If the right person is not to be found, the idea of the sexual

enlightenment must be abandoned. However unsympathetic and even

dangerous the manner in which, as a rule, children mutually enlighten

one another about sexual matters, even more serious dangers may attach

to the enlightenment of a child by an adult unsuited for this difficult

task. Inept enlightenment may entail extremely serious consequences, and

more especially it is likely to bring about the particular evil results

that we are most eager to avoid, that is to say, it may direct the

attention of the child to its own sexual inclinations. We have also to

take into account the fact that there are persons who cannot discuss

sexual topics without themselves becoming sexually excited; and we

cannot afford to ignore the danger that among those who undertake

to effect the sexual enlightenment of children there may be persons who

will gladly seize every opportunity of speaking to the children upon

sexual matters, intoxicating themselves the while with their own sexual

imaginings. The grave danger of allowing an unsuitable person to

undertake the sexual enlightenment is obvious from the existence of

those persons who teach that homosexual inclinations occurring in

children indicate that they are permanently homosexual--a view which, as

has been shown, is utterly erroneous. But let us suppose that one who

holds such a doctrine is the person who has undertaken the sexual

enlightenment of a child, and we can hardly doubt what the result will

be, namely, to foster homosexuality. The greatest possible care must

therefore be exercised in the selection of the person who is to

undertake the sexual enlightenment.

Nor must we expect too much from the sexual enlightenment. Although to

adults the way in which one schoolboy instructs another about matters of

sex may appear to be extremely unpleasant, yet, as a matter of practical

experience, this method has not had the disastrous results that some

believe to attach to it. Unquestionably, the Germans and other civilised

races have done much very important work, not only in the intellectual

field, but also in that of ethics and in that of social life. Still we

have learned that disadvantages are entailed by the rough-and-ready

methods of sexual enlightenment hitherto commonly practised. Will these

ill-effects disappear with the realisation of the modern efforts for a

purposive and deliberate sexual enlightenment? Even though the modern

ideas on the subject are to be preferred, it must not be supposed that

their adoption will immediately result in the disappearance of all the

unfavourable aspects of the sexual life. We shall not thereby transform

children into little angels; and I doubt very much if the new methods of

enlightenment will have much effect in diminishing the frequency of

masturbation among children. I am led to this conviction by my

experience that at the time when the process of sexual ripening begins,

a child does not usually possess an adequate sense of the dangers of

such malpractices. I am certainly afraid that nothing we can do will

greatly lessen the prevalence of masturbation among children. I would

rather venture to hope for a diminution in the prevalence of venereal

diseases, as a result of the newer methods of sexual enlightenment; but

even here there will be many cases in which passion will gain the

victory over all possible prudential considerations. The same remarks

apply also to pregnancy, and to the other consequences of the sexual

life.

I am, moreover, sceptical _because the very persons to whom to-day we

have to look to effect the sexual enlightenment of children, are

themselves to a great extent also in need of enlightenment_; and in

respect of many of the questions about which the child has to be

enlightened, no general harmony of scientific opinion can as yet be said

to obtain. Take, for example, the question whether masturbation during

the period of sexual development is or is not a physiological act; or

the question whether sexual abstinence can do any harm to the health. It

is true that such differences in scientific opinion are not so extensive

as gravely to affect the question of the sexual enlightenment of the

child. In the matter of sexual abstinence, for example, the majority of

physicians are to-day agreed upon the view that such abstinence in

general does no harm; and that those, if any, whose health may be

unfavourably influenced by sexual abstinence, constitute at most a very

small minority. In my own view, the persons who may suffer from this

cause are those affected with hyperæsthesia of the sexual impulse, and

in whom the impulse is dominant to such a degree that it interferes with

all their alternative activities. But it is certainly only an extremely

small percentage of persons about whom, among medical men able to speak

authoritatively, that there is any difference of opinion.

A more serious matter is the extent to which erroneous views about

sexual questions still prevail among the populace. A father who starts

with the false assumption that his son must inevitably have intercourse

with so many prostitutes and must seduce so many girls--in a word, a

father who regards sexual abstinence as unmanly, or as necessarily

dangerous to health (and fathers who hold such opinions are no

rarity)--such a father must himself be sexually enlightened before we

give him the right to enlighten his son. Those also themselves greatly

need enlightenment who, for instance, advise a young bridegroom who has

always lived a chaste life to visit a prostitute before marriage, in

order to prove his sexual potency. As if potency in intercourse with an

experienced prostitute, skilled in all the tricks of her trade, were a

proof that the bridegroom will prove sexually potent in intercourse with

a chaste woman; or as if, on the other hand, the fact that a man proves

impotent when he attempts intercourse with a prostitute whose embraces

are repulsive to him, were in any sense whatever a proof that the same

man will fail to effect intercourse with the woman he loves. Thus, many

full-grown men are in need of enlightenment about this matter of sexual

potency, and especially need information regarding the extent of the

individual variations in this matter. We hear of young men who believe

themselves to be ill, simply because they are not sexually potent to a

degree that enables them to effect complete sexual intercourse several

times in brief succession. Their error often depends upon the fact that

they have been told by other young men that normal sexual potency

enables a man to have repeated intercourse at intervals of a few

minutes. As regards the informants, it may be that, having had such

exceptional potency on one or two occasions, they really believe it to

be a normal requisite of full manhood; more often, however, the mistake

originates from a young man taking at its face value the boasting of one

of his comrades who has lied freely about his own "virile potency." I

have known similar things happen in the case of women, among whom

boasting about the intensity of the voluptuous sensations experienced

during sexual intercourse is by no means uncommon. There are a great

many women in whom voluptuous sensations during intercourse are entirely

lacking, and in whom even sexual desire may be in abeyance. Sometimes

this is a matter of no great importance. But wives whose women-friends

have boasted to such an extent of the intensity of the voluptuous

sensations experienced in sexual intercourse, are apt to overestimate

the importance of the lack of such voluptuous pleasure in their own

experience of the sexual act; and it is therefore desirable that women

should know the true facts of the case. We have further to remember that

many of the disillusionments of marriage depend upon the fact that

before marriage girls have allowed their imaginations to run riot

concerning the intensity of enjoyment they will experience in sexual

intercourse; all the greater is their disillusionment if they are among

those who fail, after all, to experience sexual pleasure to the full.

In conclusion, I may refer to another instance of the way in which the

importance of the sexual enlightenment is apt to be over-estimated,

namely, as regards the effect of the enlightenment in furnishing

protection against the venereal diseases. It is by this very error

attaching to so much of what is said about the sexual enlightenment,

that attention is readily diverted from a far more important field.

Namely, in moral questions, a child is far more easily influenced by

good example, than by any amount of good instruction by word of mouth.

Example arouses a stimulus towards imitative action, whilst, in

countless cases, the listener has no inclination whatever to do what he

is merely told. This applies even to very little children, who adopt for

themselves the practices they observe in their elders to a far greater

extent than is commonly believed--although, as Bleuler[148] has shown,

in this imitativeness the conceptual life may play a comparatively small

part. If, therefore, from the first the principal stress is laid on

giving a good example, the subsequent sexual enlightenment would be

rendered far easier, and its success to a large extent assured. In a

pure household, it is not so necessary that a child should be fully

enlightened; or rather, the child's enlightenment will be extremely

easy. Conversely in the case of an impure household. Unless the greatest

care is taken that children shall never be exposed to the contagion of

bad example, how readily may it happen, that the child, after it has

received the sexual enlightenment, and has been cautioned against any

kind of obscene talk, is allowed to watch all sorts of improper acts and

to listen to obscenities! Such mischances may occur, not only, as

self-satisfied parents are apt to imagine, through the misconduct of

servants or strangers, but often the members of the child's own family

may be the persons at fault. Adults believe that a child hears nothing,

when in reality it is paying careful attention to that which is not

intended for childish ears, and to that which gives the lie to what the

child has just been told in the form of the sexual enlightenment. And

this may happen without the grown-up persons having made any indiscreet

connected speeches in the child's presence. Various slight indications,

gestures, a stolen laugh, &c., may be interpreted by the child after its

own fashion, which is often one directly conflicting with the sense of

the lesson previously given. How easily may it happen that a boy is

taught that the seduction of a girl is a wicked thing, or a girl is told

that she must never be so ignorant or so stupid as to become the victim

of a seducer, and yet a few minutes later the child may overhear the

instructor relating the heroic deeds of a cousin, who has seduced so and

so many girls of the lower orders!

Thus the importance of the sexual enlightenment must on no account be

over-estimated. Rather should the words of the old proverb always be

kept in mind: "As the old birds sing, so will the young birds chirp."

Those who guide their own conduct in accordance with this principle,

will find the sexual enlightenment of their children an easy matter; but

in other houses, the theoretical enlightenment may be effected as

carefully as you please, and yet it will do but little good. It is

evident that the earlier movement in favour of the sexual enlightenment,

to which I referred on page 8, failed because the expectations of its

advocates were pitched too high, and because the emotional life of the

child was ignored--an error rightly pointed out by Thalhofer. I have no

doubt that in a few decades the efforts of our own day on behalf of the

sexual enlightenment, in so far as they lay the principal stress upon

the theoretical enlightenment, and expect its enforcement to initiate

the golden age, will arouse similar feelings of amusement to those with

which we ourselves now contemplate the failures of the past.

The above is all I have to say about the psychical aids to the sexual

enlightenment of the child, I turn now to consider the hygienic

measures--those with a direct effect upon the body. Speaking generally,

these are identical with those which are recommended for the treatment

of masturbation.

