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CHAPTER 6
EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
IN INFANCY AND TODDLERHOOD
CHAPTER-AT-A-GLANCE
Erik Erikson believed that the psychological conflict of the first year is basic trust versus mistrust, which is resolved on the
positive side when the balance of care is sympathetic and loving. The conflict of toddlerhood, autonomy versus shame and
doubt, is resolved favorably when parents provide suitable guidance and reasonable choices.
Emotions play powerful roles in social relationships, exploration of the environment, and discovery of the self. Basic
emotions—happiness, interest, surprise, fear, anger, sadness, and disgust—are universal in humans and other primates and have
a long evolutionary history of promoting survival.
Infants’ emotional expressions begin as global arousal states of attraction and withdrawal, which gradually become clear,
well-organized signals. Beginning at 8 to 10 months, infants engage in social referencing. During toddlerhood, self-awareness
and adult instruction provide the foundation for self-conscious emotions—guilt, shame, embarrassment, envy, and pride. The
capacity for effortful control improves rapidly as a result of development of the prefrontal cortex and support from caregivers.
Infants vary widely in temperament, including both reactivity and self-regulation. Research on temperament examines its
stability, biological roots, and interaction with child-rearing experiences. According to the goodness-of-fit model, parenting
practices that fit well with the child’s temperament help children achieve more adaptive functioning.
John Bowlby’s ethological theory of attachment recognizes the baby’s emotional tie to the caregiver as an evolved
response that promotes survival. By the end of the second year, children have formed an enduring affectionate tie to the
caregiver that serves as an internal working model, guiding future close relationships. Factors that affect attachment security
include early availability of a consistent caregiver, quality of caregiving, the fit between the baby’s temperament and parenting
practices, family circumstances, and parents’ internal working models. Mounting evidence indicates that continuity of
caregiving determines whether attachment security early in life is linked to later development.
Around age 2, self-recognition is well under way. Self-awareness is associated with the beginnings of empathy, the ability
to feel with another person. Self-awareness also contributes to effortful control, evident in toddlers’ strengthening capacity to
inhibit impulses, manage negative emotion, and behave in socially acceptable ways.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following:
6.1 What personality changes take place during Erikson’s stages of basic trust versus mistrust and autonomy versus shame
and doubt? (p. 184)
6.2 Describe the development of basic emotions over the first year, noting the adaptive function of each. (pp. 185–186)
6.3 Summarize changes during the first two years in understanding others’ emotions, expression of self-conscious emotions,
and emotional self-regulation. (pp. 188–190)
6.4 What is temperament, and how is it measured? (pp. 190–193)
6.5 Discuss the roles of heredity and environment in the stability of temperament, including the goodness-of-fit model.
(pp. 193–195)
6.6 Describe the development of attachment during the first two years. (pp. 196–197)
6.7 How do researchers measure attachment security, what factors affect it, and what are its implications for later
development? (pp. 197–203)
6.8 Describe infants’ capacity for multiple attachments. (pp. 203–205)
6.9 Describe the development of self-awareness in infancy and toddlerhood, along with the emotional and social capacities it
supports. (pp. 206–209)
LECTURE OUTLINE
• Beginning at 8 to 10 months, babies engage in social referencing, using others’ emotional messages to evaluate the
safety and security of their surroundings, to guide their own actions, and to gather information about others’ intentions
and preferences.
• Self-conscious emotions—guilt, shame, embarrassment, envy, and pride—appear in the middle of the second year, as
18- to 24-month-olds become firmly aware of the self as a separate, unique individual.
• Emotional self-regulation—the strategies we use to adjust our emotional state to a comfortable level of intensity so
we can accomplish our goals—requires voluntary, effortful management of emotions.
• The capacity for effortful control improves gradually as more effective functioning of the prefrontal cortex increases
the baby’s tolerance for stimulation and as caregivers provide lessons in socially approved ways of expressing
feelings.
• Toward the end of the second year, toddlers rapidly develop a vocabulary for talking about feelings, but they are not
yet good at using language to manage their emotions.
III. TEMPERAMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (pp. 190–195)
• Temperament refers to early-appearing, stable individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation.
