632 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



rapidly adapting the eye to the perception of objects at different dis- 

 tances, is then in the process of development, and the unsymmetrical 

 movements of the eyes gradually cease. 



The power to distinguish colors follows. One child prefers yellow, 

 another red ; all dislike black and dark colors as^well as dazzling bright 

 ones. It is hard to decide when the finer degrees of color and their 

 grades of brightness begin to be recognized, for the time differs with 

 the individuals. I do not know of any child that could point out red, 

 green, yellow, blue, correctly on demand before the beginning of the 

 third year. 



The recognition of forms proceeds very slowly. Experiments on 

 blind persons, who have had their sight restored by operations, after 

 they had learned to see, show that they could not distinguish curved 

 figures from angular ones by sight alone, nor at all until they had felt 

 of them. The same is doubtless the case with every little child. Nu- 

 merous observations show how defective is the estimation of distances 

 in early years. The well-known reaching out for the moon is a case 

 in point. Even long use does not give accuracy in the exercise of this 

 power. The same is the case with the perception of magnitudes. A 

 child in its third year will try to put its larger playthings into the 

 boxes designed for little ones, to put pieces of bread into its mouth 

 that are too large for it, and to take hold of large things with its tiny 

 hands. The first sensations of changes in the field of vision, such as 

 are given when a bright object is taken from it, as by the extinction 

 of a lamp, and when a new object is substituted for it, as when the 

 lamp is lighted again, always make a deep impression on the young 

 child. In the first month no notice is taken of the swiftest approach 

 of the hand to the face, and the act of blinking when a threatening 

 movement is made toward the eye is not acquired till the third month. 

 This fact enables us to distinguish between inherited and acquired in- 

 cidents of sight. The contraction of the pupil in the light and its ex- 

 pansion in the gloom are inherited, and common to all new-born chil- 

 dren ; the blinking is acquired : it is a precaution against danger, of 

 which the child in its first months knows nothing. By frequent repeti- 

 tions it becomes habitual, and at last reflexive, like other defensive con- 

 tractions of the muscles. By the frequent repetition of observations 

 and experiments of the kind described above, it is possible to follow the 

 gradual development of the senses in individuals. But much material 

 must yet be collected before we can clearly set forth the sensual basis 

 of the spiritual growth of the child. The sensations are the material 

 out of which every man makes his world. The emotions of the child, 

 his inclinations and disinclinations, the development of his sense of 

 obligation, the beginning of the formation of his character, the open- 

 ing of his talents, all depend primarily on the unfolding of his senses. 

 We have so far, on this subject, nothing but an array of facts, with 

 little connection between them. 



