es. In such cases, the manners and
customs of the race in which this early development of sexuality is
usual will be found to be especially adapted to attract the child's
attention to sexual matters earlier than is here customary. It suffices
to remind the reader of the celebrations of puberty and of the early
marriages common among such races. Here it is hardly possible to
separate the congenital characters from the effects of environment. But
although, for the reasons given, the discrimination between the
individual factors may be exceedingly difficult, still an attempt at
discrimination must be made, more especially in view of the fact that a
purposive sexual education can be attempted only when due consideration
has been paid to the various etiological factors.

It would naturally be of the utmost importance to be able to foresee the
cases in which it is likely that the sexual processes of childhood would
undergo an exceptionally early development. But as a rule we are unable
to do this; and we must therefore be satisfied with the attempt to
determine in individual cases whether manifestations of the sexual life
occur during childhood, and if so, which manifestations. But even here
we encounter difficulties, which in many instances are insuperable, but
in others arise from the incompetence of adults. This is all the more
deplorable because the effectiveness of sexual education is minimised
through the lack of insight. Just as in the practice of medicine an
accurate diagnosis is an indispensable prerequisite to correct
therapeutics, so also here. Since in the earliest years the child has no
conscious understanding of sexual processes, whilst children in whom a
sexual consciousness has begun to dawn conceal most carefully from their
elders all manifestations of their sexual life, diagnosis is possible
only through knowledge of mankind in conjunction with tact.

Let us first consider the phenomena of contrectation. We shall notice
sometimes that a little boy, perhaps seven years of age or even younger,
will withdraw from the society of other boys, and will seek the company
of some particular individual, for example that of a girl friend of his
sister, of about his own age. Similar phenomena occur in girls. A little
girl in her tenth year will frequently be noticed to find something to
speak to her mother about whenever a particular male friend of the
family visits the house. Even a shrewd and observant mother will of