled with pieces of camphor, when they might easily
have left it, and they made none of those movements of
repulsion. The same is the case with gum-benjamin.
Here, to be sure, the rapid blunting of sensitiveness to
odors should be taken into account.
I tested several more odorous substances in this way,
especially oil-of-thyme, alcohol, ethylic ether, chloro-
form, prussic acid, and nicotine. Toward these last the
Guinea-pigs did not act with so much decision on the
first day as they did toward the first-mentioned, prob-
ably because the attenuation, in order to avoid its being
poisonous, was too great. Thus much, however, is set-
tled : new-born animals a few hours after birth discrimi-
nate between agreeable and disagreeable smells. The
impressions must simply be strong enough. Any one
who has seen how animals, when only half a day old,
behave toward asafoetida and camphor, will not doubt
that the former causes them discomfort, while the latter
does not. Tobacco-smoke also is offensive to them, and
when blown against the face causes, even before the
close of the first day of life, shutting of the eyes and
drawing back of the head — accordingly, purjjosive re-
flexes of defense.
We are not justified, indeed, in assuming that mam-
mals just bom perceive the odorous substances men-
tioned by means of their olfactory nerves only, for tlie
sneezing, the rubbing of the nose with the fore-feet, the
closing of the eyelids, the turning away and drawing
back of the head from strong- smelling substances, the
138 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
surprising indifference toward substances having a less
intense but still a decided odor, indicate, in the experi-
ments upon animals of one day old, an excitement of
the nasal branch of the trigeminus. But it is demon-
strated bj other facts that mammals, dogs, rabbits, cats,
can really smell directly after the first respirations.
Bilfi bisected the olfactory lobes in very young pup-
pies that had not yet their sight. They bore the opera-
tion well, and the mother's licking helped to heal the
wound. Animals thus treated could no longer find the
mother's teats, so long as they were blind. They crept
about on her belly, trying to suck everywhere — tentando
qua e la col muso gli oggettl. In most cases somebody
had to open their mouths and put the teat in. On the
contrary, blind puppies in the normal state find the
teats at once, as if they saw them. Accordingly, it is
not to be doubted that in trying to find the source of
the milk, the young are guided by smell, for they could
make use of touch (after being operated on) as they
could before. We may conclude, then, that the olfac-
tory nerve is excitable in other just-born mammals also,
and that it was concerned in the above experiments.
This inference is confirmed by the experiments of
Gudden, which show that in rabbits one or two days
old, the closing of one nostril, or the removal of one
hemisphere of the brain, hinders the development of
the olfactory nerve, of the olfactory bulb, and of the
tractus of that side. With the removal of one bulbus,
the tractus almost entirely disappears. After the re-
moval of both the olfactory bulbs, which makes a
comparatively insignificant wound, the little creatures,
entirely deprived of the sense of smell, soon perished
SMELL. 139
in consequence of deficient nourisliment, since tliey no
longer found their way well to the old ones and their
teats, notwithstanding the assistance they got from the
nervi trigemini. It is then as it is in the case of sim-
ple bisection of both olfactory nerves. "When, on the
other hand, the organs of smell were left unharmed, and
both eyes were taken from the newly-born, and both
ears stopped, then the sense of smell was developed in
a very high degree, the olfactory bulbs being demon-
strably enlarged beyond the ordinary measure. In like
manner, the external ears of a rabbit, that had been de-
prived of both its eyes soon after birth, had a vigorous
development, and the hearing became acute beyond
what is normal.
From these experiments we infer both the depend-
ence of the organic development upon stimulation from
without and the power of physiological concurrence,
but in particular we infer that rabbits very soon after
birth can smell and that they make abundant use of
this caj)acity in finding the teats. Otherwise it would
be incomprehensible that they can no longer find the
teats after the destruction of the olfactory nerves alone,
and that they perish of hunger.
Spalding has observed, further, that four kittens,
three days old, and still blind, when he put near them
his hand, which a dog had just licked, began to spit in
a way that was amusing. He infers from this that the
cat abhors her hereditary enemy even before she can see
him. Here the fact ought to be brought to notice tliat
on the third day the cat possesses a finely-developed
sense of smell.
At the same time, however, by this observation and
140 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
many others, especially tliat of tlie "pointing" and
" setting " of young bird-dogs, the fact is proved that
the memory of certain impressions of smell is inherited.
In man such olfactory instincts probably no longer
appear. With him the sense of smell plays in general
a much less pronounced part in the genesis of mind
than it does in the brutes, which are well known to
surpass him greatly, at an early stage, in recognizing
and discriminating odors, and which are occupied all
their lives, much more than man is, with perceptions of
smell.
CHAPTER VI.
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS.
With regard to the physiological conditions of the
organic sensations and emotions of adult human beings,
so little that is of general application is established, that
an investigation of these in the child who can not yet
speak seems premature. I have, therefore, directed my
attention merely to a small number of sensations and
emotions in the child. My observations are, unfortu-
nately, as yet very fragmentary in this direction. But
it is better to communicate them than to be silent about
them, if only to show that here many new pi-oblems are,
as it were, growing up out of the ground, close, upon
one another.
The whole behavior of the child is determined es-
sentially by his feelings of pleasure and his feelings of
discomfort. For this reason I shall speak first of these
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIOXS AxVD EMOTIONS. 141
in general. Next appear in the life of the child, among
the special feelings, the feeling of hunger, and the feel-
ing of satiety, concerning which I append some obser-
vations. I have likewise considered the feeling of fa-
tigue, which is much less marked in children.
Of emotions, fear and surprise are prominent in im-
portance for the mental development of the very young
child.
1. Feelings of Pleasure in General.
In the first three months the feelings of pleasure
are not manifold. Besides the appeasing of hunger,
with the enjoyment that ever recurs along with it, of
sucking and of the sweet taste, there comes in the first
month, and indeed from the first day on, a pleasurable
feeling through the warm bath. The less intense but
constant satisfaction in moderately bright impressions
of light comes next, and, somewhat later, that in objects
moved slowly before the eyes. The pleasure in both
steadily grows, but is not so great as the pleasurable
feeling in being undressed, which likewise makes its
appearance in the first weeks. The release from cloth-
ing, etc., is followed regularly by lively movements,
especially by alternate stretchings of the legs and visi-
ble comfort. Great satisfaction is also afforded the
infant by the process of wiping it dry.
Acoustic impressions regularly produce pleasurable
feelings in the second month. Singing, piano-playing,
and all sorts of musical sounds, sometimes quiet the
restless child, sometimes cause lively expressions of joy
in the child, as he is lying comfortably or is held in the
arms. So it is when he is spoken to by members of
the family. The large, bright oval of the face, that
142 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
moves close in front of tbe child's face, and speaks and
sings and laughs, arouses attention and produces clieer-
fulness early through its peculiarity, being different
from all other optical impressions, yet the human child
hardly knows its mother before the third month.
In the fourth month, the pleasure of grasping at all
possible objects comes gradually into view, becomes
plain in the fifth, and continues to increase in the
sixth. The delight of being taken out-of-doors at this
period is probably occasioned moi-e by the change, the
greater brightness, and the fresher air, than by the
sight of trees and houses. The child's own image in
the mirror was in one case observed with unquestion-
able signs of pleasure in the seventh month ; animals
and watches do not generally excite the child's pleasur-
able interest till later.
A new sort of pleasurable feelings, in which an in-
tellectual element already mingles, appears when the
child begins himself to produce some change, espe-
cially of form, through his own activity, so that he
gradually acquires the knowledge of his own power.
Here belong not only the effects of the voice, espe-
cially of screaming and of the first sounds uttered by
himself, but also the first plays. First of all, and that
in the fifth month, in the case of my child, it was the
act of crumpling a sheet of paper, that was taken up
and repeated with evident gratification. Tearing news-
papers to pieces and rolling them up into balls afforded
him great pleasure from that time to his third year.
A like enlivening effect was produced by the long-
continued pulling of a glove this way and that (prac-
ticed from the fifth month to the fourth year, from time
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. I43
to time), also by pulling at the Lair of one's beard (at
the same period), then by the ringing of a little bell,
continued an intolerably long time. Later it was the
movements of his own body in locomotion (in march-
ing), and purely intellectual pleasures that amused him :
putting things in and out, cutting with scissors, turning
the leaves of books, looking at pictures. Last came the
inventive, embellishing and yet moderate imagination,
that gives life to shapeless blocks of wood, transforms
the leaves of trees into savory food, and so on.
On the whole, however, it is manifest in the case
of all children in the first part of their life, that much
more happiness comes through relief from disagreeable
conditions than through the provision of positively
agreeable conditions. Hunger, thirst, wet, cold, swad-
dling-clothes — the getting rid of these produces pleas-
urable feehngs, which are in part stronger, in paii; not
weaker, than those occasioned by mild light, moving
tassels, lukewarm baths, song, and the friendliness of
parents. It is not until the second three months that
wholly new scenes of enjoyment are entered upon with
the first successful attempts at grasping objects.
The first period of human life belongs to the least
agreeable, inasmuch as not only the number of enjoy-
ments is small, but the capacity for enjoyment is small
likewise, and the unpleasant feelings predominate until
sleep interrupts them.
The expressions of pleasurable feeling are at the
beginning not very various ; but from the first day
signs of pleasure are open eyes, and soon after an ani-
mated gleam in them — a slight excitation of the secre-
tory nerve of the lachrymal gland.
144: THE MIND OF THE CHILD,
The voice is in the first days an altogether different
one when pleasurable feelings are expressed from what
it is when the child is hungiy, and high, crowing tones,
as a sure sign of joy, have in fact been observed by me
in the fourth month. They were always employed
with the same significance even in the fourth year.
Toward the end of the first year there appeared in the
case of my boy, as an acoustic expression of pleasure, a
peculiar grunting, caused probably by oscillations of the
uvula with the mouth shut. This made its appearance
especially when the child had a joyous anticipation,
was expecting something agreeable, and it used to be
associated frequently with a movement of abdominal
pressure. A genuine pressure or straining, accompa-
nied by a strong expiration, or by that grunting with
shut mouth, was for months an indubitable expression
of pleasure. I have not succeeded in finding an ex-
planation of this peculiarity.
More commonly, movements of the extremities are
found in infants as signs of pleasurable feelings — stretch-
ings and bendings, drawing up and throwing out the
arms and legs (especially in the bath, and when the
piano was played, were these clearly manifested, even
in the second month) ; at a later period these are multi-
plied and are associated with very loud, joyous shout-
ing, as early as the third quarter of the first year. What
is called "Strampeln" (kicking), is also frequently ob-
served after the clothes are taken off, when the infant
has been fed and is comfortable in a warm, dry bed, in
a moderate light, not excited by new impressions. I
saw also, in the sixth month even, the quick, bilateral,
symmetrical movement, up and down, of the arms (not
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 145
of the legs), joined with laiigliing, as an expression of
pleasure, when one simply nodded to the child in a
friendly manner. The striking of the hands together
and laughing for joy, perhaps at the lighting of a lamp,
does not occur till later (ninth and tenth mouths). But
loud laughing from this time on is not always an ex-
pression of joy ; for, from the end of the first half-year,
my child very often laughed when others laughed to
him, and from the end of the first year almost invaria-
bly when any one laughed near him, merely in imita-
tion, and quite mechanically, vacantly, without knowing
why. If he crowed meantime, with vigorous employ-
ment of abdominal pressure, then, indeed, he had some
special reason for joy. But when (in the second month)
he laughs on being tickled upon the sole of the foot,
the laughing is reflexive. Intentional laughing for
pleasure — e. g., at the repetition of an agreeable play,
or of a musical chord (in the first quarter of the sec-
ond year) — is, even for the practiced ear, diflicult to dis-
tinguish from reflexive laughing, but the countenance
of the child, smiling as he regards the face of his
mother, is easily distinguishable, even in the third
month (by the direction of the look), from that of the
child smiling vacantly, upon a full stomach. In both
cases the smile is a sign of pleasure ; but in the first
case it is a sign of a special sensation — in the last, of
nothing more than a general sensation.
With regard to the connection of all these muscular
actions with the nervous processes underlying the joy-
ous emotion, nothing is as yet known. Screaming from
pain and laughing from pleasure are modified expira-
tions, and not the least help is to be elicited from the
146 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
relation of the respiratory apparatus to the sensorinm
for the explanation of these expressions of antagonistic
emotions. The excessive inclination to movement as a
symptom of joy, in little children and young animals,
soems mysterious, and the hysterical leap from crying to
laughing in a moment, in children three to four years
old, which has nothing morbid in it, can not lessen the
difficulty of the attempt at a physiological explanation.
It is probably true of little children in general, that
every strong feeling brings in its train a motor discharge.
It is, in fact, very difficult, even for older children — nay,
for many adults as well — not to betray great joy, jnst
experienced, by some look, or by the brightness of the
eyes, or an increased animation, and not to make some
movement on hearing merry dance-music.
2. Unpleasant Feelings in General.
In the first half-year of life, unpleasant feelings are
more frequent than afterward. Even with the most
careful nursing, ventiLition, regulation of the tempera-
ture of the air and of the bath, control of the milk of
mother, nurse, or cow, or of the substitute for this, and
with the most favorable suiTOundings, it is not often
granted to a human child to continue in perfect health,
without a day of suifering. Birth itself may be painful
to the child, or may involve inevitable treatment of a
painful character ; and the number of childi'en's dis-
eases that are in part accompanied by severe pain is not
small. In no period of life is the mortality anything
like so great as in the first year. Through this tend-
ency to illness, which is shown in the helpless, defense-
less, inexperienced infant, many unpleasant feelings
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. I47
must arise, for only the healthy organism can experience
unalloyed pleasure.
But I do not mean to speak here of the numerous
impleasant feelings caused by illness, and by attempts
at cure, but only of such as even the perfectly healthy
child can not be spared, not even under the most favor-
able circumstances. To these belong hunger and thirst,
discomfort in consequence of inconvenient position in
lying or in being held, or of cold, or wet, or ill-smelling
air ; then the discomfort arising from the tight swath-
ing that unfortunately still prevails far too widely in
Germany ; the pain of teething, the disagreeable effects
of driveling ('' drooling," Geifern), and of sucking at
objects not tit to be sucked ; later, the pain of being de-
nied things eagerly craved.
It is an error to maintain that the very young child
is not yet capable of having the genuine feeling of pain
or even a high degree of unpleasant feeling ; for he
who can enjoy must also be able to suffer, otherwise he
could not enjoy. And that the new-bom child experi-
ences pleasure in sucking at a full, healthy breast, no-
body doubts. The outward signs of unpleasant feeling
in the infant are also unmistakable for every diligent
observer.
Above all, crying is characteristic : it is piercing, and
persistent in pain ; a whimpering in an uncomfortable
posture ; uninterrupted and very loud in the cold bath ;
interrupted by frequent pauses in hunger ; suddenly
waxing to unexpected intensity, and again decreasing
quickly, when something is desired and not obtained.
Soon are added, as expressions of discomfort, inarticu-
late and articulate sounds. The infant can not yet
148 THE MIND OF THE CBILD.
moan and groan, he only utters cries, and in the first days
does not feel pain at many kinds of treatment that would
cause pain to older children — treatment confined to a
8mall area of the skin ; for example, pricks of a needle,
cooling with ice, sewing up of wounds after operations
(Genzmer) — for he often keeps perfectly quiet under
such treatment, and even falls asleep. All new-born
infants, besides, react much more slowly by crying, in
response to the strongest impressions, than do older
infants.
A second sign is the shutting of the eyes and
holding them tightly closed, which often takes place in
adults also in the same fashion. In the first year the
child regularly closes his eyes when he manifests a
strong feeling of discomfort by screaming. He often
shuts the eyes (especially in the ninth month) withont
screaming, with corrugated brow, when he has to en-
dure something disagreeable ; e. g., when he is dressed,
or when a finger is put in his mouth, at the period of
teething, in order to feel the coming of a tooth.
A furtlier symptom of discomfort is the turning
away of the head, which I likewise perceived unac-
companied by crying, under the circumstances just
mentioned (distinctly marked in the first as in the
ninth month).
The most delicate index of the child's mood is,
however, the form of the mouth, as even the least de-
gree of nnpleasant feeling is surely expressed at once
by drawing down the angles of the mouth. But this
alteration of the child's countenance, which appears
more and more distinctly up to the fourth year in every
single case, is not developed so early as the three pre-
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 149
vioiisly mentioned expressions of discomfort. In my
child, whom I observed carefully, this action of the
muscle that depresses the angles of the mouth was not
perceived at all before the eighteenth week. But
during and before the twenty-third week, whenever
the child was addressed in a harsh tone, the stern
countenance of the speaker was stared at a moment,
then both angles of the mouth were drawn down.
Hereupon began for the Urst time the plaintive cry,
accompanied by the appearance of the naso-labial cor-
rugation ; the cry, however, ceased as soon as the coun-
tenance tha,t had been severe toward the child changed
to friendliness. Yery soon the previous cheerfulness
returned. Darwin saw even earlier this form of the
mouth, from about the sixth week to the second and
third month.
Accordingly, the first appearance of this peculiar
sign of discomfort is in some cases in the first three
months ; in others, in the first half of the second three
months. From this time on, every vexation, but noth-
ing else, is announced by this sign, which is espe-
cially pronounced from the sixth month on. Finally,
from the eighth month to the end of the third year,
appears also, together with violent screaming, another
singular form of the mouth. The mouth becomes, viz.,
as I often observed, quadrangular, a parallelogram,
sometimes almost a square — a form which presents
itself at once (even with perfectly deaf children, to
judge from the mere look) as a sure sign of the highest
degree of discomfort, as Darwin rightly brings to notice.
In spite of all these signs of the existence of un-
pleasant feelings, it is often extraordinarily difficult,
150 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
especially in the first year, to find out what causes
underlie tliem.
Why does the little girl (of four months) weep
when her mother comes near her with a great hat on
her head, whereas the child smiles at her when the
mother appears without a hat or lays the hat aside ?
(Fran Dr. Friedemann), Probably fear mingles with
the surprise at the strange, as is the case with brutes.
I once had a good horse, that knew me well, but
was afraid and began to tremble somewhat when I dis-
mounted and crouched down upon the ground (to get
a shot at a bird without being seen). The beast was
evidently afraid of the new phenomenon. His master
in that hitherto unseen attitude had become to him
a strange being. In like manner the very young child
will often fail to understand an alteration in persons
whose image is well impressed upon his mind, and will
be afraid. Children may turn away with horror from
hands they like to kiss, if these hands are covered with
black gloves, and they may be brought to weeping just
by the siglit of a figure, w^ell known to them, if it be
clothed in black. It was not till the nineteenth month
that my child ceased to be reserved toward strangers,
and occasionally condescended to give his hand to them
when asked, provided only they were not dressed en-
tirely in black (cf. pp. l^ö-l-lT).
In many children a high degree of imcomfortable
feeling may exist, and in a fashion decidedly comical
for adults, especially through pity. When figures of
all sorts — e. g., human forms — were cut out of paper
with scissors for the amusement of my child, he would
often weep if a paper figure was in danger, through
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 151
liastj cutting, of losing an arm or a foot (twenty-seventh
month), A like account has been given me of a little
girl.
When an infant, fed, warm, and dry, one that we
are justified in declaring to be perfectly healthy, never-
theless screams, screw^s up his eyes, draws down the
comers of his mouth, and does not suffer himself to be
quieted — we can not easily assign an external cause of
his discomfort. It must, therefore, be an internal, un-
known cause. I once let my child, of three months, in
such a situation, cry on. It was not quite twenty
minutes before he fell asleep, and he awoke in good
spirits after several hours. Often it is not mere ill-
humor that expresses itself in such cases, but an uncon-
querable impulse to cry out, which can not be called
morbid. In some children it is sleepiness, weariness,
even after nursing, that manifests itself in crying,
especially when anything hinders them from going to
sleep. Screaming also is a substitute for the deficient
movement of the limbs in the case of children in swad-
dling-clothes.
When no one of the symptoms mentioned of a
strong feeling of discomfort is present, a state of dis-
content of a low grade may be announced by a lack of
luster in the eyes, indolent movements, cessation of the
play of countenance, or a somewhat paler complexion.
But in this case the cause is usually some disturbance
of the health, however slight, just as it is with orang-
outangs and chimpanzees. In the babe, as in the
weaned and even the older child — nay, even in adults
that have not toned down the natm-al play of feature,
or concealed it by self-control — even in this case I am
152 TEE MIND OF THE CHILD.
compelled to designate the drawing down of the angles
of the month as the most delicate form of reaction, one
whicli does not fail even in sleep, since it continues
after the falling asleep, in case of illness, and imparts
to the countenance an extremely doleful, piteous ex-
pression. Whether a cheerful or a sad mood prevails,
may be discerned, without seeing any other part of
the face, from the appearance of the angle of the
mouth alone.
3. The Feeling of Hunger.
Soon after birth hunger and thirst assert themselves.
They are unmistakably recognizable in this, that, after
objects capable of being sucked are put into the mouth,
sucking movements appear, whereas the babe that has
had enough does not suck, as I very often proved.
If the feeling of hunger and thirst continues, the
child cries and becomes restless. But the restlessness
always disappears temporarily during the first days of
life when something to suck is put into the mouth, be
it only the comer of a pillow or a finger, so that we are
justified in assuming that the discomfort that is joined
w^ith hunger is displaced by the pleasure that belongs to
sucking. Yet in many children, even a week after birth,
the crying from hunger can not so surely be checked
by letting the child suck at strange objects as it could
earlier (Genzmer). So early as this, then, the child
has had a useful experience. In the first days, almost
every hungry child sucks at its own fingers. Then the
crying begins again. This is from the beginning a dif-
ferent thing from the crying caused by pain, and is dis-
tinguished from it especially by the fact that it does
not continue so long uninterrupted ; on the contrary, I
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 153
have always found — and I am confirmed in tliis by ex-
perienced nurses — that very small children, when hun-
gry, cry with short and long intervals. The voice, too,
has a different ring ; the cry of pain is higher than that
of hunger. The cry of hunger is, likewise, easily dis-
tinguished from the cry of satisfaction, even during the
first days : for, when the child cries from hunger, the
eyes are generally tightly closed ; when it gives a cry
of joy, they are open. Moreover, my child, w^hen cry-
ing with hmiger, used to draw back the tongue and
spread it out ; this does not take place in other kinds
of crying. (In my boy this appeared plainly as late as
the twenty-ninth week.)
The reflex excitabihty of the infant is, as others also
have observed, increased during the condition of hun-
ger, especially in regard to touches, most of all on the
lips and cheeks.
A siu'e sign of hunger, or of the lively desire arising
from it, is, further, the opening of the eyes Avidely on
being brought near the breast, even before being placed
at it, a thing which occurs regularly in the first weeks
of life, but not before the very first experience of the
breast. Experience, then, is necessary for this also.
I have not seen any other than the hungry child,
directly before beginning to suck at the breast, make
the peculiar shaking movemenfs of the head, which
take place in the same way when an artificial nipple
is put to the lips of the babe (in the first and second
months) ; these movements, however, become fainter
and cease if the rubber is often removed from the
mouth and again put in, as if the uselessness of those
movements were perceived. Although these move-
154 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
ments soon cease entirely, the animal eagerness for
food manifestly increases in the first year. While
draining the bottle the eyes are opened wide, and
the gaze is never turned from the bottle (especially
in the sixth and seventh months). If the child of six
months is very hungry, he turns the head and the gaze
vigorously and persistently toward the bottle, held before
him at a small or a great distance, and at once cries vio-
lently if it be taken out of the room. On the other
hand, he opens his mouth eagerly if the bottle be
brought near him. This object, and in general every-
thing connected with it, has in the third quarter of the
first year by far the greatest interest for the infant, who
stretches out his arms toward it wäth sparkling eyes if
he has not had enough.
From the fifth month on, however, we succeeded in
diverting his attention temporarily from the taking of
food by means of new noises and movements (page 86) ;
in the last three months of the first year his eating was
not so hurried as before ; hunger no longer prevailed so
much over all other feelings. This progress, apart from
the fact that under normal circumstances his hunger is
always appeased without delay, is also due to the increase
in the quantity of nourishment taken at a single meal.
The smaller the stomach, the oftener it becomes empty.
The more it can hold, the longer will hunger be post-
poned, there being no lack of nourishment. In healthy
new-born infants the stomach holds (according to
Beneke) only thirty-five to forty-three cubic centime-
tres; after two weeks, one hundred and fiftj'-three to
one hundred and sixty ; after two years, seven hun-
dred and forty (leaving out great individual variations).
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 155
Tims the intervals between the meals become gradually
longer, and the meals less frequent, and there remains
in the intervals more time for the infant to turn its at-
tention to other things than food, since the child, the
older it grows, sleeps so much the less and consumes its
food so much the less rapidly. In the tenth week, to
be awake and hungry three times in a night (from eight
to six o'clock) is little ; in the fifteenth week, the inter-
vals between meals are prolonged in the daytime to
three or four hours, against two hours at the beginning
of life ; and iu the eighteenth week — and perhaps earlier
— there are nis;hts of ten to eleven hours without the
talcing of any nourishment at all. Great diiferenees
exist, to be sure, among perfectly healthy infants in this
respect. Still, it is true of all that they are hungry
more frequently at the beginning of life than in the
second, and certainly in the third, quarter of the first
year. If one busies himself too much with the child,
allows too many new sense impressions to act upon him,
brings too much strain on his attention, then hunger
arrives unseasonably, accompanied with crying, although
during " play " — that is, in my case, during my observa-
tion of the child, and my experiments upon him — his
cheerfulness may have been undisturbed. This sudden
access of fretfulness and hunger I have often observed,
and, indeed, even from the sixth week on. Later, how-
ever, viz., in the eighth and ninth months, the craving
for food was less and less manifested by crying, and was
often expressed by a peculiar cooing [Girren) with the
mouth shut tight. This cooing, joined with movements
of the larynx, always bore the character of desire, even
for those who were not acquainted with its significance.
156 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
It does not seem to appear in many children. The ori-
gin of it is quite obscure. The child made the strange
sound only when hungry, when he saw tlie food directly
before him, which he could not at once take, because it
was perhaps still too hot or not warm enough.
Notwithstanding the fact that the feeling of hunger
is by far the strongest of all the feelings of the new-born
and of the quite young infant, as appears from his whole
behavior, yet it would be an error to suppose this feel-
ing to be capable of producing a voluntary movement
in the first weeks. I observed a child that, on the
fourth and sixth days, obstinately refused, in spite of
seven hours' abstinence from food, to take the left
breast, whereas it took the right gladly every time,
because the left was not so convenient for sucking,
though it supplied milk enough. But even with the
very convenient artificial nipple, this breast was often
declined, and on the nineteenth day persistently, even
after a fast of six to seven hours. On the other hand,
the child sucked a long time at the skin near the nipple,
then cried, and finally fell asleep, tired out with its vain
effort. Manifestly in this by no means solitary instance
tlie hunger is indeed great, but the loiowledge that it
might easily be appeased does not exist ; and does not
exist for this reason, because, at the first attempt to suck
on the left side, the child's experience was that sucking
was not so easy there as on the right. That this dis-
crimination could be made so early as the fourth day of
life is just as remarkable as the persistence with which
it was held to by the infant, who regarded the diiference
as still existing in all following trials, even when the
greatest convenience was attained.
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 15 7
4. The Feeling of Satiety.
Opposed in every respect to the expressions of the
feeh'ng of hunger and of thirst are the expressions of
the feeling of satiety in the infant. The same food and
source of food that were before desired with the great-
est eagerness are now abhorred. When the cliild has
sucked enough at the breast that yiekls milk in great
abundance, so that his stomach is full, then he actually
pushes the nipple away wdth his lips (third to fifth
week). Just so, the child pushes out the mouth-piece
of the nursing-bottle when he has sucked at it (fourth
week). In the seventh month I plainly saw that the
mouth-piece was vigorously thrust out with the tongue,
almost with disgust. The head had already been turned
away some time before, after the child had nursed abun-
dantly. These movements are to be regarded as sure
signs of the presence of the feeling of satiety. Other
signs besides are early added to these.
As early as the tenth day, when the child had fallen
asleep after eating his fill, I saw his mouth unmistak-
ably take on the form of a smile, by which the ex-
pression of great satisfaction was imparted to the coun-
tenance. Later, this was frequently perceived. In
the fourth week were added still other signs of the
highest satisfaction, between the close of the child's
feeding and the beginning of sleep : laughing, opening
the eyes, then half-shutting them, inarticulate sounds,
in which every person, even those who did not see the
cliild, discerned satisfaction. In the first months, and
even in the eighth, the expressions of pleasure and of
discomfort are the most pronounced when the feeling
158 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
of satiety Las come or just before. The appeasing of
hunger is the greatest pleasure ; the increase of the
feeling of hunger and of the feeling of thirst, which is
not yet separated from that of hunger, is the greatest
discomfort for the healthy infant.
Yet I have not been able in any case to attain the
conviction that the infant is as yet capable, as Kuss-
maul thinks, of feeling nausea. I^either overfullness
nor vomiting, neither the greatest uncleauliness nor the
most repulsive, foul smell, calls forth in the child in the
earliest period the physiognomy associated with the
feeling of nausea. The repugnance to bitter substances
may, as Genzmer rightly observes, express itself even
without that feeling, although the corresponding de-
fensive reflexes in the adult are accustomed to be asso-
ciated with that feeling.
5. The Feeling of Fatigue.
In spite of the lethargy of the newly-born or of the
infant, it might seem doubtful whether he is easily
fatigued, because he apparently makes but little effort,
mental or physical. A closer consideration shows, how-
ever, that several causes of fatigue must be operative
directly after birth ; that a feeling of weariness may
come soon after that event ; and that the physiological
lethargy of the infant is connected with that feeling.
For the waking condition there is need of stimuli —
i. e., excitations of the sensory nerves. Now, if these
nerves are but little excitable, as is the case before birth,
and if few stimuli are present, then the opposite of wak-
ing — viz., sleep — will be persistent and sound. But
when after birth the excitability of the nerves and the
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 159
Dumber of the stimuli are increased, by the very open-
ing of the ejes and ears and the activity of the nerves
of the skin, then sleep is interrupted. The longer this
interruption lasts, the greater must be the accumulation
of the products of the activity of the central and periph-
eral portions of the organs of sense, on the one hand,
and on the other hand of the muscles, which contract
more strongly and more frequently in the waking con-
dition than in sleep. Now, these materials of fatigue,
as I have attempted to show in my treatise on the
causes of sleep (" über die Ursachen des Schlafes,"
Stuttgart, 1877), hinder prolonged waking, because they
withdraw from the blood the oxygen required for activ-
ity, in order to unite themselves with it, so that they
may be oxidized, and finally expelled. What are the
substances formed through the activity of the muscles
and the brain, and inducing the feeling of fatigue, we
have yet to ascertain.
In the new-born and the infant, whose muscles in
and of themselves are but little serviceable, and resem-
ble the muscles of tired adults, as Soltmann proved by
comparative experiments upon animals, there are two
actions especially that require strong muscular effort —
viz., crying and sucking. The crying of the hungry
child is a sign of the waking condition that quickly
produces weariness. For, let the child have his cry out,
and he usually falls asleep soon, even without having
been fed. Sucking at a breast that contains little milk
is likewise tiresome ; and I repeatedly within the first
three months saw sleep take possession of the child
while he w^as sucking thus at a scanty breast of the
nurse ; and the sucking was frequently interrupted by
160 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
long intervals, even when the child must have been
h angry.
Then there is tlie fatigue of the organs of sense.
After the first two or three weeks are past, so that the
attention can begin to be directed to something else
than the milk, manifold changing impressions of light
and sound, along with strong, cutaneous stimuli through
touch and temperature from the beginning, act with
rapidly fatiguing power upon the infant, especially
when his relatives busy themselves too much with him.
Thus, with my boy the hearing of piano-playing, in his
eighth week, was followed by an unbroken sleep of six
hours, whereas up to that time sleep had not once lasted
so long.
But the weariness brought on by crying, sucking,
manifold sense-impressions, is hardly sufficient to ac-
count for the brief duration of the waking periods in
the first half-year, even if we make the largest allow-
ance for the movements of the extremities, and add to
that the labor performed by the respiratory muscles and
by the heart. There must be still another cause that
produces sleep, inasmuch as under normal conditions
the greater part of the first two years of human life is
actually spent in sleep. This other cause is, probably,
the relatively smaller supply of oxygen (on account of
the smaller quantity of blood and the less energy of the
respiratory process) and the need of oxygen for growth ;
so that, on the one hand, less work is done and less
warmth is produced ; on the other hand, less oxygen can
be spared for keeping up the change of matter in the
ganglionic cells during the waking hours. We must
also take into account the character of the food, which
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. Ißt
regularly consists uniformly of milk alone in the period
of much sleep. Milk and whey in large quantities ex-
ert a somnific influence even upon adults. They con-
tain sugar of milk, which, in the stomach produces lac-
tic acid. This unites in the intestines with alkali, and
thus after every meal larger quantities, relatively, of
lactates must enter the blood in the infant than in the
adult. These become oxidized, and thereby withdraw
from the brain, according to the above-mentioned theory
of sleep, in great measure the oxygen required for the
waking condition, and for this reason, perhaps, the in-
fant regularly falls asleep not long after each abundant
supply of milk. The milk may also contain somnific
materials from the blood of the mother. Finally, the
almost uninterrupted act of digestion of the milk,
scarcely ever discontinued more than two hours at a
time, may, by collecting blood in the vessels of the di-
gestive organs, withdraw from the brain temporarily,
larger quantities of blood (which are necessary for the
waking condition).
With these hypotheses accords the universal experi-
ence that in the first three months the duration of the
period of sleep between two meals is much shorter than
in the second three months, and that it continually in-
creases. At first the period of digestion is shorter than
it is afterward, on account of the smallness of the stom-
ach. I found the sleep of the infant the sounder and
more lasting, the more concentrated the milk was, other
circumstances being the same. Mother's milk, abun-
dant and good, produces a sounder and longer sleep
than diluted milk of the cow, or scanty milk of the wet-
nurse. But even if the mother's milk be given exclu-
162 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
sivelj, the periods of sleep are shorter than in the first
weeks, the waking more frequent than later ; yet the
whole time spent in sleep is longer. The frequent
waking is doubtless favored by other causes than hun-
ger, especially by the greater uncleanliness of the early
period, and by wet — that is, by cutaneous irritation.
The notes I wrote down concerning the duration of
sleep in the case of my boy show clearly the decrease
of the duration of sleep as a whole, and the increase of
duration of the single period of sleep, from the first
day until the close of the third year. I extract the fol-
lowing particulars :
In the first month sleep lasted without interruption
not often longer than two hours ; but of the twenty-
four hours, sixteen at least, and generally much more,
were spent in sleep.
In the second month, a three-hours' sleep often ap-
peared ; now and then a sleep of five to six hours.
In the third month the child often sleeps four hours,
frequently even five in succession, without waking.
In the fourth month, the' sleep often lasts live to
six hours ; the intervals between the times of gating,
three and four hours (against two hours at an earlier
period). Once the sleep lasted nine hours.
In the sixth month, a sleep of six to eight hours is
not infrequent.
In the eighth month, restless nights, on account of
teething.
In the thirteenth month, as a rule, fourteen hours
of sleep daily, in several separate periods.
In the seventeenth month, prolonged sleep began ;
ten hours, without interruption.
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SEXSATIOXS AND EMOTIONS. 1Ö3
In the twentieth month, prolonged sleep became
habitual, and sleep in the daytime was reduced to two
hours.
From the thirty-seventh month on, the night's sleep
lasted regularly eleven to twelve hom*s, and sleep in the
daytime was no longer required.
