5 8z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the mouth of the Ganges, bearing upon their surfaces erect, living- 

 trees. And the Amazon, Orinoco, and in fact most large rivers, pre- 

 sent at times similar spectacles. Here, then, is most ample opportunity 

 for carrying all small arboreal animals out to sea, and, although they 

 are liable to perish, unusual tidal currents may bear them great dis- 

 tances safely from their native country. 



THE EAKLY MAN OF NORTH AMERICA. 1 



By A. E. GROTE, 



DIRECTOR OF THE BUFFALO SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



A CHILD is not fully formed in body or developed in mind when 

 it is born. It behaves at first without experience. That is the 

 reason we do not always understand baby when it " acts so." Our 

 own behavior is the result of our experience. Baby moves its hands 

 and twists its legs without knowing why. But it gradually selects 

 from among these movements those which are found to satisfy its 

 wants, and in the future performs such actions only. It uses its voice 

 in the same way, as shown by Taine and other writers, gradually 

 picking up such words as it finds are answered. Again it acquires, 

 always by experience, the idea of distance. The moon seems so near 

 that the child wants it taken down to play with ; while the position 

 of objects close at hand is equally misjudged. And so with the 

 senses of hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. 



It does not know at first where the pin is that pricks it ; and, even 

 if we slap it on the very part recommended by Dr. John Brown for 

 the purpose, baby will not be able to locate the injuries, though it 

 may have a general sense of discomfort, and resent the injustice in its 

 feeble little way. Just as it passes through a process of self-educa- 

 tion by experience, its mind receives constant correction as to the 

 nature of surrounding objects. Baby's principal opinion at one time 

 is, that inanimate things possess like feelings and properties with 

 itself. This idea of baby's we sympathize with when we pick up a 

 chair over which it has stumbled in its efforts to walk, and pretend to 

 whip " that naughty chair," until baby stops its crying and is pro- 

 pitiated by the supposititious sufferings of the chair. This personifi- 

 cation of objects is less and less obtruded as the baby grows and be- 

 comes better acquainted with the nature of its surroundings. But it 

 is hardly ever entirely dropped, even in after-life, when it becomes in 

 us transferred to matters beyond the reach of our knowledge. These 

 observations on our children become important when we study the 

 actions of races of men less cultured than our own. We find such 



1 A lecture delivered under the auspices of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. 



