For, just in the same way, a child's altruistic feelings may be stimulated by love. We see cases in which a child tries to help the beloved schoolmate in every possible difficulty or trouble. Such a love may also spur the lover on to excellence in other fields than the mere work of the class. The boy, while still quite young, seeks to make an impression on the girl by courage and steadfastness, just as he will seek to do this somewhat later, when he has attained early manhood.

A spirited description is given by Gruenstein of boys engaged in a sham fight. At first the contending parties are timorous, appearing afraid of one another:—

"But when the girls draw near, to view The slaughter of a stricken plain, In mimic battle, at this cue, The boys now join with might and main.

Under the spell of girlish eyes Each strives his courage to display; For wounds or death he may despise, Who helps his side to win the day.

And as the factions join in strife, They shout amid the battle's din; Fighting as if for very life, Each one will do his best to win.

Each hopes the victory to gain; Each would the bravest warrior prove. Hurrah! they cry, and each is fain To win bright glances from his love."

As I have previously explained, the existence of sexual perversions may sometimes be traced back into early childhood, although, in individual cases, the experiences of childhood may throw little light on the subsequent sexual life. But we saw that cases certainly occur in which the abnormal tendencies of the sexual life are manifested in early childhood, and in which, also, other tendencies of childhood are determined by the abnormal sexual life. In such cases, the mental life of the child is also profoundly affected. Such a child feels unhappy on account of its abnormal sexual relationships. The boy would rather have been a girl, the girl a boy. In such a case, the choice of a future profession will also be affected by mental peculiarities closely associated with the sexual life. The homosexual ladies' tailor, the music-hall artiste who makes a speciality of feminine impersonations, the ladies' hairdresser, and others in like occupations, will often tell us that the choice of their trade or profession was made while they were still children. In this connexion, I may also refer to the sexual life of Catholic priests. It is certain that some of these exhibit homosexual tendencies. It is often suggested that it is their repulsion from heterosexual intercourse which leads such men to take the Catholic vow of celibacy. But there is another possible factor which must not be overlooked. It is not unlikely that certain persons, not homosexual, but in whom sexual inclination towards women is primarily wanting, may incline to enter the priesthood. Yet another possibility is pointed out by a Catholic priest who has written on this subject. He is of opinion that homosexually inclined boys often exhibit even in childhood caressive tendencies; such boys early attract the attention of priests, who make use of them in the performance of various ecclesiastical ceremonies. For this reason, such boys come under the influence of the priesthood at an exceptionally early age; and thus it comes about that in an exceptionally large proportion of cases they themselves enter the priesthood.

There are other sexual perversions, in addition to those just mentioned, by which the inclinations and occupations of the child may be influenced. A hair-fetichist, whose case I had occasion to study carefully when, at the age of fifteen, he had to stand his trial on account of cutting off girls' plaits of hair, informed me that for one or two years before he first committed this offence, he had experienced a peculiar stimulus whenever he handled hair. In other cases of fetichism which I have had under observation, the abnormal fetichistic tendency went much further back. An underclothing fetichist began at the age of seven to be greatly interested in his sister's and in the maidservant's underclothing, touching such articles of clothing as often as he could, and pressing up against them in a caressing way. The choice of reading is sometimes determined by perverse sensibilities, the sexual nature of which may often not become apparent until a considerable period has elapsed. I know certain persons with masochistic and with sadistic tendencies, who in childhood preferred to read stories about robbers and slaves, the use of fetters and the descriptions of violence of all kinds playing a peculiar part in their imaginations. It must be regarded as definitely established that children sometimes deliberately incur corporal punishment in order to enjoy masochistic sexual sensations. The best-known instance is that of Jean Jacques Rousseau, who at the age of seven was chastised by Mademoiselle Lambercier, and thereupon experienced agreeable sensual feelings. He himself tells us[106] how sincere was his affection for Mademoiselle Lambercier, and his extremely tractable disposition would have tended to prevent his deliberately seeking to commit an improper act. And yet in spite of this the chastisement was repeated, and again he experienced a secret stimulation. In a little erotic work of the eighteenth century, Le Joujou des Demoiselles, we find under the heading of "Le Fouet" ("A Whipping"), the following short poem, relating to a girl twelve years of age:—

"A l'age de douze ans, pour certain grave cas, Que je sais et ne dirai pas, Lise du fouet fut menacee A sa maman, justement courroucee,

Lise repondit fierement, Vous avez tout lieu de vous plaindre, Mais pour le fouet tout doucement, Je suis d'age a l'aimer et non pas a le craindre.

At the age of twelve, for a good reason, Which I know, but will not tell, Lise was threatened with a whipping. To her mother, justly incensed,

Lise answered proudly, You have just cause of complaint, But as regards a moderate whipping, I am of an age to enjoy and not to fear it."

The awakening of sex has further effects upon the mental life of the child. Its curiosity is aroused, as soon as the phenomena of pubescence make their appearance, either in themselves or in other children. Long before this, as a rule, the navel has to the child been an object of curiosity. This part of the body seems strange and perplexing, and even in early childhood the genital organs may inspire similar sentiments. The child observes that in respect of such things some reserve is the rule, that a certain shyness is manifested in looking at and touching the genital organs, and for these very reasons the child's attention is apt to be directed to these organs. But curiosity becomes much keener when the signs of puberty manifest themselves. To many a child, the looking-glass serves as a means for the thorough observation of these remarkable signs of development. With amazement the child watches the growth of the axillary and the pubic hair; and in girls attention is aroused by the enlargement of the breasts. Curiosity then leads the child to seek information about these things from various books, and especially from an encyclopaedia. It is a matter of general experience that the article on Masturbation is eagerly studied by many children, even before the end of the second period of childhood. A search is made for anatomical illustrations, in order to see the genital organs of both sexes. In many cases brothers and sisters arrange to satisfy one another's curiosity on this point. Elder brother and younger, elder sister and younger, or brother and sister will often seek to enlighten one another as to differences in bodily structure, especially as regards the external genital organs, by means of mutual inspection. Such childish curiosity may be, and often is, altogether independent of the awakening of the sexual life; the real motive is then the rationalist one, if the expression be permitted. But in other instances the curiosity is determined, or increased, by the awakening of the sexual life. Similar considerations apply to the observation of the sexual acts of animals, for which opportunities occur more especially in the country, but sometimes also in the town; in most cases, the motive for such observation in the first instance is pure curiosity, independent of sexual processes in the child. Parents who surprise their children thus engaged, usually regard such investigations as signs of gross immorality; but it is unnecessary to take so tragic a view. It is simply childish curiosity, on the part of those who see nothing wrong in what they are doing. That which is immoral in the adult is not necessarily immoral in the child, who is merely led by curiosity, and by his astonishment at the changes taking place in his body, to study these changes closely. It is not immoral for a child to wish to study in propria persona matters about which information has been withheld. Adults are far too ready to interpret the actions of children in the light of their own feelings—a mistake which cannot be too strongly condemned.

The curiosity of the child about his own body is often intermingled with fear; above all in the perfectly innocent, completely unenlightened child, the first seminal emission, whether it occurs during sleep or in the waking hours, and in the girl, the first appearance of the menstrual flow, may readily cause serious alarm. It must not be supposed that such alarm is of rare occurrence. Even in large towns, which our moralists are apt to regard as altogether corrupt, we sometimes find that a boy of fifteen or sixteen may be greatly alarmed, on waking, to discover that he has had a seminal emission, for which he has been prepared neither by experience nor by instruction.

