DECIiMBER 26, 1S90] 



SCIENCE. 



themselves upon us. It certainly is as uaseientific and un- 

 philosophical to refuse to locate sucli points and to test such 

 implications by the development hypothesis as it is, on the 

 other hand, to claim a victory for the sensational interpreta- 

 tion of the hypothesis before all such points of apparent 

 spiritual implication have been resolved. If the former at- 

 titude is arrogant, the latter is as certainly presumptuous. 



4. In observing young children, a more direct application 

 of the experimental method is possible.^ By "experiment'' 

 here, I mean both external and internal experiment. In 

 experimenting on adults great difficulties arise through the 

 fact that re actions are broken at the centre, and closed again 

 by a conscious voluntary act. The subject hears a sound, 

 identifies it, and presses a button. What goes on between 

 the advent of the incoming nerve process and the discharge 

 of the outgoing nerve process? Something, at any rate, 

 which represents a brain process of great complexity. Now, 

 any thing that fixes this sensori-motor connection or simpli- 

 fies the central process, in so far gives greater certainty to 

 the results. For this reason, experiments on reflex re-ac- 

 tions are valuable and decisive where similar experiments on 

 voluntary re-actions are uncertain and of doubtful value. 

 The fact that the child consciousness is relatively simple, 

 and so offers afield for more fruitful experiment, has already 

 been illustrated in what was said above as to the value of 

 suggestion in child-life; it is also seen in the mechanical re- 

 actions of an infant to strong stimuli, such as bright colors.^ 

 Of course, this is the point where originality may be exer- 

 cised in the devising and executing of experiments. After 

 the subject is a little better developed, new experimentation 

 will be as difficult here as in the other sciences; but at pres- 

 ent the simplest phenomena of child life and activity are 

 open to the investigator. 



With this inadequate review of the advantages of infant 

 psychology, it is well also to point out the dangers of the 

 abuse of such a branch of inquiry. Such dangers ai-e 

 real. The very sinr.plicity which seems to characterize the 

 life of the child is often extremely misleading, and mislead- 

 ing because the simplicity in question is not typical but 

 idiosyncratic. Mr. Spencer had a large range of facts in 

 view when he made organic development a progression 

 not only in complexity, but also in definiteness; and the dis- 

 tinction between simplicity which indicates mere absence of 

 complexity and that which indicates definiteness of function 

 as well, applies with force to mental growth. Two nervous 

 re-actions may appear equally simple; but one may be an 

 adaptive re action, and the other inadaptive. So a state of 

 infant consciousness may seem to involve no complexity or 

 integration, and yet turn out to represent, by reason of its 

 very simplicity and definiteness, a mass of individual or race 

 experience. In other words, children differ most remarkably 

 in the early manifestations of their conscious lives. It is never 

 safe, except under the qualification mentioned below, to say, 

 "This child did, consequently all children must." The most 

 we can usually say in observing single infants is, "This 

 child did, consequently another child may." Yet the uncer- 

 tainties of the case may be summed up and avoided if cer- 

 tain principles of mental development are kept in view. 



^ On the nature and application of experiment In psychology, see my 

 Hiidbook of Piyi;hology, Senses and Intellec:, ad e.l., pp. 25-31. 



2 See t e writer's note In Science, Oct. 31, 1890, p. 247. 



(1) In the first place, we can fix no absolute time in the 

 history of the mind at which a certain mental function takes 

 its rise. The observations, now quite extensively recorded, 

 and sometimes quoted as showing that the first year, or the 

 second year, etc., brings such and such development, tend, 

 on the cimtrary, to show that .such divisions do not hold in 

 any strict sense. Like any organic growth, the nervous 

 system may develop faster under more favorable conditions, 

 or more slowly under less favorable; and the growth of men- 

 tal faculty is largely dependent upon such organic growth. 

 Only in broad outline and by the widest generalization can 

 such epochs be marked off at all. 



(2) The possibility of the occurrence of a mental phenome- 

 non must be distinguished from its necessity. The occur- 

 rence of a single clearly observed event is decisive only 

 against the theory according to which its occurrence under- 

 the given conditions may not occur; that is, the cause of the 

 event is proved not to lie among agencies or conditions which 

 are absent. For example: the very early adaptive move- 

 ments of the infant in receiving its food cannot be due to 

 volition, but as to what may account for them the case is 

 still open. It is well to emphasize the fact that one case may 

 be decisive in overthrowing a theory, but the conditions are 

 seldom simple enough to make it decisive in establishing a 

 theory. 



(3) It follows from the principle of growth itself that the 

 order of development of the mental functions is constant, 

 and normally free from idiosyncrasy: consequently the most 

 fruitful observations of children are those which show that 

 such a function was present before another could be ob- 

 served. The complexity becomes finally so remarkable that 

 there seems to be no before or after at all in mental things, 

 and, if child processes show stages in which any element is 

 clearly absent, we have at once light upon the law of growth. 

 For example: if a single case is conclusively established of 

 a child's drawing an inference before it begins to use words 

 or significant vocal sounds, the one case is an good as a 

 thousand to show that thought develops to a degree inde- 

 pendently of spoken language. 



(4) While the most direct results are acquired by syste- 

 matic experiments with a given point in view; still general 

 observations kept regularly, and carefully recorded, are im- 

 portant for the interpi'etation a great many such records may 

 ultimately afford. In the multitude of experien-ces here, as 

 everywhere, there is strength. Such observations should 

 cover every thing about the child, — his movements, cries, im- 

 pulses, sleep, dreams, personal preferences, muscular efforts, 

 attempts at expression, etc., — and should be recorded in a 

 regular day-book at the time of occarrence. What is impor- 

 tant and what is not, is, of course, something to be learned; 

 and it is extremely desirable that any one contemplating 

 such observations should acquaint himself beforehand with 

 the principles of general psychology and physiology, espe- 

 cially the former. J. Mark Baldwin. 



THE INTERMAREIAGE OF THE DEAF, AND THEIR 

 EDUCATION. 

 In his valuable article on the above topic in Science, Nov. 

 28, Dr. E. M. Gallaudet erroneously states, that, in consid 

 ering the intermarriage of the deaf, the " important fact has 

 been overlooked . . . that with a large proportion of persons 



