SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, JANUARY 8, I89-J. 



INFANTS' MOVEMENTS. 



In ao earlier article/ I had occasiou to speak of certain 

 plieBomena of the infant's muscular development — the phe- 

 nomena which illustrate the principle of sug-gestion. A brief 

 survey of certain general characters of these early move- 

 ments may now be made. 



From the outset, movement is the infant's natural response 

 to all influences. And, more than this, Bain and Preyer 

 seem to have made out their case, that from the outset there 

 are movements which are spontaneous, due to unsolicited 

 discharge of the motor centres. At any rate, no observation 

 made after birth can decide the question one way or the 

 other. It remains for the embryologists to continue their 

 work, and this is where Preyer's results get their principal 

 value. 



In regard to movements more properly reflex and respon- 

 sive, I may record a few detached observations on my child. 

 Carefully planned experiments with her, made in the ninth 

 month, showed the native, walking reflex — alternative 

 movement of the legs — very strongly marked. I held her 

 by the body, having made the legs quite free, in a position 

 which allowed the bare feet to rest lightly upon a smooth 

 table. The reflex seemed to come somewhat suddenly, for 

 up to the middle of tiie eighth month I could not discover 

 more than a single alternation ; and this I had determined 

 not to take as evidence, since it could well arise by chance. 

 But, in the ninth month, I observed as many as three and 

 four well regulated alternations in succession. At first most 

 of these movements were the reverse of the natural walking 

 movements, being oftenest such as would carry the child 

 backward. This, however, passed away. I have the follow- 

 ing note on June 13, 1890 (the child being one day short of 

 nine months old): ''Walking movements, 3 to 4 alterna- 

 tions, backwards oftenest, but tending rapidly to forward 

 movements; later, 2 experiments, each showing 3 to 4 alter- 

 nations forwards very plainly;" and on June 19: ''Fine 

 activity in walking — good alternations, but more backwards 

 than forwards — -clearly reflex, from stimulus to the soles." 

 It is easy to see that this backward alternation might be due 

 to some accident of stimulation or discharge when the reflex 

 was first called out; a tendency which early efforts at creep- 

 ing would soon correct. Yet in H.'s case, it was so marked 

 that for a period she preferred to creep backward. 



A few observations were made also upon bilateral reflexes. 

 A gentle touch with finger or feather on the cheek, or beside 

 the nose, or upon the ear, when H. was sleeping quietly upon 

 her back, called out always the hand on the same side. After 

 two or three such irritations, her sleep became troubled and 

 she turned upon the bed, or used both hands to rub the place 

 stimulated. Tickling of the sole of the foot also, besides 



> Science, xvll., 1891, p. 113. 



causing a reaction in the same foot, tended to bring about a 

 movement of the hand on the same side. These observa- 

 tions, not a large number, were made in the sixth, seventh, 

 and eighth months. 



A reference has already been made to the late rise of real 

 phenomena of imitation. In support of the assertion, that 

 imitation is rather late in its rise, the following experiences 

 may be reported. As a necessary caution, the rule was 

 made that no single performance should be considered real 

 imitation unless it could be brought out again under similar 

 circumstances. It is probable that cases of imitation recorded 

 as happening as early as the third month are merely coinci- 

 dences. For example, I recorded an apparent imitation by 

 H., of closing the hand, on May 22 (beginning of the ninth 

 month), but on the following day I wrote, "experiment not 

 confirmed with repeated trials running through four succeed- 

 ing days." H.'s first clear imitation was (May 24) in knock- 

 ing a bunch of keys against a vase, as she saw me do it, in 

 order to produce the bell like sound. This she repeated again 

 and again, and imitated it a second time a week later when, 

 from lapse of time, she had forgotten how to use the keys 

 herself. But on the same day (May 24), other efforts to 

 bring out imitation failed signally, i.e., more or less articu- 

 late sounds, movements of the lips (Preyer's experiments), 

 and opening and closing of the hands. Ten days later, liow- 

 ever, she imitated closing the hand on three different occa- 

 sions. And yet a week afterward, she imitated movements 

 of the lips and certain sounds, as pa, ma, etc' From this 

 time forward the phenomenon seemed extended to a very 

 wide range of activities, and began to assume the immense 

 importance which it always comes to have in the life of the 

 young child. It may be noted that H.'s first clear imitation 

 plainly involved a complex voluntary muscular performance ; 

 and as far as a single instance is of value, it shows that the 

 will may get conti'ol of certain muscular combinations before 

 they are called out to a great extent involuntarily. In this 

 respect, also, my observations confirm Egger's.' 



In order to test the growth of voluntary control over the 

 muscles of the hand and fingers, I determined to observe the 

 phenomena of H.'s attempts at drawing and writing, for 

 which she showed great fondness as soon as imitation was well 

 fixed. Selecting a few objects well differentiated in outline 

 — ^ animals which she had already learned to recognize and 

 name after a fashion — I drew them one by one on paper 

 and let her imitate the " copy." The results I have in a se- 

 ries of "drawings" of hers, extending from the 7th of last 

 April (the last week of her nineteenth month) to the present 

 (middle of the twenty-seventh month). The results show 

 that, with this child, up to the beginning of the twenty- 

 seventh month there was no connection apparent between a 

 mental picture in consciousness and the movements made by 



' Egger notices this* late development ol vocal Imitation, " L'lntelllgence et 

 Langage chez les Eufants," p. 18. 



' Loc. cit., p. 18-20. Yet I cannot hold with Egger that imitation always In- 

 volves -'intelligence.'' 



