shall learn that in the matter of
the sexual impulse, the child exhibits an imperfect differentiation. A
similarly imperfect differentiation is found in childhood in respect of
a number of other qualities. Thus, there are many diseases which later
in life manifest a sexual differentiation, but in childhood are
undifferentiated. We observe a similar age-distinction in respect of
suicide, which occurs in Europe far more frequently in men than in
women, the ratio among suicides being three or four men to one woman.
Among child-suicides there is far less disproportion between the sexes.
According to Havelock Ellis, indeed, the suicidal tendency makes its
appearance in girls at an earlier age than in boys.

Such a marked differentiation as there is between the adult man and the
adult woman certainly does not exist in childhood. Similarly in respect
of many other qualities, alike bodily and mental, in respect of many
inclinations and numerous activities, we find that in childhood sexual
differentiation is less marked than it is in adult life. None the less,
we have learned in this chapter, a number of sexual differences can be
shown to exist even in childhood; and as regards many other differences,
though they are not yet apparent, we are nevertheless compelled to
assume that they already exist potentially in the organs of the child.

CHAPTER IV

SYMPTOMATOLOGY

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.

Erections occur during childhood; they have been observed even in
infancy. They sometimes result from external stimuli, especially of a
pathological nature, such as a strictured prepuce, or inflammatory
states of the penis. Occasionally in the child, as normally in the adult
male, distension of the bladder with urine leads to erection of the
penis. Although in these cases the erection is not induced by sexual
processes, it is nevertheless not devoid of significance in relation to
the sexual life. The sensations in the genital organs to which the
pathological stimuli give rise are further increased by the erection,
and the child's attention is theref