When the child awakes in the morning, it should not be permitted to lie

in bed too long, above all, not in a hot feather-bed. To send children

to bed, or to keep them in bed all day, as a punishment, as a means of

depriving them of liberty, is, from this point of view, a practice which

must unreservedly be condemned. Very dangerous, from this outlook, is

also the rule common in boarding-schools and similar places, in

accordance with which the children are sent to bed at a fixed time, and

are not in any circumstances allowed to leave their beds before a fixed

time in the morning. Everything must be done strictly according to the

rules. Now although we may admit that no such institution can be carried

on without some discipline, yet it is necessary to point out that when

there is a rule in a boarding-school that no inmate shall get out of bed

before seven o'clock in the morning, children that are wide awake and

lively at an earlier hour are exceedingly likely to take to

masturbation. The dangers attendant upon prolonged lying in bed arises

from a combination of mental and physical influences. Among the physical

influences, the warmth of the bed is the most important; among the

mental influences, we have to consider the lack of occupation, and the

ease with which the genital organs are handled.

We have further to take steps to allay as far as possible all kinds of

local irritation of the genital organs. Among these may be mentioned:

phimosis and skin-eruptions of the genital region, which latter may lead

to scratching, and so give rise to masturbation, even apart from the

fact that the itching itself may favour the occurrence of voluptuous

sensations. In addition, we have to think of the clothing. I pointed out

before that breeches which pressed on the perineum sometimes led to the

practice of masturbation. Hence this article of dress, breeches,

knickerbockers, or trousers, should be made loose and comfortable. With

regard to the proposal to do away with breeches altogether in the case

of children, a recommendation which, as previously explained, has been

made by several authorities, I cannot think that we should gain much

thereby, for, to be effective, this measure would have to be continued

up to a comparatively advanced age, and would thus involve a complete

remodelling of our customary dress. It may be doubted however, if

attention to this point will do much to prevent premature sexual

stimulation; for the danger is not so great as has sometimes been

suggested. Still, a careful mother will take care that the tailor does

not cut her little boy's breeches so as to fit too closely: for though

this may please the parental eye, it is undoubtedly dangerous to the

child. I have previously referred to the dangers attendant upon climbing

the pole in the gymnasium; and here will merely add that a number of

teachers of gymnastics regard pole-climbing as an exercise of very great

value, whilst they believe that the danger of sexual stimulation in

climbing results from the use of too thin a pole, and does not occur in

climbing a thick pole, or in climbing a rope. It has been suggested, in

this connexion, that the rocking-horse should be eliminated from the

list of permissible toys. Objections have also been made, on the ground

of the possibility of improper sexual stimulation, against bicycling and

horseback-riding; but I think these objections are largely unfounded,

for, as far as bicycling is concerned, a well-shaped saddle cannot

improperly stimulate the genital organs; and just as little does such

stimulation occur in horseback exercise unless when the lower part of

the trunk is pressed forward against the front peak of the saddle, as in

halting, or in passing from a faster to a slower pace. Of course, for

horseback exercise, the breeches must be properly cut, as otherwise they

may exercise injurious pressure on the genital organs when the rider is

in the saddle. Intestinal stimulation may also give rise to reflex

excitation of the genital organs; for example, intestinal worms may

initiate such reflex disturbance. Mantegazza[149] lays especial stress

upon stimulation of the rectum, being of opinion that stimulation of

this region is very likely to lead to the development of pæderastic

inclinations. There are no grounds for such an assumption; but it is

quite true that stimulation of the anal or gluteal region will very

readily irradiate to the sphere of the genitals. For all these reasons,

constipation, and more especially the accumulation of large scybalous

masses in the rectum, are above all to be avoided.

In cases of obstinate inclination to masturbate, all kinds of local

measures have been recommended to prevent manipulation and artificial

stimulation of the penis or the vulva. But speaking generally, no great

reliance can be placed in any of these local measures. Moreover, casual

local stimulation, especially towards the end of the second period of

childhood, has no very profound etiological significance. The chief

stimuli giving rise to reflex excitement of the genital organs are of an

organic nature, and are therefore but little influenced by external

measures. Besides, the fact that among races who never wear breeches,

the boys masturbate freely, and perhaps even more freely than do boys in

Europe, proves that such external stimuli as the pressure exercised by

breeches on the genital organs play no decisive part in the causation of

masturbation.

I purposely refrain from further reference here to such measures as a

methodical "hardening" by hydrotherapeutic procedures, and the like. In

special text-books, whether upon masturbation, or upon hydrotherapeutics,

ample information will be found about these matters.

The suggestion has also been made that from the sexual outlook the diet

of children is a matter worthy of the most earnest attention. Nothing

should be given to the child which may exert a sexually stimulating

effect; especially we must avoid giving heavy foods late in the evening.

More detailed directions are also given as to the use of particular

kinds of food, some of which may be consecrated by tradition, and yet

seem to have but small reasonable foundation. To this category belong

the prohibition or limitation of flesh-foods, and the prohibition of

asparagus, celery, and other articles of diet. There is no proof that

such things have a stimulating influence upon the sexual impulse, either

in children or in adults. We might more readily incline to believe that

certain spices may have such an influence; but even as regards these, no

great anxiety need be felt. As regards alcohol, many maintain it has an

exciting influence upon the sexual life, and thus gives rise to all

kinds of excesses. This is true of a good many cases, but the rule is by

no means so general as is commonly assumed. I recall that in my own

student days we often classified the students into two groups, the

alcoholic and the sexual; those of the former group spent their money

upon alcohol, those of the latter group upon women. My own experience of

these days certainly leads me to dispute the assertion that those

addicted to alcohol are generally more inclined than others to

indiscriminate sexual intercourse. But this reservation is necessary,

that at that time actual abstainers were almost unknown among the

students, and we classified in the alcoholic group those who consumed

very large quantities of alcohol; whilst the members of the sexual group

certainly also consumed alcohol, though not very much. Beyond question,

the common belief that there is an association between the free use of

alcohol and sexual excesses is one which lacks foundation. This view is

to too great an extent based upon criminal statistics, and upon the

records of the perversions to which the sexual perverts among alcoholics

have been inclined. But think of the countless normal persons in whom

the enjoyment of alcohol induces no tendency to sexual excesses; and, on

the other hand, abstainers from alcohol have been personally known to me

whom no one could venture to call moderate in their sexual relations.

But although I make all these reservations with regard to the effects of

the use of alcohol by adults, I am in full accord with the view that the

use of alcohol should be prohibited to children. Alcohol cannot do any

good to children, and the possibility that in individual instances it

may stimulate the sexual imagination, is one which cannot be denied. But

this fact does not justify us in advising against the moderate use of

alcohol by adults.[150]

Passing to consider the general mode of life, we certainly agree with

Hufeland, who, in his _Makrobiotik_, recommends vigorous bodily

activity. He contends that children who go to bed at night healthily

tired out, will not be likely to think of masturbation. In the present

age of sports and games it will not be found difficult to fulfil this

indication; and we see as a matter of fact that a great deal of trouble

is taken to give children every opportunity of keeping in active

movement. Even in our large towns, in which, owing to the lack of a

sufficiency of open spaces, great difficulties have arisen in this

respect, much has of late been done to improve matters. For many years

past in England special efforts have been made to provide such

playgrounds for children and adults.

I take this opportunity of drawing attention to a method recommended by

Féré for the cure of masturbation, which I have myself found of good use

in several cases, but which appears to be almost entirely unknown. It is

that the child addicted to masturbation during the night hours should be

watched by a trustworthy person; every time the child puts its hand to

its genital organs, or endeavours to stimulate these organs mechanically

in some other way, the attendant must immediately intervene, and draw

the hands from beneath the bed-clothing. This plan may be adopted

whether the child masturbates while asleep or while awake. But good can

be expected from the method above all in those cases in which the child

masturbates during sleep, and in which it commonly wakes up directly it

is interfered with. In most cases the children treated in this way soon

give up the practice of masturbation, even though the evil is of long

standing. But it will be advisable to continue to supervise the child

for some time after a cure has apparently been effected, lest what may

have become a nervous automatism should be resumed after a brief

intermission. The chief difficulty in the practical application of this

method lies in the choice of a trustworthy person to watch the child. As

a rule, the mother will be the most suitable, but now and again we shall

find a hired nurse to whom this extremely difficult task may safely be

entrusted. In a number of cases with which I have had to deal, I have

recommended the mother to undertake the duty herself, because she seemed

to me the most trustworthy person available. But it is a very

regrettable fact that many mothers are altogether unwilling to make the

necessary sacrifice for their child's good; and most of them are quite

ready to believe that some woman whom they can hire for a few shillings

a night will perform the duty which they themselves as mothers have

renounced. Such lack of proper feeling is especially common among those

who belong to what are termed the upper classes of society--to the

aristocracy whether of birth or of wealth--whereas among the middle

classes I have found mothers far more ready to make the necessary

sacrifices.

In sexual education, the sexual perversions must receive especial

attention. I must first of all refer again to two matters, of which some

account has previously been given: the influencing of congenital inborn

tendencies; and the undifferentiated sexual impulse. As regards the

former, we have to take the following data into consideration. The fact

that the indications lead us to believe that a particular sexual

perversion is inborn, need not induce us to think there is no hope of

counteracting this perversion by well-planned educational influences. I

have already written at considerable length about the undifferentiated

sexual impulse, and have shown that perverse manifestations during the

period of the undifferentiated sexual impulse do not prove that a

permanent perversion has developed. But everything possible should be

done to guard against the further development of any such perverse mode

of sexual sensibility, including sexual qualities in the wider sense of

the term. We know, for example, that many homosexual men have a tendency

to dress in girls' clothing, and many homosexual women to go about in

men's clothing, and, in both cases, to adopt the inclinations and

occupations of the opposite sex. During the period of the

undifferentiated sexual impulse, we must not attach too much importance

to the appearance of inclinations of this kind; but it would be equally

erroneous to ignore them altogether. Boys who adopt a girlish behaviour,

should not be encouraged in doing so by treating the matter as a joke.

