The psychological reaction of the sexual impulse at the time of puberty manifests itself, as _von Krafft-Ebing_ points out, in manifold ways, common to all of which, however, is the emotional state of the mind, and the need that the strange and new feelings now experienced should find some objective centre of interest. Such objective and emotional interests lie ready to hand in religion and poetry, both of which, after the period of sexual development is at an end, and the originally incomprehensible desires and impulses have received an explanation, continue to have intimate relations with the world of sexual experience. Any one who doubts this must be reminded of the frequency with which religious fanaticism makes its appearance at the time of puberty. No less influential is the sexual factor in the awakening of æsthetic feelings. This world of the ideal opens itself at the time when the development of the sexual processes begins. * * * The love of early youth, continues _von Krafft-Ebing_, has a romantic, idealizing tendency. In its first manifestations it is platonic, and willingly exercises itself in poetry and history. But as the sensibility awakens, the danger arises that this passion, with its idealizing power, will be transferred to persons of the opposite sex who in intellectual, physical, and social relations are by no means all that could be wished. Hence proceed misalliances, elopements, and seductions, with the entire tragedy of impassioned love, which conflicts with the dictates of morality and convention, and sometimes finds its bitter end in suicide or a double self-destruction. Love in which the senses play too prominent a part can never be a true and lasting love. For this reason, first love is as a rule very transitory, since it is in most cases no more than the first flare of passion. * * * Platonic love is a thing without existence, a self-deception, a false description of sexual sensations. _Bebel_ remarks that the number of suicides among women of the ages of sixteen to twenty-one years is an exceptionally large one, and he refers this chiefly to unsatisfied sexual impulse, unfortunate love, secret pregnancy, and to betrayal by men. MENARCHE PRAECOX ET TARDIVA. (_Precocious and Retarded Menstrual Activity._)