一个婴儿的传略
A Biographical Sketch of an Infant
Charles Darwin (1877)
First published in Mind, 2, 285-294.
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-ven years ago with respect to one of my own infants. I had excellent opportunities for clo obrvation, and wrote down at once whatever was obrved. My chief object was expression, and my notes were ud in my book on this subject; but as I attended to some other points, my obrvations may possibly posss some little interest in comparison with tho by M. Taine, and with others which hereafter no doubt will be made. I feel sure, from what I have en with my own infants, that the period of development of the veral facultie
s will be found to differ considerably in different infants.
During the first ven days various reflex actions, namely sneezing, hickuping, yawning, stretching, and of cour sucking and screaming, were well performed by my infant. On the venth 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 the reflex movements shows that the extreme imperfection of the voluntary ones is not due to the state of the muscles or of the coordinating centres, but to that of the at of the will. At this time, though so early, it emed clear to me that a warm soft hand [p. 286] applied to his face excited a wish to suck. This must be considered as a reflex or an instinctive action, for it is impossible to believe that experience and association with the touch of his mother's breast could so soon have come into play. During the first fortnight he often started on hearing any sudden sound, and blinked his eyes. The same fact was obrved with some of my other infants within the first fortnight. Once, when he was 66 days old, I happened to sneeze, and he started violently, frowned, looked frightened, and cried rather badly: for an hour afterwards he was in a state which
would be called nervous in an older person, for every slight noi made him start. A few days before this same date, he first started at an object suddenly en; but for a long time afterwards sounds made him start and wink his eyes much more frequently than did sight; thus when 114 days old, I shook a paste-board box with comfits in it near his face and he started, whilst the same box when empty or any other object shaken as near or much nearer to his face produced no effect. We may infer from the veral facts that the winking of the eyes, which manifestly rves to protect them, had not been acquired through experience. Although so nsitive to sound in a general way, he was not able even when 124 days old easily to recogni whence a sound proceeded, so as to direct his eyes to the source.
With respect to vision, - his eyes were fixed on a candle as early as the 9th day, and up to the 45th day nothing el emed thus to fix them; but on the 49th day his attention was attracted by a bright-coloured tasl, as was shown by his eyes becoming fixed and the movements of his arms ceasing. It was surprising how slowly he acquired the power of following with his eyes an object if swinging at all rapidly; for he could not do this well w
hen ven and a half months old. At the age of 32 days he perceived his mother's bosom when three or four inches from it, as was shown by the protrusion of his lips and his eyes becoming fixed; but I much doubt whether this had any connection with vision; he certainly had not touched the bosom. Whether he was guided through smell or the nsation of warmth or through association with the position in which he was held, I do not at all know.
The movements of his limbs and body were for a long time vague and purpoless, and usually performed in a jerking manner; but there was one exception to this rule, namely, that from a very early period, certainly long before he was 40 days old, he could move his hands to his own mouth. When 77 days old, he took the sucking bottle (with which he was partly fed) in his right hand, whether he was held on the left or right arm of his nur, and he would not take it in his left hand [p. 287] until a week later although I tried to make him do so; so that the right hand was a week in advance of the left. Yet this infant afterwards proved to be left-handed, the tendency being no doubt inherited - his grandfather, mother, and a brother having been or being left-handed. When between 80 a
nd 90 days old, he drew all sorts of objects into his mouth, and in two or three weeks' time could do this with some skill; but he often first touched his no with the object and then dragged it down into his mouth. After grasping my finger and drawing it down into his mouth, his own hand prevented him from sucking it; but on the 114th day, after acting in this manner, he slipped his own hand down so that he could get the end of my finger into his mouth. This action was repeated veral times, and evidently was not a chance but a rational one. The intentional movements of the hands and arms were thus much in advance of tho of the body and legs; though the purpoless movements of the latter were from a very early period usually alternate as in the act of walking. When four months old, he often looked intently at his own hands and other objects clo to him, and in doing so the eyes were turned much inwards, so that he often squinted frightfully. In a fortnight after this time (i.e. 132 days old) I obrved that if an object was brought as near to his face as his own hands were, he tried to ize it, but often failed; and he did not try to do so in regard to more distant objects. I think there can be little doubt that the convergence of his eyes gave him the clue and excited him to move his arms. Although t
his infant thus began to u his hands at an early period, he showed no special aptitude in this respect, for when he was 2 years and 4 months old, he held pencils, pens, and other objects far less neatly and efficiently than did his sister who was then only 14 months old, and who showed great inherent aptitude in handling anything.
Anger. - It was difficult to decide at how early an age anger was felt; on his eighth day he frowned and wrinkled the skin round his eyes before a crying fit, but this may have been due to pain or distress, and not to anger. When about ten weeks old, he was given some rather cold milk and he kept a slight frown on his forehead all the time that he was sucking, so that he looked like a grown-up person made cross from being compelled to do something which he did not like. When nearly four months old, and perhaps much earlier, there could be no doubt, from the manner in which the blood gushed into his whole face and scalp, that he easily got into a violent passion. A small cau sufficed; thus, when a little over ven months old, he screamed with rage becau a lemon slipped away and he could not ize it with his hands. When eleven months old, if [p. 288] a wrong plaything was given to him, he would push it away and beat it; I presume th
at the beating was an instinctive sign of anger, like the snapping of the jaws by a young crocodile just out of the egg, and not that he imagined he could hurt the plaything. When two years and three months old, he became a great adept at throwing books or sticks, &c., at anyone who offended him; and so it was with some of my other sons. On the other hand, I could never e a trace of such aptitude in my infant daughters; and this makes me think that a tendency to throw objects is inherited by boys.
