cannot yet be called morbid, predispose the subjects to an early
awakening of sexuality.

To attain to clear views on this question, it is necessary to bear
certain distinctions in mind: first, as regards the different periods of
childhood; and, secondly, as regards the two components of the sexual
impulse (detumescence and contrectation). My own investigations have led
me to draw the following conclusions. _During the first period of
childhood, that is to say, up to the end of the seventh year of life,
the occurrence of manifestations of the sexual impulse must arouse
suspicions of the existence of a congenital morbid predisposition._ But
as regards the phenomena of detumescence, which are confined to the
peripheral genital organs, we must make an exception to this rule if
they do not appear spontaneously, but result either from local
inflammatory or other morbid changes, or from deliberate seduction of
the child to the performance of sexual manipulations; at any rate, in
such cases, the probability of the existence of _congenital morbid
predisposition_ is greatly diminished. _I am also forced to regard as
suspicious the occurrence of phenomena of contrectation during the first
period of childhood, although not to the same extent as are the
peripheral manifestation of the sexual impulse--and I hold this view
notwithstanding the numerous cases recorded by Sanford Bell. Passing to
the second period of childhood, the phenomena of contrectation may
appear at the very beginning of this period, that is, during the eighth
year of life, without justifying the inference that any morbid
predisposition exists. Regarding the phenomena of detumescence, we must
not hold them to be necessarily morbid when they make their appearance
during the last years of the second period of childhood; but when this
occurs earlier, during the tenth or eleventh year of life for instance,
some suspicion may reasonably be aroused._ In this general survey of the
material, it did not appear that any important difference existed
between the two sexes in the matters under consideration; but I believe
that in girls the phenomena of contrectation often make their
appearance somewhat earlier than in boys, whereas, on the other hand,
the occurrence of the phenomena of detumescence at an early age is more
likely to indicate the existence of congenital morbid predisposition in
girls than it is in boys.

In the delimitation of the pathological from the healthy