easonable jealousy, "sulking spells," violent
quarrels, are some of its manifestations. The idea of _possession_
exercised by either of the couple, and especially a tendency to
dominate or try to control on the part of the woman, may be a causal
factor in desertion. The lack of a saving sense of humor in one or
both is often a complicating factor. These comparatively minor
differences take on a serious complexion in the minds of the couple;
and it is surprising how often a deserting man will give promptly and
with every appearance of feeling justified some cause for his
desertion which falls clearly under this head. "People forgive each
other the big things; it's the little things they can't forgive."

11. Sex Incompatibility.--There comes under this heading a wide range
of causative factors which play an important part in marital discord.
Some of them are better understood by the social worker than was
formerly the case; but many of them are obscure even to the practitioner
of mental medicine, to whom their results come daily. Distasteful as the
task may be, the social worker should familiarize herself, through
reading or through instruction by a qualified physician, in the commoner
forms of these maladjustments. This is not urged because it is part of
the social worker's task to make detailed inquiry into such matters or
to pass judgment upon them, but because they often clamor for attention
and need to be recognized by the first responsible person to whose
notice they are brought. Unless she knows, for instance, what
constitutes excess in sex relations, a worker may misunderstand the
situation described to her and condemn a man for being a selfish brute,
when the trouble is really sexual anaesthesia in the wife. It is well
known that this single cause operates disastrously to disrupt many
marriages or else to render them insupportable. The warning should be
added, however--and it cannot be added too emphatically--that the social
worker must scrupulously refrain from making diagnoses in these cases,
even tentatively; she must refer such data as come to her either to the
general practitioner or to the psychiatrist, selecting one or the other
as the symptoms presented may indicate.

Less well understood by the lay worker are actual maladjustments, both
physical and mental (or spiritual), which prevent the complete
satisfaction of one or both. Some of these are curable by medical care,
others by instruction and educat