iq8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



experience and association with the touch of his mothers breast could 

 so soon have come into play. During the first fortnight he often started 

 on hearing any sudden sound, and blinked his eyes. The same fact was 

 observed with some of my other infants within the first fortnight. 

 Once, when he was 66 days old, I happened to sneeze, and he 

 started violently, frowned, looked frightened, and cried rather badly; 

 for an hour afterwards he was in a state which would be called nervous 

 in an older person, for every slight noise made him start. A few days 

 before this same date, he first started at an object suddenly seen; but 

 for a long time afterwards sounds made him start and wink his eyes 

 much more frequently than did sight; thus, when 114 days old, I shook 

 a pasteboard box with comfits in it near his face and he started, 

 whilst the same box when empty or any other object shaken as near 

 or much nearer to his face produced no effect. We may infer from 

 these several facts that the winking of the eyes, which manifestly serves 

 to protect them, had not been acquired through experience. Although 

 so sensitive to sound in a general way, he was not able even when 124 

 days old, easily to recognize whence a sound proceeded so as to direct 

 his eyes to the source. 



With respect to vision — his eyes were fixed on a candle as early as 

 the 9th day, and up to the 45th day nothing else seemed thus 

 to fix them; but on the 49th day his attention was attracted by 

 a. bright-colored tassel, as was shown by his eyes becoming fixed and the 

 movements of his arms ceasing. It was surprising how slowly he 

 acquired the power of following with his eyes an object if swinging at 

 all rapidly; for he could not do this well when seven and a half months 

 old. At the age of 32 days he perceived his mother's bosom 

 when three or four inches from it, as was shown by the protrusion of his 

 lips and his eyes becoming fixed; but I much doubt whether this had 

 any connection with vision; he certainly had not touched the bosom. 

 Whether he was guided through smell or the sensation of warmth or 

 through association with the position in which he was held, I do not 

 at all know. 



The movements of his limbs and body were for a long time vague 

 and purposeless, and usually performed in a jerking manner; but 

 there was one exception to this rule, namely, that from a very early 

 period, certainly long before he was 40 days old, he could move his 

 hands to his own mouth. When 77 days old, he took the 

 sucking bottle (with which he was partly fed) in his right hand, 

 whether lie was held on the left or right arm of his nurse, and he 

 would not take it in his left hand until a week later, although I tried to 

 make him do so; so that the right hand was a week in advance of 

 the left. Yet this infant afterwards proved to be left-handed, the 

 tendency being no doubt inherited — his grandfather, mother, and a 



