that in schools there should be no general and
personal warnings about masturbation, etc. (though at a later age
he approves of instruction in regard to venereal diseases), but
that the mother is the proper person to impart intimate knowledge
to the child, and that any age is suitable for the commencement
of such enlightenment, provided it is put into a form fitted for
the age (Moll, op. cit., p. 264).

At the Mannheim meeting of the Congress of the German Society for
Combating Venereal Disease, when the question of sexual
enlightenment formed the sole subject of discussion, the opinion
in favor of early teaching by the mother prevailed. "It is the
mother who must, in the first place, be made responsible for the
child's clear understanding of sexual things, so often lacking,"
said Frau Krukenberg ("Die Aufgabe der Mutter,"
_Sexualpaedagogik_, p. 13), while Max Enderlin, a teacher, said on
the same occasion ("Die Sexuelle Frage in die Volksschule," id.,
p. 35): "It is the mother who has to give the child his first
explanations, for it is to his mother that he first naturally
comes with his questions." In England, Canon Lyttelton, who is
distinguished among the heads of public schools not least by his
clear and admirable statements on these questions, states
(_Mothers and Sons_, p. 99) that the mother's part in the sexual
enlightenment and sexual guardianship of her son is of paramount
importance, and should begin at the earliest years. J.H. Badley,
another schoolmaster ("The Sex Difficulty," _Broad Views_, June,
1904), also states that the mother's part comes first. Northcote
(_Christianity and Sex Problems_, p. 25) believes that the duty
of the parents is primary in this matter, the family doctor and
the schoolmaster coming in at a later stage. In America, Dr. Mary
Wood Allen, who occupies a prominent and influential position in
women's social movements, urges (in _Child-Confidence Rewarded_,
and other pamphlets) that a mother should begin to tell her child
these things as soon as he begins to ask questions, the age of
four not being too young, and explains how this may be done,
giving examples of its happy results in promoting a sweet
confidence between the child and his mother.

If, as a few believe should be the case, the first initiation is delayed
to the tenth year or even la