of the problem is this: is the probability that corporal punishment will lead to permanent sexual perversion, or will induce sexual excitement, sufficiently great, to render it necessary that corporal punishment should be completely abolished from our schools, so long as our schoolmasters possess no other adequate means of making certain of their pupils observe the discipline of the school? It is unconditionally necessary that the discipline of our schools should be maintained; and those who are unreservedly opposed to corporal punishment in all its forms should make it their business to see that some other adequate means are provided for the maintenance of school-discipline. However strongly we may feel that it is essential that there should be no abuse by schoolmasters of their right to administer corporal punishment, none the less, even in this "Century of the Child," we need safeguards also against the abuse of sentimentality. In this chapter I have attempted to deal with a few only of the problems of sexual education. To discuss the subject exhaustively would have been impossible within the limits of this book; nor have I endeavoured to take into consideration the enormous mass of literature relating to the modern movement in favour of the sexual enlightenment. I have made no reference to the fact that it has recently been recommended that every girl should spend a year of service [_Dienstjahr_--analogous to the term of military service obligatory on all males in Germany] in hospitals, asylums, &c., whereby she would gain enlightenment concerning many things which will be of value to her in her subsequent married life. All such proposals are so much matters of detail, that I have thought it inadvisable to discuss them here.