Additional wider influences of the sexual life of the child cannot here be fully discussed. But when we see that in great poets and other artists much of their creative work may be effected in childhood, and when, on the other hand, we observe the connexion of many artistic productions with the psychosexual sphere, we cannot fail to admit the possibility that the sexual life of the child is to some extent related to art. Thus, we sometimes see children endeavouring, however imperfectly, to express their feelings in verse; and in cases in which nothing of the kind occurs, the erotic feelings of childhood may still exercise influence later in life. As examples from world-literature, I may mention: Heine, who was still a boy when he was so greatly attracted by his Sefchen, the executioner's niece, whose personality made a definite impression on the poet's maturer work;[107] Goethe, whose friendship with the sister of the little Derones, likewise had certain artistic results; Dante, who first met his Beatrice at the age of nine years, and ever thenceforward remained under her spell. If in such cases we inquire as to the impressions of childhood, we unquestionably find, in poets and artists, traces, sometimes of direct, but more frequently of indirect influences.

Mantegazza[108] goes so far as to regard the premature development of psychosexual sentiments as a peculiarity of richly endowed and talented natures. An obscure, shamefaced feeling, by which the boy is drawn to the girl, is, he thinks, manifest in such natures, even before sex has made its profound impression upon the developing organism, and before the reproductive organs have assumed their adult forms. He compares such feelings with the rosy tint which appears on the horizon before the sunrise, and he considers that in men of a lower type or less highly gifted by nature, the new sentiments known by the name of love do not appear until after the adult development of the reproductive organs. I do not believe that this generalisation is well founded; although, as previously mentioned, I consider that the alarm which is often caused in elders by the appearance in the child of such early psychosexual manifestations is not warranted, as a rule, by the facts of the case.

The question as to the quality of the offspring resulting from the sexual intercourse of children, either of two children who are both sexually mature, or of a sexually mature child with a grown person, has not, in Europe, any great or immediate practical interest. With us, procreation is rarely possible on the part of those who are still children, for the boy is hardly competent for procreation before the completion of the second period of childhood, and in the case of girls such competence is rarely met with till towards the very end of the second period of childhood. But if we put the question in a somewhat more general form, and study the quality of the offspring of youthful persons in whom bodily development is not yet fully completed, the matter becomes one of greater practical interest. But for a decision even on this point, data are insufficient, notwithstanding the fact that, according to Pauline Tarnowsky,[109] among the Russians a young girl frequently marries while still sexually immature, at the age of sixteen or seventeen, when, in that country, menstruation has often not yet begun. But there is a country from which data bearing on this problem can be obtained—data of considerable, and, as some think, of decisive importance—viz. India. In India, child-marriages occur with extraordinary frequency, and, according to Hans Fehlinger,[110] their number continues to increase. Originally almost confined to the Hindus, these marriages have spread to the Mohammedans, the Buddhists, and the Animists, notwithstanding the fact that religious reasons for such marriages exist only in the case of the Hindus. In the year 1881, for every 1000 persons under 10 years of age, 99 were married, of these 24 being boys, and 75 girls. In the year 1901, the number of married persons under 10 years of age was 158 per 1000, of whom 20 were children under 5 years old. This is an enormous percentage: and although Fehlinger himself draws attention to the fact that marriage in childhood is not always tantamount to the beginning of sexual intercourse, since in many cases years will intervene between marriage and the commencement of cohabitation, yet in many other instances no such interval exists. E. Ruedin[111] also deals with the question of child-marriages in India, discussing it from the point of view of racial degeneration. He states that, with one exception, modern writers are agreed that the consequences of the Indian custom of child-marriage are altogether bad—that not a single point can be urged in favour of the practice. The solitary writer to urge anything in favour of the custom of child-marriage is Sir Denzil Ibbetsson, who asserts that in the Western Punjab, where child-marriages are exceptional, immorality and assaults upon women are commoner than in the Eastern Punjab, where child-marriages are the rule. Those who strongly disapprove of child-marriages, point more particularly to the fact that when a girl-child is married to an adult man, she often receives mechanical injuries in the act of intercourse; and they contend, in addition, that child-marriage is injurious to the offspring. For, by child-marriage, we obviate any possibility of sexual selection within the limits of a particular caste, inasmuch as persons are bound together in marriage whose defective constitution and inferior mental endowments may not become apparent until long after marriage, and yet the couple, tied to one another for life, will continue to procreate an inferior stock. But, in this connexion, it must not be forgotten that in India puberty is attained far earlier in life than it is in Western Europe.

Having dealt with the premature development of the sexual life, a few words must now be allotted to the consideration of an abnormally late awakening of sexuality. This latter phenomenon must, unquestionably, be regarded as a morbid manifestation. In the course of my experience, I have seen quite a number of people in whom the sexual impulse made its first appearance very late; in childhood, and also later, some of these were regarded by their associates as models of chastity. They had no intercourse with prostitutes, because even at the age of twenty they had not yet experienced any definite sexual impulse. They despised other young men who practised irregular sexual intercourse, and they themselves had no difficulty in refraining from such intercourse. But many such persons are the subjects of a remarkable self-deception; for a long time they really believe themselves to be exceptionally moral, and succeed in convincing themselves that their abstinence from sexual intercourse is dependent upon ethical motives, whereas often the real reason has merely been the lack of inclination and of capacity for sexual intercourse. In most cases the real nature of the case subsequently becomes clear to them, and they come to understand that their previous sexual abstinence was not determined by ethical motives. When we analyse such cases more accurately, we often find that we have to do with abnormal individualities; abnormal not merely in respect of the retarded development of the sexual life, but also as regards other phenomena. Not infrequently we have to do with neuropathic and psychopathic natures, and the reality of this is quite unaffected by the fact that the superficial observer is convinced that such persons are exceptionally moral. I possess a considerable number of autobiographical case-histories of this kind, and it is quite usual to find that they state that their associates have wrongly accredited them with peculiar virtue, whereas in reality their apparently irreproachable conduct depended simply upon abnormality of development, and the strict morality was an illusive appearance. Many of them also produce an altogether unmanly, effeminate, bashful, and timid impression. Although I have always honoured, and continue to hold in honour, those young men who avoid illegitimate sexual intercourse on genuinely moral grounds, the persons exhibiting the peculiarities just explained must be regarded as pathological subjects. If our moralists hold up to us as exemplary specimens such young men as these, we have to answer that in that case sexual abstinence, and also chastity and morality, may depend upon a pathological inheritance. Just as we are unable to regard eunuchs as exceptionally virtuous individuals, so also must we be cautious in our assignment of moral motives for the sexual abstinence of young men of this nature.[112]

In the female sex, also, there are persons in whom the sexual life, and especially the sexual impulse, awakens very late. This may happen notwithstanding the fact that menstruation has begun at the normal age. Both the peripheral phenomena of detumescence, and also the phenomena of contrectation, may be thus retarded; and the former especially may permanently fail to appear. We see girls who appear remarkably virtuous, because, while other girls are rejoicing at having found an admirer, they pass coldly along, in the streets and elsewhere, their eyes directed forwards, and rigidly avoid exchanging glances with any male person. Although this delayed sexual development does not arouse in us the same unsympathetic feelings in the case of young women as it does in the case of young men, it is none the less necessary to recognise the phenomenon in the female sex as well, and this not on medical grounds merely, but also on educational, ethical, and social grounds. In fine, in such cases, we have to do with something very different from cases in which from a true sense of shame or on moral grounds a girl maintains her mental and bodily chastity; different, also, from the cases in which we have to do with women whose bodily development is normal, but who in other respects resemble rather the type of those in whom the reproductive glands have been removed.

I may take this opportunity of insisting upon the fact that the unduly retarded awakening of the sexual life, or the complete failure of the sexual impulse to appear, is not especially to be desired, and entails dangers and disadvantages just as does a premature development of sexuality. I may recall, in this connexion, certain earlier experiences. At one time it was assumed that there was a mental disorder known as pyromania; the pyromaniac was one with an irresistible impulse to light incendiary fires. To-day, we no longer admit the existence of any such disease, and the impulse to light incendiary fires, when such a morbid impulse manifests itself, is regarded as a symptom of imbecility, of cerebral degeneration, &c. But we may take this opportunity of reminding the reader that Henke,[113] an earlier investigator, regarded pyromania as due chiefly to arrest or disturbance of the physical and psychical phenomena of puberty. Esquirol himself appears to have shared this opinion; and although modern psychiatry takes quite a different view of pyromania, we have none the less to insist that unduly retarded development may, just as much as premature development, give rise to undesirable consequences.



