rmed the main ground of the conviction, and this notwithstanding the
fact that the child had subsequently withdrawn her charges. In common
with other expert witnesses, I pointed out, in rebuttal of the girl's
evidence, that the person on whom the alleged offence had been committed
was not, as the police magistrate and the judge had both assumed, an
inexperienced child, but one in whom sexuality had prematurely awakened,
and in whom strongly sensual tendencies were manifest; we showed that in
her imaginative activities the sexual life played a leading part, and
that the child herself had at an earlier date performed some of the
actions with which she charged the accused. But the child had made so
favourable an impression on the police magistrate and the judge that
they firmly believed her first statement, and held that her subsequent
withdrawal of her accusation was due to outside influence. It would be
well, in some cases of the kind, to insist upon a complete examination
of the girl who makes the accusation, this examination to include her
bodily state, to ascertain if there are indications of a prematurely
awakened sexual life--for example, any irritation of the genital organs
by masturbation. We shall also do well, in such cases, to endeavour to
ascertain whether the child is already fully informed concerning the
nature of sex. We must always bear in mind that things which may give an
indication regarding this are usually kept very secret, and that none of
the child's associates may be able to give us any information. Even
though among the witnesses we have parents, masters, or governesses all
uniting to assure us that the child's mind is still perfectly innocent,
and that not a suspicion regarding matters of sex has yet been aroused,
the judge should not allow himself to be deceived. Sexual imaginations
often dominate the consciousness of the child, at the very time when a
display of shamefacedness in relation to such things deceives the
onlookers. In such trials, it is sometimes put forward as a defence,
that some third person, some police official, the examining judge, or
even an enemy of the accused, has reiterated the false accusation to the
child, and has, as it were, suggested it. Such an assumption is, for
many cases, altogether superfluous, even if we do not believe a word of
the child's accusation, for it completely underestimates the power of
the childish imagination. The French physician, Bourdin,[103] in hi