Thus, from the fourth year, the waking period is
longer than that of sleep, and sleepiness does not come
on so quickly as before. The child, when walking, no
longer says, "swer" ("schwer") for " müde " (tired),
as he often did in the third year; and although the
feeling of weariness sometimes asserts itself, yet drow-
siness and sleep no longer follow directly upon it. The
unwearied springing and running of older children is
well known. The varied food taken at present, as con-
trasted with the milk-diet of an earlier period, unques-
tionably contributes to this, but chiefly the increased
functional ability of the respiratory apparatus, of the
blood, of the muscles, and ganglionic cells. The sleep
itself is now in general more quiet, inasmuch as dreams,
accompanied by movements and outcries, no longer
occur so often.
I consider it as exceedingly important in the case of
little children not to interrupt sleep artificially — to give
thern milk, it may be — and not to wake larger chil-
dren either. By waking them a condition of real dis-
tress, accompanied \\dth trembling and convulsions, is
easily induced in perfectly healthy children, and a last-
ing depression of spirits generated. I know of no ad-
vantage to the child from being waked. It ought the
more to be avoided, inasmuch as almost invariably a
fright is given to the child, and all fright is absolutely
164 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
harmful, whether caused by harsh address, or by threat-
ening the child with the " black man," so called, or by
catching the child, pouring water on him, and the like,
in the way of fun. Older children like to show their
superiority to younger ones by such misdeeds, and even
ignorant nurses not seldom adopt such means. Thereby
they arouse timidity, which may easily be increased by
grewsome stories (" grausige Geschichten ") and foolish
tales, and then it leads early to a morbid excitability.
6. Fear.
Tlie time at which a child first betrays fear depends
essentially upon his treatment, in so far as tlie avoid-
ance of occasions of pain prolongs the period that is
marked by unconsciousness of fear ; whereas the multi-
plication of such occasions shortens the period.
There is, however, an hereditary timidity, which
manifests itself as opportunity oifers. How happens it
that many children are afraid of dogs, pigs, and cats,
before they know the dangerous qualities of these ani-
mals ? A little girl was afraid of cats as early as the
fourteenth week of life (Sigismund). Thunder makes
many children cry — for what reason ?
If there is in this case the co operation of ideas,
either clear or obscure, of danger, or of reminiscences
of pain after a noisy fall, or of disagreeable sensations
at loud rumbling and the like (I observed that my child
in his second year cried with fear almost every time
that heavy furniture was pushed about), yet in the ex-
pressions of fear on the part of inexperienced animals
factors of this sort are excluded.
A hen with her first brood, about a week old, was
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 1G5
frightened by Douglas Spalding, who let fly a young
hawk. " In the twinkling of an eye most of the chick-
ens were hid among grass and bushes"; and when the
bird of prey touched the ground, at a distance of twelve
yards from the hen, the hen attacked it, and would un-
doubtedly have killed it. I have repeated this experi-
ment. A young kestrel, very lively, as large as a do-
mestic cock, was by me held by the wings and brought
near to thirty-three chickens, three and a half weeks
old, hatched in the incubator and raised in an inclosed
space, without intercourse wätli other fowls. At first
they did not appear to notice the bird. But as soon as
they heard its voice, they all became still and attentive,
and moved but little. Then I let the falcon loose : in-
stantly the chickens scattered in all directions, and con-
cealed themselves. How, except through inheritance,
did the chicks arrive at the point of hiding themselves
at seeing and hearing the falcon ? They had never seen
it or its like before, and a mother could not have de-
scribed it to her offspring. But w^hen, after a long
interval, I let a pigeon, instead of a falcon, fly away
over the thirty-three chickens, they were just as much
frightened ; they scattered and liid themselves. On
the other hand, they were not in the least frightened at
their first sight of a hen which cackled loudly. The
hereditary enemy must therefore be knowm through in-
born memory. Yet I wdll not conceal that I do not
regard the experiments, or this inference from them, as
sufliciently conclusive (the check experiment with the
pigeon prevents that), although no imitation by the
chicks of the behavior of a hen was possible. When I
put a kitten into a box in which there were eighteen
13
ir,6 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
chickens not yet four lionrs old and two about twenty
hours old, not one of the chicks made the least move-
ment of flight. Even after the kitten had bitten a
chicken, had been taken away, and afterward put into
the box with the twenty chickens again, there was no
stir at all among them ; the one that had been bitten
did not even turn away. The same thing took place
on the third day. A turkey ten days old behaved as
the chickens did in the above experiments. When he
heard the voice of tlie hawk for the first timej and close
to him, he " shot like an arrow to the other side of the
room, and stood there, motionless and dumb with fear,"
for ten minutes, as Spalding reports. Chickens show
unmistakable signs of fear in regard to bees also as a
general thing, according to him, although they have not
been stung. They bring the timidity with them, then,
from the egg, as an hereditary property. Yet against
this inference it might be urged that every sudden,
strong sense-impression elicits the same symptoms as do
the impressions that excite fear. The behavior of the
inexperienced chickens was the same at the sudden ap-
pearance of the dove as at the cry and the approach of
the falcon. But when I let the latter loose among a
great number of fowls that were busily pecking, the
warning cry of the cock at once sounded ; and when
the falcon made toward a hen, they all flew off, except
one that prepared to attack the bird of prey. A pea-
hen did the same thing directly afterward. We see
from this that fear and courage are very unequally dis-
tributed among creatures of the same kind. Timidity
and bravery are accordingly to be admitted as heredi-
tary qualities.
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 1G7
The case must be similar in the Imman cliild, who is
afraid of all sorts of things not at all dangerous, as well
as of things really dangerous, before he knows danger of
himself, and before he can be infected by the timidity
of mother or nurse. It is altogether wrong to maintain
that a child has no fear unless it has been taught him.
The courage or the fear of the mother has indeed ex-
traordinary influence upon the child, to the extent that
courageous mothers certainly have courageous children,
and timid mothers have timid children, through imita-
tion ; but there are so many cases of timidity and of
courage in the child, without an}'- occasion of that sort,
that we must take into account, as in the case of ani-
mals, an element lying further back, hereditary. Thus,
Champneys observed (1881) that his boy, when about
nine months old, showed signs of fear for the first time,
becoming attentive to any unusual noise in a distant
part of the room, opening his eyes very wide and begin-
ning to cry. A month or so later this child had a toy
given him, that squeaked Avhen it was squeezed. The
child at once screamed, and screamed afterward again
and again, when it was offered to him. But after some
time he became accustomed to the squeaking ; then he
was pleased by it, and would himself make the toy
squeak.
Among the observations that I made on my boy, a
boy not particularly timid in his fourth year, but rather
one who would defend himself against two or three
older children together, are some that certainly are not
to be referred to imitation, as the fear of machines and
of small animals when near.
In the ninth month I observed him for the first
168 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
time crying, turning away, and drawing back from fear,
when a small dog barked at the nurse, who was carry-
ing my child on her arm. The same thing happened
just a hundred days afterward, and again in the seven-
teenth month. In the second quarter of the third year
the fear of all dogs is very conspicuous, although the
child has never been bitten by such an animal, and, so
far as can be determined, has never seen a dog bite a
child. Even in the thirty-third month, his crjüng at
the approach of even the smallest dog, of a few weeks
old, is remarkable. Yet soon after this period the
timidity was gradually overcome, and on one occasion
the child, in my presence, actually took an apple out of
the teeth of the dog, which had taken it away from
him.
How little this fear of dogs, so late to be overcome,
was a result of education, appears from the behavior
of the child toward other small animals. To give pleas-
ure to him, when he was two and a quarter years old, a
number of very young pigs were shown to him. He at
once became serious at the sight. But, when the queer
creatures j^roceeded to suck at the teats of the mother
that lay there perfectly quiet, then the child began to
scream, to shed tears, to cling, and to turn away with
fright. He thought, as it afterward appeared, that the
sucking pigs were biting the mother. That he should
himself be throwm into a state of genuine fear every
time he was brought near them is the more strange, as
they were all shut up in a pen with a high, strong fence
about it. This fear became so great in the course of the
fourth and lifth years in my child that he sometimes cried
out in the night, and imngiued that a pig v^ras going to bite
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 1G9
liim. lie seemed to see the animal as if it were actually
liiere, and lie could not be convinced that it was not
there, even after his bed was brightly lighted up. The
explanation offered by Heyfelder for similar cases may
apply to some. He supposes that when childi'en cry
out in falling asleep, and believe themselves to be bitten
l)y a dog, a sudden jerk of the leg or arm occasions a
feelino; out of which the imagination constructs the ani-
mal. But when a child that is sleeping in perfect quiet
suddenly cries out, " Go away, pig 1 " and this without
waking, we must assume that the dream-image appears
without any external movement. A little girl was so
afraid of doves in the seventeenth week and in the
eleventh month that she could not make up her mind
to stroke them ; in the thirteenth month she ventured
to stroke a dove, but immediately drew back her hand ;
in the fourteenth month her fear was overcome.
Just as remarkable as this fear of animals is the fear
of falling at the first attempt to walk. Although the
child never had fallen, so far as could be determined,
he did not dare, in the fourteenth month, when he could
not yet go alone, to take a step without support, and
became fearful if he was not held. The child had be-
fore this bruised himself repeatedly, but in this case
he cried from fear of falling, without having had the
experience of being bumped in falling.
Two more examples : In the sixteenth month ray
child was afraid (to my surprise, for I thought to please
him) when I drew tones of high pitch from a drinking-
glass by rubbing with the linger, as I had done once at
an earlier period (p. 47). His fear, which did not
at that time — in the third month — appear, now increased
170 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
to tlie point of shedding tears, whereas the ring of the
glasses when struck was greeted with a cry of joy. Did
the unusual tone in the sixteenth month seem uncanny on
account of ignorance of the cause ? Yet the same child
lauglied at the thunder and lightning (in the eighteentli
and nineteenth months) ; another child even in the
thirty-hfth month did the same, and imitated cleverly
with the hand the zio-zaoj movement of the lio-litnino'
(Gustav Lindner).
In the twenty-first month my child showed every
sign of fear when his nurse cai'ried him on her arm close
by the sea (in Scheveningen). He began to whimper,
and I saw that he clung tighter with both hands, even
during a calm and at ebb-tide when there w^as but a
slight dashing of the waves. Whence the fear of the
sea, which the child is not acquainted with ? The water
of the Eider Canal, of the Saale, of the Rhine, he was
not in the least afraid of in tlie same year. The great-
ness of the sea could not of itself excite fear, for the
symptoms of dread were showTi only close by the water.
Was it, then, the roaring heard in advance ?
The fear of persons in black, too (seventeenth
month), even when they are friendly, as well as the
fear of a deep voice, of masked faces, of strange faces
(Frau von Strümpell), (in the seventh month and in
the twenty-fourth week), is not derived from educa-
tion (Herr Ed. Schulte). It expresses itself in this
way : The infant cries at the sight of strangers or at
hearing strange voices, a thing he did not do in the first
three months. On the other hand, the fear of punish-
ment—a fear that has been bred in him — appearing
in the second year, may easily be distinguished from
THE EAELIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 171
natural dread. The child that for the iirst thne
disobeys a well-known prohibition does not cry, or
tremble, or cling closer, or cower down, but he tries
to get away. The fear of being chastised, however
often it appears, through many successive genera-
tions, in the same form, at the same age, is always ac-
quired anew. A proof of this I find, as do others, in
the fact that my ciiild is not in the least afraid in the
dark, no doubt for the reason that he has never been
punished by being shut up in a dark place.
How the special symptoms of fear, e. g., the charac-
teristic trembling, are developed, is wdiolly unknown.
It is asserted, in regard to little children, that they can
not tremble (in fact, Darwin says this). But children
just born, and those of four years, can tremble, as
I have myself perceived. A perfectly healthy child, of
good weight, not yet a quarter of an hour old, trembled
almost incessantly, sometimes more, sometimes less, dur-
ing my observation, although it was comfortably warm
in the room (in the lying-in hospital). The child had
already had a warm bath. Many just-born children, to
be sure, do not tremble.
Many new-born animals — dogs, mice, rabbits. Guinea-
pigs, and chickens, which I have often observed in re-
gard to this point — tremble in a warm nest. But they
have not at first the least fear at being laid hold of with
the hand. The behavior of the chicken hatched in the
incubator is very different in the first days of its life
from what it is afterward ; in the following days you
have often the greatest difficulty in catching it. In the
beginning it does not run away, though it knows how
to run well enougli ; but later it runs away invariably.
172 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
Bird-dogs are likewise entirely without fear of man at
tlie beginning of life, even after they can see. But,
after they have once become acquainted with the whip,
they manifest fear of man in the most marked manner —
badger-dogs, in individual cases, in a sticking degree,
as Romanes reports, without their having ever been
whipped, so far as appears. How inherited endowment
is united here with individual experience we can not at
present say, for lack of facts. But that fear of man is
not originally present, but is introduced into many ani-
mals in common by inoculation through man's own
agency, appears from the behavior of many animals,
which in the wilderness unvisited by man are not in
the least shy, whereas their fellows of the same species,
where they are hunted, hide themselves with the great-
est caution, or flee, even when they are not j^ursued, if
they get scent of human beings. Of the graceful pha-
laropes, especially, I know this to be true, from per-
sonal observation. They have no fear at all of man in
the uninhabited interior of Iceland, where I frequently
observed them, whereas on the inhabited coast they are
anything but tame.
So, with man also, it is, on the one hand, ignorance
of danger, on the other hand, the becoming accustomed
to it, that makes him fearless.
7. Astonishment.
It is exceedingly difficult to determine the moment
when a human being is for the first time in his life as-
tonished. Surj)rise, which manifests itself by a reflex
movement of the arms, and that in the first week, after
a sudden loud noise, is essentially difierent from astoti-
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 173
ishment. And tbe great concentration of attention that
the infant bestows on his own lingers, after he lias be-
gun his attempts at touching and seizing (in the fourth
and fifth months), is different from the state of being
overpowered by a high degree of astonishment at some
new impression. But precisely at this period I could,
not seldom, distinguish accurately the astonishment of
the infant from that strain of attention — and this in the
twenty-second week. When the child was in a railway-
carriage, and I suddenly entered after a brief separation,
so that at the same moment he saw my face and heard my
voice, he lixed his gaze upon me for more than a min-
ute, with oi^en mouth (the lower jaw dropped), with
wide-open^ rnotionless eyes, and in other respects abso-
lutely immovable, exhibiting the typical image of as-
tonishment.
Just so he stared at a stranger (in the sixth and
seventh months), who suddenly entered the room, for
more than a minute, motionless, with open mouth and
eyes. In the eighth and ninth months these symptoms
seemed to be still more pronounced, and appeared not
unfrequently at new impressions of sight and sound —
not at new impressions of smell and taste — and in re-
markable uniformity. E. g., the child was thus aston-
ished in the thirty -first vreek at the clapping together
of a fan ; in the thirty-fourth, at an imitation of the
voices of animals ; in the forty-fourth, at a strange face
near ; in the fifty-second, at a new sound ; in the fifty-
eighth, at a lantern (after waking), I do not remember
to have perceived along with this a raising of the eye-
brows ; but this may have been overlooked on account
of its being slight at this early period. Often, when the
174 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
moutli was opf^ned, an ah was heard. The attitude of
the astonished child was in every case that which he had
in the moment just before the new impression. This
attitude was retained, witli eyes stretched wide apart
and with the mouth very widely open. But when a less
degree of astonishment than in the cases mentioned was
felt, then in every instance a pulsation of the eyelid or
a succession of such movements indicated wonder ; the
eyes, indeed, were opened wide, but not the mouth.
Toward the end of the second year, the symptoms
of the highest degree of astonishment made their ap-
pearance, in general, more seldom than before, espe-
cially the dro])ping of the lower jaw. It took more,
therefore, at this time, to turn the entire attention to a
single impression of sight or hearing so powerfully that
the lower jaw could not be kept up. The child had
been astonished too often, and had become accustomed
to the once new impressions.
The whole behavior of the child when astonished is
completely original with him, not being in the least
acquired by imitation or through training, for it was in
the fifth month at latest that his astonishment was of
the sort described. His immobihty is the consequence
of the sudden, powerful, new impression, and resembles
the cataplexy of animals, caused by the arrest of the
will through fright. For particulars, see my treatise on
" Cataplexy and Animal Hypnotism " ('' Die Kataplexie
und der thierische Hypnotismus," Jena, 1878).
Individual animals, however, may be astonished at
new impressions without being so frightened as to lose
their will completely. I have repeatedly seen a bird-
dog stand motionless before the stove-door, in which
THE EARLIEST ORGANIC SENSATIONS AND EMOTIONS. 175
there was isinglass, after the fire had been kindled,
staring at the tiaines and hearkening to the blowing
noise and the crackling. The dog was astonished, as a
child is at the fire in a stove, not yet knowing what
it is. Astonishment is certainly not an emotion pecul-
iar to mankind alone.
Animals experience also the mingling of fear and
astonishment, just as children do, especially when some
quite new and incomprehensible thing happens. Ro-
manes gives us (187^) the following observations, made
by himself, which he adduces as proofs that animals
form concepts, but which I use as proofs that fear and
astonishment are mingled when the understanding fails
— i. e., when insight into the connection of new per-
ceptions with old is lacking :
A dog was afraid of thunder, and became fright-
ened when one day a noise like thunder was made in
the house by pouring apples upon the floor of the gar-
ret. But when he was taken up there, and had seen
what occasioned the uproar, he was again as lively as
usual. Horses that are easily frightened behave in a
similar manner, showing fear only bo long as the
cause of a noise remains unknowii to them.
Another dog was in the habit of throwing dry bones
about, Romanes one day fastened a long, fine thread
to a bone, and while the dog was playing with the bone
began to draw this away slowly, standing apart. The
whole beanng of the dog changed ; he started aside, and
observed with terror how the bone seemed to move
of itself. The same dog was frightened by soap-bub-
bles on the floor, but touched one of them with his paw,
and when it vanished he ran away, manifestly horrified
176 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
bj tlie incomprehensible disappearance of tbe large
ball.
In these cases, just as in the examples of the child
above given (also p. 150), want of knowledge generates
fear, but at the same time the novelty of the impres-
sions generates astonishment. In the first case, fear
came tirst and disappeared in astonishment at the recog-
nized cause ; in the second, both were present together ;
in the third, astonishment came first, then fear, on ac-
count of lack of comprehension.
If we were to try these three experiments with little
children, we should certainly find many who would be-
have like the dogs— only it would not be easy to select
those of the right age. There is no doubt that astonish-
ment makes its appearance earher than fear.
CHAPTER YII.
SUMMAKY OF GENEEÄL RESULTS.
It is very difficult for the matured hun«m being to
place himself in thought in the condition of a child that
has had as yet no experiences, or only vague ones ; be-
cause every individual experience leaves in the brain,
without doubt, after the first epochs of growth are suc-
cessfully passed, an organic modification — as it were a
scar — so that the previous condition of the sensorium in
the newly-born, a condition as yet undisturbed by indi-
vidual impressions— affected only by the traces of the
experiences of past generations — can not be recon-
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. I77
stracted without employing the help of iuiagination.
For the mental state of each man is so much the prod-
uct of his experiences, tliat he can not picture himself
to himself at all as being without these experiences.
And yet 1 believe that, on the basis of the facts com-
prised in the previous chapters, something may be laid
down as probable.
With regard to sense activity in general, we may
note, as in the highest degree probable, that before birth
no sensation of light exists, no luminous image produced
by pressure on the eye, or by pulling upon the optic
nerve or the retina, and yet immediately after birth light
and darkness are distinguished. It is certain that no
sensation of smell is experienced before birth, and yet
the newly -born react upon strong-smelling substances in
the first hour of life. No human being, certainly, can
hear before birth ; but several hours (with animals half
an hour) after l)irth reflex movements upon strong im-
pressions of sound have been, in individual cases, regu-
larly demonstrated by me. A sensation of taste, in the
strict meaning of the word, can hardly be possessed by
the child before birth, but directly after birth he behaves
quite differently toward very bitter substances from
what he does toward sweet. Th'ere remains, then, only
the sense of touch, as a probably active one in the fa^tal
state. Yet the unborn human being, beyond a doubt,
is not in condition to distinguish warmth from cold.
Accordingly, unless general sensations may exist, it is
only sensations of contact that the hiunan being just
born has experienced before he comes into the world.
In regard to the development of the separate senses,
the following results are especially to be mentioned :
178 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
Seeing. — Tlie luiman child can not see, in tLe proper
meaning of tiie word, during tlie first weeks. At the
beginning, the child merely distinguishes light from
darkness, and discerns the change from one to the other
only when a large part of the field of vision is illumined
or shaded. But if the liglit object is much brighter
than the surroundings, as the flame of a candle in a dark
room, then it produces the sensation of light in the very
first week, even if the object be small.
The discrimination of colors is in the first months
exceedingly imperfect, and is, perhaps, restricted to tiie
discerning of unequal degrees of light. The first colors
to be rightly named are yellow and red, and the sensations
of brightness, white, gray, and black ; green and blue,
on the contrary, are not correctly named till much later.
Probably the child of one year continues to perceive
green and blue almost as gray, at any rate as not so dif-
ferent from each other as at a later period. A child will
hardly name correctly the four primitive colors men-
tioned before the end of the second year ; while, on
the other hand, every normal child will, in the fourth
year, even without special training of the color-sense,
recognize and name them better than the compound
colors.
The winking of the eyelid on a sudden approach to
the face is wanting in the first weeks, and is a reflex
movement of the nature of defense, which originates
only after a disagreeable feeling, in consequence of a
sudden hitherto unobserved change in the field of vis-
ion, has been able to be developed. Accordingly, the
rapid opening and shutting of the eyes is, from the sec-
ond month on, a sign of perfected sight, especially a
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 179
ßigjn of the perception of rapid movements. Further, it
is true in general, that the eyes are opened wider when
impressions and conditions are agreeable than when dis-
agreeable.
The eye-movements of new-born human beings are
not co-ordinated, not associated as they are later in dis-
tinct vision, but are in the first days predominantly
irregular ; yet it often happens that, among the mani-
fold unregulated movements of the eyes, there even ap-
pear turnings of both eyes at the same time to the left,
or to the right, or upward, or downward. These origi-
nally rare and not quite symmetrical eye-movements,
soon become more frequent and quite symmetrical, and
gradually displace the irregular movements entirely, be-
cause they favor clearer vision.
The " fixation " and distinct seeing of an oliject are
slowly developed. In the first stage the child stares
into empty space. In the second, he turns the eye fre-
quently from an object that is in the line of his gaze,
6. g., a face, to a remarkably bright object that emerges
near by, e. g., the flame of a candle, and then stares at
this. In the third stage he follows a slowly-moving ob-
ject with eye and head, or with the eyes only.
The transition from staring to looking is complete ;
that from looking to observing is attained in the fourth
stage. Accommodation is now efliected ; objects un-
equally distant from the eye are distinctly seen in suc-
cession, whereas, at the beginning, all seemed to be
blended in the same plane. The contraction of the pupil
comes with convergence of the lines of vision in seeing
near objects, whereas, at the beginning, the contraction
of the pupil to light, even without near vision, and
180 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
without convergence, is noticed, and dilated pupils are
often present along with convergence. The expression,
when there are convergence and binocular vision of a
slowly-moving object, is always " intelligent."
The longest delay of all in the child is in the gradual
development of the ability to interpret what is seen.
Transparency, lustre, shadow, are for years incompre-
hensible, and lose the mystery that chngs to them only
through very frequently repeated perception.
The thickness of objects seen remains long un-
known, and the third dimension of space becomes a
constituent part of perceptions late and imperfectly, in
comparison with the first two (the length and breadth).
The failures of attempts at seizing objects show
how imperfectly (even in the second and third years)
the estimate of distance still is ; the erroneous inter-
pretations of ordinary sight-impressions, as of steam
and flame, prove that the establishment of a relation be-
tween the impressions of touch and those of sight is
effected but slow^ly in the first years ; and that in par-
ticular the perception of the difiierence between a sur-
face-extension and an extension in three dimensions
begins late and is established slowly. Yet the ability to
recognize pictures of known objects and persons as such,
is develo])ed early.
As to the theory of space-perception, the facts prove
directly that there does not exist in the human being
immediately after birth a ready-made, inborn mechan-
ism to be set in regular activity by impressions of
light; but that the impressions themselves really de-
velop the inherited mechanism, which is but incomplete
at birth. In this the empirical theory is correct. The
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. ISl
foundations only are innate, not the entire apparatus.
And yet this proposition can by no means be admitted
to be exclusive, to be invariably true. It is true for
mankind ; but, on the other hand, many animals that
see at birth — especially chickens and pigs, but many
others, too — bring with them into the world a mechanism
for space-perception that is completely capable of per-
fonning its function — that needs only some luminous
impressions in order to operate at once nearly or quite
as perfectly as in the adult animal. In this case, which
supports the most extreme nativism (see p. 34), the
possibility of any considerable perfecting of sight by
practice on the part of individuals is, it would seem,
excluded, to begin with ; the chicken, which, when
just hatched, pecks accurately at a grain of millet
does not learn to see much better through frequent
seeing. Man, on the contrary, learns, from the time
of birth on, to see better day by day, and, even
in later life, can, by much seeing, vastly improve
his visional apparatus in more than one direction. The
hereditary mechanism is, therefore, stiU plastic in him —
still highly capable of differentiation — because not so
far advanced and one-sidedly developed as in the fowl,
which is sharp-sighted immediately after being hatched,
ha^^ng a visual organ tliat is complete, and no longer
so plastic, and also relatively much larger.
Hearing. — The hearing of the new-born child is so
imperfect that it mast be called deaf. All mam-
mals are also incapable of reacting upon impressions
of sound immediately after birth. The cause of this
peculiarity is partly peripheral. Previous to respiration,
air is wanting in the middle ear, and the outer auditory
14
182 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
passage is not yet permeable, the tympanum being set
too obliquely.
Even after the sound-conducting parts of the ear
have become open, from a quarter of a day to several
days after birth, there is no discrimination of sounds ;
but before the end of the first week we notice, in nor-
mal children, the characteristic winking of the eyelid
after a sudden loud noise. The starting at powerful
sound-impressions, which continues for several months,
proves the growth of the faculty of hearing. Mean-
while, although particular kinds of sounds, not pre-
viously observed, are perceived as different even in
the first months of life — e.g., deep voices and high
voices, hissing sounds and «-sounds, singing and speak-
ing — still, it is three quarters of a year, at least, before
a child knows the notes of the piano, and it is question-
able whether he can learn to name correctly ^, c?, e,/", g,
Ö5, h before the end of the second year. Many children,
notwithstanding, learn to sing before they talk, and all
distinguish the noises and tones of speech long before
they can produce them themselves. At the same time
the intensity of the sound-impression made, in the case
of great differences, is recognized by the attentive ob-
server, by the varying liveliness of the reflexes, even in
sleep. The direction of the sound is perceived by the
child as early as the second and the third month.
The great superiority of the ear to the eye, from the
psychogenetic point of view, is but slightly prominent
upon superficial observation of the child that does not
yet speak; but we need only compare a child born
blind with one born deaf, after both have enjoyed the
most careful training and the best instruction, to be
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 183
convinced that, after the first year, the excitements of
tlie auditory nerve contribute far more to the psychical
development than do those of the optic nerve.
Further, many mammals and fowls are provided,
at their entrance into the world, with a more developed,
much more correctly-working auditory apparatus than
that of man, and are far superior in perception of pitch,
intensity, and direction of sound, to the human child ;
but in no animal is the cerebral portion of the organ of
hearing capable of so fine differentiation after birth,
for none reacts with anything near the precision with
which the child reacts upon the subtile variations of in-
tensity and quality of the sounds of human speech.
Sensibility to contact is, in the first hour of life,
much inferior to what it is later ; the sense of temjiera-
ture does not yet exist. The latter probably leads, but
not till after repeated alternations of warm baths and the
cooling off of the whole surface of the skin and of par-
ticular places, to discrimination of the sensations " hot,
warm, cool, cold," inasmuch as the neutral point of the
temperature of the skin, always the same before birth,
can not at once be established.
To painful assaults that reach only a few nerves of
the skin, the newly-born show an inferior degree of
sensibility ; yet it can not be doubted that they are
capable of highly unpleasant sensations after they have
exhibited unambiguous signs of comfort (in nursing and
in the warm bath).
The inferior degree of sensibility to contact, as well
as to temperature and to pain, in the newly-born, are to
be referred (as with the foetus) to the as yet incomplete
development of the brain, not of the skin. On the con-
184 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
trarj, the nerves of the skin are very excitable, no doubt
because thej alone, of all the nerves of sense, are very
frequently excited before birth, the movements of the
child causing contact at many points of the skin.
Taste. — Of all the organs of sense that of taste is best
developed in the new-born child at birth. Sweet is at
once distinguished from bitter, sour, or salt, and the sour
gives a different sensation from the bitter. Here we
have one of the cases, rare in mankind, of innate ca-
pacity to distinguish among qualities in the same de-
partment of sense. Many animals can likewise imme-
diately after birth distinguish sweet from other tastes.
On the other hand, the ability to distinguish unequal
intensities of taste is very slightly developed in the
child at the beginning of life.
Smell. — Probably the newly-born can not smell any-
thing immediately on its entrance into the world, because
the cavity of the nose has been previous^ filled up with
amniotic fluid ; and in the adult, when the cavity has
been filled with liquid, there is for some time inability
to smell, or a dullness of the sense of smell. But, after
some hours, and it may be even in the first hour after
birth, normal children can distinguish between agree-
able and disagreeable smells. Of many animals, it is
known that they do not delay to make use of their sense
of smell when the nasal cavity has once been filled with
air by breathing. And the normal child, too, early dis-
tinguishes clearly different kinds of milk ; accordingly,
he very likely distinguishes some odors at the end of
the first day of life.
Feelings. — As to the feelings of the child in the first
period of life, it is certain that they are not manifold, in-
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 185
deed (because the activity of tlie senses is still incom-
plete), but tliey may be very intense. Every sensation,
when it is compared with a different sensation, produces
a feeling. All feelings are either agreeable or disagree-
able. In the lirst case, tliey awaken in the child the de-
sire for a repetition of the sensation concerned, since the
very lack of the agreeable produces discomfort ; in the
second case, the desire for repetition is not stirred. It is,
however, a peculiarity of all agreeable feelings that, after
a certain duration, they are no longer agreeable, doubtless
because they depend u23on excitations of the ganglionic
cells, and tliese cells are soon fatigued when they are
intensely excited — i. e., when the feeling is very vivid.
In little children this is shown by the rapid change in
what they think desirable.
The feelings that are not agreeable are either dis-
agreeable or indifferent. The former are wont to be
expressed by vigorous, loud expirations of the breath,
by cries, and, even at the earliest period, by an unmis-
takable play of the countenance, especially by the shape
the mouth takes.
Little as is known thus far of the emotions and feel-
ings of the young child, one thing may, however, be de-
clared as certain — that these are the first of all psychical
events to appear with definiteness, and that they deter-
mine the behavior of the child. Before a sure sign of
will, of memory, judgment, inference, in the proper
sense, is found, ihe feelings have expressed themselves
in direct connection with the first excitations of the
nerves of sense, and before the sensations belonging to
the special departments of sense can be clearly dis-
tinguished as specifically different. But through repe-
1S6 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
tition of feelings, opposed in character, are gradually
unfolded memory, power of abstraction, judgment, and
inference.
The most powerful agent in the development of the
understanding at the beginning is astonishment, together
with the fear that is akin to it.
Out of the desire of everything that has once occa-
sioned pleasurable feelings is gradually developed the
child's will.
SECOND PART.
DEVELOPMENT OF WILL.
Activity of will is possible only after perceptions
have been bad. What is desirable must necessarily have
been set off from what is to be repelled, through re-
peated comparison of sensations, before willing can show
itself. For whoever wills, knows what he wills and
what he does not will ; has previously ascertained what
is to him desirable and what is repulsive. The new-
born child knows nothing of this, and hence has as yet
no will. He has not yet had any experiences in regard
to his own states ; has not compared any sensations ;
perceived anything of the external world ; and so has
obtained no knowledge of what will be to him agreeable
or disagreeable. He who wills has gained this knowl-
edge through his own experience, and regulates accord-
ingly his behavior — i. e., his movements.
In order to follow the very slow transition, accom-
plished not by steps but in a continuous flow, from the
one condition to the other, all movements made by the
human being while he is still feeble must, as far as pos-
sible, be observed, with the question in view, how far
they may be expressions of a will.
I therefore put together, in this second part, my ob-
188 THE MIND or THE CHILD.
servations toncliiug the movements of the child, and
some conchisions that follow directly from them, bear-
ing upon the formation of the will.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MOVEMENTS OF THE CHILD AS EXPRESSIONS OF WILL.
It is only through movements that the will directly
expresses itself. The possibility of recognizing the will
of the child in his movements must, therefore, be estab-
lished, and the manifold character of the child's move-
ments be set forth, before we consider the observations
upon the gradual development of will.
1. Recognition of the Child's Will.
Widely different as are the phenomena within the
domain of will, that owe their origin directly to it, every
expression of will is first recognized in movements, viz.,
words, acts, looks, gestures. ]^ot every spoken sound,
nor every act performed, nor every look or gesture, is
the expression of an act of will : for sleeping persons
can talk ; somnambulists do various things without will-
ing, without knowing what they do ; and expressions of
countenance may be produced artificially, by electrical
stimulus, in opposition to the influence of the will ; and
infants that have no will often make gestures, the sig-
nificance of which as expressions of will (to adults) is
wholly unknown to them. But, conversely, it is true
strictly and universally, that the will, in the ordinary
sense, during its development, announces itseK only
MOVEMENTS AS EXPEESSIONS OF WILL. 189
throiigli tlie language of words, acts, looks, and gest-
ures.
After its first stages of development it can reveal
itself indirectly, also, by the opposite means, to wat,
by the suppression of these very movements. No one
doubts tliat a man is capable of expressing his will in-
directly by silence and by inactivity, without altering
his countenance and without gestures, precisely by the
inhibition of movements. In this, however, we have to
do, not with a particular kind of willing which is to be
classed with those positive expressions of will that have
been spoken of, but we have to do with the exact op-
posite. It is clear that in all these cases in which the
will has been already much developed beforehand, the
person that inhibits the movement is in the state of non-
willing, noluntas, or nolentia, in contrast with voluntas.
To this state of being-unwilling belongs the voluntary
inhibition of a movement, this inhibition being nothing
else than the non-willing of the movement. Non-wiU-
ing is not, however, characterized by the absence of
symptoms of willing, as the mere negation of that, but
is a pecuhar condition of excitement in that it checks a
movement, or is intended to check one.
The will-apparatus, or the complex organism of cen-
tro-motor structures of the highest rank, which is to be
looked for in the cerebrum, must be so organized that,
when it is in activity, some muscular contraction results ;
when it is not active, either nothing happens, because
there are no ideas (without prejudice to the possibility
of immediate activity of will in case a motor idea pre-
sents itself), or nothing can happen, because the ap-
paratus is brought to a standstill by other ideas. This
190 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
last is the state of inhibition, which, as so-called volun-
tary inhibition or nolition, also controls, from the brain
outward, motor centers of lower rank (in part).
