is no more sinful than the desire for food is when one is
hungry. But the performance of the act may, under certain
circumstances, be as sinful as the eating of food which the hungry man
obtained by robbing another fellow-being, just as poor as himself.

I am not preaching to you. But I am not an extremist nor a hypocrite.
I am advocating neither asceticism nor licentiousness. One is as bad,
or almost as bad, as the other.

What I am trying to do is to inculcate in your minds, if possible, a
sane, well-balanced view of all things sexual.

For I believe that wrong, perverted views of the physiology and
hygiene of the sex act and of sex morality, that is, the proper
relationship of the sexes, are responsible for untold misery, for
incalculable suffering. Both sexes suffer, but the female sex suffers
more. The woman always pays more. This is due to her natural
disabilities (menstruation, pregnancy, lactation), to her age-long
repression, to the fact that she must be sought but never seek, and to
her economic dependence.

For the above reasons, sex instruction is a matter of double
importance to woman--this fact has been emphasized in the first
chapter. But woman's disabilities impose upon us another duty:
_because_ she carries the heaviest burden, _because_ she always pays
more dearly than the man, it becomes incumbent upon man to treat her
with special consideration, with genuine kindness and chivalry.

CHAPTER FIVE

PUBERTY

Physical Changes in Puberty--Physical Changes in the Genital
Organs and in the Rest of the Body--Psychic Changes--Puberty and
Adolescence--Nubility.

Puberty is the most wonderful, the most significant period in a girl's
life. Important as it is in a boy's life and development, it is still
more so in a girl's. At this period there are often laid the
foundations which either make or mar the girl's future life.

The meaning of the word puberty is maturity. It is the period at which
the girl and the boy reach sexual maturity; in other words, the period
at which the sex glands of the boy begin to generate spermatozoa, and
the sex glands of the girl begin to mature and expel eggs or ova; with
the girl puberty is marked by an additional phenomenon, which has no
analogue in the boy, namely, menstruation.

=Physical Changes.= The word puberty is derived from the word _puber_,
which in Latin means mature, ripe. But the word puber is itself
derived from the word _pubes_, which in Lati