nn, in 1785 advocated the
sexual enlightenment of children by first teaching them botany,
to be followed by zooelogy. In modern times the method of
imparting sex knowledge to children by means, in the first place,
of botany, has been generally advocated, and from the most
various quarters. Thus Marro (_La Puberta_, p. 300) recommends
this plan. J. Hudrey-Menos ("La Question du Sexe dans
l'Education," _Revue Socialiste_, June, 1895), gives the same
advice. Rudolf Sommer, in a paper entitled "Maedchenerziehung oder
Menschenbildung?" (_Geschlecht und Gesellschaft_, Jahrgang I,
Heft 3) recommends that the first introduction of sex knowledge
to children should be made by talking to them on simple natural
history subjects; "there are endless opportunities," he remarks,
"over a fairy-tale, or a walk, or a fruit, or an egg, the sowing
of seed or the nest-building of birds." Canon Lyttelton
(_Training of the Young in Laws of Sex_, pp. 74 et seq.) advises
a somewhat similar method, though laying chief stress on personal
confidence between the child and his mother; "reference is made
to the animal world just so far as the child's knowledge extends,
so as to prevent the new facts from being viewed in isolation,
but the main emphasis is laid on his feeling for his mother and
the instinct which exists in nearly all children of reverence due
to the maternal relation;" he adds that, however difficult the
subject may seem, the essential facts of paternity must also be
explained to boys and girls alike. Keyes, again (_New York
Medical Journal_, Feb. 10, 1906), advocates teaching children
from an early age the sexual facts of plant life and also
concerning insects and other lower animals, and so gradually
leading up to human beings, the matter being thus robbed of its
unwholesome mystery. Mrs. Ennis Richmond (_Boyhood_, p. 62)
recommends that children should be sent to spend some of their
time upon a farm, so that they may not only become acquainted
with the general facts of the natural world, but also with the
sexual lives of animals, learning things which it is difficult to
teach verbally. Karina Karin ("Wie erzieht man ein Kind zuer
wissenden Keuschheit?" _Geschlecht und Gesellschaft_, Jahrgang I,
Heft 4), reproducing some of her talks with her nine-year old
son, from the time that he first