To the state of willing is opposed, in general, the
state of not-willing ; in particular, the state of inhibition
of a movement. Not-willing is the excluding or con-
tradictory opposite of willing ; inhibition in the physi-
ological sense, the contrary opposite of willing. An
illustration will make this clear. Take a bar of soft
iron and make it magnetic by means of an electric cur-
rent that incloses it, and it attracts another piece of
iron ; but let a second electric current of the proper
strength, in a second spiral wire, circulate around the
bar in an opposite direction to the first, and the bar no
longer attracts the iron. When this second inhibitory
current is interrupted, then the attraction is present
again. Here the attraction of the iron represents a
muscular movement in the condition of willing ; the
non-attraction represents muscular rest in the condition
of not-willing ; while in general a bar of iron does not
attract another, so, too, in a particular case, a bar of
iron encircled by two properly -graded electric currents
having opposite directions, likewise does not attract
another, but regains its magnetism at once when the
second current ceases. Thus, when a child expresses no
will — i. e., makes no voluntary movement — two cases
are to be distinguished from each other : either the child
has as yet no will, or he checks his movements with a
will already much developed : he wills, namely, that a
movement shall not be made. As soon as the inhibition
or nolition passes away, movement appears again, in ease
the antecedents of it in the brain have not in the mean
MOVEMENTS AS EXPRESSIONS OF WILL. 191
time vanished. For volimtarj inlnbition has influence
in general only on those muscles the nerves of which
are in organic connection with the cerebrum, the seat of
the will.
This distinction between willing and voluntary inhi-
bition may seem an idle one, but it is necessary, because
it refutes the notion that one can will a non-activity.
One can merely will-not-to-be, inhibit, prevent activity ;
for it lies in the nature of willing to be always positive.
It can, therefore, be recognized only by positive expres-
sions ; where these are wanting, we are authorized to
deny its actual presence, and we have then to investigate
not- willing (or willing not-to-be, or not-to-act).
Now, according to experience, the expressions of will
are four only — word, act, look, gesture. If, then, it is
to be ascertained whether a child is in the state of will-
ing, at least one of the four forms of expression must
be proved by observation to be present. Failing in this,
we must conclude that, invariably, at the time of ob-
servation, the individual observed was demonstrably not
in the state of willing.
But, granting that we succeed, the inference as to
the presence of the will continues still to be uncertain,
inasmuch as in some circumstances the phenomena
mentioned appear without will. Hence, we need more
exact criteria.
In the first place, it is settled that all willing is rec-
ognized exclusively by movements of contractile parts
of the willing being — in man and the higher animals
by muscular contractions induced by excitement of
nerves. But there are various classes of nervo-muscular
movements, and in beings of low order without nerves
192 TUE MIND OF THE CHILD.
and muscles there are movements of contractile tissues
to which choice can not in advance be denied. Finally,
in all cases where a contractile tissue exists, direct stimu-
lus of this is capable of producing contraction, which
may take precisely the same course as if, instead of the
artificial stimulus, the will itself had caused it.
In order to ascertain in the midst of these manifold
movements of contractile stixictures those to which the
predicate " willed " applies, we should be obliged to
have an objective sign once for all present in those very
movements, and wanting in all others. But such a cri-
terion can not be given.
Only subjective means of distinguishing can be
given, and the four following are, in my view, charac-
teristic :
1. Every willed movement is preceded directly by
ideas, one of which, finally, as cause of the movement,
acquires motor force.
2. Every willed movement is previously known in
general, or in its kind, to the one who executes it, and
it has —
3. An aim, more or less clearly represented in his
mind ; finally, the movement may —
4. Even at the instant of the rise of the voluntary
impulse, be inhibited by new ideas.
The three first-named signs accompany every wuled
movement ; the last makes its appearance only after the
will is completely formed, and stamps the willed move-
ments as voluntary in the stricter sense.
Every movement to which these four characteristics
do not apply is involuntary. Accordingly, all muscular
movements of man may, in fact, be distinguished as
MOVEMENTS AS EXPRESSIONS OF WILL. 193
willed and not-willed, voluntary and involuntary. Many
willed movements are executed by adults involuntarily
also — e. g., talking in sleep ; many involuntary move-
ments voluntarily, especially by actors ; but, for all that,
the essential difference of the two remains. For the im-
pulse to an involuntary movement has somethilig added
to it wlien it is changed into a voluntary ; and the im-
pulse to a voluntary movement has something subtracted
from it when it becomes involuntary. This something
is precisely the purely psychical element of the previous
motor idea, the knowledge of the movement and of its
aim, and the possibility of its being inhibited by new
ideas.
When do these attributes appear in the child?
The answer to this question, as I shall attempt to
give it, presupposes that shortly before birth, and m a
higher degree immediately after birth, the motor cen-
ters possess a variable excitability, of such a sort that
in certain conditions, especially the first agreeable ones,
they supply fewer motor impulses ; in certain other con-
ditions — the first disagreeable ones — they supply more
such impulses. By this the irregular, manifold, inborn
movements of the very young babe are influenced neces-
sarily — e. g., they are increased in the condition of hun-
ger ; and this influence appears as the manifestation of
an innate faculty of desire, so called. The movements
continue until tlie increased excitability (e. g., that
caused by hunger) is lessened. Then the assumed desire
seems satisfied. With repeated variation in the central
excitability (due purely to organic causes — nutrition,
supply of oxygen, etc.), the feeling that now appears,
of satisfied or unsatisfied desire, will work upon the
194 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
motor central organs in opposite ways, and will impart
to the innate movements the character of longing or
of repulsion. But these movements can not be trans-
formed into willed movements until ideas are formed.
Thus the will does not arise out of nothing, and does
not pre-exist as such, but is developed out of that desire,
which on its part is not a fundamental, simple function
of the ganglionic cell, but the result of the variations in
the excitability of that cell by means of feelings and
then of ideas. The wall, as such, is not inborn, but it
is hereditary/ The variable excitability of the motor
central organs, and, associated with that, a succession of
primitive (impulsive) movements, which adults desig-
nate as movements of " longing," and ascribe to a fac-
ulty of desire ; this is inborn in every one as the hrst
germ of willing. The question is. When does this germ
manifest itself in such a way that no doubt can exist of
the presence of wall ?
Evidently we must, in order to find the answer, test
the normal infant, proceeding chronologically in our
experiments, to ascertain whether a new movement, as,
e. g., the first grasping at an object seen, is accidental
or intentional ; i. e., whether the grasping movement is
known to the child that desires as well as grasps, and
whether its aim actually hovers before him. But even
then the movement is not yet necessarily voluntary. It
is so, however, when it can be omitted ; say, on account
of the idea of disagreeable consequences.
Although the discovery of the appearance of such
activity of will in the child has an element of uncer-
tainty in it, because it comes at a time when verbal lan-
guage is still wanting, yet the determination of the first
MOVEMENTS AS EXPRESSIONS OF WILL. I95
instance of excitement in non-willing is raucli more dif-
Hcult. Here, however, the earliest independent inhibi-
tion of accustomed movements presents something for
us to laj hold of.
Both taken together — the development of will in
the actually-executed movements of the child, and the
development of non-willing in the inhibition of fre-
quently-repeated movements — furnish the foundation
for the formation of character. Both demand for their
investigation, above all, a careful observation of the
movements of the child from the beginning of its Hfe.
No one has up to the present time even attempted this.
2. Classification of the Child's Movements.
A principle of classification for the movements of
the human being, sufficient for all actual cases, has not
yet been found. I must, therefore, attempt a new one,
in order simply that the movements of the child that
appear in the first years of life may be brought into
groups for a synoptical presentation.
If in this scheme of classification we regard the pro-
cess immediately preceding the movement as the ex-
clusive criterion of distinction, then there will be four
different kinds of movements, according to the com-
plexity of this process, to be separated from one another
— movements of the first, second, third, and fourth rank
— further movements may be derived from these, as
will appear in what follows.
The accompanying diagram will serve for illustra-
tion. It lays claim only to a general significance — i. e.,
it is true anatomically only of the relation of each case
to the following case :
196
THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
V
E represents the extremities of all the nerves of sense (in the eye, ear,
mouth, nose, skin).
E S, the nerves of sense in their course (e. g., the paths of the optic
nerve, auditory nerve, cutaneous nerves, in the upper portion of the pe-
duncle of the cerebrum).
S, the lower sensory centers (e. g., optic thalami, corpora quadrigemi-
na, corona radiata).
G, the higher sensory or emotional centers in the cerebral cortex (pa-
rietal region).
V, the ideational centers in the cerebral cortex.
W, the higher motor or volitional centers (centro-motor and inhibitory)
in the cortex also.
M, the lower motor centers.
P, the extremities of the motor nerves (muscles).
I. Impulsive Movement. — These may be distin-
guished from all other movements by this, that they
are caused without previous peripheral excitement, ex-
clusively by the nutritive and other organic processes
that go on in the motor centers of the lowest rank
(M P). They are movements which tlie foetus already
MOVEMENTS AS EXPRESSIONS OF WILL. I97
executes, and earlier than anj others, at a time when,
as it can not possibly be incited to movement by periph-
eral stimulus, its centripetal paths are not yet prac-
ticable or not yet formed at all, and the ganglionic
cells from which the excitations proceed are not yet
developed. After birth such purely centro-motor im-
pulses may continue long after complete development
of the centers, especially in sleep. All these move-
ments are unconscious.
II. Reflex Movements. — These require peripheral ex-
citation — i. e., sense-impressions and centripetal, inter-
central, and centrifugal paths (R S M P) ; they make
their first appearance, therefore, in the embryo of the
higher animals, after two sorts at least of centers of
lower rank connected with each other are formed —
sensory and motor. All reflex movements, in normal
conditions, follow the sense - impression with great
promptness and become conscious only after they have
taken place.
III. Instinctive Movements. — These likewise re-
quire the presence of certain sense-impressions, and of
at least three sorts of centers that have morphological
connection with one another. Lower sensory, higher sen-
sory, and lower motor centers must co-operate, in order
that the simplest instinctive movement may take place
(R S G M P). For these movements arise only after
a sensation, and then an emotion, that supplied the
motor impulse, have preceded. The instinctive move-
ment must be preceded by a condition for which I find
no more fitting designation than the word disposition
{Stim.mung). Yet the development of the ganglionic
cells of the cerebral cortex is not required for all in-
15
198 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
stinctive movements — e. g., for sucking, wliicli on that
account comes near to the genuine reflexes. All in-
stinctive movements have an aim, but are unconscious,
as such, before and while they take place ; and all are
hereditary. Accordingly, when a human being or an
animal executes a movement that was never executed
by his ancestors, this movement can not be instinctive.
This serves to distinguish instinctive from other move-
ments, though it is to be borne in mind that many
movements of the child may have been executed by
his ancestors, which are not in the least instinctive.
The ideo-motor movements of Carpenter are instinctive
movements that lack the characteristic of heredity.
TV. Ideational ( Vorgestellte) Movements. As the
lowest form and the point of departure of this group, al-
ready characterized, are to be taken imitative movements
or copies of others. These are necessarily dependent on
sense-perceptions, and require at least four sorts of cen-
ters — lower and higher sensory, and lower and higher
motor (KSGVWMPandVWMP; five, therefore,
when G and Y are separated). The centrifugal paths
probably go, according to Meynert, all of them, from the
cortex through the corpora striata and the lower por-
tion of the peduncle of the cerebrum, but according to
others directly also to the anterior columns of the spinal
marrow. For the production of the most simple imita-
tion, and so of the simplest ideational movement, the
sense -impression must be previously elaborated as to
time, space, and cause, i. e., wrought out to the forma-
tion of an idea, and this idea then works with motor
force ; it is determinative for the excitement of the
motor centers and the muscles that reproduce the sense-
MOVEMENTS AS EXPRESSIONS OF WILL. I99
impression. Imitations are, therefore, in tlie normal
waking condition, always conscious ; they can be uncon-
scious only in various conditions of partial sleep. But
in this case many conscious imitations have gone before.
A participation on the part of the cerebral cortex is
certain, whereas all movements of the first and second,
and many of the third rank, take place without that.
From these four kinds of movement of the child
may be derived all other centro-motor movements —
passive and peripheral, caused by artificial stimulus of
the motor nerves in their course are not considered —
since we may suppose not only the expressive move-
ments, but also the whole of the specifically voluntary,
i. e., deliberate movements, to have arisen partly out
of the frequent repetition, concurrence, and union of
the four kinds named, partly from modifications of
these according to the variation in the sense-impressions,
feelings, and ideas. Physical causes only lie at the
foundation of the first two kinds of movement ; the
last two have also psychical causes. Inhibitions of the
discharges of motor impulses in the child whose will is
completely developed, come to pass, as in the adult, in
the following manner :
(l)RSM, (2)RSWM, (3) RS GM,
(4)RSGAV]VI, (5)RSGVWM,
and after very frequent repetition also without an im-
mediately preceding excitement of the nerves of sense,
R S, of which later.
No direct causes of the child's movements can be
named beyond these four: (1), central, purely physical,
stimuli ; (2), peripheral, purely physical, stimuli ; (3),
feelings ; (4), ideas. They correspond to the above
200 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
groups. If, notwithstanding, the expressive, or expres-
sional movements, and the deliberate movements, are
hereafter treated by themselves, it is because of merely
external reasons, in order not to complicate too much
the presentation of the facts, a matter difficult at best.
The intentional, voluntary, deliberate movements can
not be separated physiologically from others, because no
decisive objective criterion of distinction can be given ;
on the contrary, an involuntary movement becomes
voluntary, simply by taking on something psychical, a
particular activity of the central organs of the highest
rank, which alters nothing in the movement itself (un-
less by incidentally delaying it somewhat and making
it less harmonious). In truth, a physical difference no
more exists between a voluntary and an artihcial, electri-
cal, nervo-muscular excitation than between the vibra-
tions of the air from a vowel-sound sung and one arti-
ficially produced. The cock of the gun once set going,
the shot follows invariably in the same fashion, no
matter whether it was willed or not, whether it had an
aim or not.
Only the muscular movements before birth, and in
the earliest period after birth, take a somewhat different
course from that of the later ones ; for, according to
Soltmann, the excitability of the motor nerves of the
newly-born is inferior to that of adults, and does not
surpass that in domestic mammalia until several weeks
after birth. The muscles of the newly-born are like the
wearied muscles of adults. With this is doubtless con-
nected the peculiar sluggishness of the movements in the
earliest period — a sluggishness that forms the greatest
contrast to the vivacity of a later period, and that is inter-
IMPULSIVE MOVEMENTS. 201
rupted in tlie transition period (as in the ease of the
marmot waking from his winter sleep) by surprising
stretchings of the arms and legs, following one another
almost in jerks.
CHAPTER IX.
IMPULSIVE MOVEMENTS.
Although the movements of the extremities in the
unborn and the just-born child lack a characteristic mark
by which these movements might at once be recognized
as impulsive, they must, as must all later impulsive
movements, be sharply distinguished from the reflex,
the instinctive, the imitative, and other ideational move-
ments, because they lack all the characteristic signs of
the latter, as the following comparison will show :
The movements of the arms and legs of the fostus
and of the newly-born are of a reflex character, when a
peripheral stimulus, be it only contact w^ith the wall of
the uterus, immediately precedes them. But how does
the first movement of the embryo come to pass ? That
it can not be occasioned by passive contact has been
proved to me by means of a close observation of the
chick in the ^^g — the creature moves of itself, as I
found, from the beginning of the fifth day. Here oc-
cur first only movements of the trunk, then also of the
extremities and head — exactly as in the unharmed em-
bryo of the trout, and like what occurs in the embryo
of the frog in the q,^^^ — without the least change in the
surroundings, and long before the reflex excitability is
202 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
present at all, tlie details of whicli are given in my book
on the " Physiology of the Embryo."
The cause of these remarkable primitive movements
of the trmik in unborn animals must exist in the animals
themselves, therefore, and can not be derived from a re-
action of the superficial portions upon the central ones.
The same must be the case with the human embryo.
The impulsive movements are not instinctive, be-
cause they have no aim. They can not be designated
as directly useful or advantageous, appearing, as they do,
in an extremely irregular manner, nor can they, in gen-
eral, be styled movements answering to a purpose. It
happens, in fact, that the very young child, by throwing
his arms and legs violently about, directly harms him-
self. In sleep he strikes his eye with his hand, rolls
himself aimlessly hither and thither when fast asleep,
so that he beats his head against the hard wood, and
wakes himself up, or cries out in a dream. Once I saw
my child (of sixteen months), when sound asleep, sud-
denly raise his left hand and put it against his left eye,
evidently by pure accident, so that the lid was raised.
The child slept on with one eye open — the pupil much
contracted — for a long time, and then removed his hand
without waking, just as accidentally, upon which the
lid dropped again. The eye did not move, notwith-
standing the stimulus of the light. In this case the
convulsive raising of the arm first into the air and then
to the eye is to be called impulsiv^e and almost danger-
ous, but not instinctive ; besides, all purely instinctive
movements are co-ordinated, the impulsive movements
— the greater part of them — not co-ordinated.
The impulsive movements can not be exjpressive, for
IMPULSIVE MOVEMENTS. 203
the reason that, before birth, states of feeling which
might be expressed by these are not to be assumed, and
the presumable seat of such excitations in the brain —
in fact, the whole brain — may be wanting without the
appearance of the least change in the impulsive move-
ments of the extremities, as I have proved in the case of
the animal embryo, and as has been demonstrated by the
movements of headless and brainless human abortions.
Neither does the attribute voluntary apply to them, be-
cause no ideas, as yet, exist of their possible results ; nor
the term imitative, because a model is wanting. More-
over, Soltmann has proved, by many experiments, that
in the new-born dog, after manifold stimulus of the
cerebral cortex no movements at all of the muscles of
the extremities — the face, neck, back, belly, or tail — are
produced, but that, on the contrary, these appear only
from the tenth day, after the animals have got their
sight. Corresponding to this, the destruction of the
parts answering to the motor departments of the cor-
tex in older animals had also no effect in creatures from
one to nine days old. No ataxy followed — no paraly-
sis or disturbance of the muscular sense, or the like, even
up to the time when the electric excitability of the brain
existed. The muscular movements of new-born blind
dogs are thus, for this very reason, quite independent of
the gray cerebral cortex, as well as of peripheral stimu-
lus — i. e., they are impulsive.
There is nothing left but to assume a cause of the
impulsive movements that is internal, given in the or-
ganic constitution of the motor ganglionic cells of the
spinal marrow, and connected, in the early embryonic
stages, with the differentiation and the growth of those
204 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
structures and of the muscular system. With the for-
mation of the motor ganglionic cell in the spinal mar-
row and cervical marrow a certain quantity of potential
energy must accumulate, which, by means of the flow of
blood or of lymph, or possibly through the rapidly ad-
vancing formation of tissue, is, with remarkable ease,
ti'ansformed into kinetic energy.
DilScult as it is to specify with certainty, in later
life, movements of the human being that take place
without peripheral excitement of any sort, direct or in-
direct, here we have them. And it is Avorthy of notice
that impulsive movements, which outnumber others be-
fore birth and perpetually appear in all the newly-born,
diminish even during the nursing period, and withdraw
in proportion as the will develops, until finally, with
ever-increasing voluntary inhibition of the original
youthful impulse of movement, such muscular activity
appears, in the adult, almost solely in dreamless sleep.
In the text-books hardly any notice is to be found of
these peculiar centro-motor excitations, yet these are
precisely of the very highest importance in the forma-
tion of the will. Alexander Bain alone has (1S59)
distinguished them definitely from other movements.
He calls them automatic and spontaneous ; but, as he
reckons among these the movements that result from
muscular sensations also, in young children and animals
— movements which are to be referred to the condition
of the muscles, and so to peripheral excitations — I can
not entirely agree with him ; for I give the name of
"purely impulsive," and have given it (in my treatise
" Psychogenesis," * 1880) exclusively to the muscular
* See "Jour. Spec. Phil," April, 1881, for English translation.— Ed.
IMPCLSIVE MOVEMENTS. 205
contractions, proceeding from the f(jetal constitution of
the motor centers, that take place before centripetal
stimuli operate, and so before muscular sensations can
exist and assert themselves in stimulating movement.
The number of such movements is not great. Aside
from those of the unborn, which are not to be taken into
account here, the following may be specified : The out-
stretching and bending of the arms and legs of the child
just born, with movements sometimes quick, sometimes
slow, generally non- coordinated, often co-ordinated, is
nothing else than a continuation of the. intra-uterine
movements, and has, according to my observations, a
striking resemblance to the extensions and flexions of the
limbs of animals suddenly waking from their deep win-
ter sleep. These, like sleeping children (and, indeed, in
the first half of the second year it is still plainly marked),
make genuine fuetal movements, which look as if they
were directed against some invisible resistance. Con-
vulsive motion is generally not so frequent in sleep as
slow contractions, along with spreading and bending of
the fingers, movements which likewise become more
rare toward the end of the second year (probably with
all sound children), and are from the beginning mostly
asymmetrical.
The stretching of the limbs immediately after
waking, which I have seen repeatedly in the second
week, is often not distinguishable from these move-
ments. It remains for years almost unchanged. In the
twentieth month I saw it appear well marked, without
being followed by waking.
The movements of the eyes before opening them at
waking, especially the lateral turnings of the pupil, are
206 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
impulsive. I have seen tlj.ese movements, wliicli can
not be dependent on liglit, even in adults. The pupils
moved rapidly under the lids this way and that, and
indeed asymmetrically also. The lids, too, were mean-
while half opened, without any interruption of the snor-
ing (in the second month).
The movements of the newly-born and of the infant
in the bath, which has very nearly the same warmth
as the amniotic fluid that perpetually surrounds the
child before birth, can not be regarded as simply reflex-
ive in character. We may, indeed, see in them already
the beginning of expressive movements, especially ex-
pressions of pleasure, the more so since they are regu-
larly accompanied by an extremely contented expression
of countenance (protrusion of the lips also) ; but these
movements in the bath are for a long time (so late as
the fourth month) — the greater part of them — just as
purposeless, senseless, and asymmetric as on the first
day. Sometimes the trunk also takes part in them,
with half twnstings and raisings, and this as early as the
second month.
There is nothing expressive in this. The infant is
accustomed, also, as late as in the period from the fourth
to the sixth month, just as on the first day, when he is
left to himself, in the warm bath and in falling asleep,
to give to his arms and legs by preference the same posi-
tion almost that they had before birth. The position
of the legs continues to be that of the foetus even much
longer. The muscular contractions required for that are
impulsive.
A further impulsive muscular activity is brought to
our acquaintance by observation of the play of feature,
IMPULSIVE MOVEMENTS. 207
still empty of meaning, in sleeping babes. They very
often move tlie facial muscles witliout waking, especially
the lips and eyelids, and, indeed, for the most part, with
bilateral symmetry, although grotesquely, and this with-
out any intermption of their snoring.
Babes that are awake also strike very vigorously
about them with, their arms (in the third quarter of the
first year) quite aimlessly, while for the legs, as a rule,
more frequently, in bed and bath especially, there is a
pretty symmetrical alternation of stretching and bending.
Yet it must be noted that the bilaterally symmeti-i-
cal movement of the facial muscles and of the arms in
reflexes appears very much earlier and is more pro-
noimced than that of the legs. And the abductions,
adductions, supinations, and rotations of the arms un-
questionably appear plainly at an earlier period than do
those of the legs in manifold variety. In the case of
a very vigorous child, I saw that even in the first half-
hour of its life the lips were protruded, and the mouth
opened and shut, with perfect co-ordinate symmetry.
The corrugation of tlie forehead, and the screwing up
of the eyes, in the first hour of life, however, is not
always impulsive ; the latter, especially, is often of a
reflex character. Only the strange asymmetrical grim-
aces of new-born children when awake ai*e probably
purely impulsive. In connection v»'ith this, I have been
surprised at the immobility of the nose, which I have
not seen moved earlier than in the seventh month ; of
course, I except the very early dilating of the nostrils
by means of the levator alee nasi, as a reflex and an
accompanying movement in snoring, sucking, and dif-
ficult breathing.
208 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
Crowing and other similar exercises of tlie voice are
in the first year to be regarded in many cases as dis-
charges of accumulated motor impulses, which, as well
as the squeaking of new-born animals, and the peeping
of the chick in the egg, can not have their origin merely
in peripheral excitement. Precisely as the muscles of
the arms and legs, of the face and of the eyes, so those
of respiration, of the tongue, and of the larnyx are set
in activity without purpose by a centro-motor impulse.
In the first year the exercise of the muscles is with all
healthy children the beneficial result of such animation,
which, considered in itself, seems entirely purposeless.
An adult lying on his back could not make these per-
sistent movements, that are made by the seven-to-twelve
months child, without a decided feeling of fatigue ; and,
when we consider that the child, in addition, turns his
head attentively, and cries at every noise, at every
change in his neighborhood, the total of the nervous
excitements seems relatively much greater in the one-
year-old child than in the adult, who makes fewer super-
fluous movements, and has become dull to ordinary
sense-impressions.
Here belong, further, " accompanying "movements
made by little children.
In. individual cases it can hardly be determined
whether movements wholly useless (like those described
on pages 23 and 24). especially of the facial muscles,
are merely impulsive, or are the remains of an extinct
instinct, or are accompanying-movements. We have
an example in the holding out of the little finger apart
from the others at the first attempts of the child to carry
the soup-spoon to the mouth without help. In the
IMPULSIVE MOVEMENTS. 209
eighteenth month this graceful movement was executed
by my boy without the least incitement, and without any
one's having made the movement before in his neigh
borhood, absolutely " of himself." Surprising as it
seemed at the beginning — it occurred often from that
time on — I can not admit that an imitation of unknown
examples is at the bottom of this, because the cliild did
not give the least attention to his hnger, but, on the
contrary, was wholly absorbed in carrying the contents
of the spoon to his mouth. The extending of the little
finger straight into the air probably came in as an ac-
companying-movement, but not in accord with the
movement of the other fingers, without the cognizance
of the child. In the third year it was only very rarely
to be seen, and then also it was manifestly uncon-
scious.
Another still more surprising movement, wholly
purposeless, and withal quite bilaterally symmetrical,
was observed by me frequently in the first year, and
even in the last month of it. When my child, namely,
lying on his back on a soft couch, received the nursing-
bottle which the nurse tilted for him holding it in
her hand, he used almost invariably to stretch out
his closed hands upward, ^^'ith the lower arm bent at
right angles to the upper arm, which rested on the cush-
ion or the coverlet. And in this strange attitude the
child reraa,ined until he had drained the bottle. If he
was obliged (toward the end of the first year) to use one
hand for giving the bottle a different direction or for
holding it, then the arm that did not take part in this
remained in its peculiar position. This has no resem-
blance at all to the position of seizing ; seems rather to
210 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
be an accompanying-movement going along with ex-
treme strain of the attention. When the child was
allowed to drink out of a glass (in the sixteenth month)
that was held to his mouth, he would then stretch out
his hands and spread all the lingers, and while drinking
would not cease from the muscular contractions neces-
sary to those movements ; this had a very peculiar look,
and was more suggestive of grasping.
Further, all little children make unsteady accom-
panying-movements of various sorts, especially when
they hear new sounds — music, singing. They like to
move the arms up and down at such times. In play,
too, when the cover of a pitcher is put on and off before
their eyes, there is often a corresponding movement
with the hand, executed while the cover is clapped to
and subsequently (eighth and ninth months), after the
first observations have once been made by the children.
Here we have to do not with attempts at imitation, but
with pure accompanying-movements. The child sees
and hears or tastes something new, strains his attention,
and has a feeling (an agreeable one) of gratified curiosity.
This feeling leads to the motor discharge. Such a move-
ment showed itself in my boy frequently in the fourth
year, especially with new impressions of taste. His
right forearm would go sidewise hither and thither from
two to four times in a second, while he was tasting a
new kind of food that he desired.
All accompanying-movements of this kind, which
approximate to the reflexes, are no more purely impul-
sive, because they require a peripheral excitement, and
because feelings co-operate in them. On the other hand,
the movements of the head and legs in new-born pup-
REFLEX MOVEMEXTS. 211
pies, and of most new-born mammals in general (move-
ments called droll and comical on account of their strik-
ing awkwardness), are probably purely impulsive. And
the trembling of these creatures in a warm bed belongs
here also (p. 171).
CHAPTER X.
EEFLEX MOVEMENTS.
The fact firmly established by me in the case of
nuinerous animal embryos, that no reflex movements
can be elicited in early stages of development by how-
ever strong and varied stimulus, whereas movements,
especially bendings and stretchings of the trunk, regu-
larly take place from internal causes, proves the untena-
bleness of a wide-spread view, according to which all
movements of the newly-born are of a reflex character.
The human being just born has, in fact, in many re-
spects, a less reflex excitability than the infant manifests
later, and yet he moves in a lively manner.
Notwithstanding this, many reflex movements of
the newly-born are already strongly marked, answering
to the reflex excitability that increases rapidly before
birth in the last stage of the foetal development ; and
they have a very great psych ogenetic significance, be-
cause through their frequent repetition the harmonious
co-working of many muscles as means of warding off
what might injure or be unpleasant is soon perfected,
and the development of the will is made possible
through these co-ordinations. Then, later, is manifested,
in unmistakable fashion, the power of the growing
212 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
cerebral will-meclianism in the inhibition of reflexes.
These must, for this reason, have occurred previously
in great numbers, so that again and again harmful re-
sults have arisen, and the experience, e. g., has been
made, " Crying does no good, crying brings harm ;
better, then, keep down the violent, loud expiration,"
Through logical operations of this sort — long before
gaining the power of speech — the foundation is laid for
self-control, which rests essentially upon the inhibition
of reflex movements.
The beginning of reflex muscular contractions comes
in the period before birth. For it is jDossible through
outward impressions, even by means of continued gentle
stroking {Palj)iren), to produce and to augment move-
ments of the foetus in the more advanced foetal period.
From my observations, I regard it as certain, also, that
rough handling during the birth, especially where the
amniotic fluid is scanty, may produce premature respira-
tory movements in the child, and thereby endanger its
life — a thing for midwives and physicians to heed. The
embryo begins early to swallow. The chick in the e^g
makes movements of swallowing on the eleventh day ;
and before anything of the creature is visible — on the
twenty-flrst day of the brooding, according to my ob-
servations — can be brought, by means of a prick of a
needle, by cooling, and other harsh treatment, to loud
peeping ; the prematurely-born rabbit may be made to
squeak by electric stimulation, provided only respiration
has begun, I have even seen the embryo of the Guinea-
pig in an unbroken ovary (in a warm, very much di-
luted solution of common salt) before a breath had been
drawn — the placental circulation being maintained — not
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 213
only make bilaterally symmetrical reflexes with the ex-
tremities on being liglitly touched, but I have repeatedly
proved, also, that in this case the touching of the lips,
especially of the whiskers {ßpürhaare), produces an ex-
tremely well-adapted movement of rubbing with the
fure-paw of the same side— in the amniotic fluid — a
movement, accordingly, which is, later, very frequent
with the Guinea-pig, and wliich is proved by this ob-
servation to be absolutely hereditary. But if the touch-
ing of the lip or any portion of the skin is carried so far
as to become pricking or pressure, then an inhalation
takes place, and with that the reflex activity is modified.
A series of new reflexes begins also with the birth
of the human being, through breathing.
The first cry of the new-born child was, indeed, for-
merly regarded as anything but reflex, yet it is in the
highest degree probable that this first loud expiration is
a pure reflex effect. Kant wrote (certainly without hav-
ing himself observed children and animals just born) :
" The outcry that is heard from a child scarcely born
has not the tone of lamentation, but of indignation and
of aroused wrath ; not because anything gives him pain,
but because something frets him ; presumably because
he wants to move, and feels his inability to do it as a
fetter that deprives him of his freedom. What can be
the intent of J^ature in causing the child to come with
loud outcry into the world, when both for child and
mother in a savage condition of nature, this is attended
with the utmost danger? No animal, however, except
man (as he now is), makes loud announcement of his
existence at the time of his birth."
This remarkable view has been commented on in
16
214 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
various ways, and even at the present time many persons
think that the whimpering and crying of the child just
born have a higher psychical signiiicance. All interpre-
tations of this sort go to wreck upon the repeatedly es-
tablished fact that new-born children without any brain
at all cry out, and many healthy new-bom children at
their coming into the world, as Darwin reports, do not
cry, but sneeze. In both cases the expirational reflex
must be occasioned by a strong peripheral excitement —
e. g., the sudden cooling off of the skin, and the rubbing
of the back. For I hav^e observed in the case of many
new-bom animals, especially Guinea-pigs, that they
make their voice heard, with the same machine-like reg-
ularity as does the fi'og deprived of brain, if you simply
stroke their backs. It is known, too, that many ani-
mals cry out during birth, and immediately thereafter.
Calves especially bleat normally, not only directly after
they have left the bodies of the mothers, but, as ex|)e-
rienced farmers assure me, often even during birth.
Goats often cry out directly after birth.
The purely reflexive movement of sneezing is fre-
quent with the newly-born and with infants. It demon-
strates the existence of a very firm connection, long
hereditary, of the nasal branches of the trigeminus with
the motor expiratory nerves, and is remarkable, as sob-
bing is, for the reason that it requires an inborn complex
co-ordination of many muscles. In observations con-
cerning reflex excitability, the sneezing of infants is a
much better sign of the effect of stimulus than are other
movements. On the thirty-eighth day I saw sneezing
produced by some drops of lukewarm water that trickled
over the forehead ; on the forty third day I saw that par-
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 215
tides of witch-meal caused sneezing ; on tlie hundred and
seventieth mere blowing on the child had the same effect.
Adults do not readily show such sensibility. In sneez-
ing, the eyes even of little children are invariably closed
(just so it is with apes, according to Darwin) ; why, is
not satisfactorily explained. Donders found that the
contents of the blood-vessels of the eye are lessened by
the closing of the lid. The shutting of the eyes in vio-
lent expiration of breath seems from this to have a pur-
pose. But it is purely reflex in character. F. H.
Champneys, who observed his son throughout the first
nine mouths, found that sneezing was always accom-
panied by violent movements of all the limbs, the legs
being drawn up, and the forearms bent with the elbows
pushed forward ; noteworthy symmetrical accompany-
ing-movements, which, however, do not appear in all
infants.
Other innate forms of loud expiration of breath are
common with very small children, as is well known, but
are likewise of very little or no psychogenetic signifi-
cance; thus, wheezing or snuffling, a phenomenon ac-
companying sucking ; snoring (first observed by me on
the twenty-fourth day), yawning with wide-stretched
mouth, a striking habit in all infants in the early period,
and which, merely as an augmented and intensified man-
ner of drawing in the breath, helps to bring the respira-
tory apparatus, little by little, into regular activity, inas-
much as it probably comes on invariably after a succes-
sion of scanty inhalations, by way of compensation, after
a stronger respiratory stimulus, or because the excita-
bility of the respirational center has in the mean time
increased. I once saw a child yawn on the seventh day
216 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
of its life, stretcliing its mouth very wide, and at tlie
same time screwing the eyelids together; and it kept this
attitude for some seconds. This child generally dis-
torted its face in a remarkable manner when it had been
disturbed in going to sleep. But a direct physiological
connection of yawning with the dropping of the lids
and with sleepiness is not demonstrated, unless we count
as such the increased demand for oxygen, caused by the
fatigue of the respiratory muscles also, which may pro-
duce a deeper inspiration. Here, too, belongs the cough-
ing that I, in one case, heard with perfect distinctness,
in the first hour of life. Clearing the throat is, on the
contrary, acquired, as Darwin rightly observes. Still,
in very young babes, who cough somewhere about the
fourth day, involuntary coughing has, as a matter of
fact, the same effect as voluntary clearing the throat has
later. The early involuntary pushing out of the nipple
by means of the tongue, after nursing, is, in fact, much
more adroit than the later voluntary spitting out of the
skin of a grape or gooseberry that has been crushed and
sucked out in the mouth. ' Yet the latter complicated
movement was executed quite skillfully in the nine-
teenth month (Sigismund).
