PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS 125 



only with other girls she shows more marked femininity influence of 

 during childhood, so far as her mental characteristics ^hiidh'ood 

 are concerned, than do girls who are brought up before ° n r ep r °- 

 puberty in company with boys. But, on the other instincts. 

 hand, the former class of girls does not show an excessive 

 mental change at puberty in regard to its relations with 

 men ; while the latter suddenly seems to realize that the 

 freedom which existed before puberty is no longer 

 possible, and in consequence such girls usually exhibit 

 great self-consciousness in the presence of members of 

 the opposite sex who are strangers to them. 



At puberty, then, the internal secretions of the Mental 

 ovaries, which now become active, may bring about a puberty. 

 great alteration in the outlook of the individual ; but 

 it is probable that this mental change is not entirely 

 dependent on the ovarian secretion, but also on the 

 hormones from the correlated organs of internal secretion. 

 There is no doubt that all normal girls seek the company 

 of men, even though the presence of a man fills them 

 with modest confusion. The thoughts and conversation 

 of girls after puberty are commonly centred on the 

 opposite sex. There is, of course, in girls of refinement 

 no actual idea of sexual matters ; but, whereas prior to 

 puberty no man interested them, at and after that epoch 

 many do. And in this all women resemble the lower 

 animals, in which when growth ceases the genital hormones 

 stimulate the sexual instinct ; but with this difference : 

 in girls of the upper classes education, religion, family 

 life, and the pursuits and enjoyments of modern existence 

 in ordinary circumstances quell what might otherwise 

 become lustful desire. So girlhood grows into woman- 

 hood. The long train of civilized ancestresses, whose 

 desires have been kept in subjection or have been 

 distracted by the inventions of civilization, hands on 

 to her the tradition of restraint. 



The ordinary civilized woman, whose association with Civilization 

 the opposite sex is much' restricted — much more so in objection! 

 the upper than in the lower classes — probably remains 

 only partly conscious of the natural desires until she 



