The Newtown bee., 1880-12-15
The Growth of a Child.

The MedtcG' Record reproduces the leading features of the studies of Profes- sor w. Preyer, Of Jena, in field as yet almost unbroken-t that is, the psycholog- ica, study of infants This study begins, the professor says, with the observation of the movements and sensations of child, and then proceeds to ote the de- velopment of the different senses, the formation of speech, etc., and the effect of all these things in awakening the in telligence. The first manifestation of voluntary motion occurs about the four teenth waek, when the infant begins to hold up it's head. I fter four months the head is usually balanced well, and at ten months the power to sit up is acquired
 Ability to stand was usually, in the cases studied by the professor, gained suddenly at the end of the first year. The first grasping motions of the hand in the first quarter year are entirely reflex and mechanical, the first voluntary attempt to take hold of an object not being mo- ticed before the seventeenth week. A child does not show selt-consciousness, knowledge of it's independent exist ence, until the second quarter of the seeond year. The sensibility of the skin of newborn child is very low, and it will give no signs of discomfort if it be pr1cked on the nose or lips or hands. The eyes, too, close slowly when touched. and do not close at all in the bath. An increase of sensibility, however, appears in day or two after birth All infants are deaf at birth, because the outer ear is closed and there is as yet no air in the middle ear.
 4 response to strong sound is ob- served at the earliest in six hours, but often not for day or two. The awak- ching of the sense may be detected by the blinking which loud noise occa- SionS. No other organ is thought to C tribute to the intellectual develop ment of the child so much as the ear. The first perceptions are those of light. The infant shuts its eyes as soon as H. ht enters them, within week 1t turns its glance to the window, but it is three weeks before the eyes will follow light moved before them. The stupid expres- sion on the child's face does not leave it until the second quarter year. and the face grows more human and spirited with the increase of the power of seeing intelligently.
 The power to distinguish colors fol- lows that of intelligent attention, and light and bright colors are preferred i; but the power to distinguish them by name does not come until the beginning of the third year. The recognition of form, size and distance comes slowly. In the first month the infant pays no attention to the swiftest approach of the persons hand to his face, and in the third year it will still show ignorance of size and no appreciation of distance. The professor set down in writing every sound uttered by child during it's first two years, and which could be so repre- sented. Al first only vowels are heard, but even in the first five weeks these sounds are so diversified as to express different feelings.
 Thus, the profess says, the periodi- cally broken cry, with knit eyes, denotes hunger; the continuous whine, cold, and the high penetrating tone, pain. The consonant m was heard in the seventh month b, d, n, v, and. rarely, g, b, and k were distinguished. Imperfect imi- tations of sound were heard in the sixth month, and at this time voices began to be distinguished by the child. Great progress is made in the imitation of sounds after the third half year, and the powers of articulation become well developed by the fourth half year.