Importance of the Child 3 



ment and of all the loftier prerogatives. Thus 

 the higher apes have a babyhood when for two 

 or three months they are unable to feed them- 

 selves or move about independently of the par- 

 ent. The human infant is distinguished from 

 the highest of the lower animals by the much 

 longer duration of helpless infancy and the 

 marked increase in the size of the brain, particu- 

 larly in the extent of its surface. There is 

 here a great increase in the size and complex- 

 ity of brain organization that takes place 

 largely after birth. Accompanying the rapid 

 growth of the nervous system is that of the 

 skeleton and various visceral organs. 



During the first two years of life, the brain 

 not only doubles in weight but increases marvel- 

 ously in its convolutions and complexity. The 

 infinite distance between man and the lower 

 animals consists in the fact that, in the former, 

 natural selection confines itself principally to 

 the surface of the brain, which requires a long 

 period of helpless infancy for this highly plastic 

 work to be properly started and developed. 

 Inherited tendencies are there, but the proper 