If a boy frequently dresses up as a girl, or a girl as a boy, and if we

observe between two boys, or between two girls, an unduly intimate

friendship at an age which corresponds to the period of the

undifferentiated sexual impulse, it will be as well to modify the

children's education accordingly. A girl with such inclinations should,

for example, be thrown as much as possible into the society of lads of

an appropriate age. In the case of those who are still quite young,

there is no doubt that by the proper measures we can in part check the

development of perverse manifestations, and in part completely repress

them; notwithstanding the fact that interested agitators, whose

principal aim is to secure the repeal of Section 175 of the German

Imperial Criminal Code, maintain the contrary, and assert that

homosexual tendencies appearing in the child necessarily indicate the

future development of permanent homosexuality. Parents, tutors,

schoolmasters, and physicians, must not allow themselves to be led

astray by these agitators, who falsify the data of science. In the

interest of truth, in the interest of the children endangered by these

perversions, and in the interest of civilisation, these misstatements

must be contradicted.

The chief danger associated with the appearance of sexual perversions

lies in the fact that the child thus affected, whether boy or girl,

endeavours again and ever again to revive these pleasurably-toned

sensations; and above all in the fact that as soon as the genital organs

are sufficiently mature, the boy or girl obtains sexual gratification

by masturbating simultaneously with the imaginative contemplation of

perverse ideas. Such perverse psychical onanism, accompanied or

unaccompanied by physical masturbatory acts, is eminently adapted to

favour the development of the perversion. Obviously, the actual

performance of the corresponding perverse sexual act will be just as

dangerous as is perversely associated masturbation. Thus, a boy who is

homosexually inclined may masturbate while allowing his imagination to

run riot upon homosexual ideas; or he may take to homosexual acts with

one or more other male persons. Every sort of gratification that is

associated with perverse images, is dangerous; and no less dangerous is

the spontaneous cultivation of such perverse sexual images.

A very real and serious danger to children is to be found in my opinion

in the risk of the progressive cultivation of homosexuality, if they

become victims of a pædophile. The adult homosexual will sometimes

conceal a perverse inclination directed towards children under the cloak

of friendship or of an educational interest. I have previously referred

to the danger that the child, at a time of life when its own sexual

impulse is still undifferentiated, may sometimes reciprocate such a

feeling. When I recall the light-heartedness with which homosexual males

have acknowledged to me their experiences of sexual intercourse with

apprentice-boys, and with pupils attending the higher forms of our

secondary schools, and when I think of the readiness with which

homosexual women seek opportunities of sexual intercourse with immature

or partially mature girls, it seems to me that there are good grounds

for the utterance of an urgent warning. My experiences in this

department further lead me to believe that if Section 175 of the German

Imperial Criminal Code is to be repealed, a further alteration in the

Code will also be indispensable, namely, that the Age of Protection

(_Schutzalter_--equivalent to the _Age of Consent_ in the English

Criminal Law Amendment Act) should be raised to the completion of the

eighteenth year, and that the protection should apply, not merely to the

actions now specified in Section 175 as "unnatural vice," but to all

acts of sexual impropriety in the widest sense of the term. Recently

this proposal has been approved by a resolution of the Reichstag.[151]

There are certain additional points about which it is unnecessary to

write here, for the reason that these have all been considered in some

appropriate connexion earlier in this book. For example, I have insisted

upon the importance of anyone who possesses children's confidence taking

steps for the removal of corrupted children from the environment of

uncorrupted ones.

Where we have reason to believe, in the case of a particular child, that

a perverse mode of sexual sensibility is developing, we shall

occasionally find it preferable rather to attempt to hinder the growth

of the perversion, than to try to check the general manifestations of

the sexual impulse. Thus, in the case of a boy of fourteen, who is

continually affected with homosexual imaginings, we shall find it far

more difficult to repress sexual manifestations altogether, than to

divert the homosexual sensibility into heterosexual channels. If a boy

affected in this way be thrown much into the society of girls, or

conversely, a girl into the society of boys (at dances, games of

lawn-tennis, &c.), the subsequent effect is likely to be good, because

the sexual pervert, even if his perverse tendency be congenital, can

nevertheless be educated out of his perversion. It should hardly be

necessary to state expressly, that when I speak of finding for the

homosexual associates of the opposite sex, I am not thinking of

suggesting intimate sexual intercourse. Apart from moral considerations,

we could not, in the cases under consideration, expect any benefit to

accrue on medical grounds; my reference was to a purely platonic

association.

No one need suggest that all these recommendations are superfluous, for

the reason that, according to my own previous account of the matter, the

undifferentiated condition of the sexual impulse is spontaneously

replaced by the normal heterosexual impulse. For, first of all, the

signs that give rise to anxiety may not be manifestations of the

undifferentiated sexual impulse, but may be the first manifestations of

a developing congenital perversion; and, secondly, it is by no means

improbable that, even in the entire absence of any congenital tendency

to sexual perversion, unfavourable external conditions may lead to the

further development of the perverse manifestations of the

undifferentiated period. I may refer in this connexion to what was said

upon p. 312 _et seq._

It is necessary to refer at length to one additional educational method

which plays a very important part in sexual development, namely,

punishment. The sexual perversions known by the names of sadism and

masochism have of late attracted much attention from students of the

sexual life. In sadism, sexual excitement occurs in association with the

infliction of ill-treatment, humiliation, or pain upon others; in

masochism the sexual excitement results from the experience of such

ill-treatment, humiliation, or pain by the masochist in person. But in

sadism, it is not essential that the sadist should himself play the

active part; very often, the maltreatment by a second person of a third

suffices to cause sexual excitement in the sadist who looks on.

Masochistic and sadistic modes of sensibility are frequently associated

in the same individual. As far as the relationship of these perversions

to punishment is concerned, we learn from many adult masochists and

sadists that their first experience of sexual excitement occurred when

as children they received a whipping, or saw another child whipped--at

school, for instance. The oft-quoted case of Rousseau has previously

been mentioned in this work. It is thus evident that the subject of the

punishment of children needs to be considered, not merely from the

general educational point of view, but also from the special outlook of

sexual education. The principal question is whether as a result of

corporal punishment, either personally experienced or witnessed, an

enduring sexual perversion may be induced in a child; and this problem

must be carefully distinguished from another problem, which, however, is

also of very great importance, namely, that of the sexual excitement

which may be experienced by the person who inflicts the punishment. The

significance of the materials available to guide us to a conclusion

upon these questions, is not, however, perfectly clear in all cases. I

may refer to what was said upon p. 130 _et seq._; and will here merely

add that the question whether the infliction of corporal punishment

really originates a perversion in the sufferer, or whether it merely

awakens to activity a pre-existent tendency, and one which, in the

absence of this particular exciting cause, would almost certainly have

been awakened by some other and unavoidable cause, some influence acting

from without--this is a question to which conflicting answers have been

given.

But corporal punishment entails other dangers, in addition to the risk

of the origination or the awakening of a sexual perversion. Certain

children, having experienced sexual stimulation as a result of such

punishment, will endeavour to secure its repetition. I have known cases

in which sexual perverts have deliberately misconducted themselves in

school, in order to be punished, and thus to enjoy voluptuous

sensations. Finally, there is a third danger to be taken into account,

and this is a danger of whose reality I have been convinced by the

direct confessions of schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, that they have

struck their pupils for the purpose of thereby enjoying sexual

stimulation. Even if no such admissions had ever been made to me, I

should have regarded it as by no means improbable that such incidents

should from time to time occur. Let no reader draw the inference that

whenever a master chastises a naughty boy, he acts always under the

influence of a sadistic inclination; I do not even consider that

sadistic inclinations are a frequent cause of the infliction of corporal

chastisement. The danger of such sweeping generalisations is obvious,

especially in view of the fact that to-day many children, even, know

what sadism is. Hence a schoolboy who has been punished might readily

attribute sadistic motives to his master; and might even make a definite

accusation of this kind.

When we come to ask what practical conclusions may be drawn from our

recognition of the relationships between corporal punishment and sexual

perversions, the first point that occurs to our minds is to consider

whether the corporal punishments which may possibly give rise to such

perverse stimulations are in fact absolutely indispensable. Although in

this matter I find myself in opposition to a great many physicians and

to not a few educationalists, I remain of the opinion that we cannot

propose to do away altogether with corporal punishments in our schools;

at any rate, such punishment remains, I consider, essential, so long as

certain other reforms are still wanting. Among the reforms which are

indispensable preliminaries to the complete abolition of corporal

punishment, is one giving a greater power to expel insolent and

undisciplined boys. Not until such a power is granted can corporal

punishments be abolished from our schools. For a flogging is oftentimes

the only punishment of which a rough and ill-conditioned boy is afraid.

Moreover, and altogether apart from this consideration, the discipline

of our schools is to-day endangered in various ways: for instance, by

public disquisitions about overwork in schools; by the conduct of many

parents, who prejudice their children against the schools in a most

indiscreet manner; and by attacks in the newspapers on the

schoolmasters--attacks which are often unfair and inconsiderate.

Further, the recent widely advertised public pronouncements against the

right of the schoolmaster to inflict corporal punishment, are hardly

calculated to strengthen the discipline of our schools, or to assist the

masters in the performance of what must be at best extremely difficult

duties. So long, therefore, as we lack the safeguard to discipline that

would be provided by extensive powers of expelling undesirables, I

consider that corporal punishment is essential to the discipline of our

schools.

