very numerous "flames"
gives a very similar description, together with other particulars. Thus
she states: "It may be said that 60 per cent. of the girls in a college
have 'flame' relationships, and that of the remaining 40 only half refuse
from deliberate repulsion to such affections; the other 20 are excluded
either because they are not sufficiently pleasing in appearance or because
their characters do not inspire sympathy." And, regarding the method of
beginning the relationship, she writes: "Sometimes 'flames' arise before
the two future friends have even seen each other, merely because one of
them is considered as beautiful, sympathetic, nice, or elegant. Elegance
exerts an immense fascination, especially on the boarders, who are bound
down by monotonous and simple habits. As soon as a boarder hears of a
day-pupil that she is charming and elegant she begins to feel a lively
sympathy toward her, rapidly reaching anxiety to see her. The longed-for
morning at length arrives. The beloved, unconscious of the tumult of
passions she has aroused, goes into school, not knowing that her walk, her
movements, her garments are being observed from stairs or dormitory
corridor.... For the boarders these events constitute an important part of
college-life, and often assume, for some, the aspect of a tragedy, which,
fortunately, may be gradually resolved into a comedy or a farce."

Many letters are written in the course of these relationships; Obici and
Marchesini have been able to read over 300 such letters which had been
carefully preserved by the receivers and which, indeed, formed the chief
material for their study. These letters clearly show that the "flame" most
usually arises from a physical sympathy, an admiration of beauty and
elegance. The letters written in this "flame" relationship are full of
passion; they appear to be often written during periods of physical
excitement and psychic erethism, and may be considered, Obici and
Marchesini remark, a form of intellectual onanism, of which the writers
afterward feel remorse and shame as of a physically dishonorable act. In
reference to the underlying connection of these feelings with the sexual
impulse, one of the lady collaborators writes: "I can say that a girl who
is in love with a man never experiences 'flame' emotions for a companion."

Obici and Marchesini thus summarize the differential character of "flames"
as distinguished from ordinary friendships: "(1) the extraordi