• In 1956, Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess developed a model of temperament that yielded three types of children:
the easy child, the difficult child, and the slow-to-warm-up child.
• Mary Rothbart’s influential model of temperament combines related traits to yield a list of just six dimensions,
identifying differences in reactivity and also in effortful control, which predicts favorable development and
adjustment in diverse cultures.
• Temperament is often assessed through parent interviews and questionnaires, behavior ratings by pediatricians or
teachers, and laboratory observations by researchers.
• Neurobiological measures can be used to help identify biological bases of temperament, especially for children who
fall at opposite extremes: inhibited, or shy, children, and uninhibited, or sociable, children.
• Because the overall stability of temperament is low in infancy and toddlerhood, long-term prediction from early
temperament is best achieved after age 3.
• About half of individual differences in temperament and personality have been attributed to differences in genetic
makeup, but environment is also powerful, especially in children exposed to severe malnutrition or emotional
deprivation.
• Ethnic and gender variations in infant temperament may have genetic roots, but they are supported by cultural beliefs
and practices, yielding gene–environment correlations.
• Researchers are using molecular genetic analyses to investigate gene–environment interactions—temperamental
differences in children’s susceptibility (or responsiveness) to environmental influences.
• Parents’ tendency to emphasize each child’s unique qualities affects their parenting practices, and siblings’ distinct
experiences with teachers, peers, and others also affect personality development.
• The goodness-of-fit model describes how an effective match between child-rearing practices and a child’s
temperament can produce favorable outcomes.
IV. DEVELOPMENT OF ATTACHMENT (pp. 196–206)
• Attachment is the strong affectionate tie we have with special people in our lives that leads us to feel pleasure when
we interact with them and to be comforted by their nearness in times of stress.
• Although the parent–infant bond is vitally important, later development is also influenced by the continuing quality of
the parent–child relationship.
• In John Bowlby’s ethological theory of attachment, attachment develops in four phases: (1) preattachment phase
(birth to 6 weeks), (2) “attachment-in-the-making” phase (6 weeks to 6–8 months), (3) “clear-cut” attachment phase
(6–8 months to 18 months–2 years), and (4) formation of a reciprocal relationship (18 months to 2 years and on).
• In the clear-cut attachment phase, attachment to the familiar caregiver is evident, and babies display separation
anxiety when the trusted caregiver leaves.
• Out of their early experiences, children develop an internal working model that guides all future close relationships.
• Using the Strange Situation, a laboratory procedure for assessing the quality of attachment between 1 and 2 years of
age, researchers have identified a secure attachment pattern and three patterns of insecurity: insecure–avoidant
attachment, insecure–resistant attachment, and disorganized/disoriented attachment.
• The Attachment Q-Sort uses home observation to measure attachment in children between ages 1 and 5.
• Quality of attachment is usually secure and stable for middle-SES babies experiencing favorable life conditions.
• Despite cultural variations in attachment patterns, the secure pattern is still the most common in all societies studied.
• Factors that affect attachment security include early availability of a consistent caregiver and quality of caregiving.
• Sensitive caregiving is moderately related to attachment security; highly inadequate caregiving is a powerful predictor
of disruptions in attachment.
• In Western societies, interactional synchrony separates the experiences of secure from insecure babies. However,
studies of non-Western communities and Asian cultures suggest that security depends on attentive caregiving, not
necessarily contingent interaction.
• Babies with genotypes associated with emotional reactivity are more susceptible than others to the effects of both
negative and positive parenting.
• Family stressors and parents’ internal working models also play a role in attachment security.
• Bowlby’s theory allows for multiple attachments, including attachment to fathers and to siblings.
• Mounting evidence exists that continuity of caregiving is the factor that determines whether attachment security is
linked to later development.
V. SELF-DEVELOPMENT (pp. 206–209)
• Newborns’ capacity for intermodal perception supports the beginnings of self-awareness, as babies experience
intermodal matches that differentiate their own body from surrounding bodies and objects.
• Over the first few months, infants distinguish their own visual image from other stimuli, but their self-awareness is
limited.
• Implicit self-awareness serves as the foundation for development of explicit self-awareness—understanding that the
self is a unique object.
• During the second year, toddlers become consciously aware of the self’s physical features. Around age 2, self-
recognition is well under way, although toddlers still make scale errors.