Unquestionably it would be a good thing if we could entirely dispense

with the use of corporal punishments, or at least dispense with them in

all cases in which there might be any possibility of their doing harm,

as by giving rise to sexual stimulation. But unfortunately we have no

means of ascertaining beforehand what are the cases in which corporal

punishment is likely to do harm. There is no possibility of withholding

the right to inflict corporal punishment from those masters in especial

who might use it to gratify their own sexual passions--if only for the

reason that we have no means of finding out who these persons are. For

it is not the masters with free views about sexual questions who are

especially open to suspicion from the point of view we are now

considering; nor is it the masters who are morally defective or

irreligious. Indeed, I am acquainted with some extremely pious

schoolmasters who, according to their own admissions to me, have

experienced sexual excitement when chastising children; and some of

these have in other respects had admirable characters. Cases recorded,

not merely in erotic literature, but also in historical literature, show

that religion affords no safeguard against such temptations; we learn,

for instance, that in the cloister, monks and nuns have utilised their

right to inflict punishment in order to procure sexual excitement. For

these reasons, it is inadmissible to infer, because a schoolmaster is a

religious man, that therefore he is the one to whom the right to inflict

corporal punishment may safely be entrusted.

The danger of an excessive use of powers of administering corporal

punishment, and more especially the danger of awakening the sexuality of

children prematurely and with perverse associations, may be minimised by

the proper treatment of schoolmasters. We must not treat our

schoolmasters in such a way that behind them they always feel the

presence of the inspector, compelling them to force the pupils through

the prescribed, but excessive tasks. Nor must the schoolmaster's own

work be excessive, for nervous overstrain will very readily lead to

outbreaks of violence. It seems also desirable that the right of

administering corporal punishment should not be entrusted to masters who

are still quite young, for a certain experience is needed to guide them

to a reasonable moderation. What I have said of schoolmasters applies,

_mutatis mutandis_, to schoolmistresses and governesses. There are many

reasons for the belief that the danger that the right to inflict

corporal punishment may be utilised to procure erotic excitement for the

person exercising that right, is considerably greater in women than it

is in men. Even if we take no notice of erotic literature, in which

sadism in women manifested by the mishandling of children is so frequent

a _motif_, we shall find quite a number of experiences of actual life

which compel us to admit the frequency of such perverse sensibilities in

women. Among various records bearing upon this matter, I may remind

readers of those of the upper class women of ancient Rome, and of the

horrible punishments they inflicted upon their female slaves; and also

of American women of the slave-owning class, in the South before the

war, who sometimes flogged young male slaves in the most terrible way.

Whether this matter is regarded as one of great or of small importance,

it is as well to inquire whether it is not possible that the necessary

disciplinary punishment should be inflicted in such a way as to reduce

to a minimum any dangers from the sexual point of view. Now, we learn

from experience, that when a perversion is traced back to its

origination in a chastisement endured during childhood, this

chastisement was as a rule the customary whipping of the buttocks. Far

less frequently, and indeed hardly ever, are we told that any other form

of punishment has initiated a sexual perversion. This may, of course,

depend merely upon the fact that other modes of punishment are far less

common. But there are many reasons for supposing that stimulation of the

buttock is especially apt to induce sexual excitement. It is possible,

also, that another factor is in operation here, namely, the fact that

the child undergoing punishment is commonly placed across the elder's

knees in such a way that _pressure upon the child's genital organs_ is

almost unavoidable. Moreover, when we bear in mind the fact that other

methods of chastisement may involve dangers to health (boxing the ears,

for instance, may threaten the integrity of the sense of hearing), the

question which is the best method of corporal punishment becomes a very

serious one. I have myself elsewhere expressed the opinion that as far

as the possible effects on health are concerned, and especially from the

point of view of sexual hygiene, blows upon the palm of the hand perhaps

constitute the least dangerous form of corporal punishment. But I by no

means suppose that even here danger is altogether excluded, or that no

sexual stimulation can possibly ensue from such chastisement. For the

local physical stimulation is not the only matter we have to consider in

connexion with a whipping upon the buttocks. In quite a number of cases

in which we are told that some experience during childhood has been the

initiating cause of subsequent masochism or sadism, there has been no

question of purely physical causation, as by a whipping upon the

buttocks. I may recall the case in which sexual perversion appeared to

have developed out of witnessing the slaughter of animals, so that the

only stimulus acting upon this child belonged to the psychical sphere.

The cases, also, in which a child refers the origin of his perversion to

having looked on at a whipping (in school, for instance) show that such

perversions are not only aroused by mechanical stimuli, but may depend

also upon psychological factors. For these reasons I consider that we

are not justified in assuming, if whipping upon the buttocks were

altogether done away with, and if blows upon the palm of the hand became

the only permissible form of corporal punishment, that permanent sexual

perversions would then become impossible. With further reference to what

I have said above about discipline in schools, I may add that the kernel

of the problem is this: is the probability that corporal punishment will

lead to permanent sexual perversion, or will induce sexual excitement,

sufficiently great, to render it necessary that corporal punishment

should be completely abolished from our schools, so long as our

schoolmasters possess no other adequate means of making certain of their

pupils observe the discipline of the school? It is unconditionally

necessary that the discipline of our schools should be maintained; and

those who are unreservedly opposed to corporal punishment in all its

forms should make it their business to see that some other adequate

means are provided for the maintenance of school-discipline. However

strongly we may feel that it is essential that there should be no abuse

by schoolmasters of their right to administer corporal punishment, none

the less, even in this "Century of the Child," we need safeguards also

against the abuse of sentimentality.

In this chapter I have attempted to deal with a few only of the problems

of sexual education. To discuss the subject exhaustively would have been

impossible within the limits of this book; nor have I endeavoured to

take into consideration the enormous mass of literature relating to the

modern movement in favour of the sexual enlightenment. I have made no

reference to the fact that it has recently been recommended that every

girl should spend a year of service [_Dienstjahr_--analogous to the term

of military service obligatory on all males in Germany] in hospitals,

asylums, &c., whereby she would gain enlightenment concerning many

things which will be of value to her in her subsequent married life. All

such proposals are so much matters of detail, that I have thought it

inadvisable to discuss them here.

The most important requirement of all is certainly a good educator--a

word used here in the widest possible signification. The best of all

educators for the child should be its own mother; although we may agree

with the assertion recently made by Eschle[152] and others, that the

father has important duties to fulfil as instructor, even during the

child's first year of life. Nevertheless, the father, even if his

professional training gives him especial skill in these directions, is

not really likely to do very much in the educational way for his infant

offspring. It is to the mother, above all, that the care of infants and

young children is of necessity entrusted. We have, however, to remember

that a large proportion of mothers, especially those belonging to the

ranks of the proletariat, take part in the work of breadwinning for the

family, and are thus prevented from giving as much attention to their

children as might be wished. But in the families of the well-to-do there

is often no question of the mother herself playing the principal part in

the education of her children, since it is customary for her to depute

so many of her maternal duties to hired substitutes. It has recently

been maintained that it is to the Woman's Movement that we owe the fact

that the question of the sexual enlightenment has now become a live one;

but this is certainly an overstatement, though it is not to be denied

that women have had some influence in this direction. But if the women

who play a prominent part in the Woman's Movement would do more than

they have done as yet to impress upon the women of the well-to-do

classes an understanding of their duties towards their children, they

would certainly be doing excellent work. No paid substitute can

adequately replace for the child the benefits it will derive if its

mother herself does all that she could and should do. A mother who

seriously devotes herself to the care of her child, need have no anxiety

about the risks of its being misused by others for sexual purposes. Such

a mother keeps herself fully acquainted with her child's sentiments. She

is in a position to choose the best moment for effecting the child's

sexual enlightenment, and she can best judge when the use of the stork

story is no longer justified. Of such a mother, a child far more readily

makes a confidant. Moreover, if the mother devotes a great deal of time

and pains to the personal care of her child, this has, in the case of a

boy, the great advantage of inculcating a greater respect for the female

sex in general than is apt to be found in boys to-day. I consider this

last-mentioned point to be one of the utmost importance in relation to

the sexual enlightenment, for only in such a way can the boy when grown

to manhood be led instinctively to refrain from the seduction of

girls--with all the misery which such a course usually involves for the

victims. Similarly, a young man brought up to respect women will refrain

from making a mock of pregnancy, whether "legitimate" or "illegitimate."

When we see a young woman bearing a new life in her womb, owing her

position it may be to all the subtle arts of the seducer, and note how

cruelly she is treated by the law and what scorn and contempt are poured

upon her by society and by the individual, we cannot fail to welcome

most heartily the movement for the Protection of Motherhood

(_Mutterschutzbewegung_) which has recently made such progress in

Germany. When children are properly educated, there is reason to hope

that sexual matters will be less often treated in an obscene spirit than

is the case to-day. Nor need we fear, when such education becomes the

rule, that every allusion to sexual things may involve dangers to the

child. Precisely because the sexual life will then be known to the child

in a natural way, will there be less reason to dread the deliberate

cultivation by children of sexual topics of conversation. When at school

the love adventures of Mars and Venus are the subject of the lesson, in

children thus educated no unclean thoughts need arise. It must never be

forgotten, however, that when the imagination has been perverted,

opportunities for unclean thoughts recur with extraordinary frequency;

and indeed by no means whatever can such opportunities be altogether

avoided. Since this is so, we must strengthen the child against the

dangers it will inevitably encounter, and must be careful not to pervert

its imagination by a false prudery.

Of course we must avoid leading the child to dwell too much upon sexual

topics, and fortunately human beings have numerous other interests. The

sphere of the sexual must be regarded as a fraction merely of the

general educational field. The inculcation of true ideas of morality,

and of a sense of honour not confined to externals but one by which the

entire being is permeated--these will be the safest essentials of a good

sexual and general education.

[1] _Infancy_ appears to be the best English term to represent

the German _Sänglingsalter_, literally "age of suckling." It is

true that the _legal_ denotation of the term _infancy_ is "the

period from a person's birth to the attainment of the age of

twenty-one years," but in common speech an _infant_ is "a child

during the first two or three years of life," whilst writers on

_infant mortality_ restrict the term to the sense employed in the

text. Thus Newman, in _The Health of the State_ (p. 108), writes:

"Infants are children under twelve months of age."--TRANSLATOR'S

NOTE.

