Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/154

134 the arms, to get the objects she wants, and to attract notice. If such is the case, then this word is a natural vocal gesture. This view is rendered more probable by the fact that she possesses other words, of which more anon, and which are evidently the products, not of imitation, but of invention.

(Fifteenth to seventeenth month). Great progress made; the child has learned to walk, and even to run. She is gaining new ideas every day, and understands a number of phrases, such as these: "Fetch the ball;" "Go and doudou to the lady" (i. e., fondle her and let her kiss you); "Come and stand between papa's legs;" "Go down there;" "Come here," etc. She is beginning to distinguish between the tone of anger and that of pleasure; she quits doing anything forbidden with severe countenance, or with voice expressive of disapproval; of her own accord she frequently shows a desire of being fondled. But she has learned or invented but few new words recently. Her chief new words are Pa (Paul), Babert (Gilbert), bébé (baby), bééé (nanny-goat), cola (chocolate), oua-oua (anything good to eat), ham (eating, I want to eat). There are a number of other words which she understands, but is unable to pronounce, such as grandfather, grandmother. Her vocal organs, not being sufficiently practised, do not as yet reproduce all the sounds she knows, and to which she attaches meanings.

Cola (chocolate) was one of the first dainties she ever tasted, and she prefers it to all others. She gets a lozenge daily during her visits to her grandmother; she knows the box in which the bonbons are kept, and keeps pointing toward it until it is opened.

Bébé.—We have spoken of the curious meaning she at first gave to this word; by degrees, under the influence of education, she has come nearer to its ordinary sense. Other infants have been shown to her, and called bébé; she herself has also been called by this name; now she answers to it. She has been shown the reflection of her own face in a mirror, and told to look at bébé, and now she goes herself to the glass, and, on seeing the image, laughs and calls "bébé!" Starting from this, she gives the name of bébé to miniatures, pictures, and statuettes. Here again education has produced a result that had not been anticipated: the general character perceived by the child is not the one that we could have desired her to perceive. We have taught her the sound, and she has invented the meaning.

Ham—(eating, I want to eat).—Here she originated both the sound and the sense. This sound she first uttered during her fourteenth month. For weeks I took it to be mere prattle, but at last I noticed that it was uttered always, without exception, when food was in sight. Now she never fails to say ham whenever she is hungry or thirsty. This again is a natural vocal gesture.

Oua-oua.—It was not till three weeks ago (end of the sixteenth month) that she employed this word in the sense of something good to eat. For a while we did not understand what it meant, for the