• Cultural variations in early self-development may reflect a society’s emphasis on autonomous versus relational child-
rearing goals.
• As self-awareness becomes a central part of children’s emotional and social lives, older toddlers who have
experienced sensitive caregiving express the first signs of empathy.
• Between 18 and 30 months, children develop a categorical self, based on age, sex, physical characteristics, and
goodness versus badness, which they use to organize their own behavior.
• As effortful control—the ability to inhibit impulses, manage negative emotion, and behave in socially acceptable
ways—emerges between 12 and 18 months, toddlers first become capable of compliance.
• To study self-control, researchers often give children tasks that require delay of gratification—a capacity that is
influenced by both temperament and quality of caregiving.
LECTURE ENHANCEMENTS
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
ASK YOURSELF . . .
CONNECT: Why do children of depressed parents have difficulty regulating emotion (see page 187)? What
implications do their weak self-regulatory skills have for their response to cognitive and social challenges? (pp. 187, 189)
Depressed parents rarely smile at, comfort, or talk to their babies, who respond to the parent’s sad, vacant gaze by turning
away, crying, and often looking sad or angry themselves. Depressed parents also view their infants negatively, which
contributes to their inept caregiving. As their children get older, these parents’ lack of warmth and involvement is often
accompanied by inconsistent discipline—sometimes lax, at other times too forceful.
In the early months, infants have only a limited capacity to regulate their emotional states. When their feelings get too
intense, they are easily overwhelmed and depend on the soothing interventions of caregivers for distraction and reorienting of
attention. But when parents are depressed, they are less likely to provide these interventions. Children who experience these
maladaptive parenting practices often have serious adjustment problems. To avoid their parents’ insensitivity, some withdraw
into a depressed mood themselves; others become impulsive and aggressive. Over time, children subjected to parental
negativity develop a pessimistic world view—one in which they lack self-confidence and perceive their parents and other
people as threatening. Children who constantly feel in danger are likely to become overly aroused in stressful situations, easily
losing control in the face of cognitive and social challenges.
APPLY: At age 14 months, Reggie built a block tower and gleefully knocked it down. At age 2, he called to his mother
and pointed proudly at his tall block tower. What explains this change in Reggie’s emotional behavior? (pp. 188–189)
As 18- to 24-month-olds become firmly aware of the self as a separate, unique individual, self-conscious emotions appear.
These emotions, which involve injury to or enhancement of our sense of self, include guilt, shame, embarrassment, envy, and
pride. At 14 months, Reggie had not yet developed a clear sense of himself as a separate person, so he simply enjoyed the
experience of building the block tower and then knocking it down. But by the time he was 2, he experienced pride in his
achievement at stacking the blocks into a tower, and wanted to share his accomplishment with his mother.
Besides self-awareness, self-conscious emotions require an additional ingredient: adult instruction in when to feel proud,
ashamed, or guilty. The situations in which adults encourage these feelings vary from culture to culture. In Western nations,
most children are taught to feel pride in personal achievement, as Reggie is expressing.
REFLECT: Describe several recent instances illustrating how you typically manage negative emotion. How might your
early experiences, gender, and cultural background have influenced your style of emotional self-regulation?
(pp. 189–190)
This is an open-ended question with no right or wrong answer.
CONNECT: Explain how findings on ethnic and gender differences in temperament illustrate gene–environment
correlation, discussed on pages 68–69 in Chapter 2. (pp. 193–194)
According to the concept of gene–environment correlation, our genes influence the environments to which we are exposed.
This helps to explain ethnic and gender differences in temperament, because children of different sexes and different ethnic
groups will be exposed to different experiences. For instance, Japanese mothers tend to view their infants as independent beings
who must learn to rely on their parents through close physical contact. European-American mothers, in contrast, typically
believe that they must wean the baby away from dependency toward autonomy. Consistent with these beliefs, Asian mothers
interact gently, soothingly, and gesturally with their babies, whereas European-American mothers use a more active,
stimulating, verbal approach. Also, Chinese and Japanese adults discourage babies from expressing strong emotion, which
contributes further to their infants’ tranquility. These differences in parenting practices help explain why Chinese and Japanese
babies tend to be less active, irritable, and vocal; more easily soothed when upset; and better at quieting themselves.
