Page:Fielding - Sex and the Love Life.pdf/102

 When a woman, however, lacks the internal sexual secretion, whether congenitally, or through disease or deprivation by surgical means, she tends to lose the distinctive attributes of physical womanhood, and those psychic qualities that are characteristic of femininity.

Experiments on animals and birds first proved the nature and functions of the internal sexual secretion in influencing the complete development of the individual. If the ovaries of the female are removed—called "spaying"—when the animal is young, thereby depriving it of the sexual hormone when the time comes for this substance to be produced, the secondary sexual characteristics of the animal do not develop.

When the ovaries of a woman have not properly developed in her youth, or when they have been atrophied by disease, or surgically removed, so that the internal secretion is not supplied as is normally the case, she will be lacking in the characteristic development—the secondary sexual traits—that gives beauty to woman.

The girl from the time of puberty evidences development of the feminine characteristics, due to this internal chemical activity. Her figure, previously little differentiated from that of the boy, undergoes marked changes. Her breasts round out. Her arms and legs become more shapely; the hips enlarge and she otherwise gives evidence of the physical charm and gracefulness of young womanhood.

The mental and psychic traits which develop through the influence of the sexual hormone are no less notable. It is the time of the birth of new emotions—ambitions, hopes, fears, desires, doubts, and the awakening of those subtle qualities that constitute love. During adolescence, the girl begins to take a new, or different kind of interest, in boys. Up to this time they may have been desired as playmates, but now a new emotional element—new feelings—enter into the