Sex in Man and Anomals

Abstract

THE need for an inexpensive book on sex addressed to the interested layman and written by a trained biologist has long been recognised. It is true that there are many popular books dealing with this subject, written during recent years by sincere enthusiasts whose chief claim to authorship would appear to be an irresistible yearning to help their fellow-women; but the extent of the ignorance of established biological fact and the easy disregard of scientific method exhibited by these authors have forced the professional and responsible biologist to accept the task of democratising the knowledge that he possesses. Biology, and especially sex-physiology, is the field in which any and every one exercises his or her opinions. The chemist or physicist can speak of his science without interruption, for in it there still is magic, but let the sex-physiologist speak and his voice is at once drowned in violent controversy. Impressionistic, anecdotal, uncritical doctrine, born of desire and supported by insufficient and inexact observation, denies the logical inferences of dispassionate experimentation, and the people, eager for information and for guidance, are led along the road that leads to disappointment and disillusionment, while the eyes of many still remain blinded by hope.

Sex in Man and Anomals

By John R. Baker. Pp. xvi + 175 + 4 plates. (London: George Routledge and Sons, Ltd., 1926.) 7s. 6d. net.