Sexual development

“ Such acts as that first described may, of course, depend upon a premature awakening of the sexual impulse; and when a number of children engage in amusements of this kind we not infrequently find that in the leader and seducer the sexual impulse is already awakened, whilst the others act merely in obedience, at first, at least, to an imitative impulse. Certainly, I have known a few instances in which children with premature sexual development very rapidly came to a mutual understanding, and in whom their intimate association was dependent upon prematurely awakened sexual impulses. ”

“ Thus we are moved to study the development of sex-life in the child also, and we discover the following from a number of sources: In the first place, it is a mistake to deny that the child has a sexual life, and to take it for granted that sexuality commences with the ripening of the genitals at the time of puberty. ”

“ So, also, it is by no means improbable that the little girl, whose pelvis and hips have already begun to indicate by their development their adaptation for the supreme functions of the sexually mature woman, should experience obscurely a certain impulsion towards her predestined maternal occupation, and that her inclinations and amusements should in this way be determined. ”

“ In an Appendix will be found a selection of histories of more or less normal sexual development. Histories of gross sexual perversion have often been presented in books devoted to the sexual instinct; it has not hitherto been usual to inquire into the facts of normal sexual development. Yet it is concerning normal sexual development that our ignorance is greatest, and the innovation can scarcely need justification. ”

“ For the fulfilment of the aims of the sexual enlightenment, however, it does not so much matter when the first physical manifestations of the puberal development make their appearance, but when the first sexual feelings and sentiments, which must be distinguished from the unconscious and purely physical symptoms, are experienced. The important matter is, not whether follicles have already matured in the ovary, but what influence such a process has exercised upon the mental life of the child. ”

“ That this is true is demonstrated by the cases of abnormal sexual development which at long intervals are born in different lands, and by the occasional instances in heathen countries where old men, after prolonged stimulation of the breasts, are made effectively to serve as nurses for infants. ”

“ It seems certain that the newborn child brings with it the germs of sexual feelings which continue to develop for some time and then succumb to a progressive suppression, which is in turn broken through by the proper advances of the sexual development and which can be checked by individual idiosyncrasies. ”

“ Let us consider further what are the factors favouring an early awakening of the sexual life. I have previously mentioned the fact that in certain families a remarkably early sexual development is quite common. This is true also of certain races. But the data bearing on this question are not quite so trustworthy as might be wished. The fact that among certain nations marriage sometimes takes place at a remarkably early age, is no certain proof of the early awakening of sexuality in persons of this nationality ”

“ Although it cannot be denied that the changes in the entire organism which attend the extinction of sexual activity, bring numerous dangerous influences into play, yet I feel bound to maintain that these dangers are by no means so great as those which are involved by the sexual life in its ripest period of development—the dangers of pregnancy, parturition, and the puerperium. ”

“ In a child not yet fitted to fulfil the function of procreation, the sexual impulse will none the less make its appearance, and be liable to misuse. In the girl the pelvis does not attain that complete development which fits it for the process of parturition until toward the age of twenty, whilst puberty occurs at the age of sixteen. ”

“ While sex expression becomes more specialized in the higher animals, and more refined in human beings, unless debased in the latter by lustful degeneracy, its latent influence is nevertheless always in evidence. For instance, the child through the whole period of life is being prepared gradually by nature for the florescence which takes place at the adolescent stage and which normally culminates in the full sexual development of adulthood. ”

“ At the menacme, the beauty and energy of women attain their fullest evolution, her sexual characteristics their strongest development. It is this period of life, however, that entails the greatest dangers to beauty and health in connection with the functions of the genital organs. Copulation, the first act of sexual intercourse with the male, often produces in the female injuries from which she never completely recovers. ”

“ I know of persons who have passed the years of childhood in a brothel, amid surroundings obviously calculated to turn their attention to sexuality, but in whom nevertheless during childhood no development of the sexual life appeared to have occurred. ”

“ At the time of the menarche the sexual impulse, which has hitherto been dormant, becomes strongly developed. It is evoked at this time of life by the anatomico-physiological changes undergone by the reproductive glands; the stimulus aroused by these processes in the ovary, being conducted to the brain, awakens passion. At the same time the observation of the growth of the hairy covering on the genital organs, the development of the breasts, and the appearance of menstruation, tend to arouse erotic presentiments. ”

“ A proof of the importance of specific sexual sensation for the attainment of conception is afforded by the fact that in the majority of women voluptuous excitement is absent at the first act of intercourse, and only gradually develops thereafter; in correspondence with this, we find that the first conception does not usually occur until some time after marriage, and that the period of its occurrence frequently coincides with the full development of voluptuous sensation during intercourse. ”

“ This is the reason why sexual organs are also called generative organs. This must also be the reason why Nature has timed the awakening of the sexual impulse with the period of the greatest development of all the faculties of the human body and mind, so as to render a man mature and prepared to shoulder the heavy responsibilities of husband and father. ”

“ Let us consider the cases in which, owing to a congenital racial peculiarity, the sexual life awakens earlier than is usual among ourselves. In such cases, the manners and customs of the race in which this early development of sexuality is usual will be found to be especially adapted to attract the child's attention to sexual matters earlier than is here customary. It suffices to remind the reader of the celebrations of puberty and of the early marriages common among such races. ”

