132 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



(meaning herself), she turns toward any picture that may he there, 

 whether it be a painting or an engraving. Hence "baby" signifies, 

 for her, some general notion, whatever paintings and engravings of 

 persons or landscapes may possess in common ; i. e., if I am not mis- 

 taken, " baby," in her mind, signifies something variegated in a shin- 

 ing frame. Indeed, it is plain that the objects painted or designed 

 within the frames are so much Greek to her, while she must be deeply 

 impressed by the glittering frame and the patches of color, light, and 

 shade, within its border. Here, then, we have her first general term ; 

 the meaning she gives it is not ours, but nevertheless it is evidence 

 of original work done by the infantile understanding. For, though 

 we have supplied the word, we have not supplied the meaning. 



(Age, fourteen months and three w r eeks.) The gains of the last 

 six weeks have been notable : besides the word " baby " she now un- 

 derstands several others, and of these she pronounces five or six, giving 

 to each a meaning of its own. Mere prattle is succeeded by a begin- 

 ning of intentional and determinate language. The principal words 

 pronounced by her now are papa, maman, tete (by which she means 

 nurse) ; oua-oua (her term for dog), hoJco (hen, cock), dada (horse, 

 wagon), mia (cat, kitten), kaka, and tern. She acquired earliest the 

 two words papa and tern : this latter word is very curious, and well 

 worthy of serious consideration. 



For fifteen days she pronounced papa without a purpose, without 

 a meaning, as simple prattle, and as an easy and amusing exercise of 

 articulation. Later came association between this name and the im- 

 age or perception ; and then the portrait or the person of her father 

 brought to her lips the sound papa, and this same word, when pro- 

 nounced by another, awoke in her the memory, the mental image of 

 her father. Between the two states just noticed there exists an insen- 

 sible transition, so that, at certain times, the first state still persists 

 after the second state has been attained ; at times she still plays with 

 a sound, though she understands its sense. This is very easily seen 

 with respect to some of her later acquisitions, for instance the word 

 kaka. This word she often repeats without purpose or intent, as 

 prattle, much to the displeasure of her mother. Again, she fre- 

 quently utters the word purposely, when occasion offers. Further it 

 is evident that, as in the case of the word " baby," she has extended 

 the meaning of this term. Thus, for instance, on seeing in a flower- 

 bed the track of moistened earth left by a watering-pot, she repeated 

 this word again and again with evident appreciation of its meaning. 

 For her it signifies what icets. 



She shows great capacity for imitating sounds. She has seen and 

 listened to fowls, and now repeats their koko far more accurately than 

 we can do it, with the guttural intonation of the animals themselves. 

 This is simply a faculty pertaining to the windpipe, but she possesses 

 another faculty which is far more striking, a faculty that is par excel- 



