Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/215

 MORAL INFLUENCE OF PUBERAL DEVELOPMENT 201

either precocity or too great delay in the development of puberty is wont to manifest itself in the individuals most inclined to pre- sent serious anomalies in their conduct.

The second investigation of the psychic conditions of the young men during the years of the puberal development was directed upon the students gathered in the national academies (convitti naziotujli) ,' by means of questions addressed to their directors.

The investigation was double, that is to say, one series of questions was directed to classifying the conduct of the young men in regard to the class which they attended, and the other to obtaining the same classification with regard to the age of the individual.

The directors of the national academies to whom the double series of questions was addressed were thirty-nine. The direct- ors of five schools gave either no reply or an evasive one, while, on the contrary, the other thirty-four were polite. The answers to the first question, in regard to the conduct of the students grouped according to classes, amounted to twenty-nine, while the answers concerning the conduct of the students according to their age amounted to thirty. In the second set some directors included also the students of technical schools, omitted in the first.

I had been guided in choosing the first form of inquiry by the hypothesis that the class attended represented, within certain limits, the proportionate degree of mental development of the various students composing the class, which ought to a certain extent to correspond to the various degrees of physical develop- ment, varying in different individuals, and to some extent in dif- ferent regions of the country. But from the answers received from some of the directors I was convinced that the variations in age among the students in any one class were too great to give me a sufficiently faithful representation of the conduct of the students in relation to the puberal development, the princi- pal object of my investigations. For this reason I started the second inquiry, based on the age of the students.

'The convitlo is a boarding establishment, maintained by the state, whose boarders are studying in the gymnasium (grammar school) or in the lyceum (high school). — Translator.