LINGUAL DEVELOPMENT IN BABYHOOD. 131 



caoy of expressions are the distinctive characteristics of man as com- 

 pared with animals : here is the origin of language and of general 

 ideas. Among animals, man is, what some great and ingenious poet 

 is among laborers and peasants : in a word, he is cognizant of a mul- 

 titude of shades and tints, even to a whole class of shades, which are 

 unnoticed by them. This is further seen both in the kind and in the 

 degree of man's curiosity. It is easily seen that, commencing with the 

 fifth or sixth month, infants, during the succeeding two years or more, 

 give all their time to making experiments in natural philosophy. There 

 is no animal, not even the cat or the dog, which makes such continual 

 study of all bodies within its reach. Every day, the infant of whom 

 I speak (age twelve months) touches, feels, turns over, lets fall, tastes, 

 and experiments upon, whatever comes under its hand ; whatever the 

 object may be a ball, doll, rattle, toy once it is sufficiently known, 

 the infant leaves it alone : it is no longer a novelty ; there is nothing 

 more to be learned from it ; it no longer interests the child. This is 

 simple curiosity ; the child's physical wants, its desire of food, have 

 nothing to do with the matter. It would seem as though already in 

 its little brain each group of perceptions tends to complete itself, as 

 in the brain of a child that possesses language. 



She does not yet pronounce any word to which she attaches a 

 meaning, but there are two or three words to which she attaches a 

 meaning on hearing them uttered. She daily sees her grandfather, 

 whose portrait, far less than life-size, but a very good likeness, has 

 often been shown to her. During the past two months or so (from 

 the age of ten mouths), when any one asked her the question, " Where 

 is grandfather?" she turns to the portrait and laughs at it. Before 

 her grandmother's portrait, which is not so good a likeness, she 

 makes no such gestures, nor does she give any token of knowing 

 what it is. For a month past (from the age of eleven months), when- 

 ever she is asked, " Where is mamma ? " she turns toward her 

 mother. So, too, with her father. I would not go so far as to affirm 

 that these three actions transcend animal intelligence. A little dog, 

 who sits by my side, in like manner understands what is meant when 

 he hears the word sugar : he will come from a distance to get his 

 morsel. In all this there is nothing but association : in the case of 

 the dog, between a sound and a certain taste-sensation ; in that of 

 the infant, between a sound and the shape of an individual face ; the 

 object designated by the sound is not yet a general character. 



I believe, however, that now (age, twelve months) a step farther 

 has been taken ; witness the following circumstance, which for me 

 is decisive : This winter the child was daily taken to her grandmother's, 

 and the latter very frequently showed her a copy, in colors, of a 

 painting by Luini representing a nude Infant Jesue. On showing her 

 this picture she was told that " this is baby." During the last eight 

 days, whenever, in some other room, we ask her, " Where is baby ? " 