[2] _Involuntary Sexual Orgasm._--This is a very cumbrous

rendering of the German _Pollution_. In English we greatly need a

general term, first, to denote all involuntary emissions of

semen, whether nocturnal or diurnal; and, secondly, to denote

involuntary sexual orgasm in the female as well as in the male.

In the case of the female, the term "seminal emission" is

inapplicable; but the term "pollution" may be applied in English

(as it is in German) to such phenomena in either sex. By American

writers the term "pollution" is now generally used (_e.g._,

Allen, "Disorders of the Male Sexual Organs," _Twentieth Century

Practice_, vol. vii. p. 612 _et seq._). My first inclination,

therefore, was to adopt the rendering "pollution" in this

translation. But this word inevitably connotes the ideas of

physical uncleanness and moral defilement, and its use would thus

assist the survival of medieval ideas of the essentially corrupt

nature of sexual passion--such ideas as are exemplified by the

quaint survival among certain "occultists" of the medieval

doctrine of _incubi_ and _succubi_, by the belief that sexual

dreams are induced by the "thought-forms" of other persons

tormented by ungratified sexual desire! For this reason I have

not attempted to acclimatise the word "pollution" in this

country.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[3] _L'Hygiène sexuelle_, Paris, 1895, p. 27.

[4] Thalhofer, _Die Sexuelle Pädagogik bei den Philanthropen_,

Kempten, 1907.

[5] Rudeck, _Die Liebe_ (Leipzig, undated), p. 158.

[6] Groos, _Die Spiele der Tiere_ (_The Games of Animals_), Jena,

1896.

[7] See a translation by Dr. Brill, of New York, of Freud's

_Selected Papers on Hysteria and other Psychoneuroses_ (1909).

[8] _Die Störungen der Geschlechtsfunctionen des Mannes_ (_The

Disturbances of the Male Sexual Functions_), 2nd ed., Vienna,

1901, p. 8.

[9] Otto Adler, _Die mangelhafte Geschlechtsempfindung des

Weibes_ (_Inadequacy of Sexual Sensation in Woman_), Berlin,

1904, p. 54 _et seq._

[10] Marthe Francillon, _Essai sur la Puberté chez la Femme_,

Paris, 1906.

[11] _Man and Woman_, 4th ed., London, 1904.

[12] _Der Körper des Kindes_ (_The Body of the Child_),

Stuttgart, 1903.

[13] Halban, _Die Entstehung des Geschlechtscharakters_ (_The

Origin of Sexual Differentiation_), Archiv für Gynäkologie, vol.

lxx., Heft 2. p. 268.

[14] _Man and Woman_, London.

[15] _Weib und Mann_, Berlin, 1897, p, 116.

[16] Meumann, _Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die experimentelle

Pädagogik und ihre psychologische Grundlagen_ (_Introductory

Lectures on Experimental Pedagogy and its Psychological Basis_),

Leipzig, 1907, vol. i. p. 145.

[17] _Zeitschrift für Psychologie_, Leipzig, 1906, p. 384.

[18] _Geschlecht und Krankheit_ (_Sex and Disease_), Halle, 1903.

[19] _Die Hysterie im Kindesalter_ (_Hysteria in Childhood_), 2nd

ed., Halle, 1906.

[20] _Die Hysterie des Kindes_ (_Hysteria in the Child_), p. 8,

Berlin, 1905.

[21] _Vorlesungen über Störungen der Sprache_ (_Lectures on

Disturbances of Speech_), p. 105. Berlin, 1893.

[22] _Hautkrankheiten und Sexualität_ (_Diseases of the Skin in

Relation to Sex_). Reprinted from the _Wiener Klinik_, 1906.

[23] William Douglas Morrison, _Jugendliche Uebeltäter_

(_Youthful Delinquents_), p. 28. Leipzig, 1899.

[24] _Die Seele des Kindes_ (_The Soul of the Child_) p. 147, 4th

ed., Leipzig, 1895.

[25] Although in various other parts of this book I draw

attention to the fact that the sexual processes of childhood

described by me are not to be witnessed in every child, but that

on the contrary there are many children in whom such sexual

phenomena are by no means to be observed, I take this additional

opportunity of stating categorically that erections naturally

occur in children less frequently than in adults; they are in

fact notably less common in the former, but nevertheless erection

is not, in my opinion, a pathological manifestation even in very

early childhood. The comparatively slight capacity for erection

possessed by children, as compared with adults, is, for example,

shown by the fact to which Jullien draws attention, in his work

_Seltenere und weniger bekannte Tripperformen_ (_Rare and Little

Known Forms of Gonorrhoea_), Vienna and Leipzig, 1907, that the

painful erections (chordee) which so commonly accompany

gonorrhoea in adults, are very rare indeed in the case of

gonorrhoea in children, and even in the case of older children

are hardly ever observed.

[26] _Op. cit._, p. 8.

[27] _The Hygiene of Love._

[28] _Lehrbuch der Gerichtlichen Medizin_ (_Text-book of Forensic

Medicine_), p. 58, 7th ed., Vienna, 1895.

[29] Pauli Zacchiae, _Quaestiones Medico-Legales_, lib. i, p. 26,

Lipsiæ, 1630.

[30] _Lehrbuch der Gerichtlichen Medizin_ (_Text-book of Forensic

Medicine_), p. 64, Stuttgart, 1895.

[31] In the next chapter I shall describe certain analogous

pathological processes.

[32] _Handbuch der Eingeweidelehre_ (_Handbook of

Splanchnology_), 2nd ed., Brunswick, 1873.

[33] German, _Kitzelgefühl_. In German, the word _Kitzel_

signifies both _itching_ and _tickling_ and is likewise used to

denote both _sexual desire_ and _sexual gratification_. Consult

my note "Itching, Ticking, and Sexual Sensibility," in the

English edition of Bloch's _The Sexual Life of Our Time_, pp. 43,

44.--TRANSLATOR.

[34] "Zur Psychologie der Vita Sexualis" ("Contributions to the

Psychology of the Sexual Life"), _Zeitschrift für Psychiatrie_,

vol. 1.

[35] Compare Mrs. Browning's graceful treatment of a young girl's

imaginings, in her well-known poem, "The Romance of a Swan's

Nest."

"Little Ellie sits alone

. . . . .

While she thinks what shall be done,

And the sweetest pleasure chooses

For her future within reach.

Little Ellie in her smile

Chooses, 'I will have a lover

Riding on a steed of steeds:

He shall love me without guile,

. . . . .

And the steed shall be red-roan,

And the lover shall be noble,

With an eye that takes the breath:

And the lute he plays upon

Shall strike ladies into trouble,

As his sword strikes men to death.'

. . . . .

And later, little Ellie imagines her lover kneeling at her knee

to tell her--

'I am a duke's eldest son,

Thousand serfs do call me master,

But, O love, I love but _thee_!'"

--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[36] Mantegaaza, _Fisiologia del Amore_.

[37] "Précocité et Impuissance Sexuelle," _Annales des Maladies

des Organes Génito-Urinaires_, vol. i. No. 2, 1906.

[38] By _masturbation_ or _onanism_ I understand the artificial

mechanical stimulation of the genital organs. Etymologically and

strictly, onanism denotes coitus interruptus (Gen. xxxviii. 9);

masturbation (manustupration), artificial stimulation of the

genital organs with the hand.

[39] _Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie_, p. 41, Leipzig, 1905.

For reference to English translation, see footnote to p. 14.

[40] _Dreissig Jahre Praxis_, Part I. p. 306, Vienna, 1873.

[41] _Nervöse Angstzustände und ihre Behandlung_, Berlin, 1908.

[42] See note to page 3.

[43] Translated from the German edition of the _Memoirs of Madame

Roland_, Part I., p. 82 _et seq._, Belle-Vue, near Constance,

1844 (_Bibliothek ausgewählter Memoiren des XVIII. und XIX.

Jahrhunderts_, berausgegeben von F. E. Pipitz and G. Fink).

[44] _The Introduction to a Devout Life_, by St. Francis of

Sales, published early in the seventeenth century.

[45] _Die Spiele der Tiere_ (_The Games of Animals_), Jena, 1895,

p. 255 _et seq._

[46] Moll, _Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_, Berlin,

1897, p. 374.

[47] "Die Entstehung der Geschlechtscharaktere" ("The Origin of

the Sexual Characters"), _Archiv für Gynäkologie_, Berlin, 1903,

vol. lxx.

[48] Gall maintained that as a result of castration the

development of the cerebellum was hindered, and that this failure

of development could be detected by external examination of the

occipital region.

[49] Jastrowitz, _Einiges über das Physiologische und über die

aussergewöhnlichen Handlungen im Liebesleben der Menschen_

(_Physiological Considerations regarding the Amatory Life of

Mankind, and regarding certain unusual Features of that Life_),

p. 16 _et seq._, Leipzig, 1904.

[50] Ancel et Bouin, "Insuffisance spermatique et Insuffisance

diastématique," _La Presse Médicale_, January 13th, 1906.

[51] The quotation in the German original, from the German poet

Storm, would have lost life and spirit in any translation

possible to me. I have therefore replaced it by an appropriate

quotation from Longfellow.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[52] In the German language the word _castration_ is used of both

sexes; _i.e._, it signifies removal of the ovaries as well as

removal of testicles.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[53] A record of such cases will be found in the article on

"Menstruation," p. 700 of the _Dictionnaire des Sciences

Médicales_, Dechambre, Paris, 1873.

[54] Kisch, _The Sexual Life of Woman_, pp. 79-80, English

translation by M. Eden Paul; Rebman, London, 1910.

[55] _Traité de Physiologie_, vol. i. p. 260, Paris, 1869.

[56] The reference will be found in the _Jahresbericht über die

Leistungen und Fortschritte auf dem Gebiete der Erkrankungen des

Urogenitalapparates_, second year of issue, Berlin, 1907.

[57] _Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_ (_Researches into

the Nature of the Sexual Impulse_), Berlin, 1897, chap, iii.

