THE MEANING OF INFANCY 



of the stomach to digest food is transmitted. 

 In all animals the new-born stomach needs but 

 the contact with food in order to begin digest- 

 ing, and the new-born lungs need but the con- 

 tact with air in order to begin to breathe. The 

 capacity for performing these perpetually re- 

 peated visceral actions is transmitted in perfec- 

 tion. All the requisite nervous connections are 

 fully established during the brief embryonic 

 existence of each creature. In the case of lower 

 animals it is almost as much so with the few 

 simple actions which make up the creature's 

 mental life. The bird known as the fly-catcher 

 no sooner breaks the egg than it will snap at 

 and catch a fly. This action is not so very sim- 

 ple, but because it is something the bird is al- 

 ways doing, being indeed one out of the very 

 few things that this bird ever does, the nervous 

 connections needful for doing it are all estab- 

 lished before birth, and nothing but the pre- 

 sence of the fly is required to set the operation 

 going. 



With such creatures as the codfish, the turtle, 

 or the fly-catcher, there is accordingly nothing 

 that can properly be called infancy. With them 

 the sphere of education is extremely limited. 

 They get their education before they are born. 

 In other words, heredity does everything for 

 them, education nothing. The career of the in- 

 dividual is predetermined by the careers of his 



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