Sobbing and sighing, two psychically characteristic
forms of expiration in later life, have in the infant not
the least expressional significance. Both make their
appearance late, under normal conditions. I observed
sighing in the seventh month, and that repeatedly after
the child had been brought from the recumbent to the
upright, half-sitting position. Sighing often appeared
in my child — even in the second year — wdien he was in
a contented mood, and this without its being an imitation.
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 217
Tlie respiratory movements go on at tlie beginning
of life, in general, without any relation whatever to
the emotions. The heaving of the bosom in mental
agitation, the holding of the breath under the strain of
attention — these things do not take place in the very-
earliest youth. The respiration of the infant is, how-
ever, very irregular in the iirst weeks, so that there is
an illusory appearance of such phenomena. In the
newly -born, the breathing, now violent, now again
quite weak, interrupted by intervals in which the
breathing ceases, then rhythmical, then soon after
alternately deep and light, approaches but slowly the
later type.
At the close of the seventh week the number of
respirations made by my boy in sleep was twenty-eight
to the minute ; in the thirteenth week twenty-seven.
But for months yet the breathing was irregular. After
four or five quick inspirations, would often follow a
cessation interrupted by separate, deep breathings. The
older the child, so much the more regular the move-
ments of breathing and the less their frequency. Dur-
ing the teething-fever the number went up (in the
ninth month) temporarily to forty and forty -two
in a minute, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth
months, during sleep, amounted to twenty-two and
twenty -five a minute. From this period on, the
character of it was predominantly regular: in the
twentieth month it was twenty-two and twenty-three.
But whenever there is a noise made that is not quite
loud enough to wake the quietly-sleeping infant, then
the frequency of the breaths immediately increases to
twenty-five and twenty-six, to fall again soon to twenty-
218 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
two and twentj-tliree. Tliis extraordinary reflex sensi-
bility of the respiratory apparatus I have often observed
(p. 83). It is noteworthy because it proves the existence
of a reflex arc from the auditory nerve to the inspiratory
nerves (of the intercostal mnscles and the diaphram).
The very slow consolidation of the entire respiratory
mechanism in all infants is certainly connected with
this great reflex excitability. In later life stronger and
more numerous stimuli may operate without the least
change in the respiration. Moreover, since breathing,
like the activity of the heart, gradually settles into a reg-
ular rate without the participation of the will, it affords
an excellent example of the development of a very com-
plicated, co-ordinated, involuntary muscular activity of
which no trace exists, under normal conditions, before
birth. This co-ordination, however, as it begins directly
after birth, in consequence of sufiiciently strong excite-
ment of the cutaneous nerves, as an imperfect periodical
reflex, is not only hereditary but inborn, yet not so per-
fect as after it has been longer manifested.
Of reflexes not periodical those especially frequent
in other departments are, in infants, vomiting, choking,
and hiccough — all three inborn movements, which are
performed at once in the same manner as they are later.
In choking, children of one to five days old stretch
forth the tongue, with a reflexive elevation of the
larynx, and make grimaces, as adults do when they wish
by a choking movement to throw out a foreign sub-
stance from the oesophagus. The usual occasion of
choking in infants seems to be accumulation of mucus,
but it may also be produced by tickling the palate and
the roots of the tongue, or by moistening them with
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 219
bitter substances, on the first day (pp. 98, 121) ; nay,
even by moistening the up[)er lip witli bad-smelling
substances (p. 131), and later by the sight of loathed
food (p. 126).
Vomiting occurs both after overfilling the stomacb
with unsuitable liquid (even nurse's milk) and on put-
tino; the finger into the throat. In the fifth week I
saw both cases, and observed how, without any external
stimulus, the milk that had been swallowed shortly
before sprang forth like a fountain, three or four inches
high, from the mouth of the boy as he lay on his back.
Eructation is not infrequent even in the first week.
Hiccough is observed to be very frequent in children
in the first three months ; much more frequent than in
adults. I have observed it within the first twenty hours
after the birth of the child. It can be stopped by put-
ting upon the tongue half a spoonful of lukewarm
sweetened watei. After the swallowing of this small
quantity, a very obstinate case of hiccough that I saw
(in the tenth week) yielded; but I find no explanation for
the effect of this simple remedy. For the diversion of
attention is hardly sufficient here, since other sense-im-
pressions do not produce the same result. The compli-
cated mechanism for the movements of swallowing is
inborn, and already performs its functions in man and
in animals long before birth.
More important than all these typical reflexes, in
their bearing on the genesis of mind, are the already-
mentioned reflexive eye-movements and the movements
of the limbs and of the head, following irritation of the
skin, particularly by blowing and by tickling, and
sound-impressions. Of the first sort frequent mention
220 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
has been made iu the first j3art of this book ; in regard
to the last I was in hoj)es of finding, by frequent obser-
vation of sleeping children, contirmation of the con-
formity to law that Pflüger discovered, such as exists
in animals deprived of theh' brain. I was strengthened
in my view after the first experiment (on the fourteenth
day of my child's life), for, upon touching the left tem-
ple of the sleeping child, he started, and directed the left
hand toward the place that was touched (law of the con-
duction on the same side for unilateral reflexes). This
experiment, repeated at intervals, yielded the same result
three times. In the same way, in the fourteenth week,
when 1 touched the right eye on the inner corner with
the finger-nail, the right hand of the child went directly
to that spot and rubbed tlie eye ; but, when I made the
touch on the left, the left hand remained quiet. It is
any way an accident that the little hand found exactly
the right place, for in other cases it went by. When
the child was awake, no convulsive, no reflex movement
took place upon the same sort of contact, and the
repetition of the touching of the sleeping child on other
days had likewise often this negative result, or else ir-
regular movements of rubbing as a consequence (p. 101).
When in the seventh week I touched the left tem.ple of
the child as he lay quiet, his left arm remained motion-
less, but the right arm made an energetic movement
forward, upward, and to the left, although the left arm
lay perfectly free. Whence this contra-lateral response ?
Perhaps the sensorium was active and did not yet local-
ize accurately, or the reflex path of the same side was
less easily passable. Such unexpected responsive move-
ments I have often perceived in the first two years, and
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 221
that as late as the thirtj-fifth month in a sleeping child,
even when the tickling was on the left, the right arm
lying under the body of the sleeping child and the left
arm being free.
This observation is thus exactly opposed to that of
Pflüger (1853), who tickled a sleeping boy of thrc^.
years, on the right nostril, and saw that he raised the
right hand in defense, and rubbed the right nostril.
When tickled on the left, the child took the left hand.
Then Pflüger laid both arras of the boy, who lay on his
back asleep, gently near the body, held the left arm
firmly with a light pressure, on a pillow placed upon it,
and holding a feather in his free hand, tickled the left
nostril of the little fellow. Immediately the left arm
was moved, but could not be brought to the face. The
child then made a grimace, and tried, after repeated
tickling on the left, to press the left nostril with the
right hand, "whereas he had at other times always
chosen the hand of the same side, however much and
however long he was tickled, until he awoke." The
"always " can not hold good universally.
But I often saw the reflex of the same side in the
second year also. Thus, in the seventeenth month, I
touched the right nostril on the inside, while the child
was asleep ; at once the right liand went to it and
rubbed, and, when I had touched the left nostril, that
was immediately rubbed with the left hand. Then, on
the repetition of the experiment, there was no longer
any responsive movement of the sleeping child.
O. Rosenbach also has observed the action of reflexes
in sleeping children, and has ascertained especially that
some of them are lacking during sound sleep (those of
222 THE MIND OF THE CHILD,
the abdomen, the cremaster, and patella), but he does
not give the age of the children.
At any rate, the experiments that I instituted suffice
to show that, without detriment to the general validity
of Pfliiger's laws of reflexes, circuitous reflex routes
must often be tried by little children, many experiences
must first be had before those laws are manifested in
their purity. Many times, to be sure, the experiments
upon children sleeping soundly surprised me at once
by their conformity to law. Yet simple experiments of
that sort that I repeated upon several children, and the
observation of the independent movements of arms and
hands in the newly-born, have given me but few evi-
dences of the existence of perfectly-developed inborn
reflexes of the corresponding side after stimulus on one
side. The trigeminus facialis reflex is such a case, since
upon the touching of one eye, in the first hour of life,
very often this one only is shut ; another case is the
spreading of the toes when the sole of the foot is
touched (pp. 104, 225). The law of symmetry of the
reflexes is recognized as valid for the just-born, in the
dilatation of both pupils, when only one eye is shaded ;
in the closing of both eyes at the rude touch of one
eye or one nostril ; in movements of both feet when the
sole of one foot is touched (p. 104) ; so likewise the
appearance of the reflex in unequal degrees of intensity
on both sides in bilateral reflexes following stimulus of
one side is confirmed by the stronger movements of
the eyelid (after the tickling of one nostril) as well as of
the leg upon the irritated side (p. 104). But the law
of inter-sensitive motor movement still needs proof;
for, according to it, no reflex from the trigeminus to the
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 223
motor oculi ought to occur. But if a child be waked
bj a toucli of the eyelid, the raising of the lid seems
to occur through reflexive action. The question comes
up whether movements do not always take place before
the opening of the eyes. I have not Hked to experi-
ment in regard to tliis, as I do not wake children with-
out urgent reasons.
Further, in the case of two children, who in the
first half-year suffered from local itching eruptions of
the skin (milk-crust), the reflexive movements of the
limbs were quite irregular and at the beginning abso-
lutely unsuited, afterward not in all cases suited, to re-
lieve the pain or the feeling of tickhng ; at all events,
apart from the turnings of the head, which was the
most tormented, and which was moved hither and
thither hke a pendulum when the arms were confined
(fourth month). Many times when the arms had es-
caped from the tethers in the night, the face was
scratched to bleeding in several places that were evi-
dently not troublesome (fourth to sixth month). At
every unguarded moment the hands went to the head ;
and the skin, even the sound part of it, was rubbed and
scratched. These scratching movements can not be in-
born, they must be acquired. The result of an acci-
dental contact of the head and hand appearing in the
diminution of the tickhng sensation must have induced
a preference of the movement of the hand to the head
among all sorts of movements ; for in the concurrence of
all muscular movements those are preferred — i. e., most
frequently repeated — which bring with them feehngs of
pleasure, and which remove whatever excites unpleasant
feeling, while the movements that prevent feelings of
224 Tue mind of the child.
I
pleasure and those that cause unpleasant feeling become
more and more rare.
The mentioned reflexive reaching toward the head
had now, in one of the two cases before us, a peculiar asso-
ciation as its further consequence (in regard to the other
case there is lack of observation). When, namely, the
eczema became less and at last had entirely disappeared,
the lifting of the arms along wäth the carrying of the
hands to the head still continued, showing itself every
time that anything disagreeable occurred to the child, or
when he refused to do anything — e. g., when he did not
want to play any more or to play at all. Manifestly we
have to do here with a primitive process of induction or
generalization. Formerly that movement was regularly
executed in connection with the disagreeable cutaneous
sensation on the head (up to the sixth month) ; now that
sensation, indeed, is wanting, but the movement is so
firmly associated with the quality " disagreeable " of
that feeling, that it is executed even when something
else appears with the same quality (ninth month). Thus
individual expressional moverhents arise from acquired
reflexes, which disappear again later because they re-
main individual.
In direct contrast to the acquired reflex movements,
stands the inborn spreading of the toes that follows the
touching (tickling, stroking) of the soles of the feet,
which I saw just as plainly maiked in new-born chil-
dren five minutes after birth, and in the first days, as
in the fourth week. Darwin mentions that, after the
touching of the sole with a bit of paper on the seventh
day, the foot was suddenly jerked away, and the toes
curled up. I have not been able to find out under
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 225
what circumstances this reflex or the spreading of the
toes at tiie touch of the sole of the foot occurs (cf. p.
104), but I observed that as early as the eighth week,
tickling of the sole was followed by laughing. This so-
called reflexive (" reflectorische ") laughing (p. 145) is
not a regular, absolutely pure reflex act, because it is
dependent upon the previously existing mood.
The reflexive starting, quivering, and stretching out
of the arms at a sudden, unexpected, strong impression,
especially a sound-impression, the starting back with
the head and the upper part of the body at a sudden
approach — fright, in fact — is wholly lacking in the first
hours of life. The human child just born can not,
properly speaking, experience fright any more than can
animals just born, although many sensations, such as
that of a dazzlingly bright light, are surprising and dis-
agreeable to him. But this stage of inferior sensibility
scarcely outlasts the first days in vigorous children ; in
some (born after their time) it may in the case of sud-
den impressions (p. 80), have given place, even before
the second day, to the susceptibility to fright that is
more or less characteristic of the infant.
This has already been spoken of repeatedly, so far
as the bilaterally symmetrical reflexes, occasioned by all
sorts of acoustic, optical, tactile impressions (e. g., by
taking hold of the child, or blowing upon him), espe-
cially the extending and raising of the arms, the start-
ing and the quick pulsation of the eyelid, are symptoms
of being frightened (p. 82). Apart from the starting,
which is not always regular, these reflexes are dis-
tinguished above others by their perfect symmetry.
Both anns are raised exactly simultaneously, both eyes
226 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
close foi' a moment after a sudden impression, even
when tliis is made only on one side (as in pulling at tlie
blanket on wliicli the child is Ijing). This reflex mech-
anism, that unites the motors of the extremities with
the organs of sense, must have an easy action from the
beginning, although no direct advantage from it to the
child can be affirmed.
Another constant symptom of fright in children is
their silence. For example, when a child has had a fall,
screaming does not begin till after an interval. It is
probable that this condition of not being able to scream,
like that of apthongia or reflex aphasia, rests upon teta-
nic excitement of the motor nerves, especially of the
nerves of the tongue, in consequence of which every at-
tempt to form a sound may result in spasm of the tongue.
In children this occurrence is by no means so rare as in
adults. Children, both before and after they have be-
gun to learn to speak, do not begin to scream until some
time after the effect of the sudden impression ; for this
reason, probably, because by that impression the will is
completely paralyzed, so that a,t flrst they do not even
get so far as to the attempt to form a sound. All the
muscles that at other times are voluntarily movable are
no longer moved becauses the impulses of will are want-
ing ; so it is also with the tongue and the muscles of
the larynx. Even the reflex excitability is diminished.
Hence, probably, the silence of those frightened in the
flrst moment. The verj^ strong excitement of particu-
lar centers brings with it an arrest of the other central
functions. Finally, the motor impulse becomes oper-
ative, but produces that spasm of the tongue, and not
till after that passes, screaming.
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 227
It takes a long series of experiences, which each in-
dividual must go through for himself anew, before such
fright-reflexes and infringements upon the activity of
the will can be controlled, and many persons never learn
to control them. Still, it is of the greatest importance
for the cultivation of the child's will to exercise chil-
dren as early as possible in the conscious inhibition of
reflex movements.
At the beginning, probably, no reflex is inhibited,
but there exists a peculiarity discovered by Soltmann,
which counteracts the disadvantages arising from this
defect. The excitability of the nerve-muscle, namely,
in cats, dogs, rabbits, gradually increases from birth on
(in man probably until toward the sixth week of life,
as it then about equals that of adults, or somewhat sur-
passes it). The inferior excitability of the motor nerves
in the earliest period exerts a beneficial counter-influ-
ence to the tendency to convulsions after physiological
stimulation. Here I must agree with Soltmann, and
attribute to this factor, as he does, great importance,
especially on account of the absence of will and of the
inhibition of reflexes ; but my experiments and obser-
vations upon new-bom Guinea-pigs, and on those born
prematurely, leave not the least doubt that in these ani-
mals inhibitions of reflexes take place through strong
peripheral stimuli even before birth, or with the first
drawing of breath. For when, in such a foetus or new-
bom creature, I pinch sharply with the forceps any spot
whatever on the skin after breathing has begun, the
auricle does not react in the least, or reacts only very
feebly upon the strongest impressions of sound ; but if
the peripheral stimulus ceases, then both auricles plainly
228 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
move at once upon the same acoustic stimulus. Here
exists, then, soon after the beginning of respiration (in
the prematurely and the normally bom) an inhibition
of a reflex through strong localized cutaneous stimuli.
A paralysis of the reflex, or paraplegia, after contusion —
e. g., of a kidney — it has not been possible, thus far, to
produce in new-born creatures (dogs and rabbits). The
inhibitory effect of the excitement of the vagus upon
the activity of the heart is, on the other hand, present
in the new-born mammal.
It is highly desirable now to fix, by observation and
simple experiments, the date of beginning of inhibi-
tions of reflexes in the human being. I saw a sixteen-
days-old child, that was screaming violently, become
qiiiet in an instant when it was laid face downward
on a pillow ; and I have observed, even in very young
babes, the quieting effect of singing, making a hushing
sound, and playing on the piano. But in these cases
we have not to do with inhibitions of reflexes in the
strict sense of the term, but with the supplanting of a
feeling of discomfort, along with its motor consequences,
or a reflex activity, by means of a new impression. A
brainless new-born child, even, that was screaming vio-
lently, could be easily quieted, as Pfliiger relates, by
letting him suck the finger. The cerebral activity of
the newly-born can not yet influence the reflexive
and impulsive activity of the spinal cord, because the
brain is not yet sufficiently developed. Soltmann has
proved, by experiments on new-born dogs, that at the
beginning of life no excitements pass from the brain
to the spinal cord, which would be capable of arresting
the reflex operations effected by the cord. And I have
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 229
no doubt that tlie very same thing is true of many other
new-born animals. But it is not true of all, and
whether it is precisely in the human being that imme-
diately after birth no trace of the inhibition of reflexes
exists, is doubtful. The Guinea-pig, which is much
more mature at birth, comes into the world, according
to the previously-mentioned observations, with a com-
plete apparatus for inhibition of reflexes.
Genuine inhibitions of reflexes may first be observed
witli certainty in little children at the time when they
no longer (as they do in the first six to nine months),
without the least sign of self-control, excrete at once
the products of nutrition when the accumulation of
these stimulates them reflexively to do so. In all
healthy infants this reflex excitability is great. But I
lack observations as to when for the first time the
refiex stimulus, that shows itself normally on the first
day of life, is overcome, or the immediate response to it
is at least delayed. At the beginning of the first year
children are accustomed to scream after the evacuation ;
later, to scream before it, formally anuounclng it. In the
latter case they have had the experience that the threats,
the chastisements, and the natural disagreeable conse-
quences of the immediate reflex activity cause more
discomfort than waiting does. We have here one of
the strongest effects of early training, as is proved by
the behavior of animals and many insane persons.
The point of time at which control of the sphincter
vesiccB begins, allowed itself in one case to be approxi-
mately determined. From the beginning of the tenth
month, viz., the desire to evacuate the bowels was, in the
daytime, in a healthful and waking condition, almost
ir
230 THE MIND OF TEE CHILD.
invariably announced by great restlessness. If the
child was then attended to, the evacuation took place
invariably not till several seconds after giving him the
proper position. The child needed so much time,
therefore, in order to annul the inhibition by means of
his now unquestionably authenticated will.
Here we have two proofs of the existence of choice :
first, the inhibition of a reflex never inhibited in the
first half-year, the non- willing of it; second, the re-
moval of the inhibition, the willing of the reflex. The
first inhibitory act, which, for that matter, does not
last long when it is not regarded, seems to occur sel-
dom before the last three months of the first year
(sometimes much later). It is lacking, as a rule, when
the child does not enjoy undisturbed health, when his
attention is strongly claimed, and when he is tired.
The overcoming of the reflex stimulus in sleep, which
takes place independently of will l)y means of habit,
requires for that very reason a much longer period of
time. It is to be borne in mind, however, in this case,
that a pretty strong pressure, like other peripheral
stimuli, first interrupts the sleep, and thereby makes
room for the influence of the will.
Those reflexes which during the whole of life are
not inhibited by the will, appear, notwithstanding, to
be in part more distinct in the new-born and the infant
than in the following years of life. At least Eulenburg
found (1878) in tw^o hundred and forty-one children
under twelve months the reflex of the tendon of the
patella at the beginning not quite so frequent, indeed,
as in adults ; where it did appear, however, it was
more distinct than it was later, especially in forty-one
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 231
children examined in tlie first month, and in sixteen (ont
of seventeen) one day old. Later observations of the
same investigator and his assistant Dr. Ilaase (1882) con-
firmed the relatively more frequent absence of the knee-
phenomenon in one hundred and sixteen children from
one to twentj^-four months old. In seven cases it was
wanting on both sides, in three cases on one side. The
foot - phenomenon was wanting, in fact, in the great
majority of the cases. It was distinctly seen only in
twenty-two out of the one hundred and sixteen children.
The osseous reflexes were still more rare (tibia reflex
observed in fifteen, radius reflex in fourteen of the one
hundred and sixteen). On the other hand the reflex of
the abdomen, of the nose, of the cornea, and of the
pupil were not missing in a single case. The ear-reflex
was only in five cases indistinct. (In seventy-eight boys,
from one to sixty months old the cremaster reflex was
lacking in twenty cases.) It appears from this that the
tendon-reflexes are not so easily inherited as those of
the skin and mucous membrane. The latter are more
useful to the organism.
The decrease of the general reflex tendency {^'■Re-
flexdisposition''^) in the earliest years is identical in
ultimate effect with the increase of an inhibition of re-
flexes. To be sure, the individual efiicicnt factors in
both cases can not yet be isolated. The tendency to
spasms that has its origin partly in the lack of all reflex
inhibition in the earliest period, and the heightened
reflex sensibility easily to be established physiologically
in every teething child, which gives occasion for the
strangest grimaces, find their counterpoise only after
the development of the v.ill — i. e., after far advanced
232 THE MIND OF TEE CHILD.
development of tlie gray substance of the cerebrum,
upon the removal of which there appear in animals re-
flex phenomena similar to those in new-born and quite
young individuals. But in older children, too (in the
fourth year) many reflexes are found, especially the
mimetic and the defensive (such as that mentioned,
p. 101 — "shuddering"), more strongly expressed than
after their training has been carried further.
The pain-reflexes that are most strongly manifested
in later life are, according to the experiments of Genz-
mer, already in part mentioned, least developed pre-
cisely in the earliest period. Through observation of
some sixty new-born children, it was established by him
that they are, on the first day, almost insensible to the
prick of a needle, and in the first week they still have
an inferior degree of sensibility. Prematurely-born
infants were in the course of the first days so sharply
pricked with fine needles in the nose, upper lip, and
hand, that a little drop of blood flowed from the punct-
ure, and yet they gave no sign of discomfort ; indeed,
often not even a slight quivering could be noticed. To
pricks that are acute for the adult, normal children re-
sponded after one to two days, seldom earlier, merely
w^ith reflex movements as upon being touched. " The
pain-reflexes diiier from those reflexes of touch in this,
that the movement is wont to follow the stimulus only
after a longer pause (np to two seconds), while in the
touch-reflexes the physiological period is considerably
shorter." The sensibility to needle-pricks was found to
be somewhat greater in children born after their time,
and it increases generally in the first weeks. It is of
great interest, in connection with this, that in children
REFLEX MOVEMENTS. 233^
of some weeks there followed occasionally upon a prick
in the sole of the foot a distortion of the countenance
without local reflexes. " They seemed to become con-
scious of the feeling of pain. In the iirst week this
was never the case." A reflexive lachrymal secretion
could not be produced at that period by any prick, but
only by irritation of the mucous membrane of the
nose ; " at pricks on the skin of the face, the moisture
of the eyes did seem, but only at times, to increase."
ISTow from all these facts it does not follow that the
newly -born are sensible of no pain at all, but it follows
that the pain-reflexes are still wanting when the painful
impression is circumscribed — reaches but few nerves —
as in the prick of a fine needle. Fifty simultaneous
needle-pricks would doubtless bring pain-reflexes in
their train immediately after birth. So much is made
certain by my experiments on prematurely-born rabbits
and Guinea-pigs, which responded, with unmistakable
pain-reflexes, only to very strong local, and to weaker
extended, painful assaults — to electric, thermal, mechani-
cal, chemical cutaneous stimuli. Distortion of the face
and loud screaming appear also in mature or nearly
mature new-born human beings upon strong electrical
stimulation of the skin, as Kroner found (1882).
It would be of great interest to draw up a list, as
complete as possible, of the reflex movements of the new-
ly-born, the infant, and the child not yet able to speak ;
to separate the inborn movements from the acquired,
those capable of being inhibited from the purely physi-
cal reflexes and the pain-reflexes ; and to test whether
there is a single reflex that belongs to the human child
alone. A thorough - going comparison of new-born
234: THE MiXD or the child. -
chimpanzees and orangs witli new-born negro eliildren
in regard to the reflexes would ^^erhaps disclose no dif-
ferences.
In the human infant there have been proved — to ad-
duce only one sensory and one motor nei've as example
— six different regular reflex movements from the optic
nerve to the motor oculi aloue, which appear in case of
light-impressions, viz. :
1. Contraction of the superior rectus muscle of the
eye in raising the glance, when bright light appears
above ; in the fourth week or earlier (p. 44).
2. Contraction of the elevator of the lid in moderate
light ; immediately after birth (p. 4).
3. Contraction of the internal rectus muscle of the
eye (movement of convergence) at a moderately bright
impression of light just before the tip of the nose ; in
the second week (p. 50).
4. Contraction of the inferior rectus muscle of the
eye in lowering the gaze when bright light appears
below ; in the fourth week (p. 44).
5. Contraction of the muscle of accommodation at
the approacli of bright light to the eye ; after the third
week (p. 51).
6. Contraction of the sphincter of the iris under the
influence of bright light ; immediately after birth (pj). 4
and 51).
Anatomy has not yet discovered the paths of con-
nection for any one of these six reflexes from the retina
to the muscles of the orbit that are supplied by the
motor ocnli. And the same thing is true also of the
mimetic reflex movements of the infant from the nerve
of hearing, smell, and taste to the facial nerve, and from
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 235
the sensitive nerve of the face to the facial nerve.
Microscopic investigation has, in fact, thus far been
unable to demonstrate in a single embryonic reflex the
two centers — the sensory and motor ganglionic cells —
in full development. Complete ganglionic cells have
not been seen in the brain till after birth (p. TO).
Probably the paths of the embryonic reflexes are still,
in general, imperfectly isolated.
CHAPTER XI.
mSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS.
The instinctive movements of human beings are not
numerous, and are difficult to recognize (with the ex-
ception of the sexual ones) when once the earliest youth
is past. So much the more attentively must the in-
stinctive movements of the newly-born and of the infant
and of the little child be observed. In order to under-
stand them, accurate observation of the instinctive
movements of new-born animals is necessary. I will
first group and present some statements upon that point.
1. Instinctive Movements of New-born Animals.
Movements unquestionably instinctive are manifested
by chickens in the very first hours after leaving the egg
— in fact, even while^they are still engaged in breaking
the shell. For what else was it but such a movement
when a chick that had worn an opaque hood from the
moment of breaking the shell until the lapse of some
days, moved its head, six minutes after it was unhooded,
236 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
in the rificlit way to follow with its gaze a fly twelve
inches distant ? After ten minutes the insect came
within reaching distance of the neck, and was seized and
swallowed at the first effort. At the end of twenty min-
ntes this chick was placed, on uneven ground, at some
distance from a hen with wliich was a chick of the same
age as the one under observation, in such a way that it
could see and hear the hen. After chirping for about
a minute, it ran straight to the hen (Spalding). The
very young chick does not invariably succeed in seizing
the insect or the kernel, at which it pecks, between its
upper and its under mandibles, in such a way that the
object can be swallowed, but almost all peck at it.
Chickens one day old, and those of several days, accord-
ing to my observations, often peck six, even nine and
ten, times inaccurately, and very often toil in vain, with
all sorts of movements of the head (p. 67), even after
a successful seizure of the kernel, to swallow it.
Here, then, are in complete development — 1. Head-
movements at the sight of objects in motion. 2. Peck-
ing, when these objects are capable of being reached.
3. Running or scudding {JRutschen), when the cluck of
the hen is heard for the first time or she is for the first
time seen. 4. Bill- and head-movements, when a small
object is got ready for swallowing. All these movements
may, indeed, fail to be made, even when the external
conditions of their appearance are completely fulfilled,
as I have several times seen in cliicks from one to three
days old hatched in the incubator ; but they are not to
be looked upon as acquired or voluntary, for they are
still new to the chick itself, and are executed without
a previous idea of the result. Otherwise, the little creat-
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 237
ures would not, as I have seen tliem do, peck at tlieir
own nails. The very young chick, which has never yet
seen the movements mentioned, can have no self- acquired
idea of them beforehand, because no experience pre-
ceded them ; but its ancestors had the idea, and the
chick itself inherited, without knowing it, a memory-
image (Erinnerungsbild) of that. The chick thus acts
skillfully, and with seeming intelligence, not out of its
own deliberation, but through the inherited association
of the sensuous recollection M'ith the motor recollection,
not through the idea of the movement itself executed
by the creature, this movement being rather involun-
tary. If the movement be omitted — under external
conditions otherwise similar — then, in tlie concm-rence
of the inherited sensory-motor associations with one
another and with the new connections of sensation and
movement arising from individual sense-impressions,
another association has appeared in greater force than
those spoken of, or a new feeling prevails. Likewise
the diligent pluming of the down with the bill by the
chicken not yet one day old, and the scraping of the
head with the foot, that I saw on the third day (the
creature never having seen the thing done), and the
scratching, appearing on the second day (without a model
for imitation), can be nothing else than hereditary, in-
stinctive movements. Spalding says forcibly : " The
instinct of present generations is the pi-oduct of accumu-
lated experiences of past generations. The permanence
of such associations in the individual life depends upon
the corresponding impression on the nervous system.
We can not, strictly speaking, experience any individual
fact of consciousness twice; but, as by pulling at the
238 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
bell we can produce the same ring tliat we heard yes-
terday, so we are capable, as far as the establislied con-
nection of nerves and nerve-centers holds, of living over
again our experiences. Why should not these modili-
cations of the substance of the brain (which, persisting
from hour to hour, from day to day, make permanent
acquirement possible) pass on from parents to their off-
spring just like any other physical peculiarity ? Instinct
is inherited memory."
It is no objection to this conception of instinct as an
hereditary association that not all the sensory-motor con-
nections of the parents pass over to their posterity. For
very many of them are not firm enough The firmest
in the chicken are the movements of pecking, swallow-
ing, peeping, ninning, scratching, and scraping, and the
beating with the future wings in scudding forward,
which last I saw very lively in the fourth hour, without
possibility of its being an imitation. Yet some of these
movements, long hereditary, may also vanish, or at least
may not appear, if the external occasions are wanting.
Chickens that were hatched by Allen Thomson upon a
carpet, and were kept on it for some days, showed no
inclination to scratch, because the stimulus that was ex-
ercised upon the soles of their feet by the carpet was
new, and was not adapted to set in activity their in-
herited mechanism for scratching. As soon, however, as
a little gravel was spread upon the carpet, the scraping
began at once (as Romanes reports). We see clearly
from this that chickens do not from the beginning of
their life scratch with the purpose of seeking grains of
seed. For the quite thinly spread gravel could not
furnish the prospect of finding such in the carpet. I
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 239
have even seen ebickens that were liatclicd in tlie in-
cubator, and then brought up in an inclosed space by
themselves away from all other fowls, make vigorous
scratching movements on smooth white paper without
spots, especially in the fourth week of life, as if the
brightness of the great surface might be scraped away.
The scratching of fowls thus takes place without delib-
eration, after certain visual and tactile impressions, as a
purely instinctive movement, like peeping, pecking, run-
ning, and flying.
Swallows do not learn to fly ; they receive no in-
struction as to how they have to contract their muscles
in order to speed through the air for the first time from
the maternal nest, but they fly of themselves. The
young redstarts, also, which I have observed daily be-
fore they were fledged, receive no directions for flying.
But they exercise their wings in the nest before their
first attempt at flight, often spreading them and making
them whir. The first excursion is slower than the flight
of the parents ; the young creature flies downward, but
it never hits against anything, and after a few days tlie
certainty of its flight is worthy of admiration. Confi-
dence grows with practice.
These flight-movements of quite young birds can
not be voluntary movements ; they are instinctive, pre-
cisely as is the pecking of the chicken that has been
hatched a few hours, which, having come into the world
alone in the incubator, without mother or companions,
in the utmost quiet (without guiding noises), pecks at
every single visible object capable of being pecked at,
or at a spot or hole in the wooden floor on wliieh the
creature stands, as well as at its own nails, with aston-
240 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
ishing address. Pecking is not, therefore, according to
these observations of mine, set agoing by bearing, as
has been suspected, when the noise made by the pecking
of the mother was imitated with the finger-nail (Dar-
win). I have, in fact, observed that chickens between
three and twenty hours old, hatched in the incubator,
almost all of which had pecked at the yolk and white
of egg put before them cut into small bits (after being
hard boiled), and were now pausing — I have noticed
that, when I let two large fowls close by them pick up
the same food upon hard wood, noisily and persistently,
the young ones we];e not in the least affected by the
hammering of the bills, although they had hearing, for
they started, at sudden loud noises, all simultaneously,
like one fowl — a strange sight.
If a drop of water be put on the eye of a chicken
on the twenty-first day, before the creature has left the
shell, it shakes off the drop briskly, like a hen ; put the
drop on the tip of the bill, and the chick makes many
movements of swallowing, as I often observed.
All these movements are, like pecking, inherited.
They ajipear, in fact, not exceptionally, but very fre-
quently, when nearly the same conditions, internal and
external, are fulfilled that were fulfilled when their an-
cestors executed them — executed them times innumera-
ble. How easily in this case instinctive activity takes
on the stamp of great individual intelligence is shown
especially in the following observation made by A.
Agassiz (1876) : Very young hermit-crabs, not long
after leaving the egg^ rush with extraordinary^ anima-
tion for suitable shells that are given to them in the
water. They examine the opening at the mouth, and
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 241
take up their quarters inside with remarkable alacrity.
But, if it chances that the shells are still occupied by
mollusks, then they stay close by the opening, and wait
till the snail dies, which generally occurs soon after the
beginning of the imprisonment and the strict watch.
Upon this the small crab pulls out the carcass, devours
it, and moves into the lodging himself. What fore-
sight! On account of the preference of the empty
shells, the whole proceeding can not be hereditary. But
the young animals are not instructed. They were from
the beginning separated from their parents, and had no
time or opportunity for experiences of their own. They
must, therefore, have inherited their practice of waiting
from their ancestors, as a rule of conduct for the case
where a shell is occupied, and they can at once distin-
guish such a one from an empty one.
Now, precisely as it is true of these animals that are
sagacious in one direction, and of the chicken, and, in
general, of all animals, that they come into the world
with a good share of inherited memory for movements
(p. 71) — i. e., with instinctive motility (Motilität) — so it
will be true of the human child. Which of its move-
ments are instinctive ? First, seizing.
2. Development of Seizing.
Of all movements of the infant in the first half-year,
no one is of greater significance for its mental develop-
ment than are the seizing movements. I have on this
account observed these with special attention.
It is supposed by many that the moving of the
hands hither and thither in the first days of life is a
kind of seizing, since the fingers are carried not only
242 THE MIND OF THE CEILD.
to the face, but also to the mouth. Such a view is ir-
reconcilable with the ordinary meaning of the word
seize and with the facts. For seizing presupposes the
perception of an object desired, and, in addition, a con-
trol of the muscles, both of which are wanting in the
first dajs.
The first putting of the hand into the mouth has
nothing in common with the later seizing, except that
it requires a movement of the arm. The hand is not
even carried to the face, but, in its random movements
about, it gets to and into the mouth, as well as elsewhere,
which, on account of the position of the arms in the
foetus long before birth, seems perfectly natural. JS^ew-
born children, left to themselves, keep this attitude, and
move their hands to the face and to the lips, as they
must have done already before birth. If the lips are
touched, then sucking movements readily appear in the
hungry infant; therefore nothing of purpose can be
found in the early sucking of the child at its own fin-
gers (observed by Kussmaul on the first, by me on the
fifth, day), which is followed' later by the biting of the
fingers. The position of the arms and hands in the
uterus is conditioned by the restricted space. Every
other position would involve an enlargement of the
superficies of the fcetus.