CHAPTER VIII

THE CHILD AS AN OBJECT OF SEXUAL PRACTICES

We have now to consider a matter which bears but indirectly on the sexual life of the child, and yet may be of the greatest importance in relation to that life; we have to consider cases in which the child is the object of sexual practices by others. I have previously referred to instances in which one child loves another. But the child may also be an object of sexual desire to adults; for in certain men and women, sexual inclination is directed towards children. By von Krafft-Ebing this state is termed paedophilia erotica.

Not all the cases in which sexual acts are performed on children belong to the province of paedophilia. It is well known that in certain countries—Germany is one of them—a superstition prevails among certain strata of the population to the effect that venereal diseases may be cured by means of sexual intercourse with children. Where this is the motive of the sexual act, the case does not belong to the class of paedophilia; and many other sexual acts in which children play a part must also be excepted from this class. It sometimes happens that debauchees, after having practised all kinds of venereal excesses, finally take to misusing children; nursemaids, again, and other servants, will carry out all sorts of sexual acts on the children entrusted to their care, sometimes merely in order to quiet the children, sometimes "for fun." Von Krafft-Ebing refers to a special group of young men who do not feel sufficient confidence in their sexual potency to attempt intercourse with grown women, also to masturbators affected with psychical impotence; such persons are apt to seek an equivalent for coitus in improper contacts with little girls.

One very large group of cases belongs to the sphere of psychiatry. In quite a number of congenital and acquired states of mental defect or disorder, sexual acts performed on children appear as symptoms of moral and intellectual degeneration. In this connexion may be mentioned, congenital imbecility, progressive paralysis (paralytic dementia), senile dementia, chronic alcoholism, cerebral syphilis, and post-epileptic dementia; with or without these conditions, epileptic disturbances of consciousness may lead to sexual offences against children.

None of these cases have anything to do with poedophilia erotica. And there are yet other cases which it is desirable to distinguish from this class, especially those cases in which a marked hyperaesthesia was the determining cause of the sexual act. In such a case, it is to the person thus affected almost a matter of indifference with whom the sexual act is performed. Anything warm and alive will do, and inasmuch as a child is often most readily available, a child often serves as victim, whilst in other cases an animal is utilised.

Fritz Leppmann,[114] to whom we are indebted for a full and excellent study of cases of this kind, distinguishes the influences which are subjective to the offender from those which operate from without. Among the latter he refers especially to the Schlafbursch or night-lodger;[115] it may be a young man in his prime, sleeping in the same room or even in the same bed with little girls; also to unemployment, which very readily gives occasion for sexual excesses; to the practice of allowing little girls to run about without proper supervision; to premature sexual development in children, which renders these latter especially liable to be the subjects of sexual misconduct; to child-prostitution, often at the instigation of the parents; to the lack of proper sexual reserve; to obscenity, dances, and popular festivals, whereby the sexual impulse may be stimulated; to unhappy marriage; and, above all, to the effects of alcohol. Occupation and position have also to be considered, for, in the case of many males, an authoritative position (that of schoolmaster, priest, doctor, employer, stepfather, tutor) gives extraordinary facilities for committing sexual offences against children.

Although children of all ages, and even infants in arms, may be the victims of sexual misconduct, in the majority of such cases we have to do with children who are no longer quite young; and this is true, more especially, of most cases of paedophilia erotica. This latter passion may be directed against children of the same sex as the offender, but more commonly it is directed towards children of the opposite sex. Not infrequently, however, the impulse in such persons lacks sharp differentiation, the paedophile showing inclination, now for immature boys, now again for immature girls. Occasionally, paedophilia is the only form in which sexual inclination exhibits itself in the persons concerned; but in other cases the paedophilic impulse alternates with normal sexual feelings, or with some other perverse sexual manifestation. A homosexual man, for instance, may one day be sexually attracted by children, the next by adult males. Less widely known, although, as I think, far commoner than is usually believed, are the cases in which women are sexually attracted by immature boys. Some of those cases of which mention has previously been made, in which nursemaids and other female servants seduce boys to the practice of masturbation, belong to this category; but this does not exhaust cases of such a nature. It is not necessary, when we see a woman caressing a boy, to assume at once and in every case that a sexual motive is at work; but unprejudiced observation will show that many of these cases are sexually determined. An interesting case of this nature has been published by Magnan.[116] It was that of a lady twenty-nine years of age, with strongly marked hereditary taint, and suffering from very various mental abnormalities, with five nephews, the eldest of whom was thirteen years of age. At first, this eldest nephew was the object of her desires. "The sight of him caused in her intense sexual excitement; she experienced voluptuous sensations, which she was quite unable to repress, sighed, rolled her eyes, and became flushed; sometimes she had spasmus vaginae, with local secretion." When this boy grew older, the next brother took his place in her desires; and in succession these were transferred to the other three. At the time when Magnan saw the patient, her sexual inclinations were directed towards the youngest nephew, a boy three years of age.

In many cases, the sexual inclination towards children is primary, existing from the first appearance of the sexual impulse; or it may appear simultaneously with other inclinations without there having been, as far as can be learned, marked previous sexual excesses. There can be no doubt whatever that in such cases we have to a large extent to do with morbid personalities. No small part in these cases is played by a purely psychological factor, namely, the innocence of the child. We know that also in the case of the normal sexual inclination of the male, innocence on the part of the female exerts a notable stimulus, in which connexion the question whether we have to do here with a result of conventional opinions or with an inborn mental disposition, must naturally be left open.[117] But it is a fact that just as the knowledge of a woman's immoral past, or obscene remarks or gestures on her part, will in many men suffice to inhibit sexual desire; so, on the other hand, for many men, innocence in the woman heightens the stimulus. In many cases of desire for immature girls, the physical stimulus of the narrow vagina may also contribute to increase libido; but the part this plays is probably not considerable. Apart from the fact that in many cases in which men have sexual inclination towards such girls, immissio membri does not take place at all, this consideration would in no way explain those not very uncommon cases in which adult women experience sexual inclination for immature boys.

In connexion with this last point, it is of interest to recall the fact that in former days dwarfs, as well as fools, were kept at many courts. In view of the tender relationship which obtained between many ladies of position and such dwarfs, it has sometimes been inferred that the inclination was a sexual one, the small size and the undeveloped condition of the dwarf exercising a peculiar stimulus.

