IN THE course of a systematic investigation of the behavior and reflexes of the newborn infant, I observed a reflex which to my knowledge has not been specifically described in the literature up to now. A total of 145 newborn infants were examined by us, of which 17 (8 boys and 9 girls) were studied within the first twelve hours after birth.
A total of 624 tests were applied to these 145 children. To insure the possibility of an exact check of the whole testing procedure, motion pictures were taken of the behavior of each of the 145 subjects before, during and after the tests for the purpose of ultimate screen analysis.1
Reports on our observations in the different sectors of the personality of the newborn infant have been published elsewhere.2
In the course of these observations, it was found that, while palmar stimulation of the hand elicits reflex