Mind : a quarterly review of psychology and philosophy : July, 1877.

Date:
[1877]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Mind : a quarterly review of psychology and philosophy : July, 1877. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    1/16 (page 285)
    / MIND A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY. I.—A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. M. Taine’s very interesting account of the mental development of an infant, translated in the last number of Mind (p. 252), has led me to look over a diary which I kept thirty-seven years ago with respect to one of my own infants. I had ex- cellent opportunities for close observation, and wrote down at once whatever was observed. My chief object was expression, and my notes were used in my book on this subject; but as I attended to some other points, my observations may possibly possess some little interest in comparison with those by M. Taine, and with others which hereafter no doubt will be made. I feel sure, from what I have seen with my own infants, that the period of development of the several faculties will be found to differ considerably in different infants. During the first seven' days various reflex actions, namely sneezing, hickuping, yawning, stretching, and of course sucking and screaming, were well performed by my infant. On the seventh day, I touched the naked sole of his foot with a bit of paper, and he jerked it away, curling at the same time his toes, like a much older child when tickled. The perfection of these reflex movements shows that the extreme imperfection of the voluntary ones is not due to the state of the muscles or of the co- ordinating centres, but to that of the seat of the will. At this time, fhough so early, it seemed clear to me that a warm soft hand 19