Similarly, gender differences in temperament are evident as early as infancy, suggesting a genetic foundation. Boys tend to
be more active and daring, less fearful, more irritable when frustrated, more likely to express high-intensity pleasure in play,
and more impulsive than girls. And girls’ large advantage in effortful control undoubtedly contributes to their greater
compliance and cooperativeness, better school performance, and lower incidence of behavior problems. At the same time,
parents more often encourage their young sons to be physically active and their daughters to seek help and physical closeness—
through the activities they encourage and through more positive reactions when their child exhibits temperamental traits
consistent with gender stereotypes.
APPLY: Mandy and Jeff are parents of 2-year-old inhibited Sam and 3-year-old difficult Maria. Explain the
importance of effortful control to Mandy and Jeff, and suggest ways they can strengthen it in each of their children.
(pp. 191, 192, 195)
The self-regulatory dimension of temperament, effortful control, is the capacity to voluntarily suppress a dominant
response in order to plan and execute a more adaptive response. The capacity for effortful control in early childhood predicts
favorable development and adjustment in diverse cultures. Mandy and Jeff should be aware that if a child’s disposition
interferes with learning or getting along with others, adults must gently but consistently counteract the child’s maladaptive
style. The concept of goodness of fit describes how Mandy and Jeff can create a child-rearing environment that recognizes each
child’s distinct temperament while simultaneously encouraging more adaptive functioning. Mandy and Jeff can help Sam
develop strategies for regulating fear by offering warm, supportive parenting while also making appropriate demands for him to
approach new experiences. With Maria, they should remain positive and sensitive and should be careful not to resort to angry,
punitive discipline, which will undermine the development of effortful control.
REFLECT: How would you describe your temperament as a young child? Do you think your temperament has
remained stable, or has it changed? What factors might be involved? (pp. 190–195)
This is an open-ended question with no right or wrong answer.
CONNECT: Review research on emotional self-regulation on page 189. How do the caregiving experiences of securely
attached infants promote emotional self-regulation? (pp. 199–200)
Sensitive caregiving—responding promptly, consistently, and appropriately to infants and holding them tenderly and
carefully—is moderately related to attachment security and also helps infants regulate emotion. In Western cultures, a special
form of communication called interactional synchrony, in which infant and adult match emotional states, especially positive
ones, characterizes the experiences of securely attached babies. Sensitive face-to-face play, in which interactional synchrony
occurs, increases babies’ responsiveness to others’ emotional messages and also helps them regulate emotion. Infants whose
parents “read” and respond contingently and sympathetically to their emotional cues tend to be less fussy, to express more
pleasurable emotion, to be more interested in exploration, and to be easier to soothe.
APPLY: What attachment pattern did Timmy display when Vanessa arrived home from work, and what factors
probably contributed to it? (pp. 198, 201–203)
When Vanessa came to pick him up from child care, Timmy ignored her—behavior typical of an insecure–avoidant
attachment. After going through a divorce, Vanessa was anxious and distracted. Because she needed to work long hours to
make ends meet, she placed 2-month-old Timmy in child care and often had a babysitter pick him up at the end of the day, give
him dinner, and put him to bed. Timmy’s response to Vanessa reflects a repeated finding—that serious stressors such as job
loss, a failing marriage, financial difficulties, or parental psychological problems (such as anxiety or depression) can undermine
attachment. These stressors can affect babies’ sense of security directly, by exposing children to angry adult interactions or
disrupting familiar daily routines. Or, as in the case of Vanessa and Timmy, they may undermine attachment security indirectly
by interfering with parental sensitivity.
REFLECT: How would you characterize your internal working model? What factors, in addition to your relationship
with your parents, might have influenced it? (pp. 197, 202–203)
This is an open-ended question with no right or wrong answer.
CONNECT: What type of early parenting fosters the development of emotional self-regulation, secure attachment, and
self-control? Why, in each instance, is it effective? (pp. 189–190, 200–201, 209)
Between 2 and 4 months, caregivers can build on the baby’s increasing tolerance for stimulation by initiating face-to-face
play and attention to objects, arousing pleasure in the baby while adjusting the pace of their behavior so the infant does not
become overwhelmed and distressed. As a result, the baby’s tolerance for stimulation increases further.
