Even in the matter of conscious sexual impulse the girl is often not so widely different from her brother, nor so much less likely to escape the contamination of evil communications, so that the scruples of foolish and ignorant persons who dread to "sully her purity" by proper instruction are exceedingly misplaced.
Conversations dealing with the important mysteries of human nature, Obici and Marchesini were told by ladies who had formerly been pupils in Italian Normal Schools, are the order of the day in schools and colleges, and specially circle around procreation, the most difficult mystery of all.

In England, even in the best and most modern colleges, in which games and physical exercise are much cultivated, I am told that "the majority of the girls are entirely ignorant of all sexual matters, and understand nothing whatever about them.

But they do wonder about them, and talk about them constantly" (see Appendix D, "The School Friendships of Girls," in the second volume of these _Studies_).
"The restricted life and fettered mind of girls," wrote a well-known physician some years ago (J.Milner Fothergill, _Adolescence_, 1880, pp.

20, 22) "leave them with less to actively occupy their thoughts than is the case with boys.

They are studiously taught concealment, and a girl may be a perfect model of outward decorum and yet have a very filthy mind.