FACTS AND FACTORS OF DEVELOPMENT 47 



created than that the body is. Indeed, we 

 know that the mind is formed by a process of 

 development, and the stages of this develop- 

 ment are fairly well known. There is nowhere 

 in the entire course of mental development a 

 sudden appearance of psychical processes, but 

 rather a gradual development of these from 

 simpler and simpler beginnings. No detailed 

 study has been made of the reactions of human 

 germ cells and embryos, but there is every 

 reason to believe that these reactions are 

 simpler in the embryo and germ cell than in 

 the infant, and that they are generally similar 

 to the reactions of the germ cells and embryos 

 of other animals, and to the behavior of many 

 lower organisms. 



A few years ago such a statement would 

 have been branded as "materialism" and 

 promptly rejected without examination by 

 those who are frightened by names. But the 

 general spread of the scientific spirit is shown 

 not only by the growing regard for evidence 

 but also by the decreasing power of epithets. 

 "Materialism," like many another ghost, fades 

 away into thin air or at least loses many of 