From 3 months on, the ability to shift attention away from unpleasant events or engage in self-soothing helps infants
control emotion. Infants whose parents “read” and respond contingently and sympathetically to their emotional cues tend to be
less fussy and fearful, to express more pleasurable emotion, to be more interested in exploration, and to be easier to soothe.
Similarly, sensitive caregiving is moderately related to attachment security in diverse cultures and SES groups. Mothers of
securely attached babies tend to exhibit maternal mind-mindedness, frequently referring to their infants’ mental states and
motives. This tendency to treat the baby as a person with inner thoughts and feelings seems to promote sensitive caregiving.
In studies of Western babies, a special form of communication called interactional synchrony, in which the caregiver
responds to infant signals in a well-timed, rhythmic, appropriate fashion and both partners match emotional states, separates the
experiences of secure from insecure babies. Interactional synchrony occurs during sensitive face-to-face play, which increases
babies’ responsiveness to others’ emotional messages and also helps infants regular emotion.
Between 12 and 18 months, as the capacities necessary for self-control begins to emerge, toddlers first become capable of
compliance. They show clear awareness of caregivers’ wishes and expectations and can obey simple requests and commands.
They can also decide to do just the opposite, but for most, assertiveness and opposition occur alongside compliance with an
eager, willing spirit, suggesting that the child is beginning to adopt the adult’s directives as his own.
APPLY: Len, a caregiver of 1- and 2-year-olds, wonders whether toddlers recognize themselves. List signs of
self-recognition in the second year that Len can observe. (p. 207)
1. Toddlers older than 18 to 20 months, when placed in front of a mirror, respond to unique features of their mirror
image. For example, if red dye is rubbed on the child’s nose or forehead, toddlers will touch or rub their own nose or
forehead, indicating awareness of their unique appearance.
2. Around age 2, children show self-recognition when they point to themselves in photos and refer to themselves by
name or with a personal pronoun (“I” or “me”).
3. Around age 2½, most children reach for a sticker surreptitiously placed on top of their heads when shown themselves
in a live video.
4. Around age 3, most children recognize their own shadow.
REFLECT: In view of research on toddlers’ compliance, active resistance, and budding capacity to delay gratification,
do you think that the expression “the terrible twos”—commonly used to characterize toddler behavior—is an apt
description? Explain. (pp. 208–209)
This is an open-ended question with no right or wrong answer.
MEDIA MATERIALS
For details on individual video segments that accompany the DVD for Development Through the Lifespan, Seventh Edition,
please see the DVD Guide for Explorations in Lifespan Development. The DVD and DVD Guide are available through your
Pearson sales representative.
Additional DVDs and streaming videos that may be useful in your class are listed below. They are not available through
your Pearson sales representative, but you can order them directly from the distributors. (See contact information at the end of
this manual.)
Attachment Relationships: Nurturing Healthy Bonds (2010, Insight Media, 28 min.). The development of attachment from birth
to toddlerhood.
Attachment Theory (2013, Films Media Group, 27 min.). Current and historical models of attachment, including the work of
Bowlby and others. A viewable/printable worksheet is available online.
Fathering: What It Means to Be a Dad (2009, Films Media Group, 21 min.). Fathering expert Steve Onell and young fathers
discuss the importance of a father in a child’s life.
Flesh and Blood: Sibling Rivalry (2006, Films Media Group/BBC–Open University, 60 min.).The significance of sibling
rivalry and bonding. Part of the series Child of Our Time.
History of Parenting Practices: Child Development Theories (2006, Films Media Group, 19 min.). The events, policies, and
theories that shaped child rearing in the twentieth century. Online resources are available.
Infants: Social & Emotional Development (2010, Learning Seed, 26 min.). The range of emotions that infants express in the
first year of life, the stages of emotional development, and how children form attachments.
John Bowlby: Attachment Theory Across Generations (2007, Insight Media, 35 min.). The impact of attachment relationships
on adult behavior, including the findings of recent neuroscientific research.
