The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.Preyer, William T.
Science
The Mind of the Child, Part II: The Development of the Intellect, International Education; Series Edited By William T. Harris, Volume IX.
Preyer, William T.
Child development; Child psychology
I once had the opportunity myself of seeing a hemicephalus, living, who
was brought to the clinic of my respected colleague, Prof. B. Schultze,
in Jena. The child was of the male sex, and was born on the 1st of July,
1883, at noon, along with a perfectly normal twin sister. The parents
are of sound condition. I saw the child for the first time on the 3d of
July, at two o'clock. I found all the parts of the body, except the
head, like those of ordinary children born at the right time. The head
had on it a great red lump like a tumor, and came to an end directly
over the eyes, going down abruptly behind; but, even if the tumor were
supposed to be covered with skin, there would by no means be the natural
arched formation of the cranium of a newly-born child. The face, too,
absolutely without forehead, was smaller in comparison than the rest of
the body. I found now, in the case of this child, already two days old,
a remarkably regular breathing, a very cool skin--in the forenoon a
specific warmth of 32 deg. C. had been found--and slight mobility. The eyes
remained closed. When I opened them, without violence, the pupil was
seen to be immobile. It did not react in the least upon the direct light
of the sun on either side. The left eye did not move at all, the right
made rare, convulsive, lateral movements. The conjunctiva was very much
reddened. The child did not react in the least to pricks of a dull
needle tried on all parts of the body, and reacted only very feebly to
pinches; not at all to sound-stimuli, but regularly to stronger,
prolonged cutaneous stimuli; in particular, the child moved its arms
after a slap on the back, just like normal new-born children, and
uttered very harsh, feeble tones when its back was rubbed. When I put my
finger in its mouth vigorous sucking movements began, which induced me
to offer the bottle--this had not yet been done. Some cubic centimetres
of milk were vigorously swallowed, and soon afterward the breast of a
nurse was taken. While this was going on I could feel quite distinctly
with my finger, under the chin, the movements of swallowing. It was easy
to establish the further fact that my finger, which I laid in the hollow
of the child's hand, was frequently clasped firmly by the little
fingers, which had well-developed nails. Not unfrequently, sometimes
without previous contact, sometimes after it, the tip of the tongue, and
even a larger part of the tongue, was thrust out between the lips, and
once, when I held the child erect, he plainly gave a prolonged yawn.
Finally, the fact seemed to me very noteworthy that, after being taken
and held erect, sometimes also without any assignable outward occasion,
the child inclined its head forward and turned it vigorously both to the
right and to the left. When the child had sucked lustily a few times, it
opened both eyes about two millimetres wide, and went on with its
nursing. An assistant physician saw the child sneeze.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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