[58] Paris, 1883, vol. i, p. 91.

[59] S. Hall, "The Early Sense of Self," _Am. Journ. of Psych._,

April 1898.

[60] _Sexualbiologie_, Berlin, 1907, p. 48 _et seq._

[61] _Union médicale_, May 1877.

[62] _Psychopathologie légale_, Paris, 1903, vol. ii. p. 169.

[63] Havelock Ellis, _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. v.,

"Erotic Symbolism, &c.," p. 53 _et. seq._

[64] "The Early Sense of Self," _American Journal of Psychology_,

April 1898, p. 361.

[65] Moll, _Die konträre Sexualempfindung_, Case 20, 3rd ed.,

Berlin, 1898.

[66] Neugebauer, _Hermaphroditismus beim Menschen_

(_Hermaphroditism in the Human Species_), Leipzig, 1908.

[67] _L'Hygiène sexuelle et ses Conséquences morales_, p. 26,

Paris, 1895.

[68] Jacobus X----, _Lois Génitales_, p. 16, Paris, 1906.

[69] Albert Moll, _Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_

(_Studies concerning the Sexual Impulse_), p. 256 _et. seq._,

Berlin, 1897.

[70] _Émile_ (at the beginning of Book IV.).

[71] _Magister Laukhards Leben und Schicksale, von ihm selbst

beschrieben, bearbeitet von Viktor Petersen_ (_The Life and

Fortunes of Master Laukhard, described in his own words, and

edited by Viktor Petersen_), vol. i. p. 15, Stuttgart, 1908.

[72] _Monsieur Nicolas_, vol. i. p. 51, Paris (Liseux), 1884.

[73] _Kinderleben in der deutschen Vergangenheit_ (_Child Life in

Old Germany_), p. 112, Leipzig, 1900.

[74] _Die geschlechtlich-sittlichen Verhältnisse der

evangelischen Landbewohner im Deutschen Reiche, dargestellt auf

Grund der von der Allgemeinen Konferenz des_ _deutschen

Sittlichkeitsvereine veranstalteten Umfrage_ (_The State of

Sexual Morality among the Protestant Inhabitants of the German

Empire, as shown by an Inquiry instituted by the General

Conference of the German Societies for the Promotion of Public

Morals_), vol. ii pp. 562-3, Leipzig, 1897. The collective

investigation made by Wagner, Wittenberg, and Hückstädt, as a

part of the inquiry instituted by the General Conference of the

German Societies for the Promotion of Public Morals, is certainly

the most exhaustive of which any record at present exists.

[75] _Wie der Geschlechtstrieb des Menschen in Ordnung zu bringen

usw._ (_How to Control the Human Sexual Impulse, &c._),

Brunswick, 1791.

[76] _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. iii.; _Analysis of

the Sexual Impulse_, pp. 59-60 and footnote, Davis, Philadelphia,

1908.

[77] _The Sexual Question_, Rebman, London, 1908, pp. 485-86.

[78] _Dreissig Jahre Praxis_ (_Thirty Years of Medical

Practice_), Würzburg, 1907, p. 305.

[79] Quoted by Havelock Ellis, _Studies in the Psychology of

Sex_, vol. i., 3rd ed., Davis, Philadelphia, 1910, p. 179. The

original paper is by C. W. Townsend, "Thigh Friction in Children

under One Year," Annual Meeting of the American Pediatric

Society, Montreal, 1896. Five cases are recorded by this writer,

all in female infants.

[80] Regarding the precise significance of the terms

_iomasturbation_ and _onanism_, see the author's footnote to page

87. The adjectives corresponding to those words are respectively

_masturbatory_ and _onanistic_. By German writers, _onanismus_ or

_onanie_, and _onanistisch_, are often used where, strictly

speaking, the words are inapplicable, since reference is made to

cases in which sexual gratification is obtained by direct

manipulation. In this translation, I prefer for such cases to use

the words _masturbation_ (i.e. _manustupration_) and _masturbatory_;

and to limit the use of the terms _onanism_ and _onanistic_ to cases in

which no direct use is made of the hand. Where sexual gratification is

obtained without any mechanical act at all, it to preferable to speak of

_psychical onanism_, or else to employ the general term introduced by

Havelock Ellis for the description of all varieties of self-induced

sexual stimulation and sexual gratification--whether mechanical or

psychical--viz. _auto-erotism_ (adjectival form, _auto-erotic_). See

Havelock Ellis, _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_, vol. i., 3rd ed.,

1910. Part III., "Auto-Erotism: A Study of the Spontaneous

Manifestations of the Sexual Impulse."--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[81] Kisch. _The Sexual Life of Woman_, English translation by M.

Eden Paul, Rebman, London, 1910, p. 81.

[82] "Die Entwicklung der Geschlechtscharaktere," _Archiv für

Gynäkologie_, vol, lxx. p. 239, Berlin, 1903.

[83] Kisch, _The Sexual Life of Woman_, English translation by M.

Eden Paul, Rebman, London, 1910, p. 82.

[84] _Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie_ (_Three Essays on the

Sexual Question_) p. 36 _et seq._, Leipzig and Vienna. [For

reference to English translation, see footnote, p. 14.]

[85] _Jahrbuch für Kinderheilkunde_, 1879.

[86] _Die Masturbation_, p. 50, Berlin, 1899.

[87] _L'Hygiène sexuelle_, Paris, 1895, p. 23.

[88] "Die Beziehungen des sexuellen Lebens zur Entstehung von

Nerven- und Geisteskrankheiten" ("Relationships of the Sexual

Life to the Causation of Nervous and Mental Diseases"),

_Münchener Med. Wochenschrift_, No. 37, 1906.

[89] "Quelques mots sur l'onanisme" ("A Few Words on

Masturbation"), _Annales des maladies des organes

génito-urinaires_, 1905, No. 8.

[90] "Schülerselbstmorde" ("Suicide during School-Life"),

_Zeitschrift für pädagogische Psychologie_, April 1907, p. 21 _et

seq._

[91] _Du Suicide_, 2nd ed., Paris, 1865, p. 139.

[92] For a comprehensive account of these views, see Löwenfeld,

_Sexualleben und Nervenleiden_ (_The Sexual Life and Nervous

Diseases_), 4th ed., Wiesbaden, 1906, chap. xiv.

[93] "Das Erleiden sexueller Traumen usw." ("The Ill Effects of

Sexual Dreams"), _Zentralblatt für Nervenheilkunde_, November 15,

1907.

[94] _Seltene und weniger bekannte Tripperformen_ (_Rare and

little-known forms of Gonorrhoea_), German translation by George

Merzbach, Vienna and Leipzig, 1907.

[95] _La Donna delinquente, la Prostituta e la Donna normale_

(_Woman as Criminal and Prostitute_), p. 374, Turin, 1893.

[English readers will find an account of this widely-read book in

Kureila's _Cesare Lombroso, a Modern Man of Science_, pp. 55-64,

translated by M. Eden Paul; Rebman, London, 1911--TRANSLATOR'S

NOTE.]

[96] _Étude médico-légale sur les Attentats aux Moeurs_, p. 31,

Paris, 1857.

[97] Kisch, _The Sexual Life of Woman_ p. 80, translated by M.

Eden Paul; Rebman, London, 1910.

[98] _L'Onanisme chez l'homme_, p. 99, 2nd ed, Paris.

[99] _Minorenni Delinquenti_, p. 184, Milan, 1895.

[100] _The Sexual Question_, p. 482 _et seq._, Rebman, London,

1908.

[101] _Op. cit._, p. 230.

[102] _Delinquenza precoce e senile_, p. 197, Como, 1901.

[103] _Les Enfants menteurs_, Mémoire lu à la Société

médico-psychologique, séances du 13 et 27 Nov. 1882.

[104] _Handbuch für Untersuchungerichter_ (_Manual for Police

Magistrates_), Part I. p. 110, 5th ed., Munich, 1908.

[105] _Aprosexia_ is the technical term for inability to fix the

mind upon any subject.

[106] In the first book of _Les Confessions_.

[107] Strodtmann, _H. Heines Leben und Werke_, vol. i. p. 27 _et

seq._, Berlin, 1873.

[108] _Fisiologia del Amore_.

[109] _Les Femmes homicides_, Paris, 1908. p. 39 _et seq._

[110] "Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Lebens- und

Entwicklungsbedingungen der Inder" ("Contributions to our

Knowledge of the Conditions of Life and Development of the

Natives of India"), _Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschaftsbiologie_,

1907, p. 839 et seq.

[111] _Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschaftsbiologie_, 1906, p.

916.

[112] We are irresistibly reminded, in this connexion, of the

reputed higher morality of age as compared with youth, of which

La Rochefoucauld says (Maxim 192): "When our vices leave us, we

flatter ourselves that it is we who leave them."--TRANSLATOR'S

NOTE.

[113] Esquirol refers to this in his great work on Mental

Disorders.

[114] _Die Sittlichkeitsverbrecher_ (_Offenders against Sexual

Morality_). See also _Vierteljahrsschrift für gerichtliche

Medizin und offentliche Sanitätswesen_, Third Series, xxix, 2.

[115] The custom of taking in a man as a night-lodger in crowded

working-class tenements appears, unhappily, to be commoner in the

large towns of Germany and Austria than it is in this country.

See, for instance, Adelheid Popp's _Jugendgeschichte einer

Arbeiterin_ (3rd ed., Reinhardt, Munich, 1910, pp. 19, 20). But

such lodgers are by no means unknown in the overcrowded quarters

of English towns.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[116] _Psychiatrische Vorlesungen_, Leipzig, 1892, p. 41.

[117] Compare George Meredith on the male egoist's demand for

"innocence" (_The Egoist_, p. 105): "The capaciously strong soul

among women will ultimately detect an infinite grossness in the

demand for purity infinite, spotless bloom." The frequency with

which young widows remarry suggests that the demand for

_"innocence"_ in women is largely "a result of conventional

opinions."--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[118] _La Prostitution Clandestine_, p. 41 _et seq._, Paris,

1885.

