DEVELOPMENT OF NERVE FIBERS.--The nerve _fibers_, no less than the
cells, must go through a process of development. It has already been
shown that the fibers are the result of a branching of cells. At birth
many of the cells have not yet thrown out branches, and hence the fibers
are lacking; while many of those which are already grown out are not
sufficiently developed to transmit impulses accurately. Thus it has been
found that most children at birth are able to support the weight of the
body for several seconds by clasping the fingers around a small rod, but
it takes about a year for the child to become able to stand. It is
evident that it requires more actual strength to cling to a rod than to
stand; hence the conclusion is that the difference is in the earlier
development of the nerve centers which have to do with clasping than of
those concerned in standing. Likewise the child"s first attempts to feed
himself or do any one of the thousand little things about which he is so
awkward, are partial failures not so much because he has not had
practice as because his nervous machinery connected with those movements
is not yet developed sufficiently to enable him to be accurate. His
brain is in a condition which Flechsig calls 'unripe.' How, then, shall
the undeveloped cells and system ripen? How shall the undeveloped cells
and fibers grow to full maturity and efficiency?
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