other hand, the sexual
character of an inclination may sometimes be recognised in the early
years of childhood, even in cases in which the boy's own genital organs
are in no way involved. It may happen that a boy of eight will display a
marked interest in the genital organs of youths or of men, and will
seize every opportunity of peeping at them; and in such a case we are as
a rule justified in assuming the existence of a homosexual tendency,
even when there is no reflection of sexual disturbance to the boys own
genital organs. But we must guard against the mistake of seeing a sexual
element in every friendship between boys.

As with human beings, so also with the lower animals, it is not always
possible to differentiate friendship from the sexual impulse. Robert
Mueller has collected a number of interesting observations bearing on
this matter.[60] He states that the so-called animal friendships,
friendships between animals of different species, are in many cases
determined by sexual feelings. He mentions the case of a dog ten months
old, which made sexual attacks on hens, and thereby killed them; in
another instance, a thorough-bred dog, two years old, exhibited a
similar perversion, and had a lasting sexual relationship with a hen. He
also quotes a case of which a man named P. Momsen was the witness, in
which a gander attempted to pair with a bitch. These examples show that
in the cases of animal friendship so often reported in the newspapers,
the existence of an element of perverse sexuality is at least possible.
But it does not, of course, follow that every strange animal friendship
is of a sexual nature.

This is true, also, of other perversions--of sadism, for instance. The
tendency to cruelty appears in early childhood, and it is only
subsequently that this tendency becomes definitely associated with the
sexual life. But even though this association (of cruelty with the
sexual life) is demonstrable in so many instances, we are not for this
reason justified in regarding every brutal act, all deliberate cruelty,
as manifestations of sadism; and this reservation applies no less to
adults than to children. Thus, delight in the sufferings of others,
though it may be regarded as analogous with sadism, has no necessary
connexion with the sexual impulse. Just as little can we assume that the
deliberate ill-treatment of animals, whether on the part of children or
on that of adults, is necessarily the outcome of sadism.