ularly when it is laughed at, although it remains wholly
void of meaning as language. Yet _bibi_, like _baebae_, for "bitte," is
correctly used by the child of his own accord.

A new word, and one that gives notice of a considerable advance, is
the term used by the child when hungry and thirsty, for "milk" or
"food." He says, viz., with indescribable longing in his voice,
_mimi_, more rarely than before _maemae_ and _moemoem_ (page 85). The
first appellation was certainly taken from the often-heard "milk" by
imitation, and applied to biscuit and other kinds of food. If the
child, when he has eaten enough, is asked, "Do you want milk?" he
says without direction, _neinein_; he has thus grasped and turned to
use already the signification of the sound. The same is, perhaps,
true also of "ja." For previously, when I asked the child as he was
eating, "Does it taste good?" he was silent, and I would say, "Say
jaja," and this would be correctly repeated. But in the ninety-first
week he, of his own accord, answers the question with _jaja_--"yes,
yes." This, too, may rest simply on imitation, without a knowledge
of the meaning of the _ja_, and without an understanding of the
question; yet there is progress in the recollection of the
connection of the sound "schmeckt's" with _jaja_, the intermediate
links being passed over.

In other cases, too, the strength of the memory for sounds is plainly
manifested. To all questions of an earlier period, "Where is the
forehead, nose, mouth, chin, beard, hair, cheek, eye, ear, shoulder?"
the child now at once pointed correctly in every instance, although he
might not have answered them for anybody even once for two weeks. Only
the question, "Where is the thumb?" made him hesitate. But when the
thumb had been again shown to him (firmly pressed), he knew it, and from
that time pointed it out invariably without delay. To the question,
"Where is the eye?" he is accustomed to shut both eyes quickly at the
same time and to open them again, and then to point to my eye; to the
question, "Axel's eye?" he responds by pointing to his own; to the
question, "The other eye?" by pointing to the one not touched.

In the understanding of what is spoken astonishing progress has been
made--e. g., if I say, "Go, take the hat and lay it on the chair!" the
child executes the order without considering more than one or two
seconds. He knows the meaning of a great number of words that no one has
taught him--e. g.,