Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female.

Charts; 842 p. Small abrasions on the cover. Otherwise good and clean. - Einband leicht berieben. Sonst gut und sauber. - Foreword: It is the function of the National Research Council as an agency of the National Academy of Sciences to further in all feasible ways the development of science and the extension, perfecting, dissemination, and useful implication of knowledge of natural phenomena. Thirty-two years ago when studies of sex were virtually taboo the Council created a special committee to initiate, organize and financially support the study of problems in sex and reproduction. During its long and active existence the Committee has spon-so red and partially supported scores of investigations, including several long-range and long-continued programs of research. Among the best known of the Committee-supported projects have been studies in the field of endo-rrinology, where the discovery of hormones and their functions has proved : extraordinary importance. The Committee has supported studies in the sexual behavior of infra-human mammalian species, laboratory investigations :f the neurologic bases of sexual behavior, some anthropological studies, and several case history studies of human sex behavior, including the Hamilton study which it sponsored in the late 1920’s, and the studies made by Terman and Miles, and by Landis and Bolles in the late 1930’s. From the first the Committee sought an opportunity to initiate and support such human studies. But human sexual behavior is much more difficult to study objectively and scientifically than are reproductive mechanisms and processes. However skillful and wise, no investigator in this field can escape inhibiting and discouraging circumstances. The success of Dr. Kinsey and hrs corps of. colleagues in meeting and overcoming these difficulties has therefore been notable. His project stands unique in its scope, methodologi-; al skills, degree of objectivity and history of progress and achievement. It was in 1940, three years after he had begun his task, that Dr. Kinsey drst applied to our Committee for financial aid. After preliminary inquiry, a small initial grant was made for 1941. During that year we gathered pertinent information about the institutional auspices of the project and by personal visits and interviews sought bases for an appraisal of Kinsey as a scientific investigator, his plans, his program, and his method. The inquiry was exceptionally thorough and painstaking because of the scope and the prospective demand of the undertaking for large resources of wisdom and tact, professional skill, energy, time, and funds. Assured by the outcome of the inquiry, we rapidly increased the annual allotment, and over the years the Committee aid has amounted to almost half of the total budget for the investigation.