96 MAN, — THE ANIMAL 



friends must be selected with just the same care. 



It took a long time to discover that there is a 

 definite agent that is responsible for initiating 

 the above changes in boys and girls at puberty. 

 Now that the fact seems to be established, numer- 

 ous questions of sex can be answered intelligently, 

 and a rational basis furnished for our dealings 

 with children passing through this period. It is 

 just as if the body were being stimulated for the 

 first time by some powerful medicine and the cells 

 are all struggling to adjust themselves to this new 

 condition. No one can anticipate just how the 

 body of your child is going to react during this 

 critical period, but you can help him to adjust him- 

 self if you can explain how the whole body is being 

 stimulated by this internal secretion from the germ 

 glands. 



The activity of the secondary sexual glands in 

 boys (prostate and seminal vesicles) is the im- 

 mediate cause of the sexual desire. These glands 

 are continuously active so that they are manufac- 

 turing their secretions day and night, day after 

 day. After a time each becomes gorged with its 

 own secretion. The result is that the glands are 

 usually emptied during the night and the process is 

 known as "nocturnal emission," or "wet dreams." 

 The only thing that has happened is that these two 

 glands have emptied their product in a normal and 



