THE IMITATIVE FACULTY OF INFANTS. 



^SS 



Toward the end of the second year various ceremonious move- 

 ments, especially those of salutation, are also imitated. The 

 child sees how an older boy takes off his hat in salutation ; im- 

 mediately he takes off his own head-covering and j)uts it on 

 again, like the other boy. 



All these movements last enumerated are distinguished from 

 the earlier ones by this, that they were executed or attempted by 

 the boy unsolicited, without the least inducement or urging, en- 

 tirely of his own motion. 



They show, on the one hand, how powerful the imitative 

 impulse has become (in the second year) ; on the other hand, 

 how important this impulse must be for the further mental de- 

 velopment. For, if the child at this age passes the greater part 

 of his time in company inattentive to manners, or unrefined, 

 then he will imitate all sorts of things injurious to him, and will 

 easily acquire habits that hinder his further development. It is, 

 therefore, of the greatest importance, even at this early period, 

 to prevent the intercourse of children with strangers, and to 

 avoid everything that might oxDen wrong paths to the imitative 

 impulse. 



The imitative movements of the muscles of speech, the child's 

 imitations of sounds, sjdlables, and words are treated of in detail 

 • in the third part of this work. The first answer of the infant to 

 the language addressed to him by his relatives, which is said to 

 be made, in individual cases, as early as the eighth and ninth 

 weeks (according to Sully, 1882), is no attempt at imitation, but 

 a directly refl.exive movement, like screaming after a blow, etc. 

 Singing has already been mentioned as one of the earliest imi- 

 tated performances. It is true of these, as of all later imitations, 

 that the first imitation of every new movement is voluntary on 

 the part of the child, and, in case an involuntary imitation 

 seems to occur, then either this has already been often repeated 

 as such, or it is a movement often practiced without imitation. 

 The accuracy of the imitation depends little, however, upon the 

 co-operation of a deliberative cerebral activity. On the contrary, 

 children of inferior mental endowment among those born deaf 

 sometimes possess (according to Grude) a purer and more distinct 

 enunciation than those more gifted. 



A REVISION of the calendar has been proposed by M. Gaston Arraelin to the 

 Astronomical Society of France, the object of which is to have the same day of 

 the month always come on the same day of the week. He would divide the 

 year into four quarters of ninety-one days or thirteen weeks each — making three 

 hundred and sixty-four days — and would leave the three hundred and sixty-fifth 

 day as a supplementary day, outside of and additional to the weekly and monthly 

 reckoning. All the months should be uniformly thirty and thirty-one days each, 

 their length being fixed so as to fit exactly into the three-monthly reckoning. 



