THE SCAFFOLDING LEFT IN THE BODY lol 



of a young monkey at the same period of de- 

 velopment. Having special facilities for such an 

 investigation, he tested a large number of just- 

 born infants with reference to this particular. Now 

 although most people have some time or other 

 been seized in the awful grasp of a baby, few have 

 any idea of the abnormal power locked up in the 

 tentacles of this human octopus. Dr. Robinson's 

 method was to extend to infants, generally of one 

 hour old, his finger, or a walking stick, to imitate 

 the branch of a tree, and see how long they 

 would hang there without, what the newspapers 

 call, " any other visible means of support." The 

 results are startling. Dr. Robinson has records of 

 upwards of sixty cases in which the children were 

 under a month old, and in at least half of these 

 the experiment was tried within an hour of birth : 

 "In every instance, with only two exceptions, the 

 child was able to hang on to the finger or a small 

 stick, three-quarters of an inch in diameter, by its 

 hands, like an acrobat from a horizontal bar, and 

 sustain the whole weight of its body for at least 

 ten seconds. In twelve cases, in infants under an 

 hour old, half a minute passed before the grasp 

 relaxed, and in three or four nearly a minute. 

 When about four days old, I found that the 

 strength had increased, and that nearly all, when 