The depraver of children satisfies his desires in very various ways. It will readily be understood that the progressive paralytic (paralytic dement) will act in one way, and the true paedophile in another. I shall not, however, discuss these details here, but shall merely endeavour to give some general ideas on the subject. Often, and especially at first, the depraver of children merely seeks opportunities for seeing children; then he wants to touch the children with his hands, and often to handle their genital organs; and while attempting this, or while doing it, he has ejaculation. In other cases he presses the child more and more closely into contact with himself, and especially against his own genital organs. Finally, we may have more complete sexual acts; and, especially when the child is a girl, there may be attempts at intercourse, and even defloration; where the child is a boy, pseudo-coitus may take place. The depraver of children gains his opportunities by appeals to the child's peculiar weaknesses. He will, for instance, tempt the child by the offer of sweets, and in this way will obviously often gain his ends. Many such persons hang about in the neighbourhood of a school or a children's playground, simply with this end in view. Some years ago the police of a certain large town were informed that "child-lovers" haunted a particular place. It appears that here the children were in the habit of swinging on a chain suspended between two pillars, and that the watchers waited to catch a glimpse of the children's genital organs, or merely of their bare legs, when their petticoats flew up occasionally in the act of swinging. Many paedophiles become sexually excited at the mere sight of children sympathetic to them. In other cases, by no means rare, men experience sexual excitement whenever they see a little girl with short petticoats; these men will follow such little girls all over the place, without, as a rule, speaking to them or interfering with them in any way, being withheld from doing so either by the fear of punishment or by moral restraint. To many the mere sight of the child appears to afford sufficient sexual gratification; and to others the simple contact of their hands with the child suffices, and nothing more is attempted. But, in other cases, handling the child's genital organs plays the chief part, frequently because the offender can himself obtain sexual gratification only through inducing sexual excitement in the child and watching this excitement. Sometimes, however, the offender has no interest in the child's genital organs; far from being excited sexually by regarding or handling these organs, he may even find them repulsive; but in such cases the sight of general nakedness often induces sexual excitement. This is often associated with sadistic feelings, and this alike in men and in women. In other cases, a woman will make attempts at coitus with a little boy, having first induced erection of his penis by manipulating the organ, by tickling it, or in some other way. Finally, there are cases in which all kinds of other actions are performed. To the more complex perversions I shall return. Here I shall only point out that children may sometimes be utilised for the wildest orgies. A case was formerly published by Tardieu, in which servant-maids in conjunction with their lovers carried out with the children under their care all sorts of perverse acts: cunnilinctus, masturbation, the introduction of various objects into the vagina and the anus. Finally, it may be pointed out that in the lack of an object, the paedophile will naturally satisfy himself with the aid of imaginative ideas, masturbating the while, or he may be content with purely psychical onanism. We must not forget that the imagination usually suggests stimuli far stronger than those furnished by objective experience, and this applies in a most marked degree to paedophilia. Many paedophiles also satisfy themselves with the aid of erotic and obscene literature, containing descriptions of the acts in which they are interested, or with pictures of such acts. Among obscene pictures and photographs, not a few depict sexual acts performed with children; and there is no doubt that these are sometimes pictures taken from the life, children having actually been photographed in such obscene attitudes. The Latin countries appear to be the principal source of such pictures and photographs.

It will readily be understood that the performance upon children of sexual acts is a very serious matter for the children themselves, especially as affecting their sexual morality. It is true that in many instances paedophilia does not entail any consequences for the child, which completely fails to understand that it has been made use of for perverse purposes. The offender may know how to mask his actions, so that even a third person who is looking on may detect nothing more than tender caresses, and may remain altogether unaware of the existence of any sexual excitement. But in other cases the consequences for the children may be extremely grave. Not only is the child in this way prematurely introduced to sexual practices, but its moral corruption may result. The danger to the child is greater in view of the fact that the child depraver often fails to realise that he is trespassing against the child's rights. I remember a gentleman who had been punished with imprisonment on account of improper relations with a boy, and who continued to assure me that he had done nothing wrong in touching the boy's penis. In other cases, well-educated young men and women have no idea that unchaste conduct with children is an offence which may entail severe punishment, even in cases in which the child's genital organs are not touched.

It should not need demonstration that such sexual malpractices on children may have serious consequences for these latter. A girl may suffer most severely, alike morally and socially, even though defloration has not been effected. It is quite conceivable that in such a way a girl may be brought to prostitution. Certain investigators have studied the question at what age defloration had been effected in women leading a life of prostitution, and have ascertained that in many cases this had taken place in childhood. Martineau[118] reports cases in which defloration had been effected at the age of nine or ten years. Experience teaches that boys also, especially when they have been seduced by sexual inverts, are very apt to adopt a life of prostitution. It must also be remembered that girls may occasionally become pregnant and give birth to a child even before they have themselves passed the years of childhood—another source of social danger. In addition, we have to reckon with dangers to physical health; among these we have the direct consequences of premature misuse of the genital organs, and, above all, the danger of venereal infection. In a great many cases, sexual offences against children are brought to light only when, on examining the child, gonorrhoeal or syphilitic infection is disclosed. Many authorities hold that the superstitious hope of curing venereal disease by sexual intercourse with an innocent child, is a comparatively frequent source of such infection in children. Freud, to whose views I have referred several times before, believes that sexual attempts on children may give rise in the latter to severe neuroses—an idea which forms an important part of the etiological system put forward by this author.

We must regard it as a peculiar danger of sexual relations on the part of a child with an adult, that sexual perversion may be induced. I may refer to what I said about this matter on pp. 60-62. The chief danger does not arise from the fact that the child is occasionally utilised for a homosexual act, but from the circumstance that in the period of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, the child's sexual interest, and especially its contrectation impulse, is directed towards one of its own sex, and that thereby a permanent perversion may be induced. Edward Carpenter,[119] indeed, considers that in such homosexual relationships the younger partner makes the advances. "The younger boy looks on the other as a hero, loves to be with him, thrills with pleasure at his words of praise or kindness." In his general views on this question, Carpenter takes a somewhat peculiar position. Unfortunately, he overlooks the fact that the elder is not to be exonerated because the younger made the first advances—at any rate, in cases in which the elder is in a position to understand the true nature of such relationships. Everyday experience shows that in many cases the elder person is of such an age that there can be no doubt upon this point. And apart from this, it is not usual to find that it is the younger person who makes the sexual advances. In most of the cases which have come under my own notice it was unquestionably the elder who began to lead the younger astray. The matter is not as harmless as Carpenter makes out. The same considerations apply to sexual intercourse with immature girls. Beyond doubt, there are many girls who meet sexual advances halfway, owing to the premature development of their own sexual impulse; and some such girls go more than halfway. A common practice of paedophiles is to begin by arousing sexual excitement in the child, either by manual stimulation, or else by showing the child erotic pictures, or by reading to it from an erotic book. We must also admit that in certain cases the child meets sexual advances halfway, not so much under the stimulus of its own sexual impulse, but for other reasons; for example, the child may be following the instructions of its parents, who regard their child as a marketable commodity, either because they have been well paid by the paedophile, or because they wish to use the child as an instrument in a blackmailing scheme. The point last mentioned is one of great importance—the fact that intercourse on the part of a grown person with a child under fourteen years of age is sometimes deliberately instigated by the child's parents or guardians, with the sole object of securing thereby a permanent income from blackmail. In other cases, the instigation may not come from the parents or guardians, or not directly from these, but from professional procuresses, who have undertaken to satisfy the desires of sexual perverts. I may refer in this connexion to the Pall Mall Gazette revelations of the London of nearly a generation ago.

False accusations on the part of children, especially on the part of little girls, who allege themselves to have been the subjects of sexual assaults, have been mentioned in an earlier part of this work, but the matter is one of such outstanding importance, that its further consideration will not come amiss. An experienced Berlin lawyer has recently emphasised this danger.[120] He shows that it is a regular practice to utilise the existence of certain punishments as a means of getting undesired persons out of the way, by bringing false accusations against them. Immediately after the Franco-German War, these accusations dealt with offences against the laws providing for the safety of the Empire and of the individual States of the German Confederation. At a later date, persons seeking revenge made frequent use of accusations of lese majeste. Still more recently, it is the section in the German legal code dealing with sexual offences against children, which is chiefly utilised for such purposes, "The good-natured householder who, because it is his birthday, presents a few sweets to children assembled in the courtyard of his house, is suspected of an offence against sexual morals;" when he finds it necessary to give warning to his untrustworthy hall-porter, this latter revenges himself by lodging a false accusation of this kind. It is a melancholy fact that an experienced barrister should find it necessary to make the following comprehensive declaration: "As a rule it is of no use for the accused person to call expert witnesses, who give the court long lectures upon the significance of children's evidence, and upon the import of evidence in general. In our own experience one accused of such offences rarely escapes conviction. He is hardly ever spared the terrible ordeal of examination and cross-examination. On all hands we hear the loud complaints of such persons, declaring that they have been wrongfully condemned." My own experience in the law courts leads me to accept these statements without reserve, and I regard as one of the gravest scandals of our present penal system the ease with which a girl who makes a pretty curtsy to the court, and who appears to be shamefaced when giving her evidence, is believed by the judge or magistrate. The dangers involved in this are obvious to many, especially to those who have much to do with children. An actor personally known to me, constantly received advances both from married women and from young girls, was pestered with letters from such persons, and to his great distress was several times followed in the streets by half-mature and immature girls. One day, in the street, he was walking with a friend, when two girls of about thirteen or fourteen years of age began to follow him. Turning round, he shouted to the girls that they had better run off home, or their father would give them a good spanking. To his astonished companion he explained that only by such drastic methods was he able, as he thought, to protect himself from false accusations.

