SEX & SEXUALITY, 1640-1940
Literary, Medical and Sociological Perspectives

Part 1: Sources from the Bodleian Library, Oxford and the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London

"By opening up a subject that has remained largely inaccessible, this series makes available many writings that have been restricted to specialist libraries and obscure archives.  It will enhance our understanding of the sexual enlightenment and the way in which individuals have negotiated their sexual practices throughout the course of history."
Marie Mulvey-Roberts, Consultant Editor

Sex and Sexuality seeks to make available a broad range of rare printed texts describing changing attitudes towards sex and the body.  Part 1 covers 61 texts from the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and the Wellcome Institute in London.  It offers:

• Medical works on the body, sex, and venereal diseases, including Aristotle's Masterpiece (1690) and Tissot's A New Guide to Health and Long Life (1808).
• Writings on sexual habits, such as Bienville's Nymphomania (1775) and accounts of James Graham's 'celestial bed' through which electrical currents were passed in order to give couples 'superior ecstasy'.
• Works on masturbation from Onania (1729) to Tissot's A Treatise on the Crime of Onan (1766).
• Advice literature on sex such as Thomas Beddoes' Hygeia (1802-3) and H H Allbutt's The Wife's Handbook (1886).
• Material concerning prostitution, including William Acton's Prostitution considered in its moral, social and sanitary aspects (1857) and Michael Ryan's Prostitution in London, with a comparative view of that of Paris and New York (1839).
• Writings on the sociology of sex from George Drysdale's The Elements of Social Science; or Physical, Sexual and Natural Religion (1861) to Richard von Krafft-Ebbing's Psychopathia Sexualis (1892)