Mary Ainsworth: Attachment and the Growth of Love (2005, Davidson Films, 38 min.). Mary Ainsworth’s research on human
attachment, including footage of the Strange Situation. Narrated by Robert Marvin, PhD.
Toddlers: Social and Emotional Development (2009, Insight Media, 26 min.). Emotional expression among toddlers, including
the roles of gender and temperament.
Much has been said and written about the condition of the pupils in
concussion of the brain. I have made this matter a subject of
observation, and am convinced that the state of the pupils is of no
diagnostic value whatever as to determining the existence of
concussion or compression. Their state is of great value in telling us
that the functions of certain brain-centres are partially or wholly
impaired. The progress of the case will tell us whether the
impairment is due to clot or effusion, congestion or jar.
One case I can call to mind where the opinion of the attending
physician was only changed by the ultimate favorable result, which
left no sign of permanent injury of any kind. These cases are
particularly apt to occur with children.
I remember also another source of deception. A boy was severely
injured by a blow upon the forehead. Concussion was marked. There
was a lacerated wound reaching to the edge of the orbit; fractured
bone could be felt, and at first sight what appeared to be brain-
matter was oozing from the wound. A hasty unfavorable prognosis
was given to the parents. On closer examination it was found that
the fracture was of the external wall of the frontal sinus, and the
supposed brain-matter was the delicate fat-lobules of the orbit. The
patient recovered rapidly.
The convulsions of the epileptic, the foaming mouth, and the quick
return to partial or complete consciousness will generally serve to
distinguish the case from one of concussion, but at times there are
those who require also to be kept under observation for some hours,
and even a day or more, in order to come to a correct conclusion.
The more serious cases equally require rest, but also something
more. To bring about reaction from shock, sinapisms to the
extremities, to the nape of the neck, and over the stomach should be
used. Hot-water bags should be placed along the sides of the body
and limbs. Alcoholic stimulants must be sparingly used, if at all: they
are rarely necessary. The stomach will often reject them unless in
minute doses. If too much is absorbed, unpleasant consequences to
the brain may follow. In extreme cases hypodermic injections of
brandy or ether may be administered. Ammonia, camphor, and other
diffusible stimulants may be useful, either externally or internally.
The result only in these severe cases will determine whether the
symptoms were due to great congestion or to extravasation, possibly
with brain lesion. Complete recovery takes place in the first
condition. In the latter a fatal termination is much more probable, and
if there is recovery it is apt to be only partial, and the patient may be
the victim of nervous troubles more or less pronounced throughout a
long life.
Concussion of the Spine.
Thus we see that the cord is much more securely protected from the
effects of external violence than the brain, and we can understand
that there is reason for the doubt of the sceptics as to the frequency
of the injury described as concussion of the spine.
I italicise the last sentence. In 1881 a boy came under my care who
was shot in the back three inches to the right of the third or fourth
dorsal vertebra. He at once had characteristic symptoms in the legs
of being wounded in the spine in such a way as to affect the cord
somehow. There was partial paraplegia, with pains in both limbs.
Under rest these symptoms soon disappeared. In a few days I made
a deep incision and removed some clothing and fragments of bone,
and then from the depths of the spinal gutter I took a large conical
ball which was resting against the bony bridge of a vertebra. The boy
recovered rapidly. I saw him some months afterward perfectly well.
I cannot now, after thirty years of hospital and private practice, call to
mind a single case of concussion of the spine arising from other
accidents than on railways which has had the terrible after-history
that is so often attributed to them; and I have seen in that time many
cases of spinal injuries of all kinds.
I will state in passing that this case did not confirm the views of
Johnson and others as to there not being any severe pain on
pressure in myelitis. It showed also that clinical observation is not
always in accord with plausible anatomical facts or reasoning.
Now, in this case the pain was simply atrocious and greatly
increased by pressure. To relieve both it and the disease the actual
cautery was applied on both sides of the spinous processes; and
some estimate may be made of the sufferings of the patient, who
would not take ether, when he exclaimed as the hot irons were
burning through his tissues, “Oh, that is better than the pain.”
To sum up, then, I think I have shown that concussion of the spinal
cord proper occurs. I also believe it may occur in a railway collision
just as it occurred in the man who fell twenty feet. Why should not a
traveller sitting in a peculiar position—with his feet, for example,
firmly against a partition or wall of the car—suffer it in a collision.
