PUBERTY. 13 



Puberty. The condition of the reproductive organs of 

 each sex described above is that found in adults; although 

 mapped out7^M;~tcr-tireerIain" extent, developed before 

 birth and during childhood, these parts grow but slowly and 

 remain functionally incapable during the early years of life^ 

 then they comparatively rapidly increase in size and become 

 physiologically active: the boy or girl becomes man or 

 woman. / 



This period of attaining sexual maturity, known as pu- V' 

 berty, takes place from the eleventh to the sixteenth year 

 commonly, and is accompanied by changes in many parts 

 of the Body\ Hair grows more abundantly on the pubes 

 and genital organs, and in the armpits; in the male also on 

 various parts of tire face. The lad's shoulders broaden; his 

 larynx enlarges,) and lengthening of the vocal cords causes 

 a fall in the pitch of his voice; all the reproductive organs, 

 increase in size; fully formed seminal fluid is secreted, 

 and erections of the p&cfis occm\) As these changes are 

 completed spontaneous nocturnal seminal emissions take 

 place from time to time during sleep, being usually associ- 

 ated with voluptuous dreams. Many a young man is alarmed 

 by these; he has been kept in ignorance of the whole mat- 

 ter, is too bashful to speak of it, and getting some quack 

 advertisement thrust into his hand in the street is alarmed 

 to learn that his strength is being drained off, and that he 

 is on the high-road to idiocy and impotence unless he 

 place himself in the hands of the advertiser. Lads at this 

 period of life should have been taught that such emissions, 

 when not too frequent and not excited by any voluntary act 

 of their own, are natural and healthy. They may, however, 

 occur too often; if there is any reason to suspect this, the- 

 family physician should be consulted, as the healthy activity 

 of the sexual organs varies so much in individuals as to make 

 it impossible to lay down numerical rules on the subject. 

 The best preventives in any case are, however, not drugs, 

 but an avoidance of too warm and soft a bed, plenty of 

 muscular exercise, and keeping out of the way of anything 

 likely to excite the sexual instincts. 



In the woman the pelvis enlarges considerably at puberty, 