It is very generally assumed that sexual offences against children are increasing in number. As regards the increase in Germany, the following figures are given by Mittelmaier.[121] For sexual offences against children, the convictions in the year 1897 numbered 3085; and in the year 1904, 4378. But of hardly any offences specified in the code can we say with more certainty than we can of sexual offences against children, that the convictions bear no necessary relationship to the number of offences actually committed. My own experience in the law courts leads me to see in the figures nothing more than an increase in the number of convictions for such offences—convictions which may have involved the innocent as well as the guilty. However this may be, historical studies prove that sexual offences against children are no new thing. Long ago, Martial, in the sixth and eighth epigrams of his ninth book, complained of the procurement of children, referring to boys rather than to girls. Otto Stoll[122] reports cases from uncivilised countries; and to his account of the defloration of children he appends the following words: "From all such details, we draw the ethnologically remarkable inference, that those human beings who have attained the highest level of civilisation, relapse frequently in the matter of the sexual life to the rudest instincts of savagery; and that in this respect neither does one civilised country much excel another, nor is 'civilised man' in a position to cast many reproaches in the teeth of the savage." Finally, I may refer to the experience of a Parisian Police Commissary,[123] who in the middle of the nineteenth century described prostitution in Paris, and devoted a special chapter to the subject of child-prostitution. Beyond question, the committing of sexual offences against children is no peculiar privilege of the civilised world or of modern times; although it remains possible that there has of late been some increase in the number of such offences.

It is obviously right that children should receive special protection from the law. The higher limit of the age of protection varies from ten to eighteen years. Ten years is the age-limit in certain States of the American Union; seventeen is the age-limit in Finland.[124] According to Mittelmaier, two considerations should guide us in regard to the protection of children: bodily immaturity, and moral weakness. The existence of the former leads the normal and healthy man to regard sexual approaches to children as unnatural and detestable. But, apart from the question of immaturity, we have to recognise that in children the moral sphere also deserves consideration; that notwithstanding the possible recent development of physical maturity, the child as such requires protection, in order to prevent the occurrence of such moral corruption as will render it incapable, when grown-up, of obeying the moral law. No thoughtful person can refuse to admit the child's right to protection.

But here a peculiar point needs attention, concerning, namely, the treatment in the law courts of such offences against children. I consider that by legal intervention in these cases the child's morals are sometimes more gravely endangered than by the original offence. If a man has momentarily laid his hand on the knee of a girl of ten, the child can hardly be said to have been injured, and will certainly have received much less injury than would result, if the case be brought into court, from cross-questioning of the child, not merely by its own relatives, but also by the police, the magistrate and his colleagues (in the court of first instance), by the public prosecutor and the counsel for the defence (in the higher court), and perhaps in addition by expert witnesses. When such a child is asked, whether the offender did not put his hand higher than the knee, whether he did or did not actually touch the genital organs, grave dangers may arise from such questioning. There is a further danger, in that some times, in such a case, the child is present in court throughout the entire proceedings. Some years ago, in Hamburg, I was called as an expert witness in a case of this kind. In this instance, the presiding judge, and also the public prosecutor and the defending counsel, exhibited the greatest possible delicacy, when one child was under examination, in sending the others, as far as possible, out of court. But I have also been present at trials in which no such precautions were taken, but in which every child was allowed to hear all the uncleanness in the evidence of the other children, and perhaps also in that of adults. Knowledge of the world, and, above all, tact, will best save the judge from treating children wrongly in this matter. The way in which a trial is conducted, which is often an extremely mechanical one, will not always enable the judge to avail himself of the means requisite for the protection of children from contamination in the course of such a prosecution. When we take a comprehensive view of the harm that may be done to children by sexual offences committed against them and by the consequent legal proceedings, we shall find, in my opinion, that from the legal proceedings arises a notable proportion of the injury.

The examination of the mental condition of the child-depraver is a matter of the utmost importance. In cases in which we find that the offender is suffering from some pronounced mental disorder, such as progressive paralysis (paralytic dementia), senile dementia, or an epileptic disturbance of consciousness, there can be no doubt as to the existence of irresponsibility; but it must never be forgotten that in the early course of such diseases, these sexual perversions often make their appearance at a time when no other definite signs of the brain disease have as yet appeared, and that for this reason the conviction of innocent persons—old men, for instance—on account of sexual offences against children, often occurs. Kirn,[125] who in the Freiburg prison had under observation six old men at ages from sixty-eight to eighty-one, all convicted for sexual offences against little girls, states that in all of these there were intellectual defects, and in several of them pronounced symptoms of senile dementia. The psychiatric expert must examine all such cases with the utmost care. We may also express a wish that judges were not inclined to regard themselves as experts in this field, of which, as a rule, they have no expert knowledge whatever.

Cases in which there is no definite mental disorder belong to a different category. Fritz Leppmann, to whom we are indebted for the most comprehensive studies in this field of inquiry, comes to the conclusion that there is no such thing as a truly congenital sexual inclination towards children. Such inclinations often appear, indeed, in congenitally tainted or weak-minded individuals; but he considers that we have no right to speak of the perverse impulse as being itself congenital. Even if we admit this, and refuse to recognise the existence of a congenital perverse impulse towards children, still we have to admit that certain opportunities and conditions may not only lead to the committing of sexual offences against children, but may also induce paedophile tendencies. And the fact cannot be contested that this danger arises more especially in those who are much associated with children; especially, that is to say, in schoolmasters and tutors, on the one hand, and in schoolmistresses and governesses, on the other, Now, in every case that comes under our notice, two points must be taken into consideration. In the first place, if a remarkably large number of teachers come before the law courts charged with sexual offences against children, we have to remember that a certain proportion of these cases must arise from the false accusations to which those persons precisely are exposed who are much associated with children. The second point, on account of which limits are imposed on the extent of the last-mentioned etiological factor, is that certain persons adopt the profession of schoolmaster or mistress, or tutor or governess, either because they are aware of the fact that their sexual impulse is directed towards children, or else, and this is commoner, because, while they are but obscurely conscious of it, they are influenced thereby in the choice of a profession, without having any definite intention to make use of the children under their care in the gratification of their sexual desires. It is an indefinite impulse towards children which is here operative, and sometimes determines the choice of occupation. I have seen cases in which there seemed to be a sort of mania for giving education and instruction, but in which on closer examination it appeared that the interest in the children was a sexual one. Two cases which have been reported to me show that in the case of women also opportunity very easily awakens the sexual impulse; in these cases the giving of baths to the children under their care, first definitely gave rise in two governesses to such perverse inclinations, and in one of them subsequently led to serious sexual malpractices with the children.

As regards the psychiatric treatment of true paedophilia, as a rule in such cases there is no possibility of pleading extenuating circumstances, as provided for by Section 51 of the Imperial Criminal Code. By this section, the offence escapes punishment if the offender was at the time in a state of unconsciousness, or was suffering from a morbid disturbance of mental activity, by which free voluntary choice was rendered impossible. In general, such persons must be held to be legally responsible. It may indeed, in individual cases, be possible to plead extenuating circumstances, or, when it is legally permissible, to plead the existence of partial responsibility—this latter more especially in cases in which symptoms of mental degeneration exist. But by itself a qualitatively abnormal sexual impulse gives the offender just as little right to plead irresponsibility, as a qualitatively abnormal sexual impulse gives the right to invade the sphere of interests of another. The fact that paedophile tendencies occur in those who are in other respects admirable persons does not countervail the need that children should be protected. It would be an error to assume that only morally defective persons are thus affected. I may mention in passing that Dostoiewski is said to have exhibited such paedophile tendencies—at any rate for a time. From the circle of my own acquaintanceship, I have learned that such a tendency may exist in those who are in other respects morally and intellectually sound.

