118 SEX 



relatively short youth and their prolonged 

 adult life. Not only then does the general 

 shape of the curve differ widely in the various 

 types, but looked closely into, it shows all 

 manner of minor irregularities, ups and downs 

 like a pulse or a barometer tracing, and the 

 pattern of these again differs widely from 

 species to species. Molluscs strikingly record 

 these tides of life upon their shells, sometimes 

 so clearly that upon a few full-grown examples 

 of the top-shell (Trochus) we may not only 

 read the normal record of the species, but 

 within this again the minor fluctuations of 

 each individual's life history his personal 

 equation as it were; and not only his 

 accidents, but his ailments and recoveries, 

 throughout adolescence, in maturity, and 

 above all in senescence. 



CHILDHOOD. The remarkable work of 

 Freud, which is now being reckoned with by 

 alienists and physicians, emphasises the view 

 that in very young children there are often 

 experiences more or less connected with sex, 

 which may have considerable influence on the 

 subsequent life, so wing the seeds of hysteria and 

 obsessions. Unless Freud's psycho-analysis 

 be unsound there is a more or less subconscious 

 sexual life in young children, which may be 

 exaggerated by careless caressing, exuberant 

 fondling and worse, into a very detrimental 

 precocity or into unsuccessful attempts at 

 repression which may find pathological means 

 of gratification. In normal cases, happily, 

 the infantile deviations pass into oblivion; 

 and there is a happy period of latent sex until 

 puberty approaches. 



