626 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



* given inherited faculties ; should take account of their diversities ; 

 should not measure all children with the same measure ; and should 

 not train them after the same model. It would be desirable in respect 

 to this point if a number of men well versed in physiology should, 

 independently of each other, carefully observe as many infants as pos- 

 sible, and compare results ; or if the fathers of children, friends to each 

 other, should mutually exchange observations upon their own children. 

 It would be well for individuals to keep a day-book of the acts of their 

 children from their birth upward. I can say from my own experience 

 that hardly a day passes in the first two years in which something does 

 not occur worthy of notice in its bearing upon mental development. 

 The study must begin with the observation of the sensations and 

 movements of the child. There can be no mental activity without 

 sensation to excite it by giving impressions, and affording a basis for 

 remembrances and comparisons. The sensations are preceded by the 

 movements which begin even before the child is born. The reciprocal 

 action of sensation and movement leads us a step further, to the be- 

 ginning of the development of the will. As soon as the will be- 

 comes effective, the intellect reveals itself, and at last the point is 

 reached when inclination becomes a controlling influence ; the feelings 

 assume a real form, and the child begins to communicate its own pur- 

 poses through speech. The first cry of the new-born child has been 

 regarded by some as an expression of the will, and even as an appeal 

 for relief from pain. This can not be, for a being born without under- 

 standing, in the first moment of consciousness, can not be capable of 

 entertaining such purposes as this expression would imply. A more 

 probable theory is that it is the result of a reflex action, like the sounds 

 with which animals respond to a pleasing excitation, as the rubbing of 

 the back, or like the laughter which is provoked by tickling. Fre- 

 quently the child sneezes instead of crying ; and this is a purely reflex 

 action, following an irritation of the nerves of the nose. 



The first motions of the limbs of the child give to the unprejudiced 

 observer an impression of aimlessness. The changes in the expression 

 of the face seem to result from what are more like voluntary muscular 

 movements ; but when we remember how helpless are the motions of 

 the infant in other respects that it will be months before it can hold 

 up its head or take hold of any thing, or do any other simple act which 

 seems natural to grown persons this supposition seems no longer prob- 

 able. Of what nature, then, are these singular muscular contractions 

 which are never observed again in the whole later life, and the parallels 

 of which are only seen in animals suddenly awakened from their winter 

 slumbers, or occasionally from ordinary sleep ? No external cause of 

 disturbance is present to irritate the nerves of motion and the contrac- 

 tile fibers, and so provoke reflex movements. The sleeping infant stirs 

 as the waking one does, only less often and more sluggishly. "We 

 can not ascribe the movements at this early period of life to attempts 