It appears, therefore, that we are not justified in
seeing in the first approximation of the hand to the
mouth, the beginning of seizing-movements. In ihe
first days of his life the infant moves his hands about
his face and into his eyes, in a very different way from
that of seizing, which comes later as a gesture expressing
a desire. Young infants, whose fingers have accident-
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 243
ally, in the random movements of the arms, come to
the mouth, are not able, if anybody takes the fingers
away, to put them to the mouth agam. Nay, even if
some one carries their fingers to their lips for them, the
infants can not hold their own fingers there, in case
gravity makes the arm drop (Genzmer). Later, however,
babes are often seen to suck at their own fingers in sleep.
Neither does the fact that the infant, as I noted on
the ninth day, when he is sleeping, does not, as he does
when awake, clasp my fingers placed in his hand —
neither does this fact indicate a seizing as a purposive
movement ; but the clasping is to be regarded as a re-
flex, just like the spreading of the toes when the sole of
the foot is touched (pp. 104, 224). The proof of this I
see herein, that the older child — e. g., of seventeen
months — when I put my finger in the hollow of his
hand during his sleep, does not clasp it either, but when
I move my finger with a gentle rubbing movement
back and forth upon the flat of his hand, he often
clasps it quickly, almost convulsively, with his fingers,
without waking. The foot behaves like the hand in
this respect, in the earliest period, as it responds less
readily in sleep. The absence of the clasping in sleep
is thus to be ascribed simply to the insnfiicient excite-
ment of the nerves of the skin, and the diminution of
the reflex excitability in sleep ; in no case is the clasp-
ing of the finger, by a child that is awake, intentional
within the first two weeks.
The first grasping at objects, with manifest desire to
have them, was seen by Sigismund in a boy nineteen
weeks old ; by me, in a girl in her eighteenth week,
and in my boy in his seventeenth week.
244 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
The contraposition of the thumb, an indispensable
condition to the completion of the act of seizing — which
is said to be an easy matter for young monkeys, even
within the first week of life — is very slowly learned by
the human child, as I noticed ; he does not learn at all
to place the great-toe opposite the other toes. It is a
question, indeed, whether human beings born without
arms, can learn to use the great-toe as a tliumb, as the
quadrumana do. I once saw a young man without arms
make a drawing with his foot. But in doing it the
pencil was held between the great-toe and the second,
without contraposition, as one would hold it between
the forefinger and the middle finger, in case one wanted
to draw or write without the help of the thumb.
Adults succeed easily in doing the latter, even without
practice.
Having the opinion that possibly at the beginning
of life seizing might be done with the great-toe as with
the thumb, I tested hands and feet in the case of my
boy in the earliest period, and I present here my ob-
servations concerning the development of seizing, in
chronological order :
First to third day : movements with the hands to
the face predominate.
On the fourth day, a pencil was decidedly not held
firmly by the foot.
On the fifth day his fingers clasp my finger very
firmly ; his toes do not. For the rest, his hands often
move to the face, at random, without getting hold of it.
On the sixth day, the same. The hands even go into
the eye.
On the seventh day, it appears that a thin pencil is
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 245
held with the great- toe and the other toes exactly as
with the thumb and lingers. But in this there is no
seizing ; of a contraposition of the thumb there is just
as little to be observed as of the great-toe, but in case
of convenient position of the pencil between thumb and
foretinger, and between the great-toe and its neighbor,
fingers as well as toes are vigorously bent and the ob-
ject is held.
On the ninth day the finger is not clasped by the
sleeping child.
In the third to seventh weeks, the child has not yet
clasped my finger with his thumb, but only with his
fingers.
In the eighth week I am convinced that the thumb
is still put around the pencil, as the fingers are, but it
may more easily than before be bent passively for seiz-
ing, so that my finger is held firmly. The four fingers
of the child's hand, directly without co-operation of the
thumb, embrace my finger when I put it in the hollow
of the hand of the child.
Up to the eleventh week no noticeable advance. If
I put a pencil into the child's hand, he holds it firmly,
indeed, but without heeding it (without knowing it, one
would say of an adult, i. e., mechanically, as in absence
of mind), and can not perfectly use the thumb in
clasping. Another child, of exactly the same age, could
not even clasp and hold the stick that was put into his
hand.
End of the twelfth week : when the child was mov-
ing his hands about in the air, it often happened that
my finger, held near, came into one of the little hands.
On the eighty-fourth day I saw, in connection with this,
18
246 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
for the first time, a placing of the thumb opposite, so
that it looked just as if the child had purposely seized
the finger, which was not presented to him, but merely
held motionless within reach, and allowed to follow
passively the movements of the child's arm hither and
thither. This experiment was repeated several times
on the same day, with like result. Then first I gained
the firm conviction that the contraposition of the
thumb and the seizing of the finger, followed reflex-
ively, without intention, as a consequence of the cu-
taneous stimulus occasioned by the contact.
In the thirteenth week, the thumb already follows
more readily the bending fingers, when a pencil is put
into the child's hand.
In the fourteenth week, seizing that is undoubtedly
intentional is not yet present, but the little hand holds
objects that come accidentally into it, or that are put
into it, longer and more firmly than at an earlier period,
and with a decided contraposition of the thumb, by
which many have doubtless been misled to suppose that
" proper grasping at objects " begins in this week — a
thing which certainly is not universally true. I, at
least, detected no trace of intentional seizing after ob-
jects seen, in the fifteenth and sixteenth weeks, and on
the one hundred and fourteenth day. "While the babe
is nursing, however, a finger is reflexively clasped by
thumb and fingers more often than formerly. Others,
also, whose attention I directed to this point, confirm
my opinion that in the third month seizing is merely
apparent. It does not begin, as Vierordt also found,
before the fourth month.
In the seventeenth week (one hundred and seven-
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 247
toentli day) I saw for the first time earnest efforts to
take hold of an object with the hand. It was a small
rubber ball that w^as within seizing distance, but the
child missed it. When now it was put into his hand
he held it for a long time very firmly and moved it to
his mouth and to his eyes, and that with a peculiar, new,
more intelligent expression of countenance. On the
following day, the awkward but energetic attempts to
seize upon all sorts of objects held before the child were
more frequent. He fixated the object — e. g., my fin-
ger — and grasped three times in succession at an object
distant twice his arm's length from him, (p. 55) —
and also fixated his own hand (cf. p. 109), especially
when this had once successfully seized. His expression
of comitenance meantime indicated great attention.
Again, after a day, the repeated grasping at every-
thing that comes within reach of the arms seems to
give tlie child pleasure. But wonder is mingled with
it, for —
In the eighteenth week, hi the attempts to seize,
when they fail, his own fingers are attentively regard-
ed. Probably the child has expected the sensation
of contact, or if it occurred has wondered at the nov-
elty of the sensation of touch. He continues to hold
firmly, regard, and carry to the mouth objects once
seized. But at this time the outstretching of the
arms, as if to seize, becomes also the expression of the
strongest desire. On the one hundred and twenty-first
day the child, for the first time, stretched out both arms
toward me at the morning greeting, and that with an
indescribable expression of longing. On the day before,
nothmg of this sort was yet to be perceived. The
248 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
progress from grasping at inanimate things to grasping
at members of tlie family came suddenly.
In the nineteenth week the child took a bit of meat
that was offered to him on the point of a fork and
carried it with his hand to his mouth.
In the thirty-second week seizing w^ith both hands,
at the same time directing the line of vision to the ob-
ject, was more sure and more frequent than before, the
attention at the same time being more active. The
child lying on his back, raises himself without help to
a sitting posture and bends over forward, reaching out
with both hands to lay hold of anything that is before
him. The straining of the attention expresses itself
especially by the protruding of the lips, which I saw
besides on the one hundred and twenty-third day for
the first time, in connection with the act of seizing.
During all this time the seizing is still imperfect, as
the four fingers do not all work in harmony with the
thumb. When the child sees an object that he wants,
he generally spreads ont all the fingers of both hands
while stretching out the arms. But when he has
clasped the pencil or my finger, it often happens that
in doing so the thumb and one finger only are em-
ployed ; frequently the thumb with two fingers or with
three or with all. Yery often, too, the co-operation of
the thumb is entirely wanting. But the ability to seize
accurately with thumb and fingers is so far developed
that nothing more is wanting but the co-ordinating
will to do it in every suitable case. Thus far it depends
much more on the situation and form of the object
and on the accident of the position of the hand, than
it does on the purpose, how many and what fingers, as
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 249
they bend in the act of seizing, actually take part in
this act.
In the thirtieth week the seizing was noticeahly
quicker and more perfect, but the lack of certainty in
getting hold of objects seized was still great. The
hands still often pass by the object gazed at, with
lingers spread. Grasping at objects at the distance of
a metre becomes more frequent. Very often, probably
always, whenever form, color, or luster has excited the
child's gratilication, the thing seized is at once carried
to the mouth, the tongue is put far out, and the object
licked. Probably we have here a case of prhnitive logi-
cal inference ; up to this time sucking and tasting were
the most important strong, agreeable, sensations the
young being has known ; when, therefore, he has a new
agreeable sensation (e. g., of a bright color, a round,
smooth body, a soft surface), it is brought into associa-
tion with tlie lips and tongue, through which the pleas-
urable feeling at taking in the sweet milk was received.
The quick moving of the hands to a new object
presented for the first time — e. g., a brush — must un-
questionably be interpreted as a sign of desire. The
parts of his own body, moreover, appear to the child as
foreign objects. For in the thirty-second week, as he
lies on his back, he likes to stretch his legs up vertically,
and observes the feet attentively as he does other ob-
jects held before him. Then he grasps with the hands
at his own feet, and often calories his toes to his mouth
with his hand.
The child also expresses interest, by protruding the
lips, his gaze being firmly directed to the object seized,
presumably in the now discovered fact that the thing be-
250 TUE MIND OF THE CHILD.
fore seen and desired is at the same time the things which
is touched, and which yields new sensations. The bright,
colored, long, short, appears now to him as also smooth,
rough, warm, cold, hard, soft, heavy, light, wet, dry,
sticky, slippery. The combination of two departments
of sense in one object gratifies. Such an object is like-
wise his own foot seen and touched. In case tlie object
seen and touched stands immovably firm, and so can not,
like the ball and the toes, be brought to the mouth, the
child tries, notwithstanding, in unmistakable fashion, to
get hold of it, to pull it to him, and to bring it to his
mouth, the source of his greatest feeling of pleasure, no
matter whether it is large or small. At the same time
it often happens, as I perceived to my astonishment on
the occasion of his taking hold of a firmly-standing carved
post, that the child (borne upon the arm) draws himself
with the arms to the desired object and puts his mouth
close up to it. The pleasure obtained in this way, also,
through the touching of the object seen, which is the occa-
sion of renewed seizing movements, is probably likewise
the occasion of the desire to taste it. For now, after
the nursing-bottle is presented to the child, he grasps
at it with his hand ; whereas he used to suck at it with
arms inactive, he now tries to hold it fast, sometimes
with the ex])ression of eagerness. In this case the re-
membrance of the taste, or what in this regard amounts
to the same thing, the gratification in the appeasing of
hunger, stimulates the seizing movement. The order
of succession originally is : tasting, then tasting and
seeing, then seeing and desiring, tasting and desiring
more, thereupon seeing, seizing, tasting. Through
repetition of these associations, probably, the remem-
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 251
brance of tlie taste tas, as it were, become amalgamated
witb seeing and seizing in general, until experience has
taught that the things touched and seized have no taste
or have a bad taste.
It is worthy of notice in this connection, tliat pre-
cisely during the first attempts at seizing, the greatest
strain of attention, along with protrusion of the lips
was observed, and later — in the thirty-fourth week,
when the seizing was done more quickly — the mouth
was opened before or directly after the seizing and then
the object was put into it. At the first attempts tlie
putting into the mouth followed without being intended
beforehand, but now the hand is stretched out with the
purpose of bringing the thing seen to the mouth, and
the mouth is open ; here it is to be borne in mind that
the very thing that excites j)leasure, the nursing-bottle,
was especially often carried to the mouth. If the child
at this period and afterwai'd was allowed to carry a crust
of bread to the mouth without assistance, it was often
Been that in spite of accuracy in laying hold of the
crust, it was carried not into the already-opened mouth,
but against the cheek, chin, or nose — an uncertainty of
touch that appeared still in the first attempts to eat
with a small spoon, in the seventeenth month.
Failure to grasp, grasping too short, and grasping at
objects very far off, disappear so gradually that I can
not assign a definite period of disappearance.
Neither could it be ascertained at what time the
putting of tlie fingers into the mouth and the grasping
at the face wnthout getting hold of any part of it ceased.
Invariably, shortly before and after a tooth comes
through, the child moves his fingers about in the mouth
252 THE MINI? OF THE CHILD.
a good deal, keeping tliree or four fingers in the mouth.
When alleviation had been experienced several times
through chewing of the fingers, these no longer went
accidentally — after moving about the hands in the air at
random — but went regularly during teething into the
mouth ; and it must come, finally, thi'ough frequent
repetition of the movement, to a reflex process, as the
hand is brought near to every approachable place that
feels pain. The first experience that biting the fingers,
even before the teeth are there, moderates the pain or
the tickling, appears as a consequence of the putting of
the hand into the mouth ; other painful impressions
likewise become, therefore, later, the occasion of move-
ments of the hand which may simulate seizing-move-
ments.
In the forty-third week the child without help not
only grasps properly with both hands at a nursing-bot-
tle, but carries it correctly to the mouth ; the same with
a biscuit lying before him. He pulls strongly at the
beard of a face that he can reach.
On the other hand, he grasped at the flame of the
lamp in the forty-fifth week ; in the forty-seventh, and
later, at objects separated from him by a pane of glass,
as if they were attainable, and that persistently, with
attention and eagerness, as if the pane were not there.
The discovery of the transparency of glass, which as-
suredly appears wonderful to every child, requires many
such fruitless attempts at seizing.
The greatest progress in the movement of the mus-
cles of the arm manifested itself at just this time, in
the fact that often very small shreds of paper on the
floor were grasped at and deftly laid hold of by thumb
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 253
and forefinger. But precisely this frequent play with
the bits of paper aiforded occasion to observe the above-
mentioned uncertainty of the sense of touch when un-
supported by sight. For whereas before this, when the
child used to take pleasure in biting pieces out of a
newspaper, these had to be taken out of his mouth by
some one, in the fourteenth month he could be allowed
to bite the paper to pieces undisturbed, because he now
of himself took out of his mouth with his right hand
every piece he had bitten off, and handed it to me. In
connection with this, I made the observation that the
shred of paper in the mouth on or near the lips w^as not
always found by the child when he touched with the
tips of his fingers. Without the guidance of the sense
of sight, therefore, touch was still quite imperfect.
Both senses united, on the other hand, did astonishing
things even much earlier than this, in spite of the fail-
ure to grasp, especially the failure to grasp far enough,
as late as the second year (p. 55), and the numerous
attempts to get hold of what could not be laid hold of
(p. 63). Thus I saw the child, at the age of ten months,
amuse himself, entirely of his own accord, by taking
deliberately from one hand into the other a long hair
that he had found on the carpet, and by gazing at it.
Of the many thousand nerve-iibers and muscle-fibers
that must come into harmonious activity in order that
such a movement may take place, the child knows noth-
ing, but he directs already the whole nervo-muscular
mechanism with his will, which was generated by desire.
Before he is capable of this, the sensuous stimulus that
starts the seizing-movements must have been repeated
many hundreds of times, so that one and the same sensa-
254: THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
tion often returned, an agreeable feeling arose, a per-
ception at ürst indistinct, then gradually more and more
distinct, and ünallj an idea of the objectivity of the
thing seizable could be formed. Secondly, the move-
ment of the arm, also, which, before as well as after
birth, is directed to the mouth or the face, must have
been very often repeated before it came to conscious-
ness — i. e., before an idea of it could be formed, be-
cause in the beginning it was not perceived at all by
the child. Wiien, however, the desired object is
represented in idea, and the movement of the arm is
represented, the rapid succession of both representations
favors their union, which calls into life the will. In
fact, tbe distinct representation of the movement is not
required any more at a later period, provided only that
the aim is clearly recognized. Too much importance
has often been attributed to the representation of the
movement, the representation not being necessary be-
forehand except for a new purposive movement ; this
mistake has been made by W. Gude and Lotze; the
representation of the aim remains the principal thing.
For many voluntary movements — e. g., those of the
eyes — are generally not clearly represented beforehand,
at any period, while the end and aim of them fill the
consciousness. At that time the kind of movement
necessary to the attainment of the aim is known only in
a general way.
But, in order to be able to execute a simple volun-
tary movement, such as reaching after objects, similar
movements must previously have been often executed
involuntarily, because only through these can muscular
sensations or sensations of innervation be developed.
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 255
These are, however, necessary pioneers for the voluntary
motor impulses, and they play an important part in
other movements also besides the voluntary ones of the
child and of the adult, viz., the instinctive ones. For
the memory-images of the innervation-sensations, or
muscular sensations, which the contraction of the mus-
cle in contrast with its repose brings with it, determine
which muscles are to be contracted, and how strongly
each is to be contracted, after the kind of movement to
be executed is settled upon.
ISTow, if the repetition of a voluntary movement —
e. g., a seizing movement — occurs very often, then the
turning to account of those memory-images is hastened
and simplified to such a degree that, without the co-
operation of the brain-sensorium, the brain-motorium
alone sets the muscles in activity after a sensory im-
pression has acted upon it. Herein consists the chief
characteristic of the cerebro-motor acquired reflexes ; to
these belongs also the grasping at a hat caught by a gust
of wind, at a later period of life.
But, on the other hand, in dreams — e. g., with the
<!liild (and with the hypnotic subject) after exclusion of
the will — the sensory impression may affect only the
brain-sensorium in such a way that complex movements
go on just as if they were voluntary. Such movements
Carpenter has called ideo-motor movements. The cere-
bral-motor impulses are accordingly not purely reflexive,
as are those of the spinal reflexes, for in the latter no
center of higher rank, no brain-sensorium, no brain-
motorium, is originally concerned.
Moreover, for both these last there comes into con-
sideration a cerebral inhibitory apparatus, which, want-
256 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
ing to the infant, arrests more and more easily, with his
increasing development, the volmitary, or ideo-motor or
purely reflexive (spinal-motor) movement that follows
the sensory impression, and becomes manifest at the
period when self-control begins.
That movement of the quite young child, which
from the beginning is commonly called " seizing," origi-
nates, accordingly, in the following manner :
The moving of the hands hither and thither, espe-
cially to the face, is inborn, impulsive, determined by
the position of the child within the womb.
The clasping of the finger laid in the hand in the
first days is purely reflexive.
Then follows the " absent-minded " (in the adult) or
" mechanical " holding fast of objects put into the hand
as an unconscious, instinctive movement (in the adult,
a movement that has become unconscious or no longer
conscious ; in the child, a movement not yet conscious).
Kext is observed the holding fast of the object with
contraposition of the thumb, when the object is so
situated that the hand, moving hither and thither, acci-
dentally grasps it. As the thumb now co-operates, the
pure reflex has become complicated, and the central
separation of the previously united impulses has been
attained. As the holding-fast lasts much longer than in
case of the reflex, and the attention, although only very
imperfectly and transiently, is directed to the new experi-
ence of holding fast, the movement has now no longer
taken place without the consciousness of the cerebral
sensorium, but it is not yet voluntary ; this kind of
primitive holding-fast (not seizing) still approximates to
the instinctive (ideo-motor) movements.
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 257
In the seventeenth to the nineteenth weeks the par-
ticipation of the will of the brain-motorium in this act
begins to attain its full force ; the child does not yet
stretch out its arm, but wills to hold fast the object
that has accidentally come into his hand. He looks at
it and forms an idea of it. From this fixation of the
held object to the seizing of the object fixated is only a
step. With that, willed-seizing is present, since the
path of connection is at last passable from the brain-
sensorium to the brain-motorium.
Years now pass before this seizing, which is indis-
pensable for the development of the understanding (i. e.,
for having experiences) is perfected, and the voluntary
inhibition of it by new, chiefly inculcated ideas, becomes
possible.
Most of the voluntary inhibitions, the first acts of
self-control, come into existence at a period that lies out-
side of the scheme of this exposition.
3. Sucking, Biting, Chewing, Teeth-Grinding, Licking.
Sucking belongs to the earliest co-ordinated move-
ments of man ; it is associated directly with swallow-
ing, and has been repeatedly perceived even before the
child was fully bom, in case an object that could be
sucked got into the mouth, and upon the upper surface
of the tongue, at the same time touching the hps.
When (December, 1870) I touched with my finger the
tongue of a child, born at the right time, and moved
my linger to and fro, or turned it on the upper surface
of the tongue, three minutes after the head had emerged
— the child was already crying feebly as soon as the
mouth was free — the babe immediately stopped crying
258 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
and sucked briskly, but not when I merely touched the
lips or put the finger between them. "Without doubt,
every normal child has become acquainted with the
swallowing of the amniotic fluid before birth, but has
hardly sucked as yet at his own fingers. Still, it is a
matter of absolute indifference, for the performance of
the act of sucking, whether liquid comes into the cavity
of the mouth or not, and the sucking for hours at empty
rubber-bottles — a vicious, highly reprehensible practice
— encouraged in Thuringia for the purpose of keeping
infants quiet, shows, just as the sucking at cloths and
at the fingers a few minutes after birth (according to
Champneys) shows, that swallowing is not required for
prolonged sucking. Yet under normal conditions, swal-
lowing is the muscular action that attaches itself directly
to sucking.
Of what kind is this movement, which is to so
high a degree indicative of adaptation to an end ? As
human abortions without brain, and puppies without a
cerebrum, can suck, the participation of the intellect,
any choice or purpose, is excluded in advance. But
since in the normal condition only tlie hungry, or, at
least, only the not completely satisfied infant, sucks
(the one that is full rejecting the nipple forcibly), we
have here something other than a purely reflex move-
ment. For the absence of the sucking movement can
not be ascribed in the satisfied child to fatigue caused
by previous sucking, because frequently the act is not
renewed for a long time after the previous sucking has
been finished. No more is it an impulsive movement,
since it appears, in the waking condition at the begin-
ning, only after lips, or tongue, or palate are touched by
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 259
an object capable of being sucked. The sncldng move-
ments of sleeping (dreaming) infants with empty, un-
touched mouth, however, show that the act may arise
from purely central causes, after it has once been ini-
tiated through peripheral stimuli.
Accordingly, sucking must be classed among the in-
stinctive movements. A scruple concerning this may
easily be removed.
It has been maintained that young animals easily
forget how to suck, if they omit sucking for some days.
Such an assertion, however, relates either to such ani-
mals (like Guinea-pigs) as at the very beginning of life
bite and chew, digest other food than milk, and soon
have no more need to suck ; or to the unlearning of
sucking at the breast, which is somewhat less easily ac-
comiDlished than is sucking from the bottle. In both
cases, therefore, the question is not of a forgetting of
the act of sucking — an act which yields great pleasure
to older children also, as is well known, and even to
adults (in smoking).
Of all the movements of the " suckling," hardly any
is so perfect from the beginning as that which gave
him this name. It is not so productive on the first
day, indeed, as on the second ; in fact, I found the
efforts at sucking in the first hour of life, with healthy,
new-born children, often quite devoid of effect (1869) ;
when an ivory pencil was put into the mouth, they
were found also non-coordinated ; but again they may be
quite regular, and, as has been mentioned, effectual, at
the very moment of birth ; they are based, therefore,
on hereditary movements, which take place after two
weeks with machine-like regularity, without imitation
260 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
or training, and without other movements, except swal-
lowing. The intermissions in sucking that occur with
shorter intervals in the first days of life than at a later
period, depend in part upon fatigue, in part upon the
quicker filling of the little stomach, where the milk
itself is not of unsuitable quality. On the other hand,
I once saw a babe of seven days (not fully satisfied, no
doubt) after ceasing to suck, keep up the movements
of the mouth as in sucking.
It has long been known tliat children do not at once
find the nipple without help, when they are placed at
the breast, but only after several days (in one case not
till the eightb day), thus later than is the case with ani-
mals. Like the latter, the very young child, before the
nipple is put into the mouth, makes lateral movements
of the head, which sometimes look like a groping about ;
the opening wide of the eyes before being placed at
the breast and the keeping of them open during the
nursing (very surprising in the first week, in a light not
glaring) lias, however, no connection with the finding
of the nipple, since even tliose born blind, it appears,
are no later in finding it. The action of the eyes is
rather, in the first week, simply the expression of pleas-
urable feeling (pp. 32 and 143).
It often happens that, when the child is placed at
the breast, the nipple does not get into the mouth ; but
the child sucks hard at the skin near it as late as the
third week — a proof of the lack of discernment at this
period. Yet the connection of the breast, as a whole,
with nursing is known, for as early as the twenty-second
day I saw the babe open wide its mouth at a distance
of an inch and a haK from the nipple. That the sense
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 261
of smell is less decisive in the matter than tlie sense of
sight is proved beyond question by observations upon
infants whose eyes are bandaged, and upon those born
blind. In animals born blind (dogs), the sense of smell
is, on the contrary, recognized as an indispensable guide.
The stretching out of the arms and the straining open
of the eyes by the older infant, at sight of the breast at
a distance, is against the participation of the smell. In
the first period, the nipple is probably found by means
of the sense of touch in the lips.
Besides, the sense of touch plays an important part
in even the act of nursing, from the beginning. For it
is not any object whatever pnt into the mouth that is
sucked, but only certain objects, not too large, not too
rough, not too hot or too cold, and not of a strongly
bitter, or sour, or salt taste. In general, hungry chil-
dren suck at their own fingers from the first days ; if
they are not hungry, they like to hold the fingers in the
mouth, especially when teething, without sucking at
them, and in the bath they suck at a sponge (in the
eighth month), which they hold to the lips like a piece
of bread.
Biting is not less instinctive than sucking. In the
tenth month my child no longer sucked at the finger
put into his mouth, but bit it almost invariably. Yet
I can not give the exact date at which biting begins
and sucking at the finger first ceases. In the seven-
teenth week the finger was already plainly bitten — i. e.,
compressed firmly between the toothless jaws ; in the
eleventh and twelfth months the child seized my hand,
carried it to his mouth, and bit the skin till it hurt, as
he did in general with the fingers of others which he
19
262 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
himself put into his mouth. Just so he tried at this
period to bite to pieces a cube of sohd glass. In the
tenth month he had learned without instruction to
crunch, with his four teeth, bread, which he then swal-
lowed. After his teeth came, almost everything de-
sirable was brought into contact with them as far as
this was possible, and was then bitten, and he liked to
smack his lips (eleventh month).
Before the infant gets his first tooth, he already
makes frequent movements of chewing, which are espe-
cially multiplied after a hard bread-crust has been put
into the mouth. The flow of blood that is increased
before the teeth come through is, toward the end of
the first three months, when driveling has begun, doubt-
less associated with disagreeable sensations, which are
referred to the gum. But the fact that the toothless
babe makes perfect chewing-movements— he who has
never had in his mouth an object capable of being
chewed, except his own fingers, that have often got in
there — goes to prove that th^ function of chewing comes
into activity, without practice, as soon as the requisite
nerves and muscles and the center are developed. Chew-
ing is a purely hereditary function ; it is instinctive.
Another movement, absolutely original, and proba-
bly practiced for a while by all teething babes, is grind-
ing the teeth. In the ninth month it affords the child
great satisfaction to rub an upper and a lower incisor
together, so as to be heard at the distance of a metre.
The infant seems to be interested in the sudden ap-
pearance of his teeth in quick succession. For he
makes comical movements of the mouth — e. g., pro-
trudes both lips far out, makes perfect chewing-move-
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 263
ments, and perfonns gymnastics with tlie tongue with-
out the utterance of sonnd. But the grinding is prac-
ticed chiefly with four teeth.
Another movement that belongs here is absolutely
original — licking. If this were not innate, how could
the new-born human child within the first twenty-four
hours of its life lick sugar ? I have myself observed it,
and have also seen licking for milk on the second and
third days, and that hardly less adroit than in the seventh
month. At this period not only are desired objects,
whether stationary or seized, stroked with the tongue,
but the lips of the mother in kissing ; and, vice versa,
the tongue is stroked with the objects.
All the movements of the infant here enumerated —
sucking, biting, smacking, chewing, tooth-grinding, lick-
ing — must be designated as typical instinctive move-
ments, hke the pecking of the cliicken. All are useful
to him, for even the grinding with the first teeth is of
use in making the child famihar with them. All are
hereditary and involuntary.
4. Holding the Head.
All new-bom children, and chickens just hatched,
probably all new-born mammals, and all birds just
hatched, are unable to hold the head up and to keep it
balanced. It falls forward, to the left or the right, even
backward, when it is held up straight by some one else.
In this respect the helplessness of the human child is
not greater than that of the chick hardly clear of the
shell ; but the latter learns in a few hours to control
better the muscles required for holding the head than
the child does in many weeks.
264 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
This muscular activity is especially adapted to help
us in following the growth of the child's will. For
weakness of the muscles can not be the cause of the
inabihty to balance the head, because other movements
of the head ai-e quickly executed. At the end of the
first and at the beginning of the second week I saw the
babe, on being placed at the breast, continually make
vigorous lateral movements of the head, which are made
in like fashion by very young Guinea-pigs, calves, foals,
and other animals in sucking. But during the first ten
weeks no trace could be discovered, in the case of my
boy, of an attempt to hold the head in equilibrium. In
the eleventh week the head no longer bobs about, abso-
lutely unsteady, when the child is made to sit up straight,
but rather is balanced occasionally, although very im-
perfectly as yet. In the twelfth week the head often
falls forward, also backward and sidewise, and is only
for moments in equilibrium ; yet a gain may be per-
ceived from day to day in this respect, as the short dura-
tion of the holding erect becomes daily somewhat longer
on the average. In the thirteenth week the head falls
but seldom to one side, even when it is entirely free ;
rather is it for the most part tolerably well balanced.
In the fourteenth week (in the case of another child not
till the twenty-first) it falls forward also, but seldom
(when the child is held up straight), and in the sixteenth
week the bobbing of the head has altogether ceased ;
the holding up of the head is now settled for life.
In this important step is expressed an unquestionable,
vigorous act of will. For the contractions of the mus
cles that balance the head are at first not willed ; they
are not reflexive, not imitative, but impulsive, and then,
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 265
as the purpose of tliem soon becomes discernible, tliej
are instinctive. The benefit of these contractions is not
recognized by the infant, but the muscular feelings that
go with them are distinguished from other muscular
feelings bv their agreeable consequences ; since, for ex-
ample, the child can see better when the head is erect,
and food can be taken more conveniently ; therefore,
these muscular contractions are preferred. Among all
possible positions of the head, then, that of equiHbrium
gradually appears oftenest in the upright position of
children, because it is the most advantageous, and when
children establish it we say they possess will. Adults
let the head fall when they go to sleep sitting, just as
infants do when awake. Their will is extinguished
when they cease to be awake. There is thus, during
the waking period, a certain outlay of will permanently
necessary for balancing the head, and the new-bom and
the very young child, though awake, do not yet possess
this small quantum of will. We may, therefore, without
hesitation, refer the period of the first distinct manifesta-
tion of activity of will in the infant in this field to that
week in which the head, while he is awake, no longer
bobs hither and thither — i. e., the sixteenth week in the
case of my child, the only one accurately observed as
yet; in general, the fom'th to the fifth month. R.
Demme observed — not so accurately, to be sure — one
hundred and fifty children in reference to tins, and
found that " very powerfully-developed infants carry
the head properly balanced as early as toward the end
of the third or within the first half of the fourth month
of life ; children moderately strong do this for the first
time in the course of the second half of the fourth
2G6 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
montli ; and more delicate individuals that fall some-
what below the normal standard in their nutrition do
not attain to this before the fifth or the beginning of
the sixth month of life." The statement of Heyfelder,
that even after six or eight weeks attempts were made
to hold the head erect, I can not confirm.
Observations are lacking, also, concerning the first
attempts of the infant, who at the beginning lies
straight or keeps the position it had before birth, to
lie on the side. One child did not accomplish it mitil
the fourth month, and only by great effort. When I
laid my boy, in the ninth and tenth months, on a pillow
face downward, the miusual position seemed to be ex-
tremely uncomfortable tf) hhn. He behaved in a very
awkward fashion, but turned over without any help, so
that after a minute or so he lay on his back again, or
supported himself on his hands. Something similar to
this happened, however, even in the sixth week of life.
The infant, when laid upon a pillow face downward,
propped himself even at that time on his forearms,
turning his head meantime to one side, without cry-
ing, thus exchanging the uncomfortable attitude for
one less uncomfortable. But in this there is as yet no
choice.
In the first three months no voluntary movement
appears, ^ew-born children can not so much as free
the face by turning the head when any one covers
the face with his hand or lays them on a pillow with
the face downward. They cry and move the extremities
aimlessly, so that it can not be told with certainty
whether the new position is agreeable to them or not.
Some of them, indeed, retain for some time, without
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 267
moving, every position that is given to tliera — a thing
whicli I have observed also in new-born animals.
5. Learning to Sit.
The first successful efforts to sit alone are referred
(by Ploss) to the fourth month, or (by Sigismuud) to the
period from the seventeenth to the twenty-sixth week.
Heyfelder also states, that vigorous children of five to
six months sit with the whole of the upj)er part of the
body erect. R. Demme found, on the other hand, that
very powerfully developed children, " without specially
remarkable strain of their muscular powers, could sit all
alone toward the end of the seventh or at the beginning
of the eighth month for several minutes." Those of
moderate strength did not achieve the same thing till
the ninth and tenth months; weakly ones in the
eleventh and twelfth months.
With my child, who was vigorous, we succeeded
with surprising ease in the first attempt to have him
take a sitting posture contrived for him so that his back
would be well supported. This was in the fourteenth
week. In the twenty second week the child actually
raised himself to a sitting posture when he wanted to
grasp at my face ; but it was not till the thirty-ninth
week that he could sit alone for any length of time ;
then he liked sitting, but not without a support. Even
in his baby-carriage he needed that (in the fortieth and
forty - first week still) in order to keep sitting. But
although he could sit only for moments, at most, with-
out any support, yet he always kept trying, manifestly
to his own gratification, to maintain his equilibrium.
Finally, in the forty-second week the child sits up,
268 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
naked in tlie bath, without support, holding his back
straight ; so likewise in the carriage, where the clothes,
coverings, and pillows essentially facilitate the balanc-
ing. The more difficult sitting upright in the bath,
with its smooth sides, demands in the following period
his entire attention. So long as his attention is not
claimed by fresh impressions, the child does not fall to
one side. He gains day by day in certainty in main-
taining his equilibrium, so that after some days he sits
for a full minute undressed in the bath, or in the car-
riage, without any support. From the eleventh month
on, sitting becomes a habit for life.
In the beginning there appears along with this a
peculiarity that is also found in monkeys, as was brought
into notice by Lauder Brunton (1881). When, viz.,
little children are allowed to sit alone on the floor, they
turn the soles of the feet toward each other, a habit
that perhaps comes from the position of the legs before
birth ; for eveiy child, when it is left to itself, un-
dressed and unswathed, in a warm bed, takes for a long
time after birth an attitude resembhug the intra-uterine
attitude — legs drawn up and arms bent and drawn in.
