itions
of life--the sexual impulse is less precocious and less
prominently developed during the school-age in England than in
some Continental countries. It is probably to this delayed
development that we should attribute the contrast that Ferrero
finds (_L'Europa Giovane_, pp. 151-56), and certainly states too
absolutely, between the sexual reserve of young Englishmen and
the sexual immodesty of his own countrymen.

In Germany, Naecke has also stated ("Kritisches zum Kapitel der
Sexualitaet," _Archiv fuer Psychiatrie_, pp. 354-56, 1899) that he
heard nothing at school either of masturbation or homosexuality,
and he records the experience of medical friends who stated that
such phenomena were only rare exceptions, and regarded by the
majority of the boys as exhibitions of "_Schweinerei_." At other
German schools, as Hoche has shown, sexual practices are very
prevalent. It is evident that at different schools, and even at
the same school at different times, these manifestations vary in
frequency within wide limits.

Such variations, it seems to me, are due to two causes. In the
first place, they largely depend upon the character of the more
influential elder boys. In the second place, they depend upon the
attitude of the head-master. With reference to this point I may
quote from a letter written by an experienced master in one of
the most famous English public schools: "When I first came to
----, a quarter of a century ago, Dr. ---- was making a crusade
against this failing; boys were sent away wholesale; the school
was summoned and lectured solemnly; and the more the severities,
the more rampant the disease. I thought to myself that the remedy
was creating the malady, and I heard afterward, from an old boy,
that in those days they used to talk things over by the fireside,
and think there must be something very choice in a sin that
braved so much. Dr. ---- went, and, under ----, we never spoke of
such things. Curiosity died down, and the thing itself, I
believe, was lessened. We were told to warn new boys of the
dangers to health and morals of such offences, lest the innocent
should be caught in ignorance. I have only spoken to a few; I
think the great thing is not to put it in boys' heads. I have
noticed solitary faults most commonly, and then I tell the boy
how he is