The average baby does not begin to grasp objects with intention before
the fourth month. The first grasping seems to be done by feeling,
without the aid of the eye, and is done with the fingers with no
attempt to oppose the thumb to them. So closely does the use of the
thumbs set opposite the fingers in grasping coincide with the first
grasping with the aid of sight, that some observers have been led to
believe that as soon as the baby learns to use its thumb in this way
he proves that he is beginning to grasp with intention.

[Sidenote: Order of Development]

The order of development seems to be, _first_, automatism, the muscles
contracting of themselves in response to nervous stimuli; _second_,
instinct, the inherited wisdom of the race, which discovered ages ago
that the hand could be used to greater advantage when the thumb
was separated from the fingers; and _thirdly_, the child's own
intelligence and will making use of this natural and inherited
machinery. This order holds true of the development, not only of the
hand, but of the whole organism.

[Sidenote: Looking]

A little earlier than this, during the third month, the baby first
looks upon his own hands and notices them. Darwin tells us that his
boy looked at his own hands and seemed to study them until his eyes
crossed. About the same then the child notices his foot and uses his
hand to carry it to its mouth. It is some time later that he discovers
that he can move his feet without his hands.

[Sidenote: Tearing]