The sitting apparatus used by diilerent nations in
earlier times and at present — children's chairs with and
without provision for locomotion — have been described
by H. Plos3 in his book " The Little Child from the
Cushion to the First Step" ("Das Kleine Kind vom
Tragbett bis zum ersten Schritt," 1881), and illustrated
with cuts. These contrivances all serve rather the con-
venience of those who have the care of the child than
that of the child itself. In fact, they are injurious
when used too early. It is an important rule in or-
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 269
thopcdy and in pedagogy tliat no child be habituated
to a sitting posture before he has of himself raised
himself with the upj)er part of the body from the re-
cumbent position, in attempts to seize objects, witJiout
aid — in other words, before he wills to sit.
That the time at which this is done is, as appears
from the above statements of different observers, very
different with different children — the earliest time being
generally in the fourth and the latest in the twelfth
month — is explained in part by the premature attempts
of the relatives to bring on the sitting by artihcial
means ; in part by imitation, where brothers and sisters
are growing up together — the latter, however, applies
only to the later stages ; in part, finally, through mus-
cular weakness also, unequal nourishment, lack of care,
or neglect. But, apart from all these influences, varia-
tion in the statements about the first sitting is caused
also by different conceptions on the part of the observ-
ers. The attempt to sit is still very far removed from
actual sitting ; and this difference has been often over-
looked.
6. Learning to Stand.
The first successful attempts to stand, in which my
child stood on his feet without support, but only for a
moment, were made in the thirty-ninth week. lu the
following weeks he needed only slight aid, and he
seemed to prefer to occupy himself with learning to
stand rather than with learning to sit, although it must
have been more of a strain upon him.
In the eleventh month he can stand without any
support, and even stamps with his foot, but for all that
he is not at all sure on his feet. Only when chairs that
270 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
offer support, or watclif ul arms are close hj, is the up-
right posture maintained longer than a moment. In fact,
until some time after the first year of life has been
completed, the child does not stand for a longer time
than that, except when he leans back in a corner. I
have not ascertained that in the numerous attempts, re-
peated daily, to have him stand, he actually fell down a
single time in the first year ; and yet he gave us exactly
the impression of being afraid of falling, as soon as he
was to stand without leaning or being lield. Finally,
however, at the beginning of the second year, the child
could stand for some moments without a hand to hold
him. Then he gained gradually more confidence in
himself through his efliorts to walk, wliich were under-
taken at the same time.
A little girl, who in the nineteenth week had raised
herself for the first time alone to a sitting posture,
could from the eleventh month on hold herself upright
for some moments without any help, and could get up
alone ; her sister could do it from the tenth month (Frau
von Strümpell).
R, Demme found that only very vigorous children
were able, at about the thirty-fifth to tlie thii'ty-eighth
weeks of life, with slight support (given by taking hold
of their hands or anus) to stand for some minutes ; and
not before the fortieth to the forty-second week could
they stand entirely unsupported for two or three minutes.
Children of moderate strength arrived at this only about
the forty-fifth to the forty-eighth week ; those more
feeble not till the twelfth month or later. These obser-
vations relate to one hundred and fifty Swiss children.
Sigismund puts the date of the first attempts to stand
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 271
at the eighteenth to the twenty-sixth week. " At that
time children like much to stand, if they are grasped
under the arms." But standing without support does
not begin before the seventh month, and generally be-
gins after the eighth.
Imitation co-operates in this, for in families in
which several children grow up together the younger
ones usually learn to stand somewhat earlier than the
first-born does.
7. Learning to Walk.
Learning to walk is mysteiious in its beginnings,
because the reason for the alternate bending and stretch-
ing of the legs at the first placing of the infant up-
right is not apparent to him. But the possibihty of
learning to walk rests solely on the invariably repeated
lifting and putting down of the feet by the child when
standing or held erect. The flexions and extensions
occur, to be sure, when the child is lying down, in bed
or in the bath ; but the regular bending and stretching
which appear even months before the tirst successful
attempt to walk, when the child, held U23right on the
floor, is pushed forward, is a different thing — it is in-
stinctive. If infants could sustain life without coming
in contact with human beings, they would of themselves
doubtless adopt, but considerably later, the upright
walk, because it is advantageous for command of the
surrounding region through eye and ear. In the
nursery, walking is almost always induced, and with
unspeakable pains, earlier than can be good for children
with regard to the growth of the bones. Children's go-
carts (Kinderlaufstühle) and walking-frames (Gehkörbe)
that favor such premature exercises are objectionable
272 THE MIND OF THE CEILD.
contrivances, because tliey help to make children bow-
legged. Creeping, the natural preparatory school for
walking, is but too often not permitted to the child,
although it contributes vastly to his mental develop-
ment. For liberty to get to a desired object, to look
at it and to feel of it, is much earlier gained by the
creeping child than by one who must always have help
in order to change his location. Mother and nurses, in
many families, prevent children from creeping before
they can stand, through mere prejudice and even super-
stition, even when it is not the convenience of the el-
ders, their disinclination to be observing watchfully the
freely-moving child, that determines the unjustiiiable
prohibition. It can not be a matter of indifference for
the normal mental development of the child not yet a
year old, whether it is packed in a basket for hours, is
swathed in swaddling-clothes, is tied to a chair, or is
allowed to creep about in perfect freedom upon a large
spread, out-of-doors in summer, and in a room mod-
erately heated in winter.
"When it is that a child tries to creep for the first
time can not be accurately stated, just because he is
generally hindered in such attempts. The date is be-
sides very different for children of the same family,
according to the nutrition and the firmness of the
bones, the muscular power, and the desire of move-
ment, which depend upon the nutrition. Some infants
do not creep at all. Moreover, the manner of creeping
is by no means the same in all children, nor do even
European children all drag on both knees. My child
dragged as a rule on one knee only, and used the other
for an advance movement, putting forward the proper
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 273
foot, as Livingstone reports of the Manynema children in
Africa. But like all children he learned to kneel down
only a long time after he could walk, whereas animals
a day old kneel of themselves (p. 68). So, too, it was
long after he could walk, that he learned to move for-
ward on hands and knees.
The date of the first successful attempts to walk also
varies much, even with children of the same family,
with approximately the same nourishment. One weakly
child (according to Sigismund) could run alone cleverly
when it was eight months old, another at sixteen
months ; many do not learn till after they are a year
and a half or even two years old. Much dej^ends on the
surroundings. If a child grows up among other little
children, some of whom are walking, some learning to
walk, then he will, as a rule, be able to stand erect and
to run, without any support from the mother, earlier
than if he grows up alone. But in this case the fre-
quent repetition of the instruction in walking may
shorten considerably the natural period. Thus Demme
saw (1882) out of fifty children two at the end of the
ninth month of life walk ahme for some minutes — un-
steadily, to be sure ; on the other hand, seven not till
between the eighteenth and twenty-fourth month ; the
remaining forty-one in the third half-year. A vigorous
female child with whom no experiments in standing
and walking were undertaken, began to creep with the
fifth month. " Up to the end of the tenth month she
moved forward very briskly on all-fours, like a monkey,
and up to this time, according to the express statement
of the trustworthy parents, she had made no attempt
to raise the body upright. With the fourteenth month
274 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
she began first to raise herself up by firm objects, and
from the sixteenth to the eighteenth learned to walk
properly without any assistance, keeping up meantime
the frequent practice of going on all-fours. The girl
was intelligent, and her development in other respects
was regular."
In general, the first attempt of the child that can
hold himself erect by means of firm objects, to stand
free of support, to trot, to walk, comes into the time
including the last quarter of the first year and the first
three quarters of the second year, although proper
walking- movements of an infant supported from above
appear even in the second quarter of the first year.
Champney's child was held upright for the first time at
the close of the nineteenth week, so that the feet just
touched the ground, and was moved forward. The
legs moved themselves fitly all the time, in alternation.
Every step was taken perfectly, and that without delay
or irregularity, even when the feet were held too high ;
only, that when the boy was held too high, the alternat-
ing movement was interrupted, as the foot remaining in
the air made a new step. The touching of the ground
on the part of one foot seemed to furnish the stimulus
for the movement of the other. These perfectly cor-
rect observations — out of the nineteenth week — support
absolutely my view of the act of walking as an instinct-
ive movement.
It was after the close of the first quarter of the
second year that my child, standing unsupported on his
feet, suddenly trotted for the first time around the
table, swaying, to be sure, or staggering like a drunken
man that wants to run, but without falling. And from
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 275
that day forth he conld walk upright, at first only
rapidly, hardly except on a trot, as if the only thought
were to prevent the falling forward, and with arms ex-
tended in front — then slower and more securely.
AVithin the next ten weeks, however, the child went
over a threshold hardly an inch high, between two
rooms, only by holding on, and was often seen at this
period to fling with a jerk the foot that was put down
in advance, like a tabetic patient, or to lift it too high
and set it down too hard. The muscular sense was not
yet developed.
In order to give a clear idea of the gradually pro-
gressing development, I place together here a few more
observations which I made upon my child concerning
the first sitting, creeping, standing, walldng, and run-
ning :
22d and 'BSd weeks. — Lying on his back the infant
often lifts himself up to a sitting posture, and is pleased
when he h placed upright on the knees of his nurse.
^8th week. — The child of his own accord i^laces
himself upright., but only on the lap of his mother,
holding on to her.
35th week. — The child, while being carried, places
himself on the arm and the hand of the nurse, and
looks over her shoulder.
Ji^lst week. — First attempts at walking. The child
was held under the arms so that his feet touched the
floor. Then he lifted his legs alternately and stretched
them imperfectly, in alternation. What induced these
movements in him is beyond finding out. Sitting and
standing without support are impossible.
Ißd week. — "Whence it comes that the child, held
276 THE MIND OF THE CHILD,
under the arms, his feet touching the floor, sets these
to moving forward^ and in the beginning sidewise
also, now more regularly, is the harder to comprehend,
for the reason that there is no pushing from behind,
and usually nothing is before the child that he would
desire. The inclination to walk is very great. From
this time on the child sits without support,
JfJSd week. — Whereas the child at the beginning put
his feet irregularly over, by, and before each other, he
now lifts the foot high up and generally puts it down
firmly on the floor without crossing the legs. These
remarkable movements occasion him the greatest pleas-
ure. If he is very restless, he is speedily quieted if he
is placed with his feet on the floor and held so. He
begins then at once, without the least urging, to move
himself forward.
45th to liHth weeks. — The exercises in walking, prac-
ticed almost daily, were at this period entirely omitted,
in order to ascertain whether that which had been hith-
erto attained would be forgotten.
At the end of the forty-sfeventh week, however, the
child when held up places his feet remarkably correctly,
and seldom over each other; but the needed estimate
of the amount of muscular force to be employed is still
lacking, for he often lifts the foot too high, and puts it
down too hard.
JiSth week. — The child often stands now a moment
■«•ithout support and stamps with his foot. He takes
hold of a chair and 'pushes it forward somewhat, with
only the slightest support.
Ii.9th week. — If the child is left to himself on a soft
blanket, surrounded with pillows, he can not raise him-
L INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 277
self without help, and he can not stand more than an
instant without help.
50th loeeh. — The child can not yet of himself place
himself upon his feet, when he is sitting or lying, nor
can he walk without help.
53d week. — The child can creep, or rather drag
himself along somewhat, but can not walk alone.
5Ji.th week. — He can walk when held by one hand.
"When creeping on the carpet, he moves but little and
slowly from his place, and this with asymmetrical
movements and stretchings of arms and legs.
57th week. — He hitches along hither and thither
quite nimbly on hands and knees, but walking without
being led (by one hand) is quite impossible.
60th week. — The child can raise himself alone from
the floor by a chair, first to his knees and then to his
feet. But he can stand all alone only a few moments ;
always clings tightly when he is put down.
62d week. — The child is still unable to stand longer
than a moment without being supported, or at least
touched. This inability depends no longer on the dif-
ficulty of maintaining the equilibrium, but on the lack
of confidence in himself, for the only time when he is
still unable to stand is when he knows he is not held.
But when, without his knowledge, I have withdrawn
from his back the support of my hand, having grad-
ually reduced the pressure, then he stands for several
seconds upright, and without support. Just so in
the—
63d week. — The child still walks only when he can
hold on with both hands (on the sides, fifty-five centi-
metres high, of a rectangular wooden structure of one
20
278 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
and a quarter metres length on the side, made bj me
on purpose for my child in 1878, and cushioned).
ßlfth week. — "When the child is led by one of his
arms, so loosely that the arm is as if put through a
loose ring, he walks properly and steadily; he can
therefore walk without being held ; but if he is left
entirely free from one's touch, then he does not walk,
but falls or stumbles into the arms of the person sitting
or standing before him. Co-ordinating ability is not
lacking, therefore, but seK-confidence ; whereas the in-
ability to speak depends on lack of co-ordinating power.
By altogether too frequent support, by too much teUing
how and showing how, by training, independent devel-
opment is hindered and self-conhdence is smothered in
its origin.
65th weeJc. — The child can not yet walk alone, in-
deed ; but when he clasps only one guiding finger with
his thumb and finger, he strides swiftly and securely
forward. He raises himself, if he is laid down, first to
the knees, and while he holds fast to something he
stands vp, but can not stand up without holding on.
66th week. — Suddenly — on the four hundred and
fifty-seventh day of his life — the child can run alone.
The day before, he was entirely unable to take three
steps alone — he had to be led if only by means of a
stick, perhaps a lead-pencil. Kow, he ran alone around
a large table, unsteadily indeed, and staggering and not
holding his head in a stable position, but without falling.
On the following day the little traveler is manifestly
pleased at his new accomphshment, runs staggering, at
random, with arms now hanging down, now lifted as if
he wanted to hold on, now mute, again crying out,
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 279
" Hey ! Hej-ey ! " (this he continued to do for months),
and laughing. He likes to hold on by the furniture.
On the day following, the child frequently stops during
his hasty walking, and stamps, changing position from
one foot to the other without any help. On the four
hundred and sixty-lirst day he can walk hackward also if
he is led, and without leading can turn round quickly
and cleverly. In walking he strikes about him at ran-
dom with his arms. At the end of this week he can,
during his walking, already direct his attention to
other things, move his hands hither and thither for
pleasure, hold objects and look at them during the slow
walking, which has just been learned,
67ih week. — Although a fall appears inevitable fre-
quently in his walking alone, yet it rarely occurs — in the
iirst five days of walking scarcely more than three times.
In falling forward, both arms are now stretched
straight out, which must be instinctive, as a falling per-
son has not yet been seen by the child. In falling
backward there is no protective movement. Whether
the arms were extended at the first fall I have not
been able to settle.
68th week. — The act of walking no longer requires
so great attention as at the beginning. During his ad-
vance his look is already turned sidewise; and he even
chews, swallows, laughs, and calls out. Walking is al-
ready becoming mechanical.
70th week. — The child raises himself from the floor
alone — i. e., he stands up himself.
71st week. — Kow first can a threshold — only an
inch high, at the door between two rooms — be stepped
over without help (not yet invariably, in the seven-
280 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
tietli week, the child holding by the wall and the door-
post). If he is sitting, he can now stand up without
help.
77th week. — One day the child ran, without inter-
vals of more than five seconds, nineteen times around a
large table, calling out meantime, " Mannna ! " and
" Bwa, bwa, bwa ! " Great hking for running.
7Sth week. — If he is holding something in his hands,
then he walks over the threshold an inch high without
holding on by anything.
8oth week. — The thresholds are stepped over quick-
ly without hesitation. In running he inclines forward,
as if, at every step, falling were consciously prevented
by carrying forward the center of gravity.
89th week. — Running is still somewhat awkward — ■
with asymmetrical movements of the arms — so that it
looks as if the child must fall. But a fall is very rare.
In the twenty- fourth month the child turns of him-
self, dancing in time to music ; also beats the time with
tolerable correctness, when he hears a hand-organ or a
bag-pipe.
In the twenty-eighth month he first learned to " go
on all - fours " — that is, on hands and feet (playing
"bear"). Before this he had (in creeping) dragged
himself along on hands and knees, never on hands
and feet. In this period came the first exercises in
jumping, which were continued to the point of ex-
haustion. In this month, too, and in the previous
one, begins pleasure in climbing (on tables, chairs,
benches).
In the thirtieth month, mounting a staircase of
twenty-five steps without help — the right hand, on the
INSTINCTIVE MOVEMENTS. 2S1
balustrade, rather directing than holding. After ten
davs the same, with both hands free in the air.
In the thirty- fourth month, the first gymnastic exer-
cises, which, like chmbing and jumping, afford extraor-
dinary pleasure. Also the throwing of any kind of
objects (out of a window) ; the hurhng of stones into
the air or into a pond ; the moving or setting in motion
of objects within reach (on the table) are absolutely origi-
nal, and must consequently be traced back to hereditary
tendencies to produce changes in movable objects.
On the whole, it appears from the observations con-
cerning sitting, standing, creeping, running, walking,
jumping, climbing, throwing, which are rapidly but
unequally developed in all children in like fashion,
that these movements are predominantly or exclusively
instinctive. They are not imparted by education. If
any one insists on saying that they are learned, he must
admit that they are only in the smallest degree learned
by imitation ; for a child that sees no one drag himself
along, jump, climb, or throw, will without fail perform
these movements, even when he is not trained. The
progenitors of man must have found these especially
useful, so that they grew to be fixed habits and became
hereditary. At the same time, as it appears, those har-
monious movements remained oftenest in use which,
like those of the muscles of the eye that are used
in seeing (p. 35), are of most service with the least
strain.
2S2 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
CHAPTER XII.
IMITATIVE MOVEMENTS.
To determine as exactly as possible tlie date of the
first imitative acts is of especial interest in regard to the
genesis of mind, because even the most insignificant imi-
tative movement furnishes a sure proof of activity of the
cerebrum. For, in order to imitate, one must first per-
ceive through the senses : secondly, have an idea of
what has been perceived ; thirdly, execute a movement
corresponding to this idea. ISTow, this threefold central
process can not exist without a cerebrum, or without
certain parts of the cerebrum, probably the cortical sub-
stance. Without the cerebral cortex, certain percep-
tions are possible, to be sure ; many movements are
possible, but not the generation of the latter out of the
former. However often imitation has the apiDcarance
of an involuntary movement, yet when it was executed
the first time, it must have been executed with intention
— i. e., voluntarily. AVhen a child imitates, it has al-
ready a will. But the oftener a voluntary movement is
repeated, always in the same way, so much the more it
approximates reflex movement. Hence many imitative
acts, even in the child, occur involuntarily quite early.
But the first ones are willed. When do they make
their appearance ?
If we make, for the infant to see, a movement that
he has often practiced of his own accord, he can make
a successful imitation much earlier than is commonly
supposed. Such a movement, which I employed as
IMITATIVE MOVEMENTS. 283
suitable for early imitation, is the pursing of the mouth,
the protruding of the closed lips, which often occurs,
(even in adults) along with a great strain of the atten-
tion.
This protruding of the lips occurred with my child
on the tentli day of life (in the bath, when a burning
candle was held before him at the distance of a metre) ;
in the seventh week it was decidedly marked at sight
of a new face quite near him ; in the tenth week, at the
bending and stretching of his legs in the bath. It was
as if the letter w were to be pronounced — and yet the
child was wholly unable to imitate this movement so
easily made by him (as late as tbe fourteenth week)
when I made it for him under the most favorable cir-
cumstances. At the end of the fifteenth week appeared
for the lirst time the beginnings of an imitation, the
infant making attemjjts to purse the lips when I did it
close in front of him. That this was a case of imitative
movement is shown by the imperfect character of it in
comparison with the perfect pursing of the lips when
he makes the movement of his own accord in some other
strain of the attention. Strangely enough, the imitation
was attempted on the one hundred and fifth day, but
not in the following days.
Further attempts at imitation occurred so seldom
and were so imperfect, notwithstanding much pains on
my part to induce them, in the following weeks, that I
was in doubt whether they might not be the result of
accidental coincidences. Not till the seventh montb
were the attempts to imitate movements of the head, and
the pursing of the lips already spoken of, so striking
that I could no longer refer them to accidental coinci-
284 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
dence. In particular tlie child often laughed when one
laughed to him (p. 145). The attention is now more
and more plainly strained when new movements are
made for the infant to see — he follows these with evi-
dent interest, but without coming to the point of an
attempt at imitation in a single instance. This indo-
lence was the more surprising, as even in the seven-
teenth week the protruding of the tip of the tongue
between the lips (customary with many adults at their
work) was perfectly imitated once, when done by me
before the child's face, and the child in fact smiled di-
rectly at this strange movement which seemed to please
him. Imitative movements thus appear in the fourth
month, which in the seventh, and even the ninth, do
not succeed or are quite imperfectly achieved. Yet in the
tenth month correct imitations of all sorts of movements
were frequent, and it is certain that these were executed
with distinct consciousness ; for, when he is imitating
movements of hand and arm frequently repeated before
him — e. g., heckoii'ing [in the general sense of making
a sign] and saying — " Tatta "^-the child looks fixedly at
the person concerned, and then often suddenly makes
the movement quite correctly.
Beckoning ( ^yinken) is in general one of the move-
ments of the infant acquired early by imitation. In
my child it appeared for the first time at the beginning
of the tenth month. When he was going to be taken
out, his mother used to make a sign to him, and now he
likewise made a sign, almost invariably, in the doorway,
with one arm, frequently with both arms, yet with an
ex]3ression of face that indicated that he moved the arms
or arm without understanding, upon the opening of the
IMITATIVE MOVEMENTS. 285
door. The proof of tliis lies in the fact, that when I
enter tlie room, the cliild, so long as the door is in
motion, makes that movement which he at first only
imitated, and does it regularly — no hint of leave-taking
in it therefore. The beckoning movement is made also
at other times — e. g., on the opening and shutting of a
large cupboard ; it has, therefore, completely lost its
purely imitative character. The movement consists es-
sentially of a rapid raising and dropping of the ex-
tended arm ; it is not, therefore, genuine beckoning.
Not till after some weeks were motions of the hand
added, and this more skillful imitation made it seem as
if the machine-like movements that were made at the
opening of the door were less and less involuntary,
were more and more intentionally performed as genuine
signs of leave-taking. But at this period (tenth month)
such an action is not yet admissible ; for when I make
the same beckoning movement for the child w^ithout
opening the door, he repeats it often in a purely imi-
tative fashion without deliberation, though, to be sure,
the eye has an expression of great strain of attention,
on account of the difficnlty of comprehending so quick
a movement.
Not every imitative movement can be so clearly
perceived to be willed as can this one. When one
enters a room in which there are a good many infants,
all quiet, one can easily observe the contagious influence
of crying. For, if only one child begins to cry, then
very soon several are crying, then many, often all of
them. So, too, when one single infant (in the ninth
month) hears other children cry, he likewise, in very
many cases, begins to cry. The older the child becomes,
286 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
the more seldom appears this kind of undesirable imi-
tation ; but even in children four years old, quite aim-
less imitative movements may often be perceived (as in
mesmeric patients) if the children are observed without
their knowledcje. For example, they suddenly hold the
arms crossed, as a stranger present is doing, and bow as
he does at leaving.
A little girl in the last quarter of her first year imi-
tated, in the drollest fashion, what she herself experi-
enced in her treatment by the nurse, giving her doll a
bath, punishing it, kissing it, singing it to sleep ; and
before the end of the first year she imitated the barking
of the dog and the bleating of the sheep (Frau Dr.
Friedemann).
Another female child imitated the following move-
ments in a recognizable manner : in the eleventh month
she threatened with the forefinger if any one did so to
her, used a brush after she had seen brushes and combs,
used a spoon properly, and drank from a cup, and made
a kind of cradling movement with her doll, singing,
"Eia — eia." In the thirteenth month the child made
the motion of sewing, of writing (moistening the point
of the pencil in her mouth) and of folding the arms.
In the fifteenth month she fed the doll as she was fed
herself, imitated shaving, on her own chin, and reading
aloud, moving her finger along the lines and modulat-
ing her voice. In the eighteenth month she imitated
singing, and made the motion of turning a crank like a
hurdy-gurdy player when she heard music; in the
nineteenth she went on hands and feet, crying "Au,
au ! " (ow, ow), in imitation of a dog ; in the twentieth
she imitated smoking, holding a cane firmly with her
IMITATIVE MOVEMENTS. 287
fingers exactly as is done in smoking a pipe. Her younger
sister, in her fifteenth month, first imitated the movement
of sewing and of writing ; while the elder, in the nine-
teenth month, after repeated attempts at imitation, sewed
together two pieces of cloth, without instruction, draw-
ing the needle through correctly (Fran von Strümpell).
Toward the end of the first year of life the voluntary
imitative movements, more numerous than before, are ex-
ecuted much more skillfully and more quickly. But when
they require complex co-ordination they easily fail. When
(at the beginning of the twelfth month) any one struck
several times with a salt-spoon on a tumbler so that it
resounded, my child took the spoon, looked at it steadily,
and then likewise tried to strike on the glass with it,
but he could not make it ring. In such imitations,
which are entirely new, and on that account make a
deeper impression, as in the case of puffing {Pusten) it
would happen that they were repeated by the child in
his dreams, without interruption of his sleep (twelfth
month), a proof that the experiences of the day, however
unimportant they appear to the adult, have stamped them-
selves firmly upon the impressionable brain of the child.
But it takes always some seconds before a new or partly
new movement, however simple, is imitated, when it is
made for the child to imitate — e. g., it was a habit of
my child (in the fourteenth month) to move both arms
symmetrically hither and thither, saying, " ay — e, ay —
e " (altogether differently, much more persistently and
rapidly, than when beckoning). If some one made
this very swinging of the arms for the child to observe,
with the same sound, there was always an interval of
several seconds before the child could execute the move-
288 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
meiit in like fashion. The simplest mental processes of
all, therefore, need much more time than thej do later.
But imitations of this kind are almost always performed
more quickly when they are not sought, when the
child-brain is not obliged first to get its bearings, but
acts spontaneously. If I clear my throat, or cough
purposely, without looking at the child, he often gives
a little cough likewise in a comical manner. If I ask,
" Did the child cough ? " or if I ask him, " Can you
cough ? " he coughs, but generally copying less accurately
(in the fourteenth and fifteenth months). The bow too
tightly strained shoots beyond the mark.
Here, besides pure imitation, there is already under-
standmg of the name of the imitated movement with
the peculiar noise.
This imjDortant step in knowledge once taken, the
movements imitated become more and more complicated,
and 'are more and more connected with objects of daily
experience. In the fifteenth month the child learns to
blow out a candle. He puffs from six to ten times in
vain, and grasps at the flame ineantime, laughs when it
is extinguished, and exerts himself, after it has been
lighted, in blowing or breathing, with cheeks puffed out
and lips protruded to an unnecessary degree, because
he does not imitate accurately. For it can hardly be
that a child that has never seen how a candle can be
blown out would hit upon the notion of blowing it out.
Understanding and experience are not yet sufficient to
make this discovery.
I find, in general, that the movements made for
imitation are the more easily imitated correctly the less
complicated they are. When I opened and shut my
IMITATIVE MOVEMENTS. 2S9
hand alternately, merely for the purpose of amusing the
child, he suddenly began to open and shut his right hand
likewise in quite similar fashion. The resemblance of
his movement to mine was extremely surprising in com-
parison with the awkward blowing out of the candle in
the previous instance. It is occasioned by the greater
simplicity. Yet, simple as the bending of the finger
seems, it requires, nevertheless, so many harmonious
impulses, nerve-excitements, and contractions of mus-
cular fibers, that the imitation of simple movements
even can hardly be understood without taking into
account the element of heredity, since unusual move-
ments, never performed, it may be, by ancestors —
say, standing on the head — are never, under any cir-
cumstance?, imitated correctly at the first attempt. The
opening and shutting of the hand is just one of the
movements by no means unusual, but often performed
by ancestors. Still, it is to be noticed that at the be-
ginning the imitation proceeded very slowly, although
correctly. On the very next day it was much more
rapid on the repetition of the attempt, and the child,
surprised by the novelty of the experience, now observed
attentively first my hand and then his own (fifteenth
month).
Of the numerous more complicated movements of
the succeeding period, the following, also, may be men-
tioned, in order to show the rapid progress in utilizing
a new retinal image for the execution of an act corre-
sponding to it : A large ring, which I slowly put on my
head and took away again, was seized by the child, and
put by him in the same way on his own head without
fumbling (sixteenth month). But, when it is a case of
290 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
combination of a definite action of tlie mnscles of the
mouth with expiration of the breath, innumerable fruit-
less efforts at imitation are made before one of them
succeeds, because, in this case, a part only of the working
of the complicated muscular action can be perceived,
while the rest must be found out by trial. Thus, the
child could not, in spite of many attempts, get any tone
out of a small hunting-horn. He put it to his mouth,
and tried to imitate the tone with his own voice. Sud-
denly the right manner of blowing was hit upon acci-
dentally, and from that time was never forgotten (eight-
eenth month).
After the child had seen how his mother combed
her long dark hair before a glass, he took a hand-mirror
and a comb and moved the comb around on his head,
combing where there was no hair. So, too, he w^ould
now and then seize a brush and try to brush his head,
and his dress, but took special pleasure in brushing also
all kinds of furniture. More than once he actually took
a shawl, held it by a corner to his shoulder, and drew it
behind him like a train, frequently turning around while
doing this. He also put a collar round his neck ; he
tried to dry himself with a towel, but without success ;
whereas the washing of the hands with soap, without
direction, was imitated, though not with much skill, yet
tolerably well; none but very complicated imitative
actions these, and all of them, in the case of my boy,
belong to the third quarter of the second year — an ex-
ceptionally important period in mental genesis — the
same is true of seizing, holding things before him, and
(what was observed by Lindner in the sixth month) the
imitation of reading aloud from a newspaper or pam-
IMITATIVE MOVEMENTS. 291
phlet, the feeding of deer — holding out a single spear of
grass to them — scraping the feet npon entering the
lioiise (as if the shoes were to be cleaned).
But how little real imitation and understanding of
the act itself there was, even in this period of perfect
external imitations, appears from the circumstance that
a map is held, as a newspaper, " to be read aloud," before
the face, and upside down. Now, too, the child likes
to take a pencil, puts the point in his mouth, and then
makes all sorts of marks on a sheet of paper, as if he
could draw.
Just as remarkable is the lively interest in every-
thing that goes on in the neighborhood of the child. In
packing and unpacking, setting the table, lighting the
fire, lifting and moving furniture, he tries to help.
His imitative impulse seems here almost like ambition
(twenty-third month).
Toward the end of the second year various ceremoni-
ous movements, especially those of salutation, are also
imitated. The child sees how an older boy takes off his
hat in salutation ; immediately he takes off his own head-
covering and puts it on again, like the other boy.
All these movements last enumerated are distin-
guished from the earlier ones by this, that they were
executed or attempted by the boy unsolicited, without
the least inducement or urging, entirely of his own mo-
tion.
They show, on the one hand, how powerful the
imitative impulse has become (in the second year) ; on
the other hand, how important this impulse must be
for the further mental develoj^ment. For, if the child
at this age passes the greater part of his time in com-
202 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
pany inattentive to manners, or unrefined, then lie will
imitate all sorts of tilings injurious to liim, and will
easily acquire habits that hinder his further develop-
ment. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance, even
at this early period, to prevent the intercourse of chil-
dren with strangers, and to avoid everything that might
open wrong paths to the imitative impulse.
The imitative movements of the muscles of speech,
the child's imitations of sounds, syllables, and words are
treated of in detail in the third part of this work. The
first answer of the infant to the lano-uao^e addressed to
him by his relatives, which is said to be made, in indi-
vidual cases, as early as the eighth and ninth weeks
(according to Sully, 1882), is no attempt at imitation,
but a directly reflexive movement, like screaming after
a blow, etc. Singing has already been mentioned as one
of the earliest imitated performances. It is true of
these, as of all later imitations, that the first imitation
of every new movement is voluntary on the part of the
child, and, in case an involuntary imitation seems to
occur, then either this has already been often repeated
as such, or it is a movement often practiced without
imitation. The accuracy of the imitation depends little,
however, upon the co-operation of a deliberative cere-
bral activity. On the contrary, children of inferior
mental endowment among those bom deaf sometimes
possess (according to Gude) a purer and more distinct
enunciation than those more gifted.
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 293
CHAPTER XIIL
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS.
ExPEESsioNS of countenance and gestures arise
chiefly, as is well known, from imitation. Not only
persons born blind, but also those who become blind at
an advanced age, are distinguished from those who have
sight by their lack of the play of feature. Their ex-
pression of countenance shows only slight changes ; their
physiognomy appears fixed, uniform ; the muscles of
the face move but little when they are not eating or
speaking. Little children also lack a characteristic play
of feature, hence the difficulty of making portraits of
them, or even of describing them. Different as is tlie
contented face from the discontented, even on the first
day, different as is the intelligent face from the stupid,
the attentive from the inattentive, the difference can
not be completely described. In the second half of the
first year children act after the example of the members
of the family. Speak gravely to a gay child of a year
old, and it becomes grave ; if it is sober, and you show
a friendly face, the child in many cases brightens up in
an instant. Yet it would be premature to conclude
from this that all the means of expression by the coun-
tenance are acquired solely through imitation. Some
mimetic movements, of which we have already spoken,
are of reflex origin. The same is true of gestures.
Others may be instinctive.
As every gesture is wont to appear in association
with the expression of countenance appropriate to it,
when it has a language value, it seems advisable to treat
21
29Jt THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
together expressions and gestures which together form
pantomime, and to separate the purely expressive mus-
cular movements of the infant from its other move-
ments, in our attempt to trace their origin.
So long as the child can not yet speak words and
sentences, it effects an understanding with other children
and with adults by the same means that are employed
by the higher animals for mutual understanding, by
demonstrative movements and attitudes, by sounds ex-
pressive of emotion or feeling, of complaining, exulta-
tion, alluring, repelling, or desiring, and by dumb looks.
These very means of expression are employed by the
child when it entertains itself in play with inanimate
objects.
Of the expressive movements of the child I have
especially considered, as to their origin, smiling and
laughing, pouting and kissing, crying and wrinkling of
the forehead, shaking the head and nodding, shrugging
the shoulders, and begging with the hands, as well as
pointing.
1. The First Smiling and Laughing.
The first smiling is the movement most often mis-
understood. Every opening of the mouth whatever,
capable of being interpreted as a smile, is wont to be
gladly called a smile even in the youngest child. But
it is no more the case with the child than wuth the
adult that a mere contortion of the mouth fulfills the
idea of a smile. There is required for this either a feel-
ing of satisfaction or an idea of an agreeable sort. Both
must be strong enough to occasion an excitement of the
facial nerves. A smile can not be produced by a mere
sensation, but only by the state of feeling that springs
EXPEES?I7E MOVEMENTS. 295
from it, or bv the agreeable idea developed from it,
however vague it may jet be.
Now, as has been shown already, the number of
sensations associated with a pleasurable feeling in the
first days of life is very small, and an idea, in the proper
sense of the word, the new-born child unquestionably
can not have as yet, because he does not yet perceive.
The child that is satisfied with nursing at its mother's
breast, or with the warmth of the bath, does not smile
in the first days of life, but only shows an expression
of satisfaction, because for the moment all unpleasant
feelings are absent. But how easily such a condition
of comfort manifests itself by a very slight lifting of
the corner of the mouth, is well known. If we choose
to call this a smile, then even sleeping babes smile very
early. On the tenth day of his life I saw my child,
while he was asleep, after having just nursed his fill,
put his mouth exactly into the form of smiling. The
dimples in the cheeks became distinct, and the expression
of countenance was, in spite of the closed eyes, strik-
ingly lovely. The phenomenon occurred several times.
