When I wrote Life and Habit (originally published in 1877) I said in
slightly different words:--
"Shall we say that a baby of a day old sucks (which involves the
whole principle of the pump and hence a profound practical knowledge
of the laws of pneumatics and hydrostatics), digests, oxygenizes its
blood--millions of years before anyone had discovered oxygen--sees
and hears, operations that involve an unconscious knowledge of the
facts concerning optics and acoustics compared with which the
conscious discoveries of Newton are insignificant--shall we say that
a baby can do all these things at once, doing them so well and so
regularly without being even able to give them attention, and yet
without mistake, and shall we also say at the same time that it has
not learnt to do them, and never did them before?
"Such an assertion would contradict the whole experience of
mankind."
I have met with nothing during the thirteen years since the
foregoing was published that has given me any qualms about its
soundness.
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