sexual parts Bell regards as marking undue precocity. But there
is diffused vascular and nervous tumescence and a state of
exaltation comparable, though not equal, to that experienced in
adolescent and adult age. On the whole, as Bell soundly
concludes, "love between children of opposite sex bears much the
same relation to that between adults as the flower does to the
fruit, and has about as little of physical sexuality in it as an
apple-blossom has of the apple that develops from it." Moll also
(op. cit. p. 76) considers that kissing and other similar
superficial contacts, which he denominates the phenomena of
contrectation, constitute most frequently the first and sole
manifestation of the sexual impulse in childhood.

It is often stated that it is easier for children to preserve
their sexual innocence in the country than in the town, and that
only in cities is sexuality rampant and conspicuous. This is by
no means true, and in some respects it is the reverse of the
truth. Certainly, hard work, a natural and simple life, and a
lack of alert intelligence often combine to keep the rural lad
chaste in thought and act until the period of adolescence is
completed. Ammon, for instance, states, though without giving
definite evidence, that this is common among the Baden
conscripts. Certainly, also, all the multiple sensory excitements
of urban life tend to arouse the nervous and cerebral
excitability of the young at a comparatively early age in the
sexual as in other fields, and promote premature desires and
curiosities. But, on the other hand, urban life offers the young
no gratification for their desires and curiosities. The publicity
of a city, the universal surveillance, the studied decorum of a
population conscious that it is continually exposed to the gaze