[119] _The Intermediate Sex,_ Swan Sonnenschein, London, 1908, p.

86.

[120] Werthauer, _Sittlichkeitsdelikte der Grosstadt_ (_Offences

against Morality in Large Towns_), p. 78 _et seq._, Berlin and

Leipzig, 1908.

[121] _Verbrechen und Vergehen wider die Sittlichkeit.

Entführung. Gewerbsmässige Unzucht_ (_Crimes and Misdemeanours

against Morality. Abduction, Professional Unchastity_), p. 115.

Reprint from the _Fergleichende Darstellung des Deutschen und

Ausländischen Strafrechts_ (_Comparative Statement of German and

Foreign Criminal Law_).

[122] _Das Geschlechtsleben in der Völkerpsychologie_ (_The

Sexual Life in Folk-Psychology_), p. 557, Leipzig, 1908.

[123] Béraud, _Les Filles Publiques de Paris_, Paris, 1839.

[124] For fuller details, see Mittelmaier, _op. cit._, p. 116.

[125] "Ueber die klinisch-forensische Bedeutung des perversen

Sexualtriebes" ("The Clinical and Legal Significance of

Perversions of the Sexual Impulse") _Allgemeine Zeitschrift für

Psychiatrie und psychisch-gerichtliche Medizin_, vol. xxxix, p.

220 _et seq._, Berlin, 1883.

[126] See footnote to page 260.

[127] Compare Havelock Ellis, _Studies in the Psychology of Sex_,

vol. vi.; _Sex in Relation to Society_ (Philadelphia, 1910, p.

368); "But altogether outside theoretical morality, or the

question of what people 'ought' to do, there remains _practical

morality_, or the question of what, as a matter of fact, people

actually do. This is the really fundamental and essential

morality. Latin _mores_ and Greek [Greek: êthos] both refer to

_custom_, to the things that are, and not to the things that

'ought to be.'" The etymological connexion, of which Dr. Moll

speaks, between the words _morality_ (or _ethics_) and _custom_,

thus subsists through the intermediation of the dead languages.

But in German, the etymological connexion between _Sitte_

(custom) and _Sittlichkeit_ (morality) is immediately

apparent.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[128] For details, see Rosenbaum, _Geschichte der Lustseuche_

(_History of Venereal Disease_), Halle, 1893, p. 52 _et seq._

[129] It is surprising that the author makes no reference to the

close association, in many cases, of the sentiment of disgust

with unpleasant smells. The earthworm, the cockroach, and the

bed-bug are regarded as peculiarly disgusting, and all have a

particularly offensive odour. The unpleasant smell of the alvine

evacuations is assuredly a large element in the disgust these

inspire.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[130] _Die seelische Entwicklung des Kindes_ (_The Mental

Development of the Child_), 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1908, p. 90.

[131] For fuller details, see the work of Rudeck, _Geschichte der

öffentlichen Sittlichkeit in Deutschland_ (_History of Public

Morals in Germany_), 2nd ed., Berlin, 1905, p. 4 _et seq._ _Cf._

also, Alfred Martin, _Deutsches Badewesen in vergangenen Tagen_

(_German Bathing Customs in Former Days_), Jena, 1906.

[132] A German law dealing with offences against sexual

morals.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[133] I owe to private information, most kindly given me by Dr.

Bohn, my knowledge of numerous details bearing on this question.

[134] _Romanische Liebe und persönliche Schönheit_ (_Romantic

Love and Personal Beauty_), 2nd ed., Breslau, 1894, vol. ii. p.

58.

[135] This does not conflict with the fact that in these circles

also much hypocrisy is practised--much more certainly than in our

own country (Germany). To a still greater extent is this true of

England, where also in many circles all illegitimate sexual

intercourse is proscribed, thus leading to the practice of

hypocrisy. Because a large proportion of the population does not

practise illegitimate intercourse, those who do indulge in it are

led to conceal as far as possible their own illegitimate

intercourse; as a result of this we find side by side and

simultaneously in the same circle, on the one hand a prohibition

of illegitimate intercourse based upon genuine conviction, and on

the other a hypocritical condemnation of such intercourse.

Further, we have to admit that the question is an exceptionally

difficult one, precisely on account of the hypocrisy and lies in

which the sexual life is enveloped. Naturally, where illegitimate

intercourse is forbidden, those who do indulge are far more

careful, and especially in guarding against venereal infection,

lest the illness should betray them to others. A communication

made to me very recently suggests the need for great caution in

our judgment in these matters. A foreign university professor

gives his students very fine lectures on the sexual life, laying

great stress on the beauty and importance of sexual abstinence.

The lecturer was convinced that as a result of his lectures his

students were exceptionally chaste and abstinent. But a colleague

of this same professor at the university is no less firmly

convinced, and this as the result of reports from members of his

friend's audience, that the assumed chastity of the students is

purely imaginary, and that in actual fact their lives are just as

loose as those of students in general.

[136] See the article on "Coeducation" in _Buch von Kinde_ (_The

Book of the Child_), edited by Adele Schreiber, vol. ii, Leipzig,

1907, p. 48.

[137] _Versuch einer Charakteristik des weiblichen Geschlechtes_

(_Attempt at a Characterization of the Female Sex_), Hanover,

1797, vol. i. p. 95.

[138] Pougin, _Dictionnaire du Théâtre_, Paris, 1885, p. 715.

[139] The description of such a mental state will be found in a

diary, shown to Nyström by a young friend of his, and published

by the former in his work on _The Sexual Life and its Laws_ (_Das

Geschlechtsleben und seine Gesetze_), Berlin, 1904, p. 129.

[140] Moll, _Aerztliche Ethik_, Stuttgart, 1902, pp. 220-31.

[141] Theologians are not agreed as to when the "age of reason"

is attained. Gousset, in his _Moraltheologie zum Gebrauch der

Pfarrer und Beichtväter_ (German translation of the seventh

edition of a French work, _Moral Theology for the Use of Priests

and Father-Confessors_), Aix, 1852, vol. ii. p. 244, demands that

children should go to confession as soon as they are seven years

of age; other authorities consider that the "age of reason"

begins only in the last years of childhood.

[142] _L'Amour_, 5th ed., Paris, 1861, p. 72.

[143] From what has been said before, it will have become evident

that the question has different aspects in different strata of

the population. I have attempted merely to formulate general

principles, not to furnish an answer for every possible concrete

question. Differences between town and country, between richer

and poorer, between cultured and uncultured, must be given due

consideration. In the case of those belonging to the less

cultured and the poorer strata of society, a special use in this

connexion may be found for those social institutions which have

of late come into being in various localities as the fruit of

voluntary effort [corresponding to our Children's Care Committees,

&c., in England--TRANSLATOR], and conducted by women of the cultured and

well-to-do classes. These institutions may be utilised for imparting the

sexual enlightenment, at any rate in so far as they permit of an

individual study of the child-psyche.

[144] _Sexuelle Belehrung der aus der Volksschule entlassenen

Mädchen_ (_The Sexual Instruction of Girls Leaving the Elementary

School_), Leipzig, 1907.

[145] Among others by K. Höller: "Die Aufgabe der Volksschule"

("The Task of the Elementary School"), _Proceedings of the Third

Congress of the German Society for the Suppression of the

Venereal Diseases, at Mannheim, in the Year 1907_. In these

Proceedings, which were published as the seventh volume of the

_Zeitschrift zur Bekämpfung der Geschlechtskrankheiten_ (_Journal

for the Suppression of the Venereal Diseases_), the reader will

find a vast amount of material bearing upon this question.

[146] _Briefe über die wichtigsten Gegenstände der Menschheit

(Letters Concerning Matters of the Utmost Importance to

Mankind)_, written by R., and published by S. I. Teil, Leipzig,

1794, p. 100 _et seq._ To all who are interested in the subject

under discussion, I strongly recommend the perusal of this book,

which seems to-day to have been entirely forgotten.

[147] For example, Max Oker-Blom: _Beim Onkel Doktor auf dem

Lande_. A book for parents, 2nd ed., Vienna and Leipzig,

1906.--An English version, _How my Uncle the Doctor Instructed me

in Matters of Sex_, has been published by the American Society of

Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis, 33, West 42nd Street, New York.

[A list of a number of such books will be found in a footnote to

p. 684 of my translation of Bloch's _The Sexual Life of Our

Time_. As Oker-Blom himself says of this vital matter of sexual

enlightenment, "Better a year too early than an hour too

late."--TRANSLATOR.]

[148] _Affektivität, Suggestibilität, Paranoia_, Halle, 1906.

[149] _Anthropologisch-kulturhistorische Studien über die

Geschlechtsverhältnisse des Menschen_ (_Anthropological and

Historical Studies concerning the Sexual Life of Mankind_), 2nd

ed., Jena, 1888, p. 106.

[150] There is one bearing of the use of alcohol in relation to

irregular sexual intercourse, the importance of which Dr. Moll

appears to me largely to ignore in his discussion of the subject,

and that is the effect which even moderate doses of alcohol have

in blunting the finer sensibilities, and in disturbing the

balance of the judgment. (The author's only reference to the

subject is on page 348, where he writes, "If so much alcohol is

taken as to interfere with the natural psychical inhibitions,

sexual practices may occur that would not otherwise have

occurred.") To take the woman's point of view first, it is, I

believe, a common experience with prostitutes that, in the

earlier days at any rate, they find it difficult to ply their

trade unless under the influence of alcohol. Turning to the man's

point of view, there is quite a considerable proportion of young

men who, however strong their sexual impulse, object to

meretricious intercourse at once on ethical and æsthetic grounds.