On the twelfth day appeared, along with the animated
movements of the facial muscles, a play of features in
the waking condition, also, that one might take for a
smile. But this play of the muscles of the mouth lacked
the consciousness that is required to complete the smile,
as does the smile of the sleeping child. On the twenty-
sixth day, first, when the child could better discriminate
between his sensations and the feelings generated by
them, did the smile become a mimetic expression. The
babe had taken his milk in abundant quantity, and was
lying with his eyes now open and now half-closed, and
296 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
witli an indescribable expression of contentment on bis
countenance. Then he smiled, opening his ejes, and
directed his look to the friendly face of his mother, and
made some somids not before heard, which were appro-
priate to his happy mood. But the idea had not yet
arisen of the connection of the mother's face with the
mother's breast, the som-ce of enjoyment (p. 46). Nor
can we at this period assume an imitation, by the
child, of the smile of the mother, because at first in-
animate objects (tassels) are smiled at, and before the
fourth month no imitative movements at all were at-
tempted.
Not only the first-mentioned very early movements
of smiling, bnt also this perfect smile is connected with
a condition of contentment, and there is no reason to
regard it as less hereditary in character than is scream-
ing with pain, which no one would refer to imitation.
Later the child smiles when he is smiled at, but not
always by any means. Strangers may smile at him
in ever so friendly a manner, yet the wondering little
face, usually merry, now sober, remains immobile. The
first imitations of the smile in children are not so free
from deliberation as the smiles of many adults, which
through training and the conventional forms of greeting
have degenerated into mere formality.
The original smile of satisfaction at new, agreeable
feelings, a smile which may continue even in sleep, and
which appears only in a cheerful frame of mind, remains
in force still later. By an unusual expression of in-
tensity in the more brightly gleaming eye, as well as by
lively movements of the arms and legs, most plainly by
laughing and smiling, the infant manifests his satisfac-
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 297
tion — e. g., in music (in the eighth week) — without any-
one's giving him in any other way the least occasion
for it.
The date of the first smile varies very much, there-
fore, according as we take for a smile a spontaneous ex-
pression of pleasure, or the communication of an agree-
able condition, or the satisfaction at a pleasing idea ; here
belongs the first imitated smile, and the statements that
the first smile appears in well-developed children about
the fourth week, as the expression of pleasure (Hey-
felder), in the sixth to the eighth week (Champneys), in
the seventh and ninth week (Darwin), or that in the
seventh to the tenth week (Sigismund) the babe smiles
for the first time, are as indefinite as the statement that,
at the end of the second week, his mouth takes en a
lovely expression like a smile. It depends essentially
on the nature of the occasion of the smile at what date
the first smile shall be fixed.
One child first smiles at its image in the glass in the
twenty-seventh week ; another, in the tenth (see below) ;
the one observed by myself, in regard to this point, in
the seventeenth week, and not at all till that time. It
was rather a laugh tlian a smile that surprised me on
the one hundred and sixteenth day, whereas even on the
one hundred and thirteenth the image in the mirror
was regarded with a fixed and attentive look, to be sure,
but without any sign of satisfaction. In these cases it
is simply the joy at the distinct, new perception — an
idea, therefore, that occasions the smile ; in other cases
it is pleasure in impressions of agreeable tastes, of soft-
ness or warmth, or joy in pleasing sound, or simply the
feeling of satiety (fourteenth week), and then it is usu-
298 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
ally accompanied by a peculiar sound, which is always
much softer in the first months than the expressions of
displeasure. But, when the quite young child does not
feel well, or is hungry, it can not smile any more. The
surest sign of convalescence is the reappearance of this
signiticant movement of the mouth.
From the smile to the laugh is but a step, and the
laugh is often only a strengthened and audible smile.
The first laugh upon a joyous sense-impression is, how-
ever, essentially different from that which springs from
the heightened self-consciousness at the perception of
tlie ludicrous ; and the limit of time given for that, of
six to seventeen weeks, is surprisingly late. Fliny
thinks no child laughs before the fortieth day. I ob-
served an audible and visible laugh, accompanied by a
brighter gleam of the eye, in my child, for the first
time, on the twenty-third day (p. 32). He was pleased
with a bright, rose-colored curtain that was hanging
above him, and he made peculiar sounds of satisfaction,
so that I was first led by these to pay attention to him.
The corners of his mouth were drawn somewhat up-
ward. At this period no laugh yet appeared when the
child was in the bath, but there also the expression of
the little face mth the widely-opened eyes was that of
great satisfaction. Laughing appears at first simply as
an augmentation of this expression of pleasure. It is
often repeated in the same way in the fifth and sixth
weeks — in the eighth especially — at the sight of slowly-
swinging, well-lighted, colored objects, and on hearing
the piano.
The child's laugh appeared for the first time, in the
period from the sixth to the ninth week, as a sign of joy
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 299
at a familiar, pleasing impression, his eyes being fixed
0:1 his mother's face. But the laugh at the friendly
nodding to him (p. 62), and singing (p. 84), of the
members of the family, was then aheady mnch more
marked, and was later accompanied by raj)id raisings
and droppings of the arms as sign of the utmost pleasure
(sixth month). This last childish movement continued
for years as an accompanying phenomenon of laughing
for joy. But it is to be noticed that this laugh first
began to be persistently loud in the eighth month (in
play wnth the mother) ; every one could then at once
recognize it as a laugh without looking in that direc-
tion. In this the child made a peculiar impression of
gayety upon every one who saw him.
Loud laughing at new objects that please, and are
long looked at, is still frequent in the ninth month ; so
also at new sounds in the fifteenth month (p. 89) ; then
follows laughing at the efforts to stand with support.
In the last three months of the first year, however, the
character of the laugh appears to become different, as it
becomes more conscious. The child laughs with more
understanding than before. But he with a laugh grasps
at his own image in the glass, and makes a loud jubi-
lant noise, in the eleventh month, when he is allowed to
walk, although he must be held firmly when doing so.
At the end of the first year, to these independent utter-
ances of pleasure had been added the purely imitative
laughing when others laughed. Yet self-consciousness
manifested itself also in this, through vigorous crow-
ing with employment of abdominal pressure. Roguish
laughing I first noticed toward the end of the second
yu:ir. Scornful laughing and lachrymal secretion during
300 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
continuous laughter I have never observed in children
under four years of age.
From the sum total of my observations in regard to
the smiling and laughing of infants, it results unques-
tionably that both are original expressive movements,
which may be distinctly perceived in the first month,
which by no means take place the first time through imi-
tation, and which, without exception, from the beginning
express feelings of pleasure ; in fact, my child laughed
in his sleep at the end of his first year of life, probably
having a pleasant dream, and did not wake on account
of it.
The reasons are not yet known why feelings of pleas-
ure are expressed just in tliis manner — i. e., by uncover-
ing the teeth, and even before the teeth are present, by
lengthening the opening of the mouth, along with lift-
ing the corners of the mouth, by peculiar sounds and a
brighter gleam of the eye (secretion of lachrymal fluid,
without its going so far as the formation of tears), and
lively accompanying movements of the arms (p. 145).
The causes must be hereditary. But Darwin rightly
urges that they do not operate so eai'ly as the causes of
crying and weeping, because crying is more useful to
the child than laughing. And if he saw two children
distinctly smile for the first time in the seventh week,
we ought to infer from that not so much a failure to
notice earlier attempts as the existence of individual dlf-
erences. That he perceived the first decided laugh in
the seventeenth week shows how unlike individual in-
fants are in this respect. Probably much depends on the
surroundings and on the behavior of the family. But
in all children the expression of pleasure begins with a
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 301
scarcely perceptible smile, which passes very gradually,
in the course of the first three months, into conscious
laughing, after the cerebral cortex has so far developed
that ideas more distinct can arise. In the second month
is perceived also the reflex laughing that follows tickling
(p. 145) which I could besides (in the third year) distin-
guish almost invariably from expressive laughing by the
sound alone, without knowing what was going on, al-
though I v/as in a neighboring room when I heard it.
This " thoughtless " laugh sounds, on the contrary, ex-
actly like the child's laugh often heard continuously at
this time, which occurred when he heard and saw adults
laugh at jests unintelligible to him, and which was long
continued without any meaning in it. Laughing in-
cites still more to imitation and is more contagious tiian
crying. The laughter of man seems even to have an
enlivening effect on intelligent animals (dogs), which
draw the corners of the mouth far back, and spring,
with an animated gleam of the eye, into the air. I had
a large Siberian dog that laughed in this manner. It is
known that monkeys also laugh. These facts favor the
hereditary character of the movement of laughing —
all the more as tickling of the skin of the arm-pit ex-
cites laughing in children and monkeys in the same
M^ay, when they are gay, as Darwin informs us. But
if a crying child is tickled in the same manner, it does
not lauo;h.
3. Pouting of the Lips.
A peculiar expression of children and of many
adults is the protruding of the lips when the attention is
strained. I have seen old men, in playing on the piano,
and in writing, protrude the lips in a still more striking
302 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
manner — even putting out the tongue — than infants that
are beginning to seize, and children that are examining
a new toy. The external occasions of this remarkable
alteration of the shape of the moath may vary to what-
ever extent, yet they all agree in this, that after the
first week they introduce a vigorous strain of attention.
Yet the protruding of tlie lips appears long before the
development of the ability to examine objects. I once
saw a new-born child in its first hour of life protrude its
lips which were as yet untouched (p. 207) ; but this pro-
trusion was without the movement of sucking ; it ap-
peared along with many other movements of the facial
muscles, and I should be inclined to explain it as purely
impulsive. My child showed it on the tenth day of his
life, distinctly, in the bath, when there was a lighted
candle before him ; and from that time on with extraor-
dinary frequency until his fourth year. His lips were
protruded almost like a snout, as in sucking (p. 98),
tlien drawn back and again protruded (sixteenth
month). The movements of the tongue exhibited by
many children in learning tO' write, \vere not observed by
me till mucli later than the protrusion of the lips ; they
appeared along with attempts to do with effort some new
tiling. Here it is worthy of notice that even in merely
looking at an object without taking hold of it himself,
the lips are pursed (fifth week, p. 50, and seventh week
p. 45, also the tenth month, p. 63) ; later more protruded,
wdien a testing (forty-fourth week, j). 55) or inquiring
observation (forty-seventh week, p. 50) is combined with
touching, in which the aim is to follow a moved object
in various directions, or to put an object in motion or
turn it around, to empty a box and till it, or to open and
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 303
sliut it, or to put a number of small objects of the same
kind, e. g., buttons, into rows and rolls or into envelopes
(first half of second, year).
In this the protrusion of the lips is quite different
from the pouting of sullenness. The protruded lips of
the cross cliild, resembling those, still further protruded,
of the cross chimpanzee, which I observed in the zo-
ological garden at Hamburg, as Darwin describes it and
gives a picture of it, appear much, later than this nar-
rowing of the opening of the mouth that is combined
with prolonged fixing of the gaze, and that lasts (with
children not yet two years old) several minutes. It
looks as if the vowel u were to be pronounced, whereas
the children, whose hands are busy, are absolutely si-
lent. "Whence this expression ? I will try to give an
explanation of it. That this excitement of the facialis
is hereditary is a fixed fact ; for in the case, very care-
fully observed by me — a strongly marked case too — it
can not have been accpiired by imitation. My child
neither associated intimately enough with other children
nor saw pursing of the lips in the adults about him, and
could not imitate it before the fifteenth w^eek (see p.
2S3). But if it is hereditary, then it must be referred
to the progenitors of man. All animals direct their at-
tention first to food. Their first test is applied to
things that may be reached with lips, feelers, snout,
tongue. All testing of food is attended with a predomi-
nant activity of the mouth and its adjuncts. Especially
in sucking, which first awakens the attention of the
newly-born, is the mouth protruded. Later, when new
objects, that excite the attention, come within reach,
they are carried to the mouth, because the thing that
304 THE MIND OF TEE CHILD.
was alone interesting previously, food, came to the
iiioutli. The inference, that what is interesting belongs
to the mouth, is first shaken by the experience that
many beautiful and interesting objects do not go into
the mouth or are disagreeable within it. But the associ-
ation of the iirst movement of the mouth arising from
sucking, the protruding of the lips, with strain of the
attention, is conhrmed by too frequent repetition of the
taking of food, the most interesting occurrence to the
infant, to be lost as quickly as is the carrying of new
toys to the mouth. It is therefore not only transmitted
to the child, but often remains for years, even into old
age, and manifests itself in an extremely striking fashion
when the attention is on the strain, at anything unusu-
ally interesting ; particularly in case some personal ac-
tivity, such as writing or drawing, causes the strain.
A particular kind of protrusion of the lips, different
from the foregoing, takes place in —
3. Kissing.
This belongs to the vetj late acquired expressive
movements, which, in general, do not seem to be in-
herited. As it is unknown to many nations, it is to be
called conventional.
How little the child understands the significance of
the kiss, although it is kissed by its mother probably
more than a thousand times in its first year, is plainly
apparent from many observations.
A little girl in the fourteenth month kissed " quite
audibly the cheek or hand (stroking it at the same
time) often from a pure fit of tenderness," but many
times in order to obtain something or to pacify some
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 305
one. In the fifteenth month this clrild kissed her mother
one day twelve times in succession, entirely of her own
accord ; her sister kissed her mother's hand at the begin-
ning of the fifteenth month without solicitation some
eight times in succession ; her brothers and sisters used
to kiss one another, at the age of three and a half and
one and a quarter years, for amusement (Frau von
Strümpell). Another female child returned a kiss from
the tenth month on, without any movement of warding
off (Lindner) ; all this was learned.
I put together here, in brief form, some notes con-
cerning my child :
11th day. — When the babe was kissed by his mother
on the mouth, he fairly seized one of her lips %\dth his,
and sucked at it as if he had got the breast, putting out
his tongue.
32d week. — The child no longer sucks at the lips
when he is kissed, but licks them as he licks objects in
general that please him.
33d week. — When he is kissed, the child no longer
licks the lips, but allows himself to be kissed on the
mouth without response or opposition. In the follow-
ing months, also, there is no trace of an attempt to
return the kiss, although signs of affection are not want-
ing. For in the fifty-first week the child hands to his
mother the biscuit he is himself about to eat.
12th month. — The opening of the closed mouth that
takes place in kissing is tolerably well imitated.
13th month. — The child has absolutely no idea of
what a kiss signifies. Kisses are not agreeable to him,
for he always turns away his head when he is kissed, no
matter by whom.
306 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
loth month. — The words, " Give a kiss ! " produce a
dravv'ing near of the head, and often a protniding of the
]ips. This proves an understanding of the words only,
not of the thing.
19th. month. — When strangers want to be kissed by
tiie chikl, he holds off ; accordingly, he is fastidious in
his choice in regard to approach.
Wth month. — The child shows by touching the face,
especially the cheek, with his face, that proximity has
come to appear to him as essential in kissing. Herein
lies already an imperfect return of the kiss. The child
also bends his head when some one says, " Kiss," toward
the face of the speaker, without opening the mouth as
hitherto, but does not always put out his lips.
'23d month. — The child now knows the significance
of the kiss as a mark of favor, and is fastidious in his
choice in giving a kiss as he is in giving his hand. In
kissing, his lips are put forward closed, and then the
mouth is somewhat too widely opened after the con-
tact.
Slith month. — The feeling of thankfulness is awak-
ened. When one has done something to please the
child, he sometimes kisses, and has a gracious, thankful
air, but says nothing.
At first, then, the lips of the mother, when she kisses
her child, are treated like the finger held to the mouth,
or like the breast, as objects to be sucked ; then they
are licked, as by a puppy; next, the kiss is endured;
further on it is refused ; soon afterward it is awkwardly,
and only on request, returned ; and, finally, it is spon-
taneously given as a sign of thanks and of affection —
and this by a boy who is not in the least tender and is
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 307
not trained. Assuredly this tedious schooling in learn-
ing to kiss furnishes the best evidence how little justi-
fied we should be in designating the kiss as an hereditary
privilege of humanity.
4. Crying, Weeping, and Wrinkling the Forehead.
It is a fact long since familiar that newly-born and
quite young babes do not weep — i. e., there is no ex-
ternal secretion of tears, however vigorously they cry.
Later, children cry and weep at the same time, and can
cry without weeping (e. g., in jest), bnt not till much
later are they able to weep without crying ont.
The date of the first external lachrymal secretion
varies surprisingly in different children. Darwin puts
together some observations on this point, from which it
appears that in two cases the eyes were wet with tears
for the first time at the end of the third and the ninth
week ; in another case tears flowed down the cheeks at
the end of the sixth week. In two other children this
was not the case as late as the twelfth and the sixteenth
week ; in a third child, however, it happened in the
fifteenth week. One of his own children shed tears in
crying in the twentieth week, bnt not yet in the eight-
eenth, and in the tenth the eyes were moist in violent
crying. At the end of the eleventh week with this
same child an accidental, rude touch of the eye with a
rough cloth produced a flow of tears in this eye, but
not in the other, which was merely moist. Champ-
ney's child shed tears for the first time in the fourteenth
Aveek.
I have seen tears flow from the eyes as early as the
twenty -third day, in my boy, while he was screaming
308 THE MIND OF TUE CHILD.
lustily. Soon afterward, crying with sliedding of tears,
and wliimpering, formed the most important sign of
psychical events of different sorts.
What Darwin reports, that "usually babes do not shed
tears before they are two or four months old, is not true
of German children in general. IS^ot weeping, but sob-
bing, comes so late, and even later, for the first time ;
and some causes of weeping, as willfulness, grief, anger,
can not operate at first, because in general they are still
•wanting ; w^hereas pain is expressed by tears from the
first, when once the secretion of tears has begun. Yet
it is easy to prove that little children in the second and
third years weep much more easily and shed more tears
at impressions that cause displeasure than do children of
six months or a year. I suspect that in this matter more
depends on the excitation of the lachrymal nerves through
emotional cerebral processes than upon compression of
the gland in screaming, as Darwin thinks. For in the
first place there sometimes appears, as Genzmer observed,
in children just born, upon touching the mucous mem-
brane of the nose, " an increased lachrymal secretion,"
which proves that through excitement of the nerves,
especially reflexive excitation (and that wdthout com-
pression), lachrymal secretion may occur before weep-
ing ; secondly, tears may trickle over the cheeks in great
drops witliout any compression of the lachrymal gland,
"without screaming ; and in the second year also appears
crying without weeping — that is, compression of the
lachrymal gland without lachrymal secretion. My child
cried in his sleep, evidently dreaming, without shedding
tears, and without waking, as early as the tenth month ;
another child (Lindner) in the eighteenth week.
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 309
Of crying — with tears {Sohreiweinen) — in little
children, on the other hand, two alterations of counte-
nance are extremely characteristic, the observation and
explanation of which offer many difficulties — viz., the
drawing down of the corners of the mouth, and the
wrinkling of the forehead.
The peculiar form of tlie mouth, arising from con-
traction of the depressors of the corners of the mouth,
directly before and after a lit of crying, has already
been spoken of in the description of childish expressions
of discomfort (p. 149).
The wrinkhng of the forehead is, indeed, likewise
observed without exception m crying with the eyes held
tightly together, but is in the beginning an impulsive
movement frequently occurring without a fretful mood.
I saw it on the first, second, sixth, seventh, tenth days
(cf. pp. 2, 23, 36), exactly as in many monkeys, fre-
quently appear without any assignable outward oc-
casion. On the contrary, in young infants, the corru-
gation of the forehead is lacking just when we should
expect to perceive it — judging from adults — e. g. (p. 24),
at raising the glance (in the eighth and twelfth weeks).
It is surprising, too, that in the first two weeks the hori-
zontal cormgation of the brow appears much oftener
than afterward. In the fourth month I saw for the
first time in my child slight horizontal furrows in the
brow when he was looking upward, but in the third
quarter of the first year not invariably as yet ; in the
last three months invariably. Distinct vertical furrows,
which lend a somber expression to the childish physiog-
nomy, are always present in crying with tears, as has
been mentioned, but often occur without that (plainly
22
310 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
in a boY of nine weeks ; in my boy, in the seventb
month).
A girl, one of twins, only six days and some hours
old, was seen by me to wrinkle the brow twice very
decidedly — once with, once without a simnltaneons
movement of the skin of the head. The mother said,
" The child has serious thoughts." And, in fact, it
looked peculiarly precocious, to see the skin of the fore-
head both times laid in deep, parallel folds, which ex-
tended over the whole breadth of the forehead, and the
face take on a very serious expression. In this case, as
in all similar cases, it does not, however, appear safe to
attribute to the wrinkling of the brow the significance
of an expressive movement, because the psychical states
are as yet wanting that are expressed by horizontal folds
of the brow.
The distinct wrinkling of the skin of the forehead in
astonishment I have seen for the first time in the twen-
tieth month. I have often seen, also, when new tricks
were done before the child (in the fifteenth month),
the characteristic transverse folds as an accompanying
movement of laborious attempts at imitation. Yet we
look in vain for physiological explanations of these facts.
Darwin, who saw his children wrinkle the forehead,
from the first week on, as an invariable antecedent to
tearful crying, has expressed the conjecture that this
expressive movement, inherited from of old (contrac-
tion of the corrugators), originally serving to protect
the eyes when impressions were to be warded off, was
finally associated with unpleasant feelings in general.
The vertical folds that accompany effort would harmo-
nize with this, but the transverse folds that accompany
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 311
astonishment are connected with the wider opening of
the eyelids.
That a purely reflexive corrugation of the brow —
the vertical folds — occurs together with that early ex-
pressive movement in the first days, is certain. In the
fourth year I saw, moreover, an actual contraction of
the corrugators of a child fast asleep take place, some-
times without the least movement of the eyelid, when I
let bright lamp-liglit fall upon the closed eyes, in a place
otherwise dark. The sleep was not interrupted by it,
nor even the snoring. This reflex may, like the screw-
ing up of the eyes in the same circumstances, be inborn,
like the corrugation of the brow after sound-impressions
and contact in the first week.
5. Shaking the Head and Nodding.
Shaking the head as a sign of denial or refusal is
in like manner practiced by many children early, with-
out instruction and without opportunity for imitation.
A forerunner of this expressive movement, which signi-
fies dislike, disgust, much earlier than it does denial, is,
as Darwin also declares, the sidewise movement of the
head, the turning away when food is refused, whether
the breast or the bottle.
Much in the same way, the head is turned to the
window (p. 3) even in the first days (pp. 41, 42), and
thpn toward objects moved (pp. 48, 49), but with a con-
tented expression ; later, in the direction of a new sound
(pp. 84, 85, 88). In general I found, from the first day
on, sidewise movements of the head without any re-
flex excitement (p. 260) frequently in my child (Yon
Ammon is wrong in the opinion that the infant does
312 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
not move the head at all in the first days). The head-
movements are, in fact, quite lively when the babe is
placed at the breast, or is in the bath, or is lying down.
They are sidewise movements, not nodding, absolutely
irregular and " natural." At the beginning, however,
the turnings of the head are, strangely enough, not
always in harmony with the movements of the eyes
(p. 36), which makes them seem " unnatural."
Further, I saw in the first week in my child regu-
larly, when it was placed at the breast, a vigorous turn-
ing sidewise in both directions, almost a shaking of the
head (cf. pp. IS 3, 260). On the eighth day of his hfe,
when he for the first time took the breast without any
help whatever, these lateral movements of the head
made it seem just as if the child were trying to find
something. On the twenty-seventh day, however,
they took place just the same, when the bottle was
put directly to his mouth; a strange association,
caused possibly by this, that in the very first days the
head is somewhat directed by helping hands, so that
the nipple comes into the mouth. Later the head-
movement, that has been always followed by the stream
of milk, becomes for the infant a necessary preliminary
condition of the taking of food, and is retained by him,
although in connection with the bottle it is useless.
Accordingly we have here not a case of an acquired
movement of the head, one that has been learned, but
an instinct that occasions the head-movements in suck-
ing at the finger as well as in nursing at the breast.
It has been already mentioned that many mammals
likewise move the head vigorously hither and thither
when they begin to suck, so that we may assume an
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 313
hereditary factor in mankind ; the more so, as the turn-
ings of the head were to be observed, very vigorous
even in the eighth week, and invariably when the babe
was placed at the breast, several times a day, before the
nipple was iirmly grasped. In spite of the great haste
and greediness in sucking, these unnecessary previous
movements were never forgotten. They are, as to their
causes, different from the reflexive turning of the head.
When any one seats himself at the bedside of the
child, the child's head is regularly turned toward him
(fifth week). This is followed by the reflexive turning
around at new sound-impressions (eleventh week), and
when any one leaves the room noisily (twenty-second
week).
All these lateral head-movements are not in the
least forerunners of the denying or refusing shake of
the head — are not in any way related to it ; although
they very frequently agree with it perfectly in appear-
ance, if all the external circumstances and the phj'siog-
nomy are left out of the account. The manifold vai-iety
of the lateral turnings of the head in the infant, from
the first day, is astonishing. And yet the peculiar turn-
ing away of the head comes in as a well-marked express-
ive movement as early as the fourth day. My child
refused to nurse at the left breast, which was somewhat
more inconvenient for him than the right. He refused,
turning his head away decidedly from it, and on the
sixth day he screamed besides. On the seventh we first
succeeded in overcoming his opposition. Yet a single
averting of the head remained as a sign of refusal. It
appeared almost invariably after the infant had nursed
his fill and had thrust the nipple out of his mouth — a
314: TUE MIND OF THE CHILD.
tiling liardly to be accomplislied by a reflex meclianism
(verv plainly done in the lii*st as in the seventh month).
'Ihe child was so dominated by the feeling of satiety
that food was repulsive to him.
This sinp-le avertino; of the head to the left or to
the right, according to the position, manifestly means
"No more!" is, therefore, of the natm-e of refusal.
But after the child had learned to balance his head
there came, for the lirst time, numeroas and very rapid
turnings of it, exactly like the shaking of the head
in denial by adults (in the sixteenth week). Then
appeared also a nodding, but more seldom. It no more
signified affirmation than the lateral turnings in that
early period signified denial. This is rather an instance
of exercise of the muscles simply. The turning away
of the head in refusal, when the child had drunk
enough, persisted. In the sixth month arm-movements
were added, which seemed like movements of warding
off, without my being convinced, however, that they
were so. Rather was it many months before the ap-
pearance of unquestionable arm- movements of ward-
ing off, such as take place in the case of adults when
something is held before the face too long. The child
that does not want the offered object raises his arm
sidevvise from one to three times in refusal, and turns
his head away toward the opposite side. This deprecat-
ing arm-movement (distinctly marked in the fifteenth
month) may well be an acquired one, that is, imitated,
a 3 we may attribute to the child at this period a capacity
of observation that would suffice for this. At any rate
the raising of the bended arm is not in the beginning
associated with the turning away of the head, and the
EXniESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 315
nurse may iu like manner Lave protected lierself fre-
quently wheu tlie child has put his hands into her face.
To be sure, the execution of a defensive movement is
quite early associated with an idea of defense. When
the boy (in the eighteenth month) tries in anger to hit
with his foot some one who has refused bim a key that
he wanted, we can not und for such a re-enforcement of
the refusing head-movement any model that he has
imitated; still less can we find one for his striking
about him with arms and legs, throwing himself at the
same time on the lloor and screaming with rage (just
like what I saw in the case of a chimpanzee from whom
an apple that he wanted was withheld). There occur
in children as early as the tenth month similar fits of
rage (p. 323), in which the face becomes red in case their
desire is not complied with (Frau von Strümpell).
JSTeither is the half-closing of the eyelid, when the
head is turned away in refusal, to be traced to imitation.
It did not occur invariably. I saw it in the eighth
month distinctly in my boy when disinclination Vv^as ex-
pressed. Especially was antipathy (not fear) expressed
by such turning away of the head at the approach of
women dressed in black, no matter how friendly they
were, up to the third quarter of the second year, and
even the second quarter of the third year.
Long before this period, however, a repeated turning
of the head, or a shaking of the head in denial, had
arisen out of the simple averting of the head ; this came
through training. It appeared mostly in the thirteenth
month when any one said, " Xo, no ! " but there was no
nodding at the " Yes, yes ! " and there was no success in
imitating nodding in the fourteenth month, in spite of
316 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
mucli pains. Afterward the imitation often succeeded
(in the sixtj-fourth week), but the nodding of the head
along with " JSTo, no ! " was also sometimes observed,
and the shaking of the head with the " Yes, yes ! " the
meaning thus being confounded (a paramimy). In fact,
it was months before tlie meaning of the affirmative
inclination of the head was firmly impressed, after the
negative one had been long practiced. AVhen, on the
four hundred and forty-fifth day of his life, the first
movement had been correctly imitated for the second
time — on the day before for the first time — the child
made a peculiar movement of the hand in time with
nodding of the head, a genuine supination, looking, the
while, very attentively indeed at the head of the person
before him — -an unconscious accompanying movement,
therefore. That the inclination of the head, learned
with eifort, meant " Yes" was wholly unknown to him ;
and yet, in the sixteenth month, the negative head-
shaking meant for the child not only "No," but also "I
do not know," and, in the seventeenth month, " 1 do
not wish." This gesture continued now, while the nod-
ding of the head in affirmation seldom occurred, unless
it was specially asked for. It was not tiU the fourth
year that an affirmative nod of the head meant " Thank
you ! " The difference is the more surprising as both
movements have been frequently regarded as original.
But children use the voice for denying and affirming
much earlier than they do the inclination and turning
of the head, and this whole exposition shows that these
movements have not from the beginning an antagonis-
tic relation to each other, but the sidewise turning away
of the head, at first in refusal, later in denying, is in-
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 317
born, reflexive-instinctive, while the inclining and nod-
ding of the head in affirmation or assent, or in the
expression of thanks, which appears much later, must
be called an acquired gesture of unknown origin.
6. Shrugging the Shoulders.
Little children show, at a very late period, a quick
raising of the shoulders, corresponding to the shnig-
mncr of the shoulders in the adult. In the fifteenth
month I saw my child, without any assignable cause,
shrug his shoulders for the first time, just as adults do,
only, perhaps, somewhat more quickly, and he did this
in similar fashion on several days. For a moment it
seemed as if the child's clothing were causing a disa-
greeable irritation of the skin ; but the knowing ex-
pression of countenance did not at all harmonize with
this. And the shrugging of the shoulders also occurred
when I stood before the child and said, " Yes, yes ! "
As I had nodded then affirmatively, the child nodded
also (four hundred and fifty-ninth day).
This led me to the conjecture that the shrugging of
the shoulders might already express inability, and I was
soon confirmed in this, for, on the following day even,
this gesture was the answer to my question, " Where is
your ear?" in reply to which the child, after some
hesitation, touched his eye. In the sixteenth month
this signification was beyond question ; for if I ask,
" Where is your eye, ear, nose, forehead, chin?" and the
child does not know some one of these, then, to my sur-
prise, he shrugs his shoulders. At the same date there
often follows upon this expressional movement another,
of waiting. When waiting — e. g., for a biscuit dipped
318 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
ill hot water to become cool — the child plants both anus
at the same time symmetrically against his sides, in such
a Avay that his hands come against his hips with lingers
bent, the back of the hand touching the hips. The
whole attitude is that of waiting— not in the least of
demanding — and is probably imitated, vrhich can not be
said of shrugging the shoulders. This became, more-
over, in the second quarter of the second year, decidedly
a sign, in the same sense as a shaking of the head in de-
nial, of refusing, and of not knowing and of not being
able. It must be counted among the as yet inexplicable
hereditary expressive movements. Darwin also declares
himself in favor of the hereditary character of the move-
ment, but he did not see it in any very young English
child, and reports it only in the case of two sisters
(grandchildren of a Frenchman) who shrugged their
shoulders between the sixteenth and eighteenth months.
7. Bogging with the Ilands and Pointing.
Putting the hands togetlier in the attitude of beg-
ging belongs to the earliest gestures of German chil-
dren that are acquired by training. This movement is,
at the same time, one of the hrst of which the child un-
derstands the significance as language, and of which he
makes use. He soon finds that the begging position of
the hands brings him the desired food quicker than cry-
ing, and for this reason he makes the gesture of himself
always when he wants anything, whether it be a biscuit,
a toy, or a change of place. If continued crying, for a
longer or shorter time, lias proved wdiolly useless, then
it is suddenly discontinued, and the child hastily puts
his hands together in a begging attitude (fifteenth
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 319
month), in case this childish trick happens to have been
previously taught him. lie also begs in this fashion
without crying, and by making sounds of longing, with
outstretched arms — e. g., when he desires the rej^etition
of some new sort of fun. When some one had poised a
spoon on the end of his nose, the (fourteen and a half
months old) child laughed, seized the spoon, observed it
carefully, put it from one hand into the other, and then
handed it to the person with an indescribably beseech-
ing tone of voice. Upon the repetition of the experi-
ment he was again delighted.
Long even after learning the significance of the spoken
'■'•Biite'''' ("I beg," or "Please"), which my boy pro-
nounced " hibi " up to the twenty-second month, the ac-
companying raising and holding together of the hands
did not cease ; and what was especially surprising,
v.'hen the child wished the continuance of a sight tbat
pleased him, or of piano-playing, or when the railway
train in which the child was traveling stopped, then he
would strike his hands together repeatedly (twenty-
third month), so that in a literal sense he manifested his
applause and his desire for repetition or continuance
by clapping the hands, just like a gratified public at the
theatre. I^ay, even in the tenth, as also in the seven-
teenth, month, this movement took place in sleep, no
doubt, during di'eaming.
It seems natural to assume that adults utter their
applause by hand-clapping for the reason that the noise
is greater; but the putting of the hands together in
prayer in Christian churches, as well as the lifting of
the arms in prayer by Mohammedans, agrees with the
begging gestures of cbildren. These express only indi-
320 THE illXD OF THE CHILD.
rectly, by hand-clapping and also by noiseless putting
together of the hands, their satisfaction so far as they
thereby beg for repetition.
How it comes about that very small children are
artificially taught, along with the " giving of the hand "
(even in tlie twentieth to the twenty-fourth week some-
times [Lindner]), to raise and put together the hands
(not the feet), when they are to beg for anything, is not
hard to understand. This gesture is indeed acquired
by each individual through imitation and trahiing, but
probably has its foundation in this, that in the act of
seizing, the arms are extended, and the hands, when
the desired object is grasped, place themselves about it.
Begging is also ultimately a desiring. And if we follow
the history of the development of the seizing move-
ments from the beginning (p. 241), we are easily con-
vinced that the arms, which must be extended for seiz-
iug, are, when this has been many times successful, ex-
tended in case of every strong desire (with and without
sounds expressive of desire), because the thing desired
is regarded as capable of being seized. AVhat I have
stated as to the interpretation of the retinal images
(p. 62) conürms tliis view.
At first the child expresses his desire only by cry-
ing ; after he has begun to seize, also by stretching out
the arms (in the case of my child for the first time on
the one hundred and twenty-first day) ; then, by extend-
ing the arms and putting the hands together. These
hereditary expressional movements, originating in the
practice of seizing, are made use of by educators, in or-
der to teach the praying, begging attitudes, with folding
of tlie hands, which in the beginning are not in the least
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 821
understood bj the cliild ; he simply finds by experience
that the joining of the hands along with the raising of
the arms is sooner followed by the fullillment of a wish
than crying is, and for this reason he adopts the gest-
ure. AVhen, now, with the development of the faculty
of sight, new objects that can not be seized are better
distinguished from their surroundings, then the child
manifests his lively interest in them— especially in
moved and moving objects, e. g., horses — by this very
gesture ; he opens his mouth, breathes loudly by starts,
fixates the object, and stretches out his hands (eighth
month). Often at this period one can hardly tell
whether the child means to seise or to jrjoint. When,
before he can speak, at the question, "Where is the
light?." he turns his head to the light, he thereby shows
his understanding of the question as to the direction
(ninth month) ; but wh.en (in the fourteenth month) he
lifts the right arm besides and points to the light with
outspread fingers, then he has executed the gesture of
jpointing^ absolutely distinct from desiring.
