ital organs of a child. Nurses sometimes stroke or tickle a
child's genitals in order to put an end to a screaming fit. But in some
cases--and these are more numerous than is commonly supposed--nursemaids
do this under the impulse of their own lustful feelings. Such actions
are not necessarily the outcome of a perverse sexual impulse, although
they may be due to such an impulse in the form of paedophilia, as I shall
have to explain in detail when I come to describe that perversion.
Frequently the offenders are not in the least aware of the danger of
what they are doing, and do it merely in sport. In many instances the
seduction is effected by other children, and often at a very early age.
Recently a case was reported to me in which a boy only five years of age
led older children astray. In schools, a closet used by both boys and
girls is by many considered extremely dangerous. In the country, the
fact that children have a long way to go to school often gives
opportunity for improper conduct; and this is especially likely to occur
if there are copses near the road in which the children can conceal
themselves from observation. When children in the country traverse long
distances on the way to preparatory confirmation classes, misconduct is
exceptionally likely, for such children are now at an age at which the
activity of the sexual life is becoming more manifest. Whether the
seduction be the work of other children or of adults, the child thus led
astray is likely subsequently to induce artificially as often as
possible the agreeable sensations with which it has now been made
acquainted, more especially in view of the fact that in children the
imitative impulse is far more strongly developed than it is in adults,
in whom imitative inclinations are counteracted by numerous inhibitions.
What is true of seduction is true also of the various affections of the
genital organs which induce an impulse to scratch, such as eczema,
prurigo, urticaria, &c. Affections of regions adjoining the genital
organs may also lead to similar troubles--for instance, threadworms in
the rectum or the vagina.

Clothing, also, especially in boys the breeches, may give rise during
childhood to unwholesome stimulation. Hufeland, in his _Makrobiotik_,
long ago advised against the wearing of breeches by little boys. The
Schaumburg-Lippe body-physician, Faust,[75] in a work published in the
year 1791, strongly recommended that boys should not wear breeches