594 The American Naturalist. [July, 
little truth there is in the above theories. We shall probably 
come to the conclusion that the first two theories account for 
a considerable number of words and that “ Bow-wow” or imi- 
tative language may have given rise to many words whose 
imitative origin is now obscured. But watching as before the 
progress of the child we find that it possesses a faculty hardly, 
if at all, used by its elders, of coining new words to suit its own 
convenience. These words will in many cases be utterly dif- 
ferent from the words which the child hears grown-up people 
apply to an object, yet the new word, having been coined by 
the child, will be rigidly applied to the particular object or 
action it was first applied to. Mr. Romanes gives several 
instances of children who possessed this faculty to a remark- 
able degree, up to the point indeed, of speaking a language of 
their own invention. One case is that of twin boys living in 
a suburb of Boston, “ who, at the usual age began to talk, but 
strange to say, not their mother tongue. It was in vain that 
a little sister five years older than they tried to make them 
speak in ordinary English’ They had a language of their 
own, and no pains could induce them to speak anything else. 
Not even the usual first words ‘papa,’ ‘mamma,’ did they 
ever speak. In fact, though they had the usual affections, 
were rejoiced to see their father at his returning home each 
night, playing with him, etc., they would seem to have been 
otherwise completely taken up with each other. They passed 
the day playing and talking together in their own speech with 
all the liveliness and volubility common to children. They 
had regular words, a few of which the family learned to dis- 
tinguish, as that for example for carriage, which was ‘ni-si- 
boo-a,’ of which the syllables were sometimes so repeated as 
to make a much longer word.” The next case is quoted from 
Dr. E. Hun, who recorded it in the monthly Journal of 
Psychological Medicine. “The subject of this observation is 4 
girl aged four and a half, sprightly, intelligent and in good 
health. It was observed she was backward in speaking, and 
at two years old only used the words ‘papa,’ ‘ mamma.’ 
iPaper read by Mr. Horatio Hale, published in the Proceedings of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, Vol. xxxv, 1886. 
