I hardly think that this view will meet with general acceptance. The
wind instrument, whose importance to primitive peoples Bücher somewhat
underestimates, did indeed serve the purposes of rhythm principally,
but it would be difficult to trace its derivation from any manual
tool. Nor does it follow that rattles and flappers came from the use
of hammers; while the drum, whose prototype he finds in the grain
mortar, is in use by tribes who have no mortars. I conclude, therefore,
that musical instruments can, with more probability, be accounted for
as the result of instinctive sound-play and the experimentation with
noise-producing implements, which accompanies it.
6. _Sensations of Sight_
Turning his face toward the light is about the only manifestation of
sight sensation displayed by the infant during his first few days.
Many young animals find themselves very much at home in the outer
world as soon as they are born, but such is not the case with a child.
He must attain to a clear perception of external objects by toilsome
experimentation, which commonly requires about five months for its
completion, though the fifth week as well as the fifth month marks
an epoch in the practice of sight. “The average time is about the
fifth week,” says Raehlmann, “when the capacity to ‘fix’ an object is
attained—that is, to take cognizance of the retinal picture of what
comes within the line of his vision, as it is thrown on the macula
lutea. About this time, too, the eye movements, which till then are not
definitely co-ordinated, become regulated, while associated movements,
such as elevating and depressing the line of vision (the latter
somewhat later than the former), also appear.... But movements for the
purpose of directly subjecting to fixation objects which lie in the
periphery of the field of vision are entirely wanting at this period.
The second epoch, that at five months, is marked by the development
of orientation in the field of vision. At this time begin actual
glancing movements, which shift the line of vision and bring peripheral
retinal images on to the macula lutea. Contemporaneously with this, a
definite system of innervations is established, especially for those
muscles which are employed in shifting the line of vision. Secondly,
the winking reflex is perfected by the approach of objects from the
periphery of the field of vision. Thirdly, at this time the first
experiments in touch controlled by sight are instituted, and serve
to bring tactile perceptions into relation with those of sight. The
interval between birth and the fifth week, as well as that from this
time to the fifth month, is employed in the acquirement of such sense
perceptions as react collectively on the organ and commit it to special
uses and control. So, on the authority of repeated experience, whatever
is unsuitable is gradually excluded, and only those eye movements
are retained which further the proper convergence of the two retinal
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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