back as on a dream, is evident. The “Twilight Sleep” process has been used with the happiest results both for parent and child. Opponents of this system declare that the use of powerful drugs may injure the child. A method commended is the administration of a mixture of laughing gas and oxygen, which relieves the mother and does not affect the child.

THE NEW-BORN INFANT

The average weight of the new-born child is about seven and a half pounds. It is insensitive to pain for the first few days, and seems deaf (since its middle ears are filled with a thick mucus) for the first two weeks. During the first few days, too, it does not seem able to see. The first month of its existence is purely automatic. Evidences of dawning intelligence appear in the second month and at four months it will recognize mother or nurse. Muscularly it is poorly developed. Not until two months old is it able to hold up its head, and not until three months does voluntary muscular movement put in an appearance. The new-born's first self-conscious act is to draw breath. Deprived of its usual means of supply it must breathe or suffocate. Its next is to suck milk, lest it starve.

HEREDITY

We often find children who offer a striking resemblance to a paternal grandfather, a maternal aunt or a maternal great-grandmother. This is known as avatism. There are many curious variations with regard to the inheritance of ancestral traits. Some children show a remarkable resemblance to their fathers in childhood, others to their mothers. And many qualities of certain individual ancestors appear quite suddenly late in life. Everything may be inherited, from the most delicate shadings of the disposition, the intelligence and the will power, to the least details of hair, nails and bone structure, etc. And the combination of the qualities of one's ancestors in heredity is so manifold and so unequal that it is extremely difficult to arrive at fixed conclusions regarding it. Hereditary traits and tendencies are developed out of the energies of the original conjugated germ-cells throughout life, up to the very day of death. Even aged men often show peculiarities in the evening of their life which may be clearly recognized as inherited, and duplicating others shown by their forbears at the same period of life.

As has already been mentioned every individual inherits, generally speaking, as much from his paternal as from his maternal progenitors. This in spite of the fact that the tiny paternal germ-cell is the only medium of transmission of the paternal qualities, while the mother furnishes the much larger egg-cell, and feeds him throughout the embryonic period.

THE ENGRAM

An interesting theory maintains that the external impressions made upon an organism which reacts to them and receives them, might be called engrams or “inscriptions.” Thus the impression of some object we have seen or touched (let us say we have seen a lion) may remain engraved on our mind as an impression. Hence every memory picture is one of engrams, whether the impression is a conscious one or an unconscious one. According to this same theory the reawakening of an older impression is an ecphory. Some new stimulation may thus ecphorate an old engram. Now the entire embryonal development of the human child is in reality no more than a continuous process of ecphoration of old engrams, one after another. And the entire complex of our living human organism is made up entirely of these energy-complexes engraved on our consciousness or subconsciousness. The sum total of all these engrams, in a living human being, according to the theory advanced, is given the name of mnema. That which the child receives in the way of energies contained in the germ-cells from its ancestors is his hereditary mnema. And that which he acquires in the course of his own individual life is his acquired or individual mnema.

CHAPTER III

SEX IN MALE CHILDHOOD
(FROM 14 TO 16)

During the first years of child life all those laws of practical hygiene which make for good health should be carefully observed. Every organ of the body should be carefully protected, even at this early age. The genital organs, especially, should not be rubbed or handled under any pretext, beyond what is absolutely necessary for cleanliness. The organs of generation, which we are apt to treat as nonexistent in children, just because they are children, claim just as much watchful care as any others.

SEX PRECAUTIONS IN INFANCY

Even in infancy, the diaper should fit easily about the organs which it covers, so as not to give rise to undue friction or heating of the parts. And for the same reason it should always be changed immediately after urination or a movement of the bowels. No material which prevents the escape of perspiration, urine or fecal matter should be employed for a diaper. The use of a chair-commode as early as the end of the first year is highly to be commended, as being more comfortable for the sex organs and healthier for the child. It favors, in particular, a more perfect development of limbs and hip joints.

EARLY SEX IMPRESSIONS

Sex impressions and reactions are apt to develop at an early age, especially in the case of boys. If the child's physical health is normal, however, they should not affect his mind or body. The growing boy should be encouraged to take his sex questions and sex problems to his parents (in his case preferably the father) for explanation. Thus they may be made clear to him naturally and logically. He should not be told what he soon discovers is not true: that babies are “dug up with a silver spade,” or make their appearances in the family thanks to the kind offices of storks or angels. Instead, by analogy with the reproductive processes of all nature, the true facts of sex may be explained to him in a soothing and normal way.

EVIL COMMUNICATIONS

Too often, the growing boy receives his first lessons regarding sex from ignorant and vicious associates. Curiosity is one of the greatest natural factors in the child's proper development, if rightly directed. When wrongly led, however, it may have the worst consequences. Even before puberty occurs, a boy's attention may be quite naturally drawn to his own sex organs.

NATURAL CAUSES OF INFANT SEXUAL PRECOCITY

Sexual precocity in boys may be natural or it may be artificially called forth. Among natural causes which develop sex precocity is promiscuous playing with other boys and girls for hours without supervision. It may also be produced by playful repose on the stomach, sliding down banisters, going too long without urinating, by constipation or straining at stool, irritant cutaneous affections, and rectal worms. Sliding down banisters, for instance, produces a titillation. The act may be repeated until inveterate masturbation results, even at an early age. Needless laving, handling and rubbing of the private parts is another natural incitement to sexual precocity.

PRIAPISM

Priapism is a disease which boys often develop. It may be either a result or a cause of sexual precocity, and may come from undue handling of the genital parts or from a morbid state of health. It takes the form of paroxysms, more or less frequent, and of violent and often painful erection, calling for a physician's attention. If the result of a functional disorder, and not arrested, it is in danger of giving rise to masturbation. This morbid condition sometimes seriously impairs the health.

MASTURBATION

Masturbation, the habit of self-abuse, often