In the sexual inclination of adults towards children, we find a source of serious danger; but the risks are greatly enhanced by the fact that the paedophile tendency is often complicated by other sexual perversions. Exhibitionism in the male is exhibited not only towards adult females, but also towards children, commonly towards girls, but in exceptional instances towards boys. It appears that in these cases the stimulus of innocence plays the chief part. In many cases, the exhibitionist is satisfied with exposing his genital organs; and only in comparatively rare cases, which by many are not included in the category of exhibitionism, do we find that the exhibitionist also masturbates, sometimes in the presence of the child, sometimes after going elsewhere, The fetichistic tendencies of adults are also in many instances directed towards children. Well-known cases are those of the hair fetichists who not infrequently cut plaits of hair from the heads of schoolgirls; but other hair fetichists are satisfied with cutting from the head smaller fragments of hair.

Sexual inclinations towards children are especially apt to be associated with sadistic acts. In a comparatively large proportion of cases, children are the victims of lust-murder, if this term be used in its strictly limited signification, and not to include all possible sexual acts complicated with murder, but simply to signify cases in which the very act of murder provides a sexual stimulus, or when the corpse is utilised for a lustful act; that is to say, we must exclude from lust-murder proper, all the cases in which, for other reasons than a sadistic impulse, the sexual act is complicated with murder, as when the female witness of a previous sexual crime must be got out of the way. Children, too, are often the victims of other sexual acts, such as rape, which in a few instances only can be included in the category of sadism. In some cases force is employed only because the victim resists the act of violation, and here there is no question of sadism; but the rape is sadistic when the use of force is per se a sexual stimulus. Moreover, children are often endangered by "stabbers."

In the year 1899, there was much anxiety in the city of Cologne on account of such a stabber. Those injured were all schoolgirls, and ultimately no children were sent alone to school, but they were always accompanied by a servant or a relative. In 1901, there was a similar series of cases in Moscow, a number of half-grown girls being stabbed by a man with a dagger. In the year 1896, a stabber appeared in Berlin. He enticed schoolgirls into the vestibule of a house, under the pretence that he wanted to brush some mud from their clothing; then, drawing a knife, he would inflict on the child a long and deep incised wound. In the summer of 1901, the inhabitants of northern Berlin were terrorised by a man who stabbed one girl fatally, and wounded two others severely. A remarkable point about this case was that the stabber made three separate assaults in a single afternoon, at very brief intervals. Unless the offender is discovered, it is naturally impossible to ascertain whether he has acted under the influence of some ordinary mental disorder (such as mania or post-epileptic insanity), or if he is a sexual pervert. The act alone will not enable us to answer this question.

Boys also are liable to such attacks, as we learn from what happened in Breslau in the year 1889. A student of philosophy in that town enticed to his dwelling an eight-year-old boy whom he met in a public lavatory, and wounded the boy's penis with a sharp-pointed knife. It appeared that the offender had done the same thing before to other boys. Ultimately, having been examined by a committee of experts, he was on their recommendation adjudged to be insane. In the year 1869, Berlin was disturbed by the doings of a certain X. This man had made use of two boys for sexual purposes, and had inflicted on them horrible injuries: in one, he cut off the testicles, and inflicted other severe wounds, so that the boy died; in the other, he introduced a walking-stick through the anus, and pushed it roughly onwards until it had perforated the lung.

Far commoner than the acts of such stabbers are the cases in which the striking of children is to the sadist a source of sex-stimulation. Erotic literature is full of the description of such perversions. Thus, in a well-known pornographic eroticon, we find pictures of a girl who has to subserve the perverse lusts of a wealthy boyar (Russian territorial magnate), the latter mishandling the child most horribly with cane and knout. In the English erotic literature, it is remarkable how often and how fully the flagellation of children is described. Almost typical are the English educational works in which, with little variation, we find descriptions of the flogging of little girls in order to excite the perverse lusts of the schoolmistresses. Not very long ago, in a certain English newspaper, a special column was devoted to accounts of the chastisement of children, and especially of girls. Anyone who reads this column with care could not fail to recognise that for the most part these chastisements were the expression of perverse sexual sensibilities. The available material shows, indeed, that in England this sexually perverse whipping of children is no mere matter of imaginative literary expression, but that such perversities are a matter of actual experience. Such things are, however, by no means confined to England, as is shown by a large number of recorded observations.

In Paris, not long ago, the following case was noted. A woman entered into relations with the parents of girls of eleven and twelve years of age, in order to hire the children as the subjects of chastisement for perverse sexual purposes. The parents, who must have known for what their children were wanted, received payment. Apparently the woman did not do this for the satisfaction of any perversion of her own, but for her perverse husband or for other perverts, who watched the whippings through spy-holes. In Germany, some years ago, there was an important trial, in which I was called as an expert witness, of a man who had flogged his pupils (with one exception, they had all been boys) solely to obtain perverse sexual gratification.

Many of these cases obtain publicity through the columns of the daily press, although occasionally, in part from sensationalism, and in part from sheer ignorance, a case may be allotted to the category of sadism, which really has nothing to do with this perversion, or whose sadistic character is doubtful. This applies, for example, to the well-known Dippold case. Here, the sons of a wealthy Berlin family were mishandled by a private tutor to such an extent that one of the children died. Neither by the legal proceedings in this case, nor by any subsidiary evidence, was it established, in my opinion, that sexual motives existed for the maltreatment; and only when such motives exist have we any right to speak of sadism. As a rule, such cases are elucidated only when the mental life of the offender is very carefully analysed. Therefore, in a great many cases, while there may be grounds for suspecting the existence of sadism, adequate proof of this is not forthcoming. Some cases bearing on this matter will now be briefly recorded.

A furniture polisher, twenty-five years of age, induced two young fellows to enter his dwelling, and there, under the threat that if they resisted they would be severely punished by their parents, he made them submit to a thrashing with a cane. A similar case was reported in Paris some years ago. A man thirty-seven years of age, supposed to have formerly been a private tutor, took boarders into his house for love, and not because he made his living by doing so. He also had under his care an orphan boy, and it appeared that this child was grossly ill-treated. When the authorities entered the house, they found the boy entirely unclothed, but wrapped in rags; he was fastened to the crossbars of the window, and quite exposed to the cold winter air. To prevent the child from crying out, a gag had been placed in his mouth. Of dubious nature, also, was a case which occurred at Berlin in the year 1906, in which a girl twelve years of age was enticed away by another girl, and taken to a man who, at the suggestion of the second girl, drew two teeth from the first. In the case reported from Salzwedel some years ago, it is possible that the offender was insane; but he may have been sadistically inclined. An eleven-year-old fifth-form boy was enticed away by a young man of twenty, who took the lad to a hotel, gagged him, beat him unmercifully with a walking cane, threatening him with a revolver to prevent his calling for help. The boy suffered also two severe contused wounds of the head. The offender himself put cold compresses on these. When the police who were in search of the boy broke into the room, the young man shot himself.

