certain associated racial peculiarities, but
we must be on our guard against accepting inferences of too sweeping a
character. Still less, of course, are such peculiarities a trustworthy
aid for the diagnosis of the occurrence of sexual acts at an early age.

The safest way of obtaining accurate information as to the practice of
masturbation and other sexual acts is by means of confessions made to
some person in the child's confidence. Cases are known to me in which
children have very readily confided in some elder person. If this does
not often occur, the fault commonly lies with the child's elder
associates, who do not understand how to establish a truly confidential
relationship with the children under their care. If a child finds that
no one will speak to it about sexual matters, it must ultimately become
secretive about its own sexual life. The child sees very clearly that
every word it utters about such things is repressed as improper, and
soon learns that the whole field of sexuality is regarded as something
unclean, about which not a word must be uttered. The ordinary behaviour
of adults inevitably produces this impression in the child's mind, and
it will readily be understood what an effect this has in preventing us
from gaining information about the sexual life of the child. In many
mothers, the abhorrence of the sexual is carried to such an extreme that
while in other respects they keep their children scrupulously clean,
they feel so strongly that the genital organs must not be touched, that
they neglect to secure the ordinary cleanliness of this region of the
body.

The best confidant for a young child will usually be the mother, not
only because she sees more of the child than the father and because her
relationship is a more intimate one than his, but in addition because a
woman's insight into certain things generally excels a man's. As a
matter of fact, for the reasons stated, masturbation in young children
is in most cases discovered by the mother. It will be obvious that I
speak here only of those mothers who have real affection for and
sympathy with their children, and who share their children's interests;
I do not refer to those mothers who think they have adequately fulfilled
their maternal duties by paying a nurse or a governess, whilst
themselves immersed in the pleasures of society--or perhaps engaged in
the preparation and delivery of lectures on the best way of bringing up
children, on the Wom