Evening star., 1933-12-31

Until now it has been generally thought that
the young infant comes into this world as blind
to its beauties young kitten. The expert
enced mother Of a brood would tell you that
he could not possibly see, because the bright
colored bauble dangled before his eyes brought
no response from the drowsy babe.
The anatomist would cite for you rules to
prove that it would be physically impossible
for the infant to see. The eye is not sufilclently
developed at birth. he would say with an air
of finalty.
1t remained for a skeptical psychologist, DR..
W. c. Beasley of the Johns Hopkins University.
to answer, We'll, suppose we examine the
all the rules and find out whether they do see.'
As result he was rewarded by surprising
upset to theory Babies eyes can Seel
The discovery was not made without over
coming obstacles, however.
1T is not possible to present the newborn
! with the customary visual acuity chart and
ask him to read off those meaningless letters
"E D B e." and other letters of the alpha
bet He would merely blow bubbles at you
and say, "Blah!"
Neither are his groupings for his mothers
breast any scientific evidence that he can see,
for in this he may be guided by other senses
touch, temperature, hearing or smell, for
example. And, indeed, he is clumsy in his
efforts to place lips against that fount of
nourishment that his blundering has been
considered as demonstrating his lack of vision.
When displeased, the newborn screws both
eyes tightly shut, apparently to leave more
room for the mouth to open and emit walls.
And when content, he lies like silent Buddha
as though defying any one to learn what Is
in the mind behind those eyes.
How would you go about testing the vision
of the newborn?
DR.. Beasley's solution Of the problem was
as simple as the famous method Columbus de-
Cos rrfo ItrOa aa| htya htT1ry
the end. 1t is test that you can easily try
for yourself
The psychologist made use Of little pocket
flashlight-the sort that looks like a fountain
pen and is available at almost any corner store
Over the end of this he carefully wrapped
three layers of tissue paper so that the tiny
light should not be too strong for the sensitive
eyes of the babe.
A ND then, when the baby was lying In
" the dark, Dr.. Beasley flashed on the light.
At first, there was disappointment The in
FAINT paid attention. Then the scientist
moved the light slowly back and forth, nearer
the infants eyes and then away again, until
finally, by watching the baby's eyes he could
detect fixation on the light
Next, keeping the light at the same distance
from the eyes of the infant. he slowly, gradu
ally moved it in an arc across the child's field
of vision. The baby's eyes followed!
When the light had moved past where the
childs eyes could follow it, the baby turned
his head!
There could no longer be doubt that the
young infant can see dim light in a dark
room. For when he turns his head to follow
a light, it must be because his eyes re-
spond to it.
The next thing to find out was whether the
newborn can see ordinary objects as well as
light. OF course, it might be that this turn
ovI he IuI1k &c c0rf0 0f
tropic action, not just the same as normal
vision.
DR.. Beasley's next test therefore followed the
same procedure as before except that it was
conducted in dim Illumination and in place
of the f1ashlight he now used just his fingers,
fluttering them before the eyes Of the baby.
Again the child not only followed the moving
fingers with his eyes, but actually turned his
head to watch them.
So it Is evident that he Is not only responsive
to light but can see objects An additional test
with little rod. dark blue in color and Just
little bigger around than the fountain pen
hashlight, brought the same results. The baby's
eyes followed the moving rod.
The tests have been repeated by DR.. Beasley
many times-altogether 829 tests were given to
100 different white babies, and more than a
thousand trials made with 142 dusky little
mites from the Negro nursery. All were under
IL days old and some had been in this world
but a scant two and a half hours.
Every single one passed the vision tests. Every
one could see.
Nevertheless, wide range Of individual dif-
ferences was found in the visual ability Of the
babies Race differences were observed, too
The experimental apparatus was carefully de-
signed for the baby's comfort. Scientists
experimenting with these little bits of humanity
always take the greatest care to protect them
against any possibility Of danger or discomfort.
This sort of test could be conducted only
when the baby was awake and content. II he
cried the experiment would have to be aban-
doned. II he dropped of to sleep, he was