asurably conscious. In short, as men
looking backward to their early manhood well understand, the physical
sensations that come into the normal sexual experience of the
adolescent boy are different only in degree of intensity from those
which later are concomitants of sexual union. Such, in brief, is the
physiological history of the normal adolescent boy, and one who has
fallen into even most limited masturbation will probably be still more
conscious of the fact that the ordinary sequence of events in the
activity of the sexual organs leads to intense excitement that has
almost irresistible attractiveness.

[Sidenote: Average young women different.]

Now, most scientifically-trained women seem to agree that there are no
corresponding phenomena in the early pubertal life of the normal young
woman who has good health. A limited number of mature women, some of
them physicians, report having experienced in the pubertal years
localized tumescence and other disturbances which made them definitely
conscious of sexual instincts. However, it should be noted that most of
these are known to have had a personal history including one or more
such abnormalities as dysmenorrhea, uterine displacement, pathological
ovaries, leucorrhea, tuberculosis, masturbation, neurasthenia,
nymphomania, or other disturbances which are sufficient to account for
local sexual stimulation. In short, such women are not normal. Such
facts have led many physicians to the generalization that the average
healthy adolescent girl does not undergo normal spontaneous changes
which make her definitely conscious of the nature, source, and
desirability of localized sexual pleasure. On the contrary, such
consciousness commonly comes to many only as the result of stimuli
arising in connection with affection.[18] Clearly it is nonsense to
claim that the sexual temptations arising within the individual are
equal for the two sexes. Potentially, girls may have passions as strong
as boys, but they do not become so definitely and spontaneously
conscious of their latent instincts.

[Sidenote: Helping the young man.]

Thus considering the available facts regarding the physiological
reasons for the sexual tendencies of men, it seems to me that we gain
nothing in trying to minimize the young man's sexual problems, for he
is quite conscious that they are insistent. Far better it is that
mature men who know life in its completeness should make the young man
feel that his pro