sex-life of plants to the sex-life of the lower animals there is, however,
but a step which the teacher, according to his discretion, may take.

An early educational authority, Salzmann, in 1785 advocated the
sexual enlightenment of children by first teaching them botany,
to be followed by zoölogy. In modern times the method of
imparting sex knowledge to children by means, in the first place,
of botany, has been generally advocated, and from the most
various quarters. Thus Marro (_La Pubertà_, p. 300) recommends
this plan. J. Hudrey-Menos ("La Question du Sexe dans
l'Education," _Revue Socialiste_, June, 1895), gives the same
advice. Rudolf Sommer, in a paper entitled "Mädchenerziehung oder
Menschenbildung?" (_Geschlecht und Gesellschaft_, Jahrgang I,
Heft 3) recommends that the first introduction of sex knowledge
to children should be made by talking to them on simple natural
history subjects; "there are endless opportunities," he remarks,
"over a fairy-tale, or a walk, or a fruit, or an egg, the sowing
of seed or the nest-building of birds." Canon Lyttelton
(_Training of the Young in Laws of Sex_, pp. 74 et seq.) advises
a somewhat similar method, though laying chief stress on personal
confidence between the child and his mother; "reference is made
to the animal world just so far as the child's knowledge extends,
so as to prevent the new facts from being viewed in isolation,
but the main emphasis is laid on his feeling for his mother and
the instinct which exists in nearly all children of reverence due
to the maternal relation;" he adds that, however difficult the
subject may seem, the essential facts of paternity must also be
explained to boys and girls alike. Keyes, again (_New York
Medical Journal_, Feb. 10, 1906), advocates teaching children
from an early age the sexual facts of plant life and also