Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/230

 2l6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

was gentle and affectionate, of rather feminine ways, becomes serious, attentive, and diligent in study. No longer fond of the company of boys of his own age, no longer fond of amusements, but with evident fondness for the opposite sex, although not a masturbator. In school he had the first place for conduct and for study. When he committed any fault, he could be easily corrected if reproved politely, but he was rebellious and resisted obstinately when threats were used. When the violence ceased, the obstinacy also ceased. At the age of nine and one-half years the tumor was removed. A month after the operation the hair began to fall from the beard, from the breast, and from other places. His voice gradually became childish again ; the sexual tendencies vanished, and the boy, who had become more timid and shy, returns to the company of his own age and child- ish diversions. He became more disobedient to paternal correc- tion, though attentive and studious in school. The muscular force diminished notably, and the development of the genitals was checked.

Sikorski relates that in Russia the disobedient boys of the schools depending on the minister of war are never definitely expelled from the schools. Those who show a profound moral corruption, or who exercise a pernicious influence on their com- panions, are sent from the other progymnasia and gymnasia to the progymnasium of Volsk, in the province of Sarahoff, which operates as a school of correction, and here they are kept until their education is finished. The progymnasium keeps its pupils, even when they have already completed their studies, until they are entirely corrected. By the age of seventeen almost all the bad boys are corrected, and it is a rare thing to find at Volsk a boy of eighteen.

Under the puberal development the love of liberty and of independence grows so powerfully as to awake to action the inhibitory centers which before were powerless to check the impulses that kept the conduct irregular.

In the boys of the Casa Benefica in Turin, as we have seen, the conduct at seventeen or eighteen years tends to become regular, so that all abandon the establishment after having gained