In the year 1891, the following case occurred in Berlin. A young man, not yet eighteen years old, had in three cases undressed boys, and performed improper acts on them. Then he misused and bound the boys. The youth, who had previously been convicted of theft, was on this occasion sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for an offence against (sexual) morality. At Liegnitz, a few years ago, a pupil-teacher was sent to prison for three months, because he had lured little boys to a remote field, and there had mishandled them by beating them with a walking-stick. The court held that these acts had been performed under the influence of the sexual impulse, resulting from a sadistic tendency. About two years ago, a teacher of the pianoforte committed suicide in Berlin, because he had been accused of ill-treating children, apparently owing to a sadistic tendency. The children were nine or ten years old; he had undressed them and then flogged them. The matter had, it seemed, been kept secret for a long time, until the parents of some of the children discovered traces of the ill-treatment, and this led to the charge being brought. A case which attracted considerable attention occurred in Berlin in the year 1896. A man, supposed to be a Russian prince, entered a well-known saddler's shop in the Potsdamerstrasse, asked to be shown some dogwhips, and, on the pretext of wishing to try their quality, persuaded some boys employed in the establishment to allow him to try the whips on their persons. The boys were handsomely paid for this, and the practice went on until the head of the firm intervened and forbade it. Whilst some regarded the matter as a joke, others expressed the suspicion that it was a case in which the rein had been given to sadistic tendencies. A similar case was that of the author, X., which occurred in Hamburg a few years ago. X. was acquainted with a woman named Y., who lived in Berlin. The latter's son, eleven years of age, was sent to reside with X. for educational purposes; and without proper cause, but under the pretext of educational necessities, this lad was severely mishandled by X. The boy was frequently taken from his bed, stripped naked, and then struck with a switch. The boy's mother stated that her boy had been put under the care of X. because the lad needed severe discipline, being untruthful and dishonest. Further charges were made against X. of various indecent acts against the boy. Teachers and others, who were acquainted with this boy, deposed that he was well behaved and not untruthful, and that he had in no way merited such punishments as had been inflicted on him. A very remarkable case was reported six years ago, from one of the minor German principalities. Here, children who had been sentenced to imprisonment were pardoned by the Prince, on condition that they submitted to a whipping; and the remarkable feature in the case was that not only did the Prince make a point of seeing the whipping, but himself in part administered it. In some of the reports of this case it was added that the children were stripped naked.

It is a not infrequent reproach against Catholic priests, monks, nuns, &c., that they make use of the children entrusted to their care for perverse, sadistic acts. I may recall the Graubund scandal of September 1906, in which girls and women were whipped by an acolyte until the blood ran; also an affair which occurred in Christiania about fourteen years ago, where, at a home kept by an unmarried woman, for children from the age of two years until their confirmation, a horrible and elaborate system of punishments was in use, whippings and other tortures being the order of the day. In many biographies and other works giving descriptions of life in the cloister, we find additional details: for instance, in the memoirs of the Countess Kaunitz, mother of the well-known statesman Kaunitz, we find an account of the severe whippings which were administered to her during her childhood spent in a nunnery.

All kinds of subterfuges are employed by the sexual pervert to make the punishment appear harmless and legitimate. Schoolmasters find this comparatively easy, inasmuch as they are able to allege misconduct such as would ordinarily be visited with a verbal reprimand, if not completely overlooked, as the reason for a whipping. Obviously, some of the excuses will be remarkable. In one case the flagellant asserted that he wished to write a work on education, and had therefore to ascertain how many strokes a child could endure. In a case which came under my own notice the offender stated that he wished to make the children courageous.

The expert who studies the advertisements in the newspapers will observe that they often subserve such perverse tendencies. "Educational" advertisements may be classified in three groups. Those of the first group are perfectly harmless (in appearance). To this class belong advertisements in which a teacher offers instruction to children. Since this is the ordinary form of serious advertisement, it attracts no special attention; there is nothing suspicious about it, and it is merely intended to lead to correspondence with those who have boys or girls to place as pupils. The advertiser hopes that in the course of instruction he will find opportunity for inflicting chastisement without giving rise to any suspicion. The second group has a definitely suspicious air, some catch-word being employed to manifest to initiates the existence of a perverse tendency; but there is nothing more than this to excite suspicion. Among such catch-words, are the words "energetic", "severe", "English instruction." In some cases an energetic governess desires children to instruct; in others it is some one else who desires an energetic instructress. It may be that the actual advertiser is on the lookout for the energetic instructress; here we have to do with masochism. But in other instances, the advertiser wants the energetic instructress for children, and the wording of the advertisement sometimes indicates that the advertiser's aim is to experience sexual excitement in watching the instructress chastise the children. Since these advertisements are intelligible only to initiates, they naturally receive answers from persons who have failed to understand their purport; but the sadist (male or female) and the masochist (male or female) is aware that the use of the word "energetic" refers to this sexual perversion. Of course, however, an advertisement in which an energetic tutor or governess is asked for, may he perfectly innocent. If an advertisement inserted in all good faith has really been open to a double meaning, the advertiser will sometimes be greatly astonished by the receipt of all sorts of perverse offers. A married woman of my acquaintance advertised for energetic supplementary instruction for her son, a rather naughty boy of ten; and received, in addition to many serious answers several answers from perverts, who stated that they would be delighted to be able to handle a boy in the sense she mentioned. In many cases, notwithstanding the use of the words "energetic" or "severe," we recognise from the general wording of the advertisement that it is seriously intended, and not issued with a perverse aim; but at other times we derive an opposite impression. When an "energetic instructress" advocates her "Anglo-American methods of education," hardly any room for doubt remains; and such advertisements as this belong to our third group.

I will now give some of the advertisements which I have been collecting for years, some belonging to the second, and some to the third group, in illustration of what has just been said. Certain of the advertisements which I have classed in the second group, were probably not issued with a perverse intent; this being partly shown by the context, although without this context they would have been suspicious.

The following advertisements belong to the second group: "Boy of seven to be placed under simple and scrupulous care, for the purposes of energetic education (premium paid)." "Boys and girls of a fair age received in a strict and severe boarding-school." "A strict, disciplinary master required to teach English at a preparatory school for the Army." The following advertisements are extremely suspicious: "A fairly well-educated gentleman offers energetic gratuitous supplementary instruction." "Severe education for boys and girls; energetic gentleman offers also free supplementary lessons." "Distinguished, experienced lady gives advice and help in difficult educational questions; defects of character, &c., treated with success." "Advertiser recommends himself for the severe chastisement of naughty children."

Many advertisements worded as above, or similarly, are, as was pointed out above, shown by the context to be seriously meant, and must not then be interpreted as perverse; but in the absence of such a context, the use of the catch-words so well known to sexual perverts would have rendered them highly suspicious. "Education of Boys, strict if necessary, diligence at school, school-work under continuous control, &c." This advertisement was probably not issued with perverse intent, since the advertiser's full name and address were given, and a number of additional details suggested that it was seriously meant. The same is true of the following advertisements: "Private tutor, elderly, experienced, severe instructor, holds classes, and also takes private pupils." "Daily supplementary lessons desired by a student in the fourth form of the Gymnasium [School] at X. An energetic and experienced governess wanted." "An experienced and energetic governess, thoroughly competent in the English language, very musical, desires morning or afternoon employment as teacher of children or adults." "Officer desires board with small family, preferably with authority over sons, with whom strict care would gladly be taken." "Some pupils under eleven years of age wanted to live with our own well-behaved children—no objection to those difficult to manage. Energetic assistance, strict individual instruction in the family, &c." The last few advertisements are appended in illustration, although the context (which is not in all cases given in its entirety) shows that they had no perverse intent.

Speaking generally, in view of the significance attached by sexual perverts to the words "energetic," "strict," "severe," "English methods," "discipline," &c., it will be wise, alike for those offering and for those seeking instruction, to exercise the utmost care when there is any possibility of mistake; as thus only is it possible to avoid being misled by the overtures of perverts.

