Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/327

Rh circuit in the air, after the manner of its kind, and alighted, or attempted to alight, on a branchless stump of a beech; at last it was no more seen. No. 3 (which was seen on the wing for about half a minute) flew near the ground, first round the Wellingtonia, over to the other side of the kitchen-garden, past the bee-house, back to the lawn, round again, and into a beech-tree. No. 4 flew well near the ground, over a hedge twelve feet high to the kitchen-garden through an opening into the beeches, and was last seen close to the ground. The swallows never flew against any thing, nor was there, in their avoiding objects, any appreciable difference between them and the old birds. No. 3 swept round the Wellingtonia, and No. 4 rose over the hedge just as we see the old swallows doing every hour of the day. I have this summer verified these observations. Of two swallows I had similarly confined, one, on being set free, flew a yard or two too close to the ground, and rose in the direction of a beech-tree, which it gracefully avoided; it was seen for a considerable time sweeping-round the beeches and performing magnificent evolutions in the air high above them. The other, which was observed to beat the air with its wings more than usual, was soon lost to sight behind some trees. Titmice, tomtits, and wrens, I have made the subjects of a similar experiment and with similar results.

Again, every boy who has brought up nestlings with the hand must have observed that, while for a time they but hold up their heads and open their mouths to be fed, they by-and-by begin quite spontaneously to snap at the food. Here the development may be observed as it proceeds. In the case of the swallow I am inclined to think that they catch insects in the air perfectly well immediately on leaving the nest.

With regard, now, to man, is there any reason to suppose that, unlike all other creatures, his mental constitution has to be in the ease of each individual built up from the foundation out of the primitive elements of consciousness? Reason seems to me to be all the other way. The infant is helpless at birth for the same reason that the kitten or swallow is helpless—because of its physical immaturity; and I know of nothing to justify the contrary opinion, as held by some of our distinguished psychologists. Why believe that the sparrow can pick up crumbs by instinct, but that man must learn to interpret his visual sensations and to chew his food? Dr. Carpenter, in his "Mental Physiology," has attempted to answer this argument in the only way in which it could be answered. He has produced facts which appear to him to prove that "the acquirement of the power of visually guiding the muscular movements is experimental in the case of the human infant." More than forty years ago Dr. Carpenter took part in an operation performed on a boy three years old for congenital cataract. The operation was successful. In a few days both pupils were almost clear; but, though the boy "clearly recognized the