The Russellville Democrat., 1881-01-13
The Growth of Children.

The Medical Record feproduces the leading features of the studies of Pro lessor W. Preyer, of Jena, in field as yet almost unbroken, that is in the psy- chological study of infants.
 This study begins, says the professor, with the observation of the movements and sensations of child, and then pro- ceeds to note the development of the different senses, the formation of speech, etc, and the effect of all these things in awakening the intelligence The first manifestations of voluntary motion oc- CUTS about the fourteenth week, when the infant begins to hold up its head. After four months the head is usually balanced well, and at ten months the power to sit up is required. Ability to stand, is usually, in the cases studied by the professor, gained suddenly at the end of the first year. The first grasping mo- tions 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 noticed before the seventeenth week. A child does not show self-consciousness a knowledge of it's independent existence, until after the commencement of the second year. The sensibility of the skin of newborn child is very low, and it will give no signs of discomfort if it be pricked 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. A response to strong sound is observed, at the earliest, in six hours, but often not for day or two. The awakening of the sense may be detected by the blink ing which loud noise occasions No other organ is thought to contribute to the intellectual development of the child as the ear The first perceptions are those of light. The infant shuts it's eyes as soon as the light enters them; within week it turns it's glance to the window, but it is three weeks before the eyes will follow a light moved before them. The stupid expression on the childs face does not leave it until the second quarter year. and then the face grows more human and spirited with the increase of the power of seeing intelli- gently. The power to distinguish colors follows that of intelligent attention, and light and bright colors are preferred; 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 come slowly. In the first month the infant pays no attention to the swiftest approach of the persons hand to its face, and in the third year it will still show ignorance of size and no appreciation of distance. The professor sat down in writing every sound uttered by child during it's first two years, and which could be so represented. At first only vowels are heard, but even in the first five weeks these sounds are so di- versifed as to express different feelings. Thus, the professor says, the periodically broken cry, with knit eyes, denotes hunger; the continuous whine, cold and the high, penetrating tone, pain. The eonsonant m was heard in the seventh week, and in the seventh month b, d, n, V, and, rarely, g, h and k were distin- guished 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.