“ There cannot exist a normal development if the body is deprived of the essential ingredients necessary to growth and mental vigor.
There was a time when young men were actually taught that sexual intercourse was necessary to develop full manhood. ”

“ The maiden at puberty is affected by the knowledge of sexuality; the sexually mature woman, by the desire for sexual satisfaction, and by the yearning for motherhood; the wife, by the processes of pregnancy, parturition, and suckling, or, on the other hand by the distressing consciousness of sterility; the woman at the climacteric period, by the knowledge of the disappearance of her sexual potency. The mind is further sympathetically influenced by the stimulation of the terminals of the sensory nerves in the genital organs. ”

“ Whether or not we accept their elaborate and often shifting conceptions, they have emphasised and developed a psychological conception of sexual energy and its transformations, before only vaguely apprehended, which is now seen to harmonise with the modern physiological view.
The old notion that sexual activity is merely a matter of the voluntary exercise, or abstinence from exercise, of the reproductive functions of adult persons has too long obstructed any clear vision of the fact that sexuality, in the wide and deep sense, is independent of the developments of puberty. ”

“ From what has preceded, it must be evident that from the early months of the period of puberty, through the adolescent and adult period, even until some progress is made in the senile period, every normal male will experience sexual desires. It has been shown that these particular experiences are linked, more or less intimately, with the condition of the sexual apparatus; but whatever the cause, we are confronted with the question, What shall be done about it?
When a man experiences a sexual desire does it necessarily follow that the desire must be satisfied? ”

“ The data recorded in the preceding chapter suffice to show that the activity of the sexual life begins in childhood, for the secondary sexual characters and the other sexual peculiarities which manifest themselves thus early in life are dependent upon sex. We shall now proceed to the systematic description of the direct manifestations of the sexual life, and we can most usefully begin with the genital organs. ”

“ By sterility in women we understand the pathological state in which a woman who is sexually mature fails to conceive, notwithstanding frequently repeated, normal sexual intercourse throughout a considerable period of time. ”

“ It is only in cases in which the female genital organs are wanting, wholly or to a considerable extent, or in which there are important cerebral disturbances or states of mental degeneration, that the sexual impulse is wanting. ”

“ Just as the soil is suitable only at certain seasons for the reception of the seed, so also in the human race intercourse does not always take place at a time suited for the reception of the semen. To be effective, coitus must occur at the proper time.... The act of intercourse that is to lead to conception may best occur either just before or just after the menstrual flow, when, moreover, there is strong desire for the sexual embrace, and neither when the body is fasting, nor when it is full of drink and undigested food. ”

“ The reason of this is that since the positive healthy woman finds her complete sexual experience only by means of the coitus, plus the period of gestation, plus parturition, and plus the months of lactation, she finds, as a rule, in the course of a married life in which she brings forth children regularly and in normal circumstances, all that her body can possibly expect from an adapted sexual life. ”

“ This explains why it is that the most careful education often fails to prevent the premature commencement of the amatory life; and it explains also, on the other hand, why it is that even in the most unfavourable circumstances, sexual phenomena do not always make their appearance during childhood. ”

“ For the elucidation of the manifold reflex and other processes which are dependent upon or accompany the sexual phases of woman, we must in the first place consider the anatomical changes and physiological functions of the female reproductive organs characteristic of the several periods of sexual life which have already been distinguished. ”

“ The degree to which these influences radiating from the genital organs make themselves manifest is chiefly dependent upon the resisting power of the nervous system as a whole, upon the temperament, the inherited constitution, and the mode of education of the young girl. ”

“ The phenomena of pregnancy, birth and suckling are known to all, so that I shall be brief. The almost sudden activity of the breasts after childbirth is a very interesting correlative phenomenon. It suffices to glance at one who has just become a mother and to observe the complications which profoundly influence all her organism with regard to the life of the infant, to comprehend to what extent the role of sexual life is more important, more profound, even more vital, in woman than in man. ”

“ But here we must be most cautious in drawing conclusions, for the reason that the sexual life of the girl is still much more obscure to us than that of the boy; this difference in our knowledge of the sexes is no less marked in the case of children than it is in respect of the adult man and woman.
60Hitherto we have occupied ourselves with the description of the peripheral sexual organs, and of the processes of detumescence. We must now pass on to the second group of sexual phenomena, the processes of contrectation. Even in childhood, these processes play an important part ”

“ It is hardly necessary to mention the fact that the nervous system of the child may be injuriously affected by other sexual acts, as, for instance, by premature sexual intercourse. The occurrence of such acts is naturally favoured by a premature awakening of the sexual life. ”

“ Be it said, then, first, that it is the duty of every bride and groom, before they engage in sexual commerce with each other, to acquaint themselves thoroughly with the anatomy and physiology of the sex organs of human beings, both male and female, and to make the acquirement of such knowledge as dispassionate and matter-of-fact an affair as though they were studying the nature, construction and functions of the stomach, or the digestive processes entire, or the nature and use of any of the other bodily organs. ”

“ In a wider sense of the term, we say that a woman is sterile, when, notwithstanding prolonged and repeated sexual intercourse, in circumstances favourable to procreation, she has failed to give birth to a living and viable infant. ”

“ 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 ”