er are especially observed by the child, who avails himself of them
in divining the meaning of the words he hears. This divining, or
guessing, plays in fact a chief part in the learning of speech, as I
have several times remarked.

New comprehensive diaries concerning the actions of children in the
first years of life are urgently to be desired. They should contain
nothing but well-established _facts_, no hypotheses, and no repetitions
of the statements of others.

Among the very friendly notes that have been sent to me, the following
particularly conform to the above requirements. They were most kindly
placed at my disposal by the Baroness von Taube, of Esthonia, daughter
of the very widely and honorably known Count Keyserling. They relate to
her first-born child, and come all of them from the mother herself:

In the first five months I heard from my son, when he cried, all
the vowels. The sound _ae_ was the first and most frequent. Of
the consonants, on the other hand, I heard only _g_, which
appeared after seven weeks. When the child was fretful he often
cried _gege_; when in good humor he often repeated the syllables
_agu_, _agoe_, _aeou_, _ogoe_, _eia_; then _l_ came in, _uel_.

The same sounds in the case of my daughter; but from her I
heard, up to her tenth month, in spite of all my observation, no
other consonants than _g_, _b_, _w_, rarely _l_, and finally
_m_-sounds. With my son at the beginning of the seventh month an
R-sound appeared--_grr_, _grrr_, plainly associated with _d_ in
_dirr dirr_. These sounds were decidedly sounds of discomfort,
which expressed dissatisfaction, violent excitement, sleepiness;
and they are made even now by the boy at four years of age when,
e. g., he is in pain. In the ninth month _dada_ and _b_,
_bab-a_, _baeb-ae_ are added. _Agoe_ also is often said, and _oe_
still more often. This _oe_ is already a kind of conscious
attempt at speaking, for he uses it when he sees anything new,
e. g., the dog Caro, which he observes with eager attention, as
he does the cat, uttering aloud meanwhile _oe, oe_.

If any one is called, the child calls in a very loud voice, _Oe,
oe!_ First imitation. (Gestures have been imitated since the
eighth month, and the making of grimaces in the child's presence
had to be strictly forbidden.) Understanding for what is said is
also present, for when one cal