THE IMITATIVE FACULTY OF INFANTS. 249 



boring areas, species lost its significance as a term of fixed mean- 

 ing, and can not be separated from genus on one side and sub- 

 species or variety on the other. 



Though the examples made use of in this discussion are taken 

 from the vertebrate type of animals, the other great divisions fall 

 under the same law, each in its own way, and under limitations 

 set by the characters of the types themselves. 



THE IMITATIVE FACULTY OF INFANTS.* 



Br Pkof. W. PEEYEE. 



TO determine as exactly as possible the date of the first imita- 

 tive acts is of especial interest in regard to the genesis of 

 mind, because even the most insignificant imitative movement 

 furnishes a sure proof of activity of the cerebrum. For, in order 

 to imitate, one must first perceive through the senses ; secondly, 

 have an idea of what has been perceived; thirdly, execute a 

 movement corresponding to this idea. Now, this threefold cen- 

 tral process can not exist without a cerebrum, or without certain 

 parts of the cerebrum, probably the cortical substance. Without 

 the cerebral cortex, certain perceptions are possible, to be sure ; 

 many movements are possible, but not the generation of the lat- 

 ter out of the former. However often imitation has the appear- 

 ance of an involuntary movement, yet when it was executed the 

 first time, it must have been executed with intention — i. e., vol- 

 untarily. When a child imitates, it has already a will. But the 

 oftener a voluntary movement is repeated, always in the same 

 way, so much more it approximates reflex movement. Hence 

 many imitative acts, even in the child, occur involuntarily quite 

 early. But the first ones are willed. When do they make their 

 appearance ? 



If we make, for the infant to see, a movement that he has 

 often practiced of his own accord, he can make a successful imi- 

 tation much earlier than is commonly supposed. Such a move- 

 ment, which I employed as suitable for early imitation, is the 

 pursing of the mouth, the protruding of the closed lips, which 

 often occurs (even in adults), along with a great strain of the 

 attention. ~ 



This protruding of the lips occurred with my child on the 



* From " The Mind of the Child : Part I. The Senses and the Will." Being ob- 

 servations concerning the mental development of the human being in the first year of 

 life. By W. Preyer, Professor of Physiology in the University of Jena. Translated 

 from the German by II. W. Brown, with an Introduction by G. Stanley Hall. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co., 1888. 