For the understanding of mental development it is
an important fact that this pointing is already employed
with perfect correctness before the first attempts at ex-
pression in words. A little girl of eleven months, who
could not yet speak at all, answered the questions,
" Where is papa ? " " Where is Nannie ? " etc., correctly,
without a single ujistake, by movements of the eyes and
by indicating direction with the finger (Frau von Strum-
pell).
Later, this pointing is used as the expression of a
wish, as it is by the deaf and dumb — e. g., my boy in
the ninetieth week, at sight of the milk-pitcher, pointed
322 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
at it with his hand, and directly after at the milk-bottle
with the same hand — in fact, to my surprise, with the
forefinger, the child unmistakably having the purpose
of getting the milk poured out. Whence comes all at
once the use of the forefinger in place of the spreading
of all the fingers for pointing ? Imitation alone hai-dly
offers sufficient occasion for it ; still less does the experi-
mental touching. Rather, the whole comj)licated com-
bination of " fixating," opening the mouth, raising the
eyelids, lifting the arm, extending the fingers, must rest
upon hereditary co-ordination, which, in case of hunger,
has showed itself useful in obtaining food ; so thaipomt-
ing is thus to be traced back to wishing to seize. As is
regularly the case in the tenth month, so in the second
year, often the desired object that is pointed at is car-
ried to the mouth, and as much as possible chewed up,
after it is obtained.
From the success of the arm-movements expressing
desire in case of hunger, soon arises the notion that
these movements will also gratify other kinds of desire.
Thus the child (in the tw^elf th month) sitting on a chair,
vrhen he desires to change his position, stretches out
both arms longingly (cries if no attention is paid to
him), and rejoices when taken up, as he does on getting
an apple or a biscuit. In such cases, not unfrequently
— e. g., in the fourteenth month — a " paramimy " is
observed, since, instead of the begging position of tlie
hands, one of the other little performances acquired by
training and not yet understood by him, is executed —
e. g., the hand is moved toward the head as an ans%ver
that has been learned to the question, " Where is the lit-
tle rogue ? " ( Trotzkopf clien^ " headstrong "). Here, with
EXPRESSIVE MOVEMENTS. 393
the experience of success upon stretching out the hands
blends the experience of the agreeable (of friendliness,
it may be — of granting his requests) upon the right per-
formance of those little tricks. The likeness of the re-
sults leads to confounding of the means.
But the more the voice is differentiated, so much the
more surely is a sound united with the gesture in the
first three months of the second year. Thus, with the
extending of the hands the begging sound "Aöy-M"
(in the case of my child) was joined, this being associated
M'ith the look and the forward inclination of the body,
as the expression of the strongest desire. But it passes
away and is lost, since with the growth of the under-
standing the gestures become more firmly established,
and are no longer confused with one another. Later
still, the speaking of the words learned takes the j^lace
of the gestures, which they make less and less necessary.
In the fifteenth mouth, by striking with a ring I made
three glasses sound, the tones of which formed a chord.
The child was pleased, laughed, and when I paused,
he took the ring, handed it to me again, and directing
toward the glasses his arms, eyes, and head, announced
with his own peculiar hay-uh^ his wish for a repetition.
Here, as yet, no word-language existed, lut the language
of gesture could not he misunderstood.
When no response is made to a persistently-expressed
desire, then there may easily happen in lively children
a regular fit of rage; they throw themselves on the
floor, strike out wlien taken hold of, and scream furi-
ously and most angrily (observed by me for the first
time in the seventeenth month). But it may also hap-
pen if, e. g., tlie child pulls some one by the hand and
g24: THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
wants to be accompanied, that, on being denied tlie re-
quest, the child sheds tears of sorrow in place of being
angry (twenty-third month). The spirit of invention
may also be aroused, as in the following case : The child
(of twenty-two months) wishes to sit at the table. Xo
one listens to his entreaty or takes notice of his implor-
ing gesticulations. Thereupon, he goes into the corner
of the room, tries, with a great effort, to get a heavy
chair, does not rest till it has been placed at the table,
strikes with the flat of his hand on the seat of the chair,
thus expressing plainly, without words, what he wants,
and exults when he has been put up on the chair.
Besides the expressive movements discussed in this
chapter, there are, in early childhood, several more that
dcccrve a thorough investigation. They are generally
hard to describe, however, although they are often easily
understood, even when the child does not, as yet, speak
a word. For the child's attitude, the direction of his
li)ok, the movements of his fingers, in varying combina-
tions, make already a finely-developed mute language.
Some examples may illustrate this.
In the fourteenth . month affection is expressed by a
gentle laying of the hand upon the face and ' shoulders
[of others] — this movement is presumably acquired by
imitation ; anger and disobedience (willfulness) by very
obstinate straightening of the body ; this, in fact, in the
tenth month even, when the child is laid down ; shame
— when he has soiled himself — by peculiar crying, with
tears ; pride (in a new baby-carriage in the nineteenth
month), by a ridiculous bearing. The variety in the
expression of countenance, when in the second and third
years the separate passions gradually awake, is, however,
DELIBERATE MOVEMENTS. 325
indescribable, and, on account of the transitoriness of
the phenomena, is hardly to be reproduced pictoriallj.
Jealousy, pride, pugnacity, covetousness, lend to the
childish countenance a no less characteristic look than
do generosity, obedience, ambition. These states could
not be recognized by the expression of countenance un-
less each of them had its own expressional movement,
and, in fact, these movements appear in greater purity
in the child, who does not dissemble, than they do in
later life.
It is beyond the limits of this work to trace the con-
nection of these mental states with the play of feature
and with the growth of the will. Very many more ob-
servations must be instituted in regard to children be-
fore the influence of imitation and of inheritance upon
the voluntary inhibition of emotional outbreaks, and
upon the voluntary inducing of a state of mind at once
self-contented and not disturbing to others can be un-
derstood.
CHAPTER XIY.
DELIBERATE (ÜBEKLEGTe) MOVEMENTS.
That it is a very long time before we can perceive
in the child a movement that is independent, proceed-
ing from his own deliberation, follows from the forego-
ing chapters. Before motives^ i. e., reasons, for move-
ment can be added to the purely physical centro-motor
impulses, to the peripheral reflex stimuli, to the inclina-
tion to imitate, to instinct, to the feehngs as causes of
mupcular movements, not only must the motor experi-
ences mentioned have been had countless times, but the
23
326 THE MIND or THE CHILD.
senses and the understanding must be a good deal devel-
oped. For he wlio moves no longer merely in direct
dependence on his temporary feelings, moods, and men-
tal and physical states in general — he who represents to
himself hef ore the movement how the movement will be ^
in a word^ he who acts must already have perceived 'very
many movements of others and have felt very many
Tnovemverits of his own, in order to he able to originate in
his mind a correct image of the purely voluntary, delib-
erate, or intentional movement that is to be executed.
I should not be able to name any movement of the
first three months to which this necessary condition ap-
plies well enough to exclude every doubt as to whether
the movement might not be instinctive (and therefore
inherited), or reflexive, or impulsive.
The tactile movements with the hands — not the feet
— that occur in the first months, and have the appear-
ance of seeking, are just as little voluntary as are the
later pulling and scratching at the skin of a face
touched ; they are, as belonging to seizing, instinctive.
Even stamping with the foot (in the eleventh month),
pushing along a chair, at the same period, stretching the
body out straight and stiff, as means of preventing being
laid down by force (in the tenth month), as well as the
much later movements of throwing, can not be styled in-
tentional muscular movements, founded on independent
deliberation. Rather do some plays, which are not to
be referred either to imitation or instinct, either to re-
flex stimuli or emotions, point to the germination of
choice and deliberation after the awakening of the func-
tion of causality. Thus my child, in the eleventh month,
used frequently to strike a spoon against a newspaper or
DELIBERATE MOVEMENTS. 327
af2:aiiist another object held in bis liand, and to exchange
botli objects suddenly, moving the spoon with the otlier
hand, which gave exactly the impression of testing
whether the noise proceeded from the one arm only, or
Avould arise likewise in case this arm were motionless
(}). 87). The restless experinienting of little children,
especially in the first attempts at accommodation (p. 5-1)
[of the eye] — even quite insignificant practices (like the
crumpling of paper from the third to the sixth month),
are not only useful but indispensable for the intellectual
development. Moreover, it is essential to consider, in
regard to the cultivation of the will, because thereby
the understanding is gradually awakened, how ineffi-
cient most of the early, unrepresented, non-coordinated
movements were, and how useful, on the contrary, are
the co-ordinated movements with definite aims. Only
when both occur together, the representation of the
movement and the expectation of its result, is deliberate
movement possible, which, unfortunately, is too often
prevented through training from showing itself early.
Often even in the second year we can tell only with
difiiculty, or can not tell at all, whether the child acts
independently or not — e. g., when (in the sixteenth
month) he opens and shuts cupboards, picks up from
the floor and biings objects that he threw down. When,
on the contrary, at this period, he holds, entirely of his
own motion, an ear-ring that had been taken off, to the
ear from which it was taken, I am inclined to see in
that already a sign of deliberation — understanding and
choice — whereas in the mere making of noise — it may
be by opening and slamming-to the cover of a box, or
by the eager tearing of newspapers — there is rather the
828 TUE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
co-operation of pleasure in noise and movement with
gratification in the putting forth of power, than of de-
liberation and choice. Yet it seemed to me worthy of
note that my child one day (in the fourteenth month)
took off and put on the cover of a can not less than sev-
enty-nine times, without stopping a moment. His at-
tention, meantime, strained to the utmost, indicated
that the intellect was taking part. " How does this
noise happen ? " the child would surely have thought, if
he had been able to speak ; for he often enough asked
later, " What makes that ? " when he heard a strange
noise. But even the child not yet acquainted with
speech might think thus, like an intelligent brute ani-
mal, only the latter would not lift the cover so often of
his own accord.
It can not be doubted that the child wills and thinks
long before the acquirement of speech ; but independ-
ent activity joins itself to the unintentional, involuntary
muscular movements quite imperceptibly, after long,
incomplete manifestation of the power of co-ordination.
The feelings that are deterriiinative for all mental devel-
opment, feelings of pleasure and displeasure, the at-
tempts to seize that which excites desire — food, above
all — and to keep off that which causes discomfort, must
bo looked upon as starting-points of the continuously-
advancing development.
In this respect the history of the development of
seizing, which has been portrayed, is a contribution at
the same time to the knowledge of the development of
volition. Especially the independent taking of food,
that begins after the first attempts at seizing, offers in-
teresting transitions from the imperfectly co-ordinated
DELIBERATE MOVEMENTS. 329
to the perfectly harmonious movement of the muscular
apparatus of ann, mouth, tongue, and oesophagus. I
group some observations concerning this point, made
upon my own child, which show that the will is present
before the co-ordination is complete.
5th month. — Meat offered with a fork is seized with
the hand and carried slowly to the mouth ; many times
incorrectly, but once properly.
9tli month. — Whatever can be brought to the mouth
is put upou the tongue with astonishing celerity. In
this operation fewer errors were made than before.
11th month. — The child, every day, of his own ac-
cord, tahes a biscuit from the table with the hand, car-
ries it correctly to his mouth — previously he often put
it to his cheek or chin — bites off a bit, chews it tine, and
swallows it ; but he can not yet drink from a glass.
IMh month. — Yery seldom is there a failure to hit
the mouth at the first trial with the biscuit. At the be-
ginning of this month, too, the child can drink from a
glass, only he still breathes into the water while drinking.
18th month. — The full spoon is carried to the mouth
with tolerable skill.
19th Wjonth. — If the spoon is laid on the left side of
the plate, then, after a little consideration, he takes it
with his left hand, and no difference is noticeable be-
tween his use of the left and the right hand in eating.
Wth month. — The child carries the spoon with food
in it to the mouth more and more cleverly, quickly, and
surely. For all that, he can not yet, without help or
guidance, alone take food with the spoon — can not get
it into the spoon. He does not always bestow attention
enough on it ; often pauses and grasps at shining objects
330 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
of all sorts, when the things .about him are such as he is
not accustomed to.
In the months following, the child, being purposely
remanded to his own resources, perfects himself in this
Hne of action. What has been reported is, however,
enough to show that intention is present long before
co-ordination is perfected. Will, knowledge of conse-
quences, representation of the whole movement — these
are clear before the movement can be correctly executed.
The reverse is the case with the characteristic pleasm'e
taken by all boys in throwing ; tiiey hurl all sorts of
things out of the window without a thought of the
consequences.
This difference, often overlooked, between willed
and instinctive movements of children, may be demon-
strated in many other forms of movement, especially
if the manner of playing, or the occupation from day
to day, from week to week, is watched. But I have al-
ready presented so many particular instances, and the
observations are so easy to make, if only time enough
is given, and if several normal children are compared,
that it seems unnecessary here to multiply examples.
Only the movements of the tongue, which are the most
important sign of the developed will, will be more fully
treated as the foundation of learning to speak, in the
description of that process (in the Third Part).
It sufhces here, in order to ascertain approximately
the date of the beginning of the manifestation of will,
and of deliberation, in one child at least, to put to-
gether some of the movements treated in the previous
chapters with reference to the questions : when the in-
born movements are no longer purely impulsive; no
DELIBERATE MOVEMENTS.
331
longer purely mechanically reflexive ; no longer purely
instinctive; and when movements undoubtedly willed
appear without the admixture of the others.
It holds good universally, that willing can not take
place until after the forming of ideas. Up to that
period the child is will-less, like an animal without a
brain. After the beginning of the ideational or repre-
sentative activity of the brain, a period is still necessary
for the association of the idea or representation of a move-
ment and the idea of an object (desired) as the aim of
the movement. In this period of transition — from the
incipient causative activity which changes the percep-
tions arising from sensuous impressions into ideas, to
the combination of two ideas — a sensory and a motor —
fall the movements of the infant that are the hardest to
understand, those that have still a mixed character.
The following provisional synopsis is intended to
help in determining the limits of this period in both di-
rections :
MOVEMENT.
No trace ei-
ietiog.
Heart-shakiner
Holding the head. 10th week.
Seizinj? 114th day.
Raising: the upper 12th week,
part of body.
Pointing
Sitting
Standing .
Walking
Raising one's self.
Stepping over a
threshold.
Kissing
Chnibiug
Jumping .
4th month.
13th week.
21st
40th
1.3th
6.5th
11th month.
2Jth(:') "
24th(?) "
With delibera-
First attempts.
tion and
effect.
4th day.
11th week.
117th day.
16th(?) week.
16th week.
16th "
17th "
22d "
8th month.
14th week.
9th month.
42d week.
23d "
48th "
41st "
28th "
6ßth "
70th "
68th "
70th "
12th month.
26th "
23d month.
27th "
27Ü1 "
28th "
In refusal.
Lying on back with-
out help.
Without being held
or supported.
Wholly without
support.
Alone, freely.
Without being held
or helped.
Without support.
Without being held
or helped.
332 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
After this, will-power begins to show itself in co-
ordinated movements of the larger muscular groups in
the sixteenth and seventeenth weeks ; so, too, the first
imitations (p. 283) were successful, and, for the first
time, his own image in the mh*ror was regarded with
attention (twentieth chapter) ; willed contractions of the
muscles of the eye, however, take place somewhat ear-
lier (p. 46). Unquestionably deliberate, voluntary turn-
ing of the gaze to new objects I did not see, indeed,
until the sixteenth week.
Thus, in the case of my child, the only one as yet
regularly observed in the first months with reference to
his movements, we shall have to postpone the beginning
of the active manifestation of the will — i. e., of the ac-
tivity of the cerebral cortex in the co-ordination of the
muscles chiefly used later — to the fourth month. But,
according to many experiments on other children, this
very date probably holds good pretty generally, whereas
later, in sitting, standing, walking, climbing, jumping,
talking, the greatest variations as to time appear.
The first deliberate movements take i^lace only after
the close of the first three months.
Were there still need of proof that infants can not
earlier execute voluntarily any movement whatever, on
account of the as yet insufiicient development of the
cerebrum, it would be furnished by such facts as have
been, observed in microcephalous human beings. For
in them the cerebrum remains deficient, and the will is
not developed.
But that deliberate movements are made at the be-
ginning of the second half-year, is proved by an instruct-
ive experiment that G. Lindner made upon his little
DELIBERATE MOVEMENTS. 333
daughter of twenty-six weeks. While the cliild at this
age was taking milk as she lay in the cradle, the bottle
took siioh a slant that she could not get anything to
suck. She now tried to direct the bottle with her feet,
and finally raised it by means of them so dexterously
that she could drink conveniently. " This action was
manifestly no imitation ; it can not have depended upon
a mere accident ; for, when, at the next feeding, the
bottle is purposely so placed that the child can not get
anything without the help of hands or feet, the same
performance takes place as before. Then, on the fol-
lowing day, when the child drinks in the same way, I
prevent her from doing so by removing her feet from
the bottle ; but she at once makes use of them again as
regulators for the flow of the milk, as dexterously and
surely as if the feet we2*e made on purpose for such use.
If it follows from this that the child acts with deliber-
ation long before it uses language in the proper sense,
it also appears how imperfect and crude the child's de-
liberation is ; for my child drank her milk in this aW'k-
ward fashion for three whole months, until she at last
made the discovery one day that, after all, the hands
are much better adapted to service of this sort. I had
given strict orders to those about her to let her make
this advance of herself."
Other examples of deliberate movements made be-
fore the ability to speak exists are given later, in the
Third Part. To this category belong also the attempts
at imitation, rare, indeed, but well marked, that are ob-
served in the fifth month ; likewise, the first imitations
of sounds and the attempts to repeat the speech of
others, of which something will be said farther on.
334 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
CHAPTER XV.
SUMMAEY OF GENERAL RESULTS.
In order to explain the formation and growth of the
child's will, there is needed, above all, a careful obser-
vation of the muscular movements of the newly-born
and of the infant. The inborn movements of every
human being are of various kinds, but are of the same
nature a sliort time after birth as they are a short time
before birth — only freer than in the embrj'O, on account
of greater room for motion, and modilied by respira-
tion.
These inborn, absolutely will-less movements are im-
jpulsive, when they are conditioned, as in the embryo,
exclusively upon the organic processes going on in the
central organs of the nervous system, especially in the
spinal cord, and take place without any peripheral ex-
citement of any of the sensory nerves. To these be-
long the remarkable, aimless, ill-adapted movements of
the anus and legs of children just born, and their grim-
aces. All the motor nerves of the whole organism seem
to take part in these impulsive muscular contractions.
The opening of the eyes and the lateral movements of
them, the rolling of the eyeball, the closing of the lid,
and many contractions of the facial muscles immediately
after birth, prove the excitement of the oculo-motorius,
of the trochlearis, of the motor-trigeminus branches, of
the abducens, of the facialis ; the movements of the
tongue show excitement of the hypo-glossus ; the arm-
and-leg-movements show excitement of the spinal mo-
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 335
tors without any assignable or admissible peripheral
stimuli.
The inborn movements are, on the contrary, reflex-
ive when they occur only upon peripheral impressions,
such as light, sound, contact. In these, also, most of the
motor nerves seem to be concerned, and, indeed, in gen-
eral, in the manner that the laws of reflexes which have
been found in brainless animals would lead us to ex-
pect. The reflexes of tlie newly-born are, however,
slower in their operation at the beginning than after
frequent repetition, and in individual cases show devi-
ations from the condition found in full-grown men and
animals. These deviations are j^robably to be referred
partly to this, that the reflex-paths are developed to
an unequal extent, so that a roundabout way some-
times ofiiers less resistance to the reflex excitement than
does the direct way. Hence, perhaps, the contra-lateral
reflexes. From all the organs of sense, in the hrst days,
reflexes go forth — viz., from the optic nerve, auditory
nerve, olfactory, gustatory, the sensory branches of the
trigeminus, and the cutaneous nerves, upon the whole
surface of the body. But the stimuli must, in general,
be stronger than at a later period, or (at least, in the
skin and retina) must affect a greater number of ex-
tremities of nerve-fibers simultaneously, in case distinct
reflexes are to take place. The reflex excitability of the
skin of the face is relatively greater from birth on,
than that of other parts.
A third kind of inborn movements is the instinctive^
which, indeed, likewise occur only after certain sensory
peripheral excitations, but neither with the mechanical
uniformity of the reflexes, nor with the constancy of
336 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
those, even when reflex excitability is present. Rather
is there need of a special psychical condition, which may
best be styled. " disposition " (or " tone "). At any rate
there is required an activity of those central organs of
the nervous system, through which feelings have their
existence. If the disposition, or the feeling is wanting,
then the instinctive movement is not made, even under
the strongest or most appropriate stimulus — as in the
case of laughter, when the sole of the foot of a child in
a sorrowful frame of mind is tickled by a stranger. A
good example of the typical, instinctive, inborn move-
ments of mankind is presented in sucking. With this
is allied licking. In new-born animals, especially chick-
ens just hatched, many more complicated instinctive
movements appear, however, since perceptions produc-
ing directly a motor effect are followed by highly ex-
pedient co-ordinated movements ; especially perceptions
of sight. The eye of the bird, during the whole embry-
onic period, is much larger in proportion to the brain
than that of man, and can furnish accurately localized
impressions immediately after the bird is hatched.
These impressions are, by means of an hereditary mech-
anism, at once (in pecking) turned to account, and there-
by deliberate movements are simulated. In fact, how-
ever, no movement of a new-born animal or child is de-
liberate ; none voluntary.
Willed movements can not take place until the de-
velopment of the senses is sufficiently advanced, not only
to distinguish clearly the qualities belonging to the sepa-
rate departments of sense, not only to feel every impres-
sion, to localize the sensation, and to compare it with
other sensations, to note its antecedents and consequents
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 337
— in a woi-d, to perceive, but sufHciently advanced also
to recognize the cause of the perception, whereby the
perception becomes a representation, a mental picture
or idea. Without the power of representation there is
no will ; without the activity of the senses there is no
representation ; thus the wäll is actually, inseparably
bound up with the senses. It disappears when they are
extinguished ; it is wanting to the person w^ho is fast
asleep.
From this dependence of all will upon the senses, it
by no means follows that a developed activity of the
senses invariably brings with it the development of the
will; on the contrary, something else is required for
that. The representations, or ideas, fonned in the first
months of human life, by means of innumerable percep-
tions, must, in order to have a motor effect in general,
find on hand a large number of movements, upon which
they now operate with determinative force. It is only
upon the central sources of the motor nerves, which
have for a long time and often been excited, impul-
sively and reflexively or instinctively, that an idea can
operate to co-ordinate or to modify. And this motor
mfluence of ideas is greatest when the idea itself is
that of a movement, particularly that of a movement
leading to a desired object or a goal striven for. Only
after the lapse of the first three months do such willed
movements take place ; but not in such a way as if a
w^iolly new psychical agency suddenly apj)eared in the
child as by inspiration ; rather does the development
of the will go on very gradually. Only to the spectator
the transition seems sudden, from the will-less child to
the child that wills, if he observes seldom. The first
338 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
successful combiuatioii of a motor idea with the idea of
an object or an aim, as in the case of the first successful
attempt to seize — that is wliat seems sudden. But what
is surprising here is the result, because that was wanting
before in the numerous similar attempts. In fact, both
the movements that are now willed, and the perceptions
that also become willed later, were long ago and often
made ; at first without being willed, as a result of the
heightened excitability of the central organs of the nerv-
ous system, and of the increasiog paths of association ;
then each one for itself, which gave rise to ideas ; and
finally both together. The movement itself runs the
same course in both cases. The willing of the move-
ment is merely the willing of one of the impulses, as
W. Gude well observes ; one of the impulses that the
child has already often allowed to operate in himself or
that he had to let operate. But all this is true only of
the first act of willing.
After the child, in the second tliree months, has be-
gim to execute willed movements in greater number,
he soon finds that the earlier .combinations of muscular
contractions no longer suflace for his desires, which
have, in the mean time, become exceedingly manifold.
Hence becomes necessary, on the one hand, a sej)aration
of nervo-muscular excitations hitherto combined ; on the
other hand, an association of those hitherto separated.
In this, for the first time, is manifested the direct par-
ticipation of the intellect in the occurrence of voluntary
mioveinents. The ordinary childish performances, the
first attempts at imitation in the fourth month, and the
greater independence in the taking of food (e. g., tak-
ing hold of the bottle) are proofs of this ; but the essen-
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 339
tial character of tlie will is not to be found either in
separation alone, i. e., in the effort to make muscles con-
tract separately that have hitherto always contracted to-
gether, or in association alone, i. e., in the effort to make
muscles contract together that have hitherto always con-
tracted singly. The will is neither co-ordinating only
nor isolating only, but both ; and, what is most fre-
quently overlooked, in both departments it performs
nothing absolutely new. As Gude has shown, it can
not "call forth primary movements." It finds com-
pletely co-ordinated movements — inborn ones, in fact — •
like sucking, swallowing, already on hand, as well as
typically isolated movements — e. g., the lifting of the
eyelid wdth the look downward — which later it in pai't
can not call forth at all, iu part can call forth only after
an enormous amount of practice.
In this important fact, that the will, as a reciprocal
action of motor idea?, can alter, isolate, combine, repeat,
strengthen and weaken, hasten and delay existing move-
ments, lies, at the same time, the key to the understand-
ing of the difficulty of learning.
On the one hand, the abundant material of inborn
impulsive, reflexive, and instinctive movements, which
are mingled together in the first three months and are
influenced by the increasing activity of the senses,
favors the development of will, since it alone supplies
the requisite representations of movement ; on the
other hand, however, this very material renders more
difficult the manifestation of the directing power of the
will. For the more that ceitain nerve-paths have been
made easily passable by frequent repetition of move-
ments, the greater will be the resistance to the combina-
340 THE MIXD OF THE CHILD.
tions of these witli others, and to the employment of
isolated tracts ; the best proof of this is furnished in the
accuracy, never afterward reappearing, of children's
imitations (in the fourth year) of the accent, pronuncia-
tion, intonation of words given to them from foreign
languages and from various dialects of their mother-
tongue. The tirst imitations are the first distinct, rep-
resented, and willed movements.
In order to give accuracy to the proposed outline of
the development of will in the child, we have yet to set
forth briefly its bearing with regard to four problems.
To every j)erfect activity of will are indispensable desire,
muscular sensations, voluntary inhibition, and attention.
Desire^ in the ordinary meaning of the word, pre-
supposes ideas. Therefore, when it is said of the newly-
born that it desires something (or even that it is search-
ing for and wishes something), this form of expression
is false. The child's relatives merely infer from its
movements, attitude, position, situation, a condition of
discomfort, displeasure, or discontent (in case of hunger,
thirst, wet), and out of their own subjective state reason
to the existence of a similar objective state in the child.
In fact, however, the behavior of the newly-born, like
that of the unborn, is intelligible without the assump-
tion of any mental process whatever when we consider
that, with the greater excitability of the central nervous
organs in the spinal cord and the medulla oblongata, not
only do reflexes — after refrigeration, wet, and the like
— occur more easily and more frequently, but instinct-
ive movements also, like sucking, and especially im-
pulsive movements, are multiplied, e. g., crying ; but
now, in the case of hunger and other disagreeable states,
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 341
that excitability is, in fact, increased. After the re-
moval of the causes of the discomfort it is diminished,
and then the mobility is likewise diminished. Thus the
child behaves as if it desired, although it does not desire.
But the repetition of the alternation of great mobility
along with discomfort — less mobility along with comfort
— during the first days, leaves behind in the central
organs traces that make possible, or favor, the associa-
tion of the remembrance of movement with the sensu-
ous impression (milk, warm bath, etc.) that relieved the
discomfort. Then the thing that relieves the discom-
fort is perceived and represented, and now, for the first
time, a movement of " desire " is made.
The muscular sensations probably begin to be de-
veloped before birth, with the movements of the child.
They must be present in all later muscular actions, even
the purely impulsive, and they exert their influence in
the performance of all those which take place only when
a psychical factor co-operates — hence in all instinctive
movements and all represented movements, consequent-
ly in voluntary ones also ; for if it were not so, then it
would remain incomprehensible how, in the successful,
often extremely complicated, harmonious contractions
of the most different muscles, just the required degree
of contraction, and no more than this, is attained. But
from this it does not in the least follow that they de-
termine the will itself, especially as they do not regularly
enter into the consciousness. They belong rather to
the machinery of nervo-rauscular excitement, and to the
impulse to it, upon which alone the will can operate.
They remain below the threshold of the will when they
do not generate ideas.
24
342 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
The voluntary inJiihltion of a movement pre-sup-
poses willed movements ; it therefore appears in the
child only after well-advanced development of the rep-
resentational or ideational stage. It is based on an ex-
citement in the state of non-willing, and is produced in
the child through ideas as to the result of a movement.
When the child's will is completely at rest, the rise of
no movement is arrested by it ; a muscular contraction
may occur at any moment. But when, in this state of
rest, ideas are formed which prevent the motor ideas
awakened by sense-impressions or memory-images from
operating on the motor centers of highest rank, then
this state is called voluntary inhihition. It does not
come to a manifestation of will — i. e., in this case ; the
child does not will, because in him an inhibitory process
takes place that neutralizes the motor ideas. When he
is asleep he does not will, because there are no motor
ideas and no inhibitory ones. I understand by ideas
here, as always, psychical facts tliat are bound up with
organic processes in the ganglionic cells of the cere-
brum, and are, in part, causes of movements, in so far
as the nerve excitations, by means of connecting fibers
and intermediate ganglionic cells, reach the motor cen-
ters of lower rank. Through this, the voluntary inhibi-
tion of many reflexes also is then made possible. The
simplest represented movement, viz., the first imitation,
requires this co-operation of the cerebrum no less than
it requires attention.
The attention of the child and of the adult is either
compulsory — aroused by strong sense-impressions — or
voluntary. In the first case — which happens in human
beings only during the first three weeks — by means of
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 343
a reflex movement after an unexpected stimulus of
sound, of light, or other sensuous stimulus, a feeling is
generated that is immediately, or after several repeti-
tions, distinguished as a feeling of pleasure or of dis-
comfort. The strong feeling leaves behind it a remem-
brance, and leads, after the perfection of the perceptive
and then of the representative activity, to ideas (A) of
the object of that movement — i. e., of the reflex stimu-
lus. If, meanwhile, the co-ordination and separation of
the muscular movements is sufiiciently developed so that
movements can also be brought to pass through motor
ideas (B), then the latter (B) combine with the former
(A) upon the object in question, and the attention is
voluntarily directed to it. But we must not infer from
the early, isolated symptoms of the later voluntary at-
tention — Hke pouting of the lips, directing the gaze,
cessation of crying or of uneasiness — an already existing
concentration of attention ; since this may be a case of
the supplanting of one movement by another without
will. The following of a moved light with the eye in
the fourth week is possible, too, without the co-opera-
tion of the cerebrum (p. 45), whereas, later, it is precise-
ly the fixation, for the purpose of seeing distinctly, that
is voluntary. Not till the seventh week (pp. 54, 142)
and the ninth week (pp. 55, 84) did I become convinced
that my child was actually attentive — since his eye fre-
quently showed a peculiar intensity of expression in
hearing and seeing — after the operation of strong stim-
uli ; but that he, of his own. motion, turned to an object
and lingered on it attentively, I observed first in the
sixteenth and seventeenth weeks, when, of his own ac-
cord, he gazed at his own image in the glass. At this
344 THE MIND OF THE CEILD.
time, and mncli later still, an uninteiTupted strain of
his attention was impossible to the child. His atten-
tion lasted only for moments.
Every act of will requires attention, and every con-
centration of attention is an act of will. Hence an act
of attention without an accompanying muscular con-
traction is unrecognizable. But those muscular move-
ments that take place without any co-operation whatever
of voluntary attention, are void of attention, either for
the reason that will is still wanting— in the first weeks
— or for the reason that will is no longer required to
keep in operation the oft-repeated, voluntary movement
— or, finally, because the will is inactive, as, e. g., in
sleep.
In conclusion, in regard to education, which always
has to control the motor ideas of the child, and, in case
these are improper ones, to substitute better, we have
especially to consider the weakness of the will even in
the complete waking condition. The surprising credu-
lity, docility, obedience, tractableness, the slight degree
of independence of will in young children, that attests
itself besides in many little traits of character, reminds
one of the similar behavior of adults in the mesmeric
sleep. For example, if I say to my two-and-a-half-year-
old child, after he has already eaten something, but is just
on the point of biting off a fresh piece from his biscuit —
if I say categorically, without giving any reason at all,
with a positiveness that will tolerate no contradiction,
very loud, yet without frightening him, " The child
has had enough now ! " then it comes to pass that he at
once puts away from his mouth the biscuit, without fin-
ishing his bite, and ends his meal altogether. It is easy
SUMMARY OF GENERAL RESULTS. 34,5
to bring children even three or four years old to the
opinion that a feeling of pain (after a hit) is gone, or
that they are not tired or thirsty, provided only that
our demands are not extravagant, and are not pressed
too often, and that our assertion is a very decided
one.
In this weakness of the child's will lies also the rea-
son that little children can not be mesmerized. Their
will-power does not suffice to keep their attention con-
centrated persistently in one direction, which is a neces-
sary condition of hypnotism.
The weariness connected with the strain of atten-
tion makes intelligible also the rapid alternation of the
plays of the child. Through too frequent yielding in
this respect, which appears imobjectionable only in the
first period of play, the later development of voluntary
inhibitions, upon which most depends in the formation
of character, is rendered essentially more difficult, and
caprice is fostered. Exercises in being obedient can
not begin too early, and I have, during an almost daily
observation of six years, discovered no harm from an
early, consistent guiding of the germinating will, pro-
vided only this guiding be done with the greatest mild-
ness and justice, as if the infant had already an insight
into the benefits of obedience. By assuming insight in
the child, insight will be earlier awakened than by train-
ing ; and by giving a true and reasonable ground for
every command, as soon as the understanding begins,
and by avoiding all groundless prohibitions, obedience
is made decidedly more easy.
Thus, through cultivation of ideas of a higher or-
der, the will may be directed even in the second year,
346 THE MIND OF THE CHILD.
and thereby the character be formed ; but only through
inexorable consistency, which allows no exception to a
prohibition, is it possible to maintain the form once im-
pressed upon the character.
[The third part of this work, treating of the Devel-
opment of the Intellect, together with supplementary
matter, is reserved for another volume of this series. —
Editok.]
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List A. — For Primary and Intermediate Grades.
List B. — For Grammar and High School Grades.
List C. — For College and University Libraries.
List D.-
ti
E.-
«'
F.-
"
G.-
It
H.
(1
I.-
<i
K.-
II
L.-
II
M.
-History.
-Biography.
-Physical Science.
-Mental and Moral Sci-
ence.
-Political and Social
Science.
-Philosophy and Meta-
physics.
-Hygiene and Sanitary
Science.
-Finance and Economics.
-Technology and Indus-
trial Arts.
List N. — Anthropology and Eth-
nology.
" O. — Literature and Art.
" P. — Books of Reference.
" R. — Travel and Adventure.
" S. — Pedagogy and Educa-
tion.
" T. — Fiction.
" U.— Amusements and Rec-
reations,
" V. — Evolution.
" W. — ARCH.EOLOGY and PALiE-
ontology.
Also, Special Lists of Legal, Medical, and Religious Works.
We respectfully invite the attention of public and private book-
buyers eveiywhere to these lists, confident that they will be found of
interest and profit. Either or all will be mailed free on request.
New York: D. APPLETON & CO., i, ^ \fe)ife-Srreet
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388
Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. |
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