contracted as much as possible, and grown-up people should be advised
to treat the whole expedition in a matter-of-fact sort of way that
does nothing to add to the excitement or increase the risk of
subsequent disillusion.




CHAPTER VIII

NERVOUSNESS IN EARLY INFANCY


We may now pass back to consider the nervous system of the child in
infancy. There, too, from the moment of birth there are clearly-marked
differences between individuals. The newborn baby has a personality of
his own, and mothers will note with astonishment and delight how
strongly marked variations in conduct and behaviour may be from the
first. One baby is pleased and contented, another is fidgety,
restless, and enterprising. At birth the baby wakes from his long
sleep to find his environment completely changed. Within the uterus he
lies in unconsciousness because no ordinary stimulus from the outer
world can reach him to exert its effect. He lies immersed in fluid,
which, obeying the laws of physics, exercises a pressure which is
uniformly distributed over all points of his body. No sound reaches
him, and no light. After birth all this is suddenly changed. The sense
of new points of pressure breaks in upon his consciousness. Cold air
strikes upon his skin. Loud sounds and bright lights evoke a
characteristic response. A placid child who inherits a relatively
obtuse nervous organisation will be but little upset by this sudden