Energies of the Organic World 89 



that are purely or almost wholly protoplasmic or biotic. That 

 is, in passively absorbing food, in digesting it, in respiring, 

 and in excreting, the child shows phenomena that do not differ 

 biologically from those functions seen in the primitive Acaryota. 

 As Preyer and others also have shoT\Ti, there is at least up to 

 the close of the first day — possibly the third or fourth day after 

 birth — no perceptible active response of the organism to envir- 

 onal stimuli such as light, heat, sound, chemic, mechanic, or 

 electric stimuli. Fundamentally it constitutes that passive 

 inert stage where food absorption and digestion are proceeding; 

 where respiratory change is effected; where tissues are being 

 repaired and even rapidly built up; but in which response to 

 environal stimuli is absent or as in the higher Acaryota only 

 is in slow process of evolution. As Preyer well puts it, though 

 in too personal and appreciative language for the child, "We 

 note very early that the foreground is occupied by nourishment. 

 The hungry child is indifferent to everytliing else until his 

 hunger is appeased." The cell nuclei are present, as at every 

 point in the history of the organism, and so far as one can dis- 

 tinguish well developed. But their function as irritable centers 

 is as yet undeveloped or extremely feeble. The gray matter 

 of the brain, that is, the special mental centers, is still lacking 

 in the newly born child, or is present only in very small quantity 

 whereas after six weeks its presence can be more easily dem- 

 onstrated. 



But from the third or fourth day after birth, onward till 

 about the close of the second or even into the third year, the 

 sense of taste is first awakened, thereafter that of smell, of 

 touch (cutaneous sense), of hearing, and of sight at varying 

 intervals apart. Further, some of these senses, hke those of 

 hearing and of seeing, are acquired to a fairly perfect degree 

 at a relatively slow rate, and in what might be called "install- 

 ment" quantities. For, while a diffuse sight perception is 

 acquired after a few days, the ability to distinguish between 

 colors may be lacking till the third year or longer. Or as 

 Preyer again well puts it: "All the organs of sense are organs 

 of time. . . . Two sensations belonging to different depart- 



