en they are unaware of our attention, and sometimes
because they do not as yet fully understand the nature of the processes
under observation, and for this reason are less secretive.

The third method, that of experiment, is available to us only in the
form of castration. I need not dilate on the inadequacy of this
application of the experimental method, even apart from the fact that it
subserves our purposes almost exclusively in respect of the male
sex--for in the case of young girls, castration (oophorectomy) is almost
entirely unknown.

Thus we see that all our methods of investigation exhibit extensive
lacunae, and further, that they are all in many respects fallacious; we
shall therefore endeavour to supplement each by the others, in order to
arrive at results which shall be as free from error as possible. Thus
guided, we learn that sexual incidents occur in childhood far more
frequently than is usually supposed. So common are they, that they
cannot possibly escape the notice of any practising physician or
educationalist who pays attention to the question, provided, of course,
that he enjoys the confidence of the parents. These latter have often
been aware of such sexual manifestations in their children for a long
time, but a false shame has prevented them from asking the advice of the
physician. They have been afraid lest he should regard the child as
intellectually or morally deficient, or as the offspring of a degenerate
family. In addition, we have to take into account self-deception on the
part of the parents, who, indeed, often deceive themselves willingly,
saying to themselves that the matter is of no importance, and that the
symptoms will disappear spontaneously.

Having given this brief account of the terminology to be employed and of
the methods of investigation, I propose to sketch no less briefly the
history of the subject.

Casual references to the sexual life of the child are to be found even
in the older scientific literature. In the latter half of the eighteenth
century, and at the beginning of the nineteenth, interest in the subject
became more general. Two works, in especial, published almost
simultaneously, attracted the attention of physicians and
educationalists. One of these, Rousseau's _Emile_, discusses the proper
conduct of parents and elders in relation to the awakening sexual life,
and what they should do in order to delay that awakening as much as
possible. The other, the celebrat