Sex and its mysteries / by George Ryley Scott.

  • Scott, George Ryley, 1886-1955
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sex and its mysteries / by George Ryley Scott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Introduction. I. In those old days at which the sophisticated young- sters of this decade sneer and laugh, it was the custom to lock up securely every atom of sex knowledge, it was usual for parents of professed Christian principles to lie glibly to their children when confronted with intimate inquiries; in press and public it was the mode to refer to sexual matters in evasive and delicate terms, to use euphemistic words. There was, in short, a wide and universal conspiracy the object of which was to keep the young of both sexes in ignorance of sexual matters as long as was at all possible. This con- spiracy, to some extent, failed, but in the main it succeeded. The bulk of the youngsters reached puberty with little knowledge beyond the pleasurable sensations associated with masturbation; even after marriage a huge number knew little of sexual physi- ology ; beyond the fact that coitus was pleasurable not a few went to their graves looking on sex as a mystery. At the risk of being dubbed old-fashioned I am going to assert that this was all to the good. The attractive- ness of woman for man and of man for woman is based on mystery. It always was and it always will be the unknown that attracts. In this lies the whole funda- ment of love. Strip woman of her mystery, rob the sexual act of its mystery, reduce both to the level of physiological entities, and you destroy at the same