int out here in what sense I employ the term
_puberty_ (nubility, sexual ripeness, or maturity), and the associated
terms, _nubile_ and _sexually mature_. Much confusion exists in respect
of the application of these terms. Some use _puberty_ to denote a period
of time, others, a point of time, and in various other ways the word is
differently used by different authors. Similarly as regards the term
_nubile_; some consider an individual to be nubile as soon as he or she
is competent for procreation, others speak of anyone as nubile only when
the development of the sexual life is completed. Obviously, these two
notions are very different; for instance, a girl of thirteen who has
begun to menstruate may be competent for the act of procreation, and yet
her sexual development may still be far from complete. The confusion as
regards the use of the substantive _puberty_ is no less perplexing. One
writer uses it to denote the time at which procreative capacity begins,
and believes he is right in assuming that in the male this time is
indicated by the occurrence of the first involuntary sexual orgasm.[2] I
may point out in passing that there is a confusion here between
procreative capacity and competence for sexual intercourse, for as a
rule the first seminal emissions contain no spermatozoa. But, apart from
such confusions, the term puberty is used in various senses. Thus, a
second writer denotes by puberty the point of time at which the sexual
development is completed; a third means by puberty the period which
elapses between the occurrence of the first involuntary orgasm and the
completion of sexual development; a fourth uses the word to denote the
entire period of life during which procreative capacity endures; and
finally, a fifth includes under the notion of puberty the whole course
of life after the completion of sexual development. In this work I shall
mean by _puberty_ the period of life between the completion of sexual
development and the extinction of the sexual life. The period during
which the state of puberty is being attained will be spoken of as the
_period of puberal development_, and I shall therefore speak of the
_beginning_ and the _end_ of the puberal development. The terms
_nubility_, _sexual maturity_, _nubile_, and _sexually mature_, will be
used with a similar signification. As regards the puberal development,
let me at the outset draw attention to the fact that it takes place very
gradually; and further,