nifestations in the colleges, the fact that they exist to more or less
extent being sufficiently recognized. The conversations already referred
to are a measure of the excitations of sexuality existing in these college
inmates and multiplied in energy by communication. Such discourse was,
wrote one collaborator, the order of the day, and it took place chiefly at
the time when letter-writing also was easiest. It may well be that sensual
excitations, transformed into ethereal sentiments, serve to increase the
intensity of the "flames."

Taken altogether, Obici and Marchesini conclude, the flame may be regarded
as a _provisional synthesis_. We find here, in solution together, the
physiological element of incipient sexuality, the psychical element of the
tenderness natural to this age and sex, the element of occasion offered by
the environment, and the social element with its nascent altruism.

II.

That the phenomena described in minute detail by Obici and Marchesini
closely resemble the phenomena as they exist in English girls' schools is
indicated by the following communication, for which I am indebted to a
lady who is familiar with an English girls' college of very modern type:--

"From inquiries made in various quarters and through personal observation
and experience I have come to the conclusion that the romantic and
emotional attachments formed by girls for their female friends and
companions, attachments which take a great hold of their minds for the
time being, are far commoner than is generally supposed among English
girls, more especially at school or college, or wherever a number of girls
or young women live together in one institution, and are much secluded.

"As far as I have been able to find out, these attachments--which have
their own local names, e.g., 'raves,' 'spoons,' etc.--are comparatively
rare in the smaller private schools, and totally absent among girls of the
poorer class attending Board and National schools, perhaps because they
mix more freely with the opposite sex.

"I can say from personal experience that in one of the largest and best
English colleges, where I spent some years, 'raving' is especially common
in spite of arrangements which one would have thought would have abolished
most unhealthy feelings. The arrangements there are very similar to a
large boys' college. There are numerous boarding-houses, which have, on an
average, forty to fifty students. Each house is under the manage