When the genital centres have been fully developed, the individual gets a conscious realization of its sexual power, and the psychological reactions of animal passion manifest themselves in the irresistible desire for intimacy with an individual of the opposite sex. This desire is inscrutable and transcendental. There is no knowable reason for its existence present. Ordinarily the idea of a desire is realized by bringing vividly to the mind the memory of a former desire gratified. But at this time the individual has not as yet had the experience of carnal pleasure, neither is it conscious of the ultimate object of the sexual instinct, the propagation of the species. Yet it is instinctively drawn towards the person of the opposite sex, and at its sight the hungry emotions are peeping through every action. The individual’s nature is both chaste and voluptuous. It is chaste because the individual has no knowledge as yet of libido or lust, yet it is voluptuous, it is all-impulse. The impulse of contrectation is the first to impress itself upon the mind of the individual. With the intimacy, the impulse of detumescence becomes also imperious, and the desire to enjoy the full possession of the beloved object begins to manifest itself. These are, then, the two desires the individual is henceforth well aware of and which it is anxious to gratify. The real purpose of the instinct of sex has been hidden to man. Seldom or never is amativeness guided by the desire to propagate the race. Sex-activity is chiefly desired for the satisfaction of the sensual cravings.[U] The animal in its sex-relations is largely or exclusively guided by the impulse of detumescence. The same is the case with men in a low state of civilization, with their promiscuous admiration of the opposite sex. What such savages desire is a relaxation of the nervous tension and a discharge of the genital congestion. In men of high culture the impulse of contrectation is the more imperious, and mental attraction is added as a factor in the love-game, i. e., civilized men are more erotic than libidinous in their nature. The different phenomena appear in the just described order, if no disturbances interrupted the natural course. If the individual was allowed to reach adolescence without interference, then at the period of puberty, when the centres of generation begin to increase very rapidly, and the generative organs reach their full development, a certain kind of material congestion and nervous tension would ensue. But the congestion and tension would be of slight intensity to require a specific discharge. The absorptive power of the seminal vesicles and of the uterus would easily master the increased secretions, or the overflow would be discharged once or twice a month during sleep, mostly without even awakening the sleeper. Such a frequency of nocturnal emissions, especially if not accompanied by bad effects the next day, are perfectly normal.