PSYCHOGENESIS IN THE HUMAN INFANT. 631 



able condition for hearing, fails to respond thus to a strong sound. 

 No other organ of sense contributes so much to the early spiritual de- 

 velopment of the child as that of hearing after it has become fully 

 developed. The superiority of the ear over the eye in regard to this 

 point is shown by the intellectual backwardness of persons who are 

 born deaf as compared with those who are born blind. At the begin- 

 ning of life, as a rule, the voices of the mother and the nearest relatives 

 afford the first impressions of sound. Very soon these voices are dis- 

 tinguished, and different tones and noises are differently responded to. 

 It is particularly interesting to compare the soothing operation of sing- 

 ing of the cradle melodies with the extraordinary vivacity exhibited 

 on the hearing of dance-music, in the second month. Certain sounds, 

 as those of the consonants sh, st, and of the male voice, are effective 

 at a very early period in quieting the crying of a child, while other 

 strong and strange ones, like the whistle of an engine, will cause it 

 to cry. Observations on these points, which are easily multiplied, 

 show that, in spite of its original deafness, the child learns very soon 

 to discriminate between the impressions of sound. 



The faculty of seeing has a similar growth. Light seems at first 

 unpleasant, and only faint lights are borne; the baby shuts its eyes tight 

 when a candle is brought near them. Brightness and darkness, if they 

 are marked, can be distinguished, but with this the office of the eyes 

 in the earliest days is exhausted. The motions of the eyes are wholly 

 unregulated. One will look to the right, the other to the left ; one 

 may be open, the other shut ; one will be still while the other moves. 

 Among the numerous combinations of movements both eyes will occa- 

 sionally move together, but no real symmetry in the muscular contrac- 

 tions can be predicated for the first six days. The first perceptions 

 are evidently only those of the different degrees of strength of light. 

 These attract attention, and some children are said to have turned 

 their heads to the window after the first day. I have noticed it on 

 the sixth day. On about the ninth day most infants begin to stare, 

 into the void, or if a bright object, as a candle, is brought before them, 

 as if they were looking at it ; but it is easily found out by trial that 

 there is no real seeing, for it is only when the light is brought directly 

 within its line of vision that the eye is directed toward it. Not for 

 three weeks will the eye which is turned toward a light follow it when 

 it is slowly moved, and then only with a partial motion of the head. 

 But little intelligence is involved in this, for the movements of the 

 eyes and of the head are often in opposite directions. Nevertheless, 

 the face of a month-old child gains an appearance of intelligence when 

 it looks with both eyes upon a slowly moving object and follows its 

 motions ; but the stupid "expression returns, and does not finally disap- 

 pear till the second quarter-year. The face grows more human and 

 spirited as the power is gained of regarding objects with a steady, 

 independent look. The faculty of accommodation, or the power of 



