BIOGRAPHY OF AN INFANT C. DARWIN. 343 



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 sixty-six 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 paste- 

 board 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 sensi- 

 tive 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. . . . 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 

 forty days old, he could move his hands to his own 

 mouth. When seventy-seven days old, he took the 

 sucking-bottle (with which he was partly fed) in 

 his right hand, whether he was held on the left or 



