SOME HUMAN INSTINCTS. 161 



life, as unautoraatic and ununiform in its outward aspect, as human 

 life has ever been claimed to be. 



In this article and a later one, I will run over the human instincts 

 in detail, commenting with fullness only upon such as are interesting 

 enough to repay the pains. 



The line to be drawn between simply reflex and instinctive actions 

 is an entirely arbitrary one ; so I can see no objection, on the score of 

 principle, to including under the title of instincts Professor Preyer's 

 whole list of the gradually evolving propensities to action of the human 

 babe : Sucking, biting, spitting, making grimaces, clasping, pointing, 

 making sounds expressive of desire, carrying objects to the mouth, avert- 

 ing head and body, sitting up, standing, are all accomplishments which 

 come in due order, and lead us to the locomotor age. Each is irre- 

 sistibly called forth by some appropriate stimulus, and finally becomes 

 subject to the conscious will. 



Locomotion is more interesting. Until the walking impidse ripens 

 in the nerve-centers, the legs remain limp and indifferent, no matter 

 how often the child may be hung with his feet in contact with the 

 ground. No sooner, however, has the standing instinct come, than 

 the child stiffens his legs and presses downward as soon as his feet 

 feel the floor. In some babies this is the earliest locomotor reaction. 

 In others it is preceded by the impulse to creep. Yesterday, the baby 

 sat contentedly wherever he was put. To-day, it is impossible to keep 

 him sitting at all, so irresistible is his impulse to throw himself for- 

 ward on his hands. Usually the arms are too weak, and the ambi- 

 tious little experimenter falls on his nose. But his perseverance is 

 dauntless, and he soon learns to travel in the quadrupedal way. The 

 walking instinct may awaken with no less suddenness, and its entire edu- 

 cation be completed within a week's compass, barring a little " groggi- 

 ness" in the gait. The common belief that a baby learns to walk is, 

 strictly speaking, untrue. The reflex machinery, as it begins to ripen, 

 prompts him to its use. But, as it is imperfectly organized, he makes 

 mistakes. If, however, a baby could be prevented from getting on 

 his feet at all for a fortnight or so after his first impulse to do so had 

 manifested itself, and then restored to freedom, I have little doubt of 

 his then being able to walk perfectly, or almost perfectly, " from the 

 word ' go.' " A small blister on each foot-sole would do the business ; 

 and it is much to be desired that some scientific widower, left alone 

 with his infant at the critical moment, should repeat on the human 

 species the brilliant observation of Mr. Douglas Spalding on various 

 small birds, which he kept till they were fully fledged, and then found 

 to fly with absolute perfection the first time he allowed them to spread 

 their wings. Usually, birds start to fly before either the central or 

 peripheral apparatus is quite ripe. And so do we, to walk. 



Of vocalization I will say nothing except that it is instinctive in 

 both of its forms, singing and speech, and that the propensity to speak 



VOL. XXXI. 11 