On the other hand, the great majority of those who after accidents
claim injury to the spinal cord as the cause of their disabilities are
wholly mistaken. The question is of great importance, for upon it
depends the testimony as to whether the patient has sustained
temporary or permanent injury.
The practitioner may very properly, and without laying himself open
to criticism of his diagnostic accuracy, return the cause of death in a
case of sudden death, or where his opportunity for observation has
been limited, or where no post-mortem examination has been held,
as being apoplexy; but in others, where the symptoms were decisive
or a post-mortem has disclosed the exact lesion, the condition of the
cranial contents should be stated. It is also a not uncommon mistake
—or rather piece of carelessness—to speak of small hemorrhages in
the brain as small apoplexies. A small extravasation may give rise to
slight symptoms or next to none, but a real apoplexy can hardly be
small, although it may be short.
The root from which the word apoplexy is derived seems to have
been used by the classic writers in something like its present clinical
signification (Απορληκτος, seized with (apoplexy or) stupor—
Aristophanes; mad—Demosthenes; Αποπλησσομαι, to be struck with
amazement—Sophocles). Morbus attonitus, another of its names,
expresses a somewhat similar idea.
Cerebral softening has been recognized since the early part of the
present century, and in some of the cases thirty years ago an
efficient cause, in the form of arterial disease, assigned to it; but the
complete theory of its causation forms a part of the general doctrine
of embolism and thrombosis which was so largely developed and
systematized by Virchow. Andral and Durand-Fardel had apparently
no idea of the exact mechanism of its origin, the latter supposing it to
depend upon inflammation, while Todd mentions a case where
softening giving rise to paralysis depended upon a dissecting
aneurism of the carotid. He seems to have generalized so far as to
say that white softening is atrophic, but the precise way in which this
localized atrophy was usually brought about evidently escaped him.
According to him, the suddenness of the attack was owing to a
gradual disorganization of the brain-substance with few or no
symptoms, and then a sudden rupture of diseased fibres by some
accidental cause or by their having reached the extreme limit of
cohesion.
Blood may be effused upon the surface of the brain in the so-called
cavity of the arachnoid—that is, outside of the pia mater—or in the
meshes of this membrane, following its course along the sulci. This
also is not infrequently the result of violence either with or without
fracture of the bone. Its source is likely to be found in the veins which
empty into the longitudinal sinus from the surface of the brain.
Rupture of a lateral sinus from a not very severe blow has been the
source of large and fatal hemorrhage.1 Blows upon the head, with or
without fracture of the cranial bones, are likely to cause rupture of
the cerebral substance with hemorrhage, and this may find its way to
the outside and cover more or less of the surface. Such injuries to
the brain, it is important to note, do not necessarily correspond
immediately to the place of the blow or to the external ecchymoses.
Meningeal hemorrhage in this region may, however, be observed
when no injury has been received, or at least when there is neither
history nor external traces of any.
1 Cincinnati Clinic, p. 135, 1874.
The conditions under which it occurs may not vary greatly from those
of the more ordinary intracerebral effusion. In two instances under
the observation of the writer the source of hemorrhage has been a
vessel of small, but not the smallest, calibre (artery), situated near
the fissure of Sylvius, in the lower parietal or temporo-occipital lobe.
In children meningeal hemorrhage is, with only a few exceptions, the
usual lesion of apoplexy. The blood is usually dark and coagulated in
recent cases. Blood found under the membranes where no fracture
has taken place is, however, more likely to have been derived from
the brain-substance and to form part of a cerebral hemorrhage.
The changes taking place in the clot itself within the first few days
are not very marked, but the walls of the cavity may become softer
and more deeply colored, at first red and afterward yellow. Blood-
crystals have been detected on the seventeenth day (Virchow). The
following descriptions have been given of clots of different ages:
Eleven days—reddish-yellow softening clot, with brain-tissue stained
for half an inch in depth, and brain rather hard in vicinity. Eighteen
days—cavity with its edges anteriorly and superiorly sharply defined,
with the edges posteriorly ragged and yellowish, filled with a