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usually also a distinct growth of intellectual power, 

 which may have its origin in part in the action of 

 some internal secretion of the sexual glands on the 

 nutrition of the nervous substance. In these various 

 changes incidental to puberty there lies the basis of 

 a distinct educational problem. 



With the onset of puberty, and frequently even 

 before this period, there awakens an interest in all 

 matters having to do with the sexual functions. In 

 each sex there are recurrent signs of the maturation 

 of the generative organs, which cannot be ignored 

 and which naturally cause the adolescent mind to be 

 more or less occupied with the reproductive func- 

 tions. The effect of these obtrusive physiological 

 signals on consciousness is not the same in different 

 persons, but depends upon the individual type of 

 nervous system, and especially on the grade of in- 

 telligence, the type of sensibility, and the character 

 of the inhibitions. In one adolescent, the sensibilities 

 are so slight and the imagination so little active 

 that the phenomena of sexual maturation are taken 

 casually, with little or no disturbance of mental 

 equilibrium, and no tendency to experiment with the 

 newly developed powers. In another, the sensi- 

 bilities are more active, and the sexual processes 

 enter on the field of consciousness with greater 

 obtrusiveness. Here there is necessarily a stronger 

 tendency to liberate the sexual reflexes, and the 

 failure to deliberately indulge the sexual appetite 

 is due to the intelligent obedience to an instinctive 



