124 



THE SEX-COMPLEX 



Abnormal already stated, depend for their existence on internal 

 attSudesin biochemical stimuli. There is no doubt that these 

 women. so-called animal instincts have become modified in 

 educated women by the evolution of the higher mental 

 faculties. It is difficult in a few words to trace the 

 manner in which the human race has brought the 

 strongest of all instincts into comparative subjugation : 

 religion, family life, education and social exigencies 

 have effected a result which is common to all civilized 

 races. The economic value of reproductive indiffer- 

 ence from a natural standpoint we are not called 

 upon to consider ; and what the final outcome and its 

 effect on evolution will be we can only guess. It is, 

 however, incumbent on us to observe facts as they exist, 

 and, when possible, to identify the causal agents and 

 their effect on the life of the individual. Such details are 

 too often shunned by the scientist, and become the 

 common property of those who merely record revolting 

 details unadorned by useful information. 



Therepro- I propose, therefore, to glance now at the natural 



instincts and aspect of the subject in order that I may briefly refer 

 mental con- to the pat hological later. 



We have seen that until puberty the sexual and 

 reproductive instincts are more or less latent. I say 

 "more or less" because girls vary: some are more 

 feminine than others, and much depends on environment. 



In the lower classes, in which, perhaps, the people 

 live nearer to Nature, the sexual instincts of women are 

 more natural, or animal as some would say : the 

 higher mental faculties play little part in modifying 

 the reproductive instincts. But in the upper classes, 

 in which education and social custom exert powerful 

 influences, we find a different state of affairs 1 . 



It is an interesting fact, which I have often observed, 

 that if a girl in the upper classes be brought up alone or 



1 Statistics for the year 1911 show that in this country out of 

 37,633 illegitimate births in all unmarried or widowed females between 

 the ages of fifteen and forty-five years, 20,941 occurred in women of 

 the social grade of hawkers, charwomen, and domestic servants. 



