young children. We see little boys,
seeking for the favors of little girls, show violent jealousy when
another is preferred to them. All these phenomena depend either on
subconscious instincts, or on vague sexual presentiments which play a
large part in the infantile exaltation of sentiment. Portraits of
pretty women, the sight of certain parts of the body or feminine
clothing often provoke exalted sentiments in boys; girls rather admire
boldness, an imposing presence and often beauty, in the other sex.

Puberty is produced by certain phenomena which occur in the sexual
organs. In the boy erections occur at an early age when the penis is
still very small. It is curious to note that certain pathological
conditions and friction of the glans penis, especially in the case of
phimosis and as a result of bad example, are often sufficient to
produce sexual sensations and appetites in very young boys. The same
thing is produced in little girls by excitation of the clitoris. All
these phenomena lead to onanism or masturbation, of which we shall
speak later on. As the testicles of young boys do not secrete semen,
masturbation only provokes secretion from the accessory glands, but
this is accompanied by orgasm.

More singular still are cases of coitus between little boys and girls
whose sexual glands are still undeveloped and produce no germinal
cells. Although they are pathological, these phenomena are
characteristic, because they clearly show that the brain has acquired
by phylogeny a sexual appetite relatively independent of the
development of the sexual glands. No doubt the sexual appetite does
not develop, or disappears, in eunuchs when they are castrated quite
young; but it is preserved together with the secretions and functions
of the external genitals when castration is performed after puberty is
established.

The important conclusion which results from these facts is that the
existence of a sexual excitation or appetite of this nature is not
sufficient to prove that they are normal. In Chapter VIII we shall
prove that not only the anomalies of the hereditary sexual
disposition, but artificial excitations and bad habits may also
produce all kinds of misconduct and excesses which should be
energetically combated.

We have described in Chapter IV the great individual variations of the
sexual appetite in the two sexes, as well as that of the sexual power
in man. The sexual power and appetite in man are strongest between