Advertisements belonging to the third group, some examples of which will now be given, have of late become much rarer. Here are some: "Distinguished, energetic lady desires fairly old boys and girls for strict education." "Distinguished lady desires a child of fair age (girl by preference), to receive into the house for strict education and training." "Distinguished lady wishes to undertake the strict care and education of children of fair age, boys and girls, whose relatives have gone abroad." "Artist offers to teach French and English, strict and energetic." "Strict, energetic tutor desires children of fair age for strict education." "Energetic widow desires a boy of fair age and of good family, for strict education. Apply 'energetic,' Post-Office, No.——." "Girl, seven years old, received by energetic lady for strict education." "Tutor undertakes, gratuitously, strict education of growing children; especially suitable for cultured widow, who lacks herself the requisite energy. Unexceptionable references." "Pupils requiring energetic management, even if fairly old, received by a gentleman for strict education." "Half-grown girl received in strict board by a governess." The perverse character of these advertisements is rendered unmistakable by the fact that the catch-words are all italicised. "Naughty children; recommended for severe discipline; replies to 'Free.'" "Governess, from England, recommends her admirable boarding establishment for pupils of fair age. Apply 'Hearneshouse.'" No doubt is possible in this case, since "Hearneshouse" is the title of a sadistic novel. "Strict task-mistress wanted for a naughty girl of fourteen. Those replying to this advertisement should describe their methods of instruction." Here it is obvious that the advertiser hopes for sexual excitement from reading the descriptions of chastisement for which he asks. "English, strict method, offered by gentleman." "Highly cultured lady seeks position as English gouvernante. Delight William, Post Office, No.——." "Governess Housekeeper; cultured and distinguished lady wanted, good-looking, age twenty to twenty-eight, for the education of two motherless children, knowledge of English language required. Good presence requisite, and must be extremely energetic." Here it is possible that the advertiser really wants a housekeeper; but the advertisement is perverse in character. "Governess, youthful, energetic, very strict, either Englishwoman or Frenchwoman, wanted for spoiled children. Very good salary." "Energetic gentleman, severe disciplinarian, offers English instruction to boys and girls of fair age." No shadow of doubt is possible as to the perverse nature of this last advertisement. The same is true of the one that follows: "Gentleman offers strict instruction to older boys. Replies to 'English,' c/o Office of this paper."

An advertisement which appeared about four years ago in a Hamburg paper had a tragi-comic sequel. It ran as follows: "Difficult educational opportunity. Advertiser, residing in Hanover, with pretty daughter of twelve years, wishes to place her under strict discipline in the care of a widow with a daughter of similar age. Arrangements must be made to enable the advertiser herself to stay with the lady in Hamburg when visiting that town from time to time. In replying to the office of this paper, give a detailed account of the methods of punishment." A gentleman who suspected that this advertisement was issued by a sexual pervert, and was anxious about the future of the child, sent a reply in the simulated handwriting of a woman. The answer he received showed that the child was, in fact, being subjected to perverse maltreatment, and in order to rescue the girl, after consultation with some friends, he communicated the facts to the Public Prosecutor. However, that official refused to interfere at this time. Then the advertisement appeared once more, and this time the offender was arrested. The gentleman thereupon wrote to the Public Prosecutor, blaming him for not having taken action on the first occasion. The Public Prosecutor regarded this as libellous, and actually brought an action for libel against the philanthropic gentleman. Happily the Public Prosecutor lost his case; but none the less, in view of what happened, a good citizen may well hesitate in future to take similar action in the public interest, if, for some trifling excess of zeal, he is to render himself liable to an action for libel.

As I said above, of late years, in Berlin at any rate, such advertisements appear less often; or those that do appear belong chiefly to the second group. Doubtless we owe this to the action of the authorities, and more especially to a paragraph of the Lex Heinze,[126] of whose existence but few persons are aware, and of which, as my own note-books show, certain sexual perverts have only become aware to their sorrow through a legal prosecution. I refer to the paragraph by which the issue of advertisements for an immoral purpose is declared to be a punishable offence. The newspapers have now become cautious about the insertion of advertisements whose immoral purpose is plainly perceptible. Moreover, the perverts themselves who used to issue such advertisements, having through the activity of the authorities learned the significance of the paragraph in question, no longer advertise in unmistakable terms.



CHAPTER IX

SEXUAL EDUCATION

In view of the dangers to which children are exposed from the side of the sexual life, the question presses whether and how it is possible to prevent these dangers arising, or, if prevention has failed, to minimise them. To enable us to answer this question, the general question of sexual education will have to be considered. In so far as sexual manifestations in the child may arise from hereditary taint, the sociologist will endeavour to prevent them by hindering marriage or procreation on the part of those likely to give birth to such children (eugenics). Our present knowledge, however, does not enable us to say, when an individual exhibits some particular tendency to sexual aberration, whether this same tendency will appear as a concrete symptom in the descendants. Apart, indeed, from certain cases of very severe taint, we are hardly in a position even to predict with any high degree of probability that the offspring will exhibit morbid endowments. There are marriages which we expect to result in the birth of congenitally defective children, and in spite of this the offspring are healthy; and conversely, we sometimes meet with affections which we are in the habit of regarding as dependent upon hereditary transmission, and yet we fail, in these cases, to find any evidence of such affections in the progenitors. And, apart from these theoretical considerations, the physician's advice is not of much importance, for experience teaches us that in questions of marriage his advice is very rarely followed.

The less power we have to operate by control of the congenital factors, the more necessary shall we feel it to be to minimise the dangers threatening the child by influencing its environment. It is true that in this department, as in others, there is much diversity of opinion regarding the limits of educability. Some contend that we can mould the child like wax, a view which prevailed especially during the "period of enlightenment" in the eighteenth century; others maintain that organic development is predetermined at the time of procreation, and that subsequent influences can have no effect. Although we must be careful not to overestimate the power of education, it would be no less erroneous to assume that development is inalterably predetermined at the time of procreation. This applies to the efficacy of educational influences in general, and to educational influences affecting the sexual life in particular. The following consideration must be given due weight. The power of the educator is limited, not merely by the child's hereditary dispositions, but also by the nature of its environment. Rudolf Lehmann, in his work on Education and the Educator (Erziehung und Erzieher), rightly points out that Rousseau, in his Emile, when discussing the problems of education, neglects too much the influences of environment. If we wish our reasoning to furnish us with results of practical value, and not to remain confined to the purely theoretical plane, we must give due weight to this consideration. This applies with equal force to the matter of sexual education. We know that the sexual impulse may be excited by innumerable external stimuli. Such stimuli are continuously in operation, and the best educator has no power to exclude their influence. The mere association of the child with persons of the opposite sex provides such stimuli. But a separation of the sexes will not do away with them, as is proved, not only by the homosexual manifestations of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, but also by those that arise transiently, at any rate, when the members of one sex are completely segregated from those of the other—as in boarding-schools, on board ship, and in prisons. The educator cannot even count on being at all times able to safeguard the child from the sight of sexual acts. In the country, but also in the town, children have opportunities for this; not only when the members of a large family sleep in a single room, and the children can watch their parents and others in the act of sexual intercourse; but in various other ways. The mere kissing of affianced lovers must in this sense be regarded as a sexual act, and how is it possible so to bring up a child that it will never have an opportunity of seeing anything of the kind? If we go further, and recognise that through the association of ideas such a sexual stimulus may arise from witnessing the coupling of animals—of dogs, for instance, in the street—we shall understand how the educator's powers are limited by the milieu in which he has to work. We have, therefore, to recognise clearly from the first, that in the education of the child the complete exclusion of sexual stimuli is impossible.

Obviously, when the external noxious influences exceed a certain measure, we may endeavour to effect an improvement by measures of general hygiene, through the activities of the central government, the municipality, or the community at large. In this connexion, we think of better housing conditions, of the separation of children from night-lodgers, and the like measures. But, even here, we must guard against making Utopian demands, after the manner of many fanatics on the subject of social hygiene, whose proposals are often quite incompatible with the maintenance of human intercourse. Independently of such impracticable demands for future reforms, the educationalist of to-day seeks to protect the child from unduly frequent sexual excitement. But sometimes the result is other than he expects. Sport is recommended to divert the mind from sexual ideas, and yet I have known cases in which marked sexual excitement has been induced in this way. I am not now referring to mechanical stimulation through bicycling or horseback-riding, of which I shall speak later; but many a child has been sexually excited through playing tennis with a girl-companion, and many a boy has been sexually excited through rowing with another. Still, the fact that here and there a child may have been sexually excited in such a way, is no reason for condemning what is invaluable to the enormous majority of children.