sexual is already markedly developed, it may be necessary that this
treatment should be institutional. But such cases are certainly very
uncommon. A matter of importance is that the parents or other persons
responsible for the care and guidance of the child, should understand
the psychical management of children; for example, that they should not
fall into the common error of regarding the love-affairs of children as
a joke, and that they should not, by this attitude, actually encourage
the children in their course of conduct.

One part of sexual education is made up by the question of the purposive
sexual enlightenment of children--a matter much discussed at the present
day. I have shown, on page 8, that this question is not, as many
suppose, a new one. Those who have written on the subject of sexual
enlightenment use this term with somewhat various meanings. As regards
the extension of the term, it may be applied to either (or both) of two
fields, which we may term the objective and the subjective aspects of
the sexual life. To the objective side belong the physiological
processes by means of which is effected the reproduction of organisms,
whether plants, animals, or human beings. In explanation of these it is
necessary to describe the reproductive organs, and the processes of
conjugation, fertilisation, and fructification, as they have long been
customarily taught in the botany class; and the nourishment of the
nursing infant from the breast of the mother may also be described. To
the subjective side, belong the relationships of the sexual processes to
the individual organism, the good and the bad effects of the sexual
impulse, &c. In this connexion, reference will be made to the dangers of
masturbation, sexual excesses, pregnancy, venereal infection, and so on.
By many writers, these two fields are not distinguished each from the
other with sufficient clearness. The question, whether children should
be taught about the methods of reproduction in plants, animals, and
human beings, must not be confused with the question whether they should
be taught about masturbation or the venereal diseases. It is possible to
teach children that self-abuse is a harmful practice, without giving
them any account of the physiological processes of reproduction; and,
conversely, these processes may be described, without any special
reference to the bearings of the matter on the individual life. Of
course, the two fields are interconnec