The ethical ground is that intercourse with a prostitute

infringes the elementary principle of civilised morals, that one

human being should not use another as a mere means to the ends of

the former, but that each of us must treat all human beings as

ends in themselves; considering the general character of

prostitution, the fact that obligations to the individual

prostitute are supposed to be discharged by a conventional money

payment, does not countervail the fact that this moral principle

is infringed. On the æsthetic objections to prostitution, it is

hardly necessary to enlarge; they have been felt by all men with

refined sensibilities. But it is precisely these refined

sensibilities which are blunted by even moderate doses of

alcohol--doses insufficiently great to abate the sexual impulse

itself. I do not mean to suggest that prostitution would not

continue, in the present economic and social conditions, were

there no intoxicants in the world; but I think an evening spent

in quiet observation in the "promenade" of a "fashionable" London

music-hall will convince most people that the above-described

effects of alcohol are by no means purely imaginary.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[151] The arguments against raising the Age of Consent for women

beyond the age of sixteen now specified in the Criminal Law

Amendment Act of 1885, as ably summarised by Havelock Ellis,

should be consulted in this connexion. See his _Studies in the

Psychology of Sex_, vol. vi., _Sex in Relation to Society_, pp.

528-30. Davis, Philadelphia, 1910.--TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.

[152] "Die Anfänge einer Erziehung zu geistiger und körperlicher

Gesundheit während des ersten Lebensjahres" ("The Beginnings of

an Education for the Maintenance of Mental and Bodily Health, as

applied during the First Year of Life"), _Fortschritte der

Medizin_, 1908, No. 21.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS

"ABREACTION," 278

Abstinence, sexual. _See_ Sexual abstinence

Accuracy, sexual differences in, 41

Accusations, false, by children, 227

Acme, voluptuous. _See_ Orgasm; _and also_ Voluptuousness

Adenoids, 207

Adequacy of sexual act, 31, 32, 88, 89

Advertisements, perverse, 240-245

Age for the sexual enlightenment, 289-290

Age of consent, 230, 314, 315

"Age of reason," 275

Alarm at sexual manifestations, 213

Albums, 15

Alcohol, 160, 161, 220, 221, 310-311

and the sexual impulse, 160, 161

unsuitable for children, 161

Alcoholism, 220

Alienists and the study of sexual life, 147

Alopecia areata, 47

Altruism and love, 208

Amatory passion and suicide, 188, 189

Anæsthesia sexualis, 87, 92

Animal friendships, 139, 140

Animals, sexual fondness for, 61, 66. _See also_ Bestiality

sexual paradoxy in, 123

sexual phenomena in young, 99-103

Anthropology, works on, 8, 9

Anus, 91

Anxiety causing ejaculation, 92-94

in the masturbator, 184

Anxiety-neurosis, 14, 93, 190

Aprosexia, 207

Art and sexuality, 213-215

the nude in, 258-260

Assaults, sexual. _See_ Sexual assaults

Association of contrectation and detumescence, 81-87

theory of sexual perversions, 130-133

Autobiographies, 10-12, 15

Auto-erotism, 166, 188. _See also_ Masturbation _and_ Onanism

Auto-Suggestion, 190

BALANITIS, 118

Balls, children's, 268, 269

Bars, parallel and horizontal, and sexual stimulation, 159

Bartholin's glands, 23, 25

secretion of, 25, 56

Bathing, mixed, 255

Beard, a secondary sexual character, 34, 38

Beauty and the sexual impulse, 70

Bed, 307

Beggars, 199

Belletristic literature, love in, 12

Bestiality, 61, 66

Bible, the, 273, 274

Bicycling. _See_ Cycling

Biographies, 10-12

Blackmail, 227

Bladder, distension of, causing erection, 50

Blindness, 283

Boarding-schools, 200, 247

Books and pictures erotic, 260-264

Boot, masturbation with, 164

Boys frequenting brothels, 154

Braggadocio, 174

Breasts, sexual differences in, 34, 36

Breathing, sexual differences in, 37

Breeches and sexual stimulation, 159, 307, 308

Brothels, boys frequenting, 155

Brother and sister, rarity of sexual desire between, 71

improper sexual acts between, 71, 199, 200

elder, effects sexual enlightenment, 297

Bulb, vaginal, or bulb of the vestibule, 23

CABBAGE-PATCH, babies in, 170, 285

Calf-love, 70

Cancer, 180

Caressive inclinations and sexuality, 163, 164, 175

Carunculæ myrtiformes, 28

Cases:--

1. Undifferentiated sexual impulse, 64

2. Undifferentiated sexual impulse, 66

3. Undifferentiated sexual impulse, 67

4. Coitus in childhood, 82

5. Development of sexual impulse, 84

6. Anxiety causing ejaculation, 93

7. Sexual paradoxy, 119

8. Sexual paradoxy, 119

9. Sexual paradoxy, 121

10. Disappearance of early perversions, 128

11. Foot fetichism, 134

12. Homosexual, fondness for soldiers, 134

13. Case of a "Voyeur," 135

14. Flagellation fetichism, 135

15. Onanism by thigh friction in a girl of four, 187

16. Masturbation in a boy of eight, 188

17. Masturbation treated by hypnotic suggestion, 276

18. Sexual enlightenment by an elder brother, 297

Castration defined, 111 _n._

effects of, 103-109

Catamenia. _See_ Menstruation

Cathartic method, 278

Catholic confessional, 274-276

priests, homosexual, 209, 210

sadistic, 239

Catholicism and sexual morality, 274-276

Caution requisite in diagnosing masturbation, 165

"Century of the Child," the, 321

Ceremonial observant of attainment of puberty, 162

Cervix uteri. _See_ Uterus

Chancre, soft, 192

Characters, sexual, _See_ Sexual characters

Child, as object of sexual practices, 219-245

defined, 1

sexual life of, its importance, 179-218

Child-depraver. _See_ Pædophilia

Child-life in old Germany, 155

"Child-lover." _See_ Pædophilia

Child-marriage, 9, 149, 214, 215

Child-marriages, offspring of, 214, 215

Child-prostitution, 220

Child-protection, 230, 269, 270

against sexual offences, 230

Child-suicides, 48

Child-witnesses, credibility of, 201-205

Childhood, frequency of sexual incidents in early, 7

periods of, 1, 2

sexual differentiation in, 33-49

sexual experiences in, as a factor in disease, 277-279

sub-epochs of, 1, 2

Children, false accusations of assaults on, 227-229

in the law courts, 230, 231

legal protection of, _See_ Age of consent

sexual acts with, to cure venereal diseases, 219

Children's care committees, 295

dances, 268, 269

Chordee, 52 _n._

Church, the, and sexual indulgence, 193

Circumcision, 18

Civilisation, modern, and precocious sexuality, 156, 157

Clap. _See_ Gonorrhoea

Class, social, and precocious sexuality, 151-152

Climate and precocious sexuality, 150-151

Climbing the pole, 159, 308

Clinical histories of the sexual life, value of, 5, 6

Clitoris, 23, 27, 28

Closets common to both sexes, danger of, 158, 279

Clothing and sexual stimulation, 159

Code, German Criminal, 206

Code of love, 9

Coeducation of the sexes, 264-270

Coitus. _See also_ Sexual intercourse

capacity for, 54

Colour sense, sexual differences in, 40

Compulsion-neuroses, 14, 190, 277

Concealment. _See_ Secretiveness

Confessional, the, 274-276

Confident, 166, 168, 169, 292, 296, 297, 323

Congenital homosexuality, 124-130

predisposition, 113, 124-130, 146, 148, 156, 157, 173, 179, 183,

184, 187, 216-218, 246, 248

Conjunctivitis, _See_ Ophthalmia

Connubial intercourse, 193

Consent, age of, _See_ Age of consent

Consequences, the fear of, 256

Consequences of sexual phenomena in childhood:--

ethical, 192-195

forensic, 201-207

hygienic, 180-192

intellectual, 207-209

social, 195-201

Constipation, 309

Contagion of example, 305

moral. _See_ Moral contagion

psychical, 279

Contrary sexuality. _See_ Sexual inversion

Contrectation and contrectation-impulse, 29-31, 60-71, 81-87, 147,

148, 163, 164, 177

and detumescence, importance of their association, 177

Conversation, indiscreet, before children, 161

obscene, 170, 305, 306

Coquetry, 77

Corporal punishment, 159, 316-321

Corpus cavernosum clitoridis, 23

penis, 18

urethra, 18

spongiosum, 18

Corpuscles, Finger's, 27

genital, 27

Krause's, 27

Corpuscular richness, sexual differences in, 33

Corruption of children by pædophiles, 225-227

of town-life, reputed, 152-156, 264

Country _versus_ town as influencing sexual morality, 152-156, 264

Courage and love, 208

Cowper's glands, 18, 20, 22, 23, 54, 55, 56

Credibility of children's evidence, 201-205

Crime, sexual differences in, 47, 48

Criminal code, German, 206, 313, 314

responsibility in children, 206

of pædophiles, 231-234

Criminals, youthful, 199, 200

Cruelty. _See_ Sadism

Culpability in children, circumstances affecting, 205, 206

Cunnilinctus, 122, 143, 224

Curiosity of children regarding sexual development, 211-213

Custom and morality, 249, 250

Cycling, 90, 248, 308

Cystitis, gonorrhoeal, 192

DANCES for children, 268, 269

Danger to children of legal proceedings, 230, 231

Dangers, hygienic. _See_ Health, dangers to

of corporal punishment, 316, 317

of masturbation commonly exaggerated, 180-183, 283-284

of the sexual enlightenment, 301-302

social. _See_ Social dangers

Décolletage, 255

Degradation, social. _See_ Social degradation

Demarcation, strict, of sexual feelings impossible, 176, 177

Dementia, paralytic, 220, 231

post-epileptic. 220, 231

præcox, 14, 190

senile, 220, 231

Depraver of children. _See_ Pædophilia

Depression in masturbators, 185