STUDIES OF CHILDHOOD. 3 



itself in the stare, the grave look, and in such movements as turn- 

 ing away and hiding the face against the nurse's or mother's 

 shoulder. In severer forms it leads to trembling and to wild 

 shrieking. Changes of color also occur. It is commonly said 

 that great fear produces paleness ; but, according to one of my 

 correspondents, a child may show fear by his face turning scarlet. 

 Fear, if not very intense, leads to voluntary movements as turn- 

 ing away, putting the object away, or going away. In its more 

 violent forms, however, it paralyzes the child. It is desirable that 

 parents should carefully observe and describe the first signs of 

 fear in their children. 



It may be well to begin our study of fear by a reference to 

 startling effects. As is well known, sudden and loud sounds, as 

 that of a door banging, will give a shock to an infant in the first 

 weeks of life, which, though not amounting to fear, is its progeni- 

 tor. A clearer manifestation occurs when a new and unfamiliar 

 sound calls forth the grave look, the trembling lip, and possibly 

 the fit of crying. Darwin gives an excellent example of this. He 

 had, he tells us, been accustomed to make all sorts of sudden 

 noises with his boy, aged four months and a half, which were well 

 received ; but one day, having introduced a new sound that of 

 a loud snoring he found that the child was quite upset, bursting 

 out into a fit of crying.* 



As this incident suggests, it is not every new sound which is 

 thus disconcerting to the little stranger. Sudden sharp sounds 

 seem to be especially disliked, as those of a dog's bark. Loud and 

 voluminous sounds, too, have a terrifying effect. The big noise 

 of a factory, of a steamship, of a passing train, are among the 

 causes alleged by my correspondents of this early startling and 

 terrifying effect. My little girl when taken into the country 

 at the age of nine months, though she liked the animals sjtie saw 

 on the whole, showed signs of fear on hearing the bleating of the 

 sheep, by seeking shelter against the nurse's shoulder. So strong 

 is this effect of suddenness and volume of sound that even mu- 

 sical sounds often excite some alarm at first. " He (a boy of four 

 months) cried when he first heard the piano," writes one lady, and 

 this is but a sample of many observations. A child of five months 

 and a half showed such a horror of a banjo that it would scream 

 if it were played or only touched. Preyer's boy, at sixteen 

 months, was apparently alarmed when his father, in order to en- 

 tertain him, produced a pure musical tone by rubbing a drinking- 

 glass. He remarks that this same sound had been produced when 

 the child was four months old without any ill effects, f 



This last fact suggests that such shrinkings from sound may 



* Mind, vol. ii, p. 288. f P- <&; P- 131. 



