vements and sexual processes. He stated that many
children, when sucking the lips, the fingers, the back of the hand or
some other part, or when sucking a rubber teat, simultaneously rubbed
some other region of the body--in some cases the lobule of the ear, the
nipple, or the genital organs; this was sometimes done with one hand
only, sometimes, if both hands were free, with both. This statement is
perfectly correct. It may happen that the child stops rubbing the
genital organs as soon as the sucking is interfered with; or,
conversely, the sucking may cease as soon as we withdraw the child's
hands from its genital organs. But, even in these cases, the friction of
the genital organs does not necessarily possess a specifically sexual
character, since friction of the lobule of the ear or of some other part
of the body is an equivalent act. It is certain that there is here no
intimate connexion between the act of sucking and the sexual life. Thus,
there is no proof whatever for the view of Lindner, which has recently
been carried to a still greater extreme by Freud, that this "voluptuous
sucking" (_Wonnesaugen_) is a truly sexual process. We may, indeed,
assume, as does Rohleder,[86] that such sucking movements occur with
especial frequency in children with a congenital morbid predisposition,
and that to this extent therefore it is connected with masturbation. But
in my opinion it is essential to regard the two movements as clearly
independent in character.

Certain other childish habits, such as nail-biting, have also been
described as sexual manifestations. What I have said of sucking
movements applies to this also. It is true that nail-biting and
masturbation may both occur in the same child, and French writers have
maintained that there is a causal nexus between the two processes. If we
regard nail-biting as a "tic" occurring chiefly in neuropaths, and if we
assume that the neuropathic congenital predisposition is the basis of
the premature awakening of sexuality, it may be supposed that to that
extent there exists a relationship between the two phenomena, inasmuch
as we may refer both manifestations to a common cause, viz., the
neuropathic predisposition. But there is no justification whatever for
regarding, as some do, one manifestation as the direct consequence of
the other.

Speaking generally, we shall do wisely to exercise caution in defining
the limits of the sexual life of the child. If a boy runs after a girl,