on the fact that at this season children begin to meet one another in the open, subject to less restraint, and perhaps more frequently. But he does not exclude the possible existence of an inherited vestige of periodicity in the sexual impulse. It is widely assumed that among the higher social classes the awakening of the sexual life occurs earlier than among the lower. But it can hardly be said that trustworthy statistics exist to illustrate this point; and the most we can admit is that it may be true of the commencement of menstruation--though even here the data available hardly suffice to afford proof of the thesis. It is said that in girls of the upper classes menstruation begins on the average at an earlier age than in girls of the lower classes; and also that menstruation begins earlier in towns than in the country. Rousseau[70] asserted this long ago, taking his facts from Buffon, who attributed the fact to the sparer and poorer fare of the country folk. Rousseau, while admitting that menstruation began later in the country districts, considered that diet had nothing to do with the matter, since even where (as in Valais) the peasants enjoyed a liberal fare, puberty, in both sexes, occurred later than in the majority of towns, in which an excessively rich diet was often customary. He believed that the difference between town and country in this respect depended rather upon the more enduring repose of the imagination in the country, this latter itself arising from the greater fixity of customs in the rural districts. Speaking generally, however, the question whether in the country the sexual life awakens later than it does in the towns, cannot be said to have been decisively answered. Closely connected with the question of the alleged later awakening of the sexual life in the country is the belief that in the country children are also more moral and remain longer uncorrupted.