velopment of the natural functions have passed
through their course of development when life has once been
established.

For the interesting and very complex phenomena relating to the
development of writing and then of reading, see my larger works.

THE READING OF MUSIC

[Illustration: FIG. 32.--THE MUSICAL STAFF.[A]]

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[A] The single staff is used in the Conservatoire of Milan and
utilized in the Perlasca method.

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When the child knows how to read, he can make a first application of
this knowledge to the reading of the names of musical notes.

In connection with the material for sensory education, consisting of
the series of bells, we use a didactic material, which serves as an
introduction to musical reading. For this purpose we have, in the
first place, a wooden board, not very long, and painted pale green. On
this board the staff is cut out in black, and in every line and space
are cut round holes, inside each of which is written the name of the
note in its reference to the treble clef.

There is also a series of little white discs which can be fitted into
the holes. On one side of each disc is written the name of the note
(doh, re, mi, fah, soh, lah, ti, doh).

The child, guided by the name written on the discs, puts them, with
the name uppermost, in their right places on the board and then reads
the names of the notes. This exercise he can do by himself, and he
learns the position of each note on the staff. Another exercise which
the child can do at the same time is to place the disc bearing the
name of the note on the rectangular base of the corresponding bell,
whose sound he has already learned to recognize by ear in the
sensorial exercise described above.

[Illustration: FIG. 39.--DUMB KEYBOARD.]

Following this exercise there is another staff made on a board of
green wood, which is longer than the other and has neither indentures
nor signs. A considerable number of discs, on one side of which are
written the names of the notes, is at the disposal of the child. He
takes up a disc at random, reads its name and places it on the staff,
with the name underneath, so that the white face of the disc shows on
the top. By the repetition of this exercise the child is enabled to
arrange many discs on the same line or in the same space. When he has
finished, he turns them all over so that the names are outside, and so
finds